Bicycle Fixation Weblog
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02/09/2010: "Wool & Weather"
My schedule got all cattywampus this morning, so I ended up retrieving fifteen knickers form the factory before continuing on to South Pasadena (after all, it's Tuesday!), instead of afterwards as I'd planned. (These fifteen knickers were the first wave of our latest run, which is running later than usual; I begged a few in advance to ship to the kind folks who had pre-ordered early, before I knew that the run would be delayed.)By the time I left the factory, it was raining steadily but gently, one of my favorite weathers. Clad all in wool as I was, I could forego donning the rain cape and just pedal along, barely feeling the wetness though the streets were soaked.
If it's not raining hard, and you're wearing wool, you often reach an equilibrium, where the speed of your ride and the heat of your pedaling evaporate the water from your clothes at the same rate that it is falling on you. And wool keeps you warm even if it does get wet. The rain was such that I was at this state of equilibrium most of the time.
And the day was beautiful, with tumultuous rich gray clouds above and skylight gleaming from wet streets and windows underneath. I made it to Buster's coffee in thoroughly presentable condition.
When it was time to leave, I looked southwest and saw from the sky that it was likely raining between South Pasadena and downtown. Since the messenger bag full of knickers on my back would make the rain cape fit wrong, I took out my last $1.25 and got on the Gold Line train to Union Station. Downtown, as I'd expected, it was raining lightly again, and I had another wonderful passage among the crowds and elegant old Art Deco buildings of the jewelry and garment districts. I was gratified to see lots of folks on bikes in the rain; not just messengers and food delivery riders, who have no choice, but regular folks apparently heading out to lunch (it was just after twelve). Many of them on fixies, which make great rain bikes. (As was I.)
From there I rode down 7th and 6th streets through Koreatown and then home. It started raining hard a little less than a mile from home, but by then I didn't care, and left the rain cape in its pannier. Thanks to wool, I was still presentable when I got home, even by Gina's standards, which I admit are more stringent than my own.
Great stuff, that sheep hair. Made for a delightful ride today!
