The scooter, Part 3: Rain

 "There is no bad weather, only inadequate clothing." So goes the saying of many experienced cyclists. Obviously when on two wheels, one will have to ride in the rain from time to time. How to deal with that? 

Myself, having thousands of rides in all manner of weather, I opted to invest in some good rain gear. I spared no expense, obtaining shoe covers, pants, jacket and a hood, purchased from Showers Pass, a leading trusted brand of cyclist outerwear. I had already bought the set for the motorcycle, but a major drawback to that set of wheels is absence of storage space. 

In Pittsburgh, the ride into work will be dry but the trip home at 6pm will be in the rain. With the scooter, though, I can store the rain gear in the hatch and only don it when needed. It does take a couple minutes to put it all on and to take it all off, but when I'm in motion, I'm dry. 

So how about some details?

Having grown up on two wheels (or one!), I am experienced in getting caught in a passing shower or a sudden deluge. This is one of the major reasons people don't bike. So how do I deal with it?

Over the years, I've experimented with rain gear of various types, some homemade, some purchased. It comes down to this: You get what you pay for. The bulky outfit I'd bought for the motorcycle neither worked all that well for its intended purpose, nor could be carried on that bike when not in use as it has no baggage container of any sort. But the scooter has that big hatch, so storage when not in use is not a problem.

I opted to go with a complete outfit from Showers Pass: shoe covers, pants, jacket, gloves, and under-helmet hood. This ran most of $500, a considerable sum given that the bike itself was only double that. I think of it this way: That's one car payment for a capital expense, and permanent equipment.

Most of the time, this rig lives in a plastic garbage bag in the scooter's hatch. This serves a secondary purpose as well. The hatch has openings in the bottom, I suppose for drainage, but I have never seen water get in from above. But it does get wet from underneath. Having the big trash bag in the bottom blocks the splash to a good extent.

Then comes the non-trivial matter of watching the sky.

On a bike, of whatever type, you are out in the elements and usually are well aware of changes in the weather. In a car, all you need do is flip on the wipers when you see drops on the windshield. On a bike, though, there are shades of grey involved. Do you pull over and spend five minutes donning all the gear at the first couple drops? Not necessarily. You read the sky, you know what direction weather approaches from, and hopefully you checked the weather radar before you started your journey. Is this just a passing shower that will be over & done with in 10 minutes? Or is this the leading edge of a storm front? This is not a difficult skill to learn, but it does require paying attention to your surroundings and doing some due diligence before setting out.

It takes me about five minutes to pull over and put on all the gear. Maybe I will do this before setting out, maybe I'll chance seeing how far I can get before I need to do so. On my usual travels, I've scoped out underpasses, strip malls with covered sidewalks, and other places where I can take shelter if needed. Of course, I've already been up and down all these roads on a bicycle, which gives me a leg up on experience, but all this requires is paying attention. But even streetside, unless it's already raining hard when you pull over, you're not going to get that drenched in five minutes. In a light rain, the jacket is more important than the pants, as your torso is going to encounter more raindrops than your lower half. On my scooter, I mostly don't need the boots since it has a full floorboard. If it's raining hard, though, I will put them on to make sure the water doesn't pool in my shoes.

All in all, well worth the expense if you're going to do a lot of two-wheel riding!