Bicycle Fixation Weblog
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10/04/2010: "First Rain"
First real rain of the season today, though it was barely more than a drizzle at best and often less. Still, it left the streets thoroughly wet and the air sweet, and made that gentle mumbling in the gutters that is the accompaniment to wet days in LA. A very restful sound.But we didn't rest: Gina and I slipped on our rain capes and saddled up for a ride to the little farmers' market at Plummer Park about three miles north. All our current bikes wear fenders, so we could ride what we wanted, but we took the Milk Runner and Trevor Wong, as both were set up to carry stuff.
Though somehow everything ended up loaded onto my bike....
Eggplant, onions, tomatoes, peaches, nectarines, fennel, apples, avocados, and more tumbled into the panniers as we strolled the pavilions, while the drizzle gathered on the canvas roofs and dripped onto us when we stepped away from the tables. I bought a samosa from an Indian food stand, which warmed me up nicely.
Our whimsical stop at a new coffeehouse on Beverly as we headed back warmed us up even more.
We weren't the only cyclists out there, either; most gratifying to see a few folks riding to work or, like us, to shop on a drizzly day. LA folks can be such rain wimps....
I wrote up a rain riding few tips for LA cyclists over on the Orange 20 blog; take a look if you haven't got it all figured out already. Or you can look up my ancient article on rain riding right here on Bicycle Fixation, called The Wet Look...from 1997. Although my bikes are fixed now, they all still wear fenders, and I still use a rain cape (though not the same one).
