Rainy ride home

Last Wednesday, knowing the forecast called for what the weather man was describing as "a soaker", I made sure my rain gear was packed, grabbed my Olympia AST jacket, geared up and headed to work. I thought, at the least, I'd have a good excuse to leave early (to try to beat the rain). And if not, I'd finally get to test my jacket in the rain. I wore regular (not moto) jeans under my mesh pants on the way to work, while it was still dry. I packed my jacket rain liner for the ride home - leaving the quilted liner at home. Parking at work, I decided to bring in my rain pants and jacket so I wouldn't have to go back out or put them on outside in the rain.

For a while I was beginning to think I'd jinxed it because the rain didn't start until about 4pm. It didn't seem terribly heavy but, I geared up all the same. It's about 25 miles to home and the radar was showing activity along the way. My gear included my regular jeans, under my mesh Olympia, all under my Tourmaster rain pants, a t-shirt, long sleeved shirt, light fleece jacket, moto jacket rain liner, all under my AST jacket. I also wore my Olympia All Season Gloves and my new Gaerne boots.

So, the bike sat outside in the rain for about an hour before I walked out to fire it up and head home. I wasn't too worried about the seat being wet since I had my rain pants on. The foam grips however, were soaked, so I was a bit worried about that. It wasn't raining terribly hard though, so, no worries. And, there was no lightning. Sweet!

Almost immediately, the first thing I noticed was water pooling on the seat. I'd occasionally stand or swing my legs out to try to let the water run off but, that wasn't going to work all the way home. My new boots are a bit slippery, I need to get them scuffed up a with a bit more use. When they are wet, they are really slippery. Standing on the pegs wasn't as stable as it should have been. So, I told myself not to worry about that, after all I had my rain pants on. It was a bit chilly but not unbearable.

Leaving Boulder, it seemed most of the water I was experiencing was due to splash back from other vehicles. So, I tried to position myself accordingly. Traffic was behaving well, so that was good. My visor kept fogging up at stop lights though, so that bothered me. When I'd crack it open to defog, water would drip inside. (The longer I've had this helmet the less happy I am with it.) Once I got outside of Boulder there wasn't much stopping I needed to worry about. That was a good thing because the rain picked up as I left town.

I felt very comfortable, considering how wet I must have been, once I hit the highway. My hands didn't seem too wet. I did turn on the grip warmers though. (I wonder if that's a good idea when it's raining.) The tops of my gloves weren't getting wet much at all thanks to the hand guards. But, the palms, I'd find out later, were soaking through due to the wet foam grips. My crotch was a bit chilly because of the pooling water but again, I wasn't uncomfortable. Besides there wasn't much I could do about anything at this point. I just continued on my way without stopping.

I made it home safely without much delay to my usual time. My hubby came out to open the garage door for me. I had trouble hitting the automatic door opener in my pocket since I hadn't been wearing this jacket all season. Once I pulled into the garage and turned off the bike, I felt like I was soaked. I stood on the stoop for a bit and tried to shake as much water off as I could. Haha! Right. I made a beeline for the bathroom so I wouldn't drip too much in the living room. Then I had hubby take some photos, hoping they'd convey how wet I was.

My hands have water dripping off them. When I got off the bike and let my hands rest at my side, water ran into my gloves. So, maybe it wasn't just the wet foam grips. Also, once I was in the house and walking around, I realized my rain pants didn't actually keep the rain out.

No wonder I was cold! These are my mesh pants which were over my jeans (also wet) and under the rain pants. Sigh. Yep, I was sitting in a puddle of water the whole ride.

The biggest casualty of the ride was the puddle of water that I discovered in my jacket pocket...the jacket pocket that held my wallet and my iPhone. Ugh! When I pulled them out, the water dripped off both. Grrrr! I think that was my own fault though. I am pretty sure I didn't zip the pocket. The other pocket, which was empty, didn't have any water inside. Grrrr! I immediately poured a big bowl of rice and stuck my phone inside. I laid out the contents of my wallet to dry on the kitchen table over some paper towels. Then, I started to sulk about it all.

All in all it was actually quite an awesome ride. I really like riding in the rain. We don't get much of it out here and if we do it is almost always accompanied by scary lightning. So, I was very pleased with the ride from that standpoint. It's interesting to see how much less reaction time there is in those conditions. The slick roads and wet visor made it a nice challenge. It's too bad I can't practice riding in those conditions before actually riding in them. Maybe if I lived in Oregon or some place....

I did manage to kill my iPhone. I bought a new one the following Friday morning. Bummer. I also bought some seam sealer to put on my rain pants. I'm hoping that will help with the leaks. The AST did pretty well. Not only did I forget to zip my pocket closed, but I actually put those items in the wrong pocket. There's another pocket that actually says it's water proof. Hmmmm. I should carry some ziplock bags too or maybe just put the phone and wallet in my top case or side case. I was least happy with the gloves. It took two days and a fan to dry them out. The piece of equipment that performed the best were my boots. No water penetration at all. Yay!

Good times! I can't wait to do it again!