This week it was raining, and more specifically, it was raining when it was also time to ride.
Generally speaking, I don’t like to ride in the rain. Everything gets wet (big surprise!), mostly me, and then I’m wrapped in damp clothes, and...
The thing is, with everything going on, I’m classified as an essential worker. But to reduce the risk of spreading, my essential work is mostly done in solitude now - in an office, behind a door, alone. I always value cycling, and it’s always provided a change of scenery, but the value I place on that change has increased markedly.
It’s also, apparently, changed how I look at riding in the rain. Well, it, and fenders.
The rain this day was relatively light - not a downpour, not a deluge. And, while I don’t have much by way of dedicated cycling clothing - I’m a middle-aged man, but I’m rarely in Lycra (so... does that make me just a "mam"...?) - I do have gear that I wear specifically for riding to keep the wear and tear (and sweat) off of my regular outfit. As I reasoned through that fact, I realized that, except for shoes and socks, my riding gear represented a complete change of clothing. So that meant that, if I got drenched on the ride, I’d only have to stay drenched while on the ride.
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All three fenders on the trike are beneficial, and they serve the same purpose, broadly speaking, but the experienced impact of them is somewhat different. The front fenders get the lion’s share of the glory while you are riding. If you’ve gone from riding a trike without front fenders to one with, you quickly realize, when in the wet, that water isn’t persistently being flung into your face. The wet, or whatever...
They enhance the enjoyment during the ride to a considerable degree.
The rear fender, for the most part, demonstrates it’s worth after the ride is over. That’s when you realize that you don’t have a vertical stripe of mud and water down your back (you’d think that mesh seat would block that effect, but not so much), and you realize you haven’t had your backside gain an additional five pounds in water weight. That rear fender is an unsung hero until the ride reaches its conclusion.
You could say that I really should just invest in proper wet weather riding gear, and you would be right, of course. I’ve said the same thing to myself on multiple occasions. The problem is that each of those occasions is typically right before I’m about to go riding in the rain, so, you know, not an optimal time for doing something about it.
In this case, it all worked out just about perfectly. I got through the ride, and I was wet, but not drenched. I simply changed out the the damp into the dry and went on with my day. But now it was going on with a day in which I got to ride.