Don't Hate the Rain; You're Saving Money on Sunscreen

It's been raining on the front range for an eternity. Our dirt trails are too muddy to use and if you're going to ride the Cherry Creek bike path you'd better take a snorkel. It's easy to drive or take the bus instead of commuting, and to watch TV during rainy afternoons instead of going on a road ride, but eventually all of that sitting around (while usually consuming beer and cheese) is bad for the waistline and worse for the mind. The rabbit hole that is Netflix does have a bottom, and at the bottom of that hole is a movie called World War Z, and believe me you do not want to have to watch that.

There can be some problems with wet rides, for sure, but the largest problem is often getting started. On rainy days like this, even our Yawp dog Thelonious won't get out of bed. Part of our duty in being human--or at least our privilege--is to make something good where nothing good existed. Where there is only rainy day ennui, make an adventure. Put on some wool, a raincoat, a helmet, and put this song on your iPod:

Remember being a kid and playing in the rain? There were puddles to jump into, moats to dig, mudpies to make. At some point along the way, someone told us we should have the sense to stay out of the rain and we believed them. As long as we have the sense to dress for it, riding in the rain can be pretty good for us. I sometimes don't believe this myself, and I look out the window at a gray world with as much despair as anyone. However, today I made myself ride in the rain and as I rode through a puddle I rememberd something important. It will probably take more words than it's worth to explain, but what are blogs for if not unnecessary words?

Routines can be born of refinement, which is great, or of habit, which is probably not so great. I make my coffee a certain way because over time I've discovered I like it best that particular way. However, I put my right shoe on before my left simply out of habit, and when I accidentally grab my left shoe first and try to put it on my right foot, I feel that I'm the victim of some grave injustice for really no reason at all other than that reality doesn't always tolerate our dumb little habits.

Riding in the rain isn't painful or difficult, it's just not what I'm used to. 

In fact, on this particular day, riding in the rain was good for me. There's an entire world that goes along with the phrase "you should have the sense to stay out of the rain." That world is grown-up and routine. When I'm in that world, I have little fun and don't think creatively. I always worry that my investments aren't sound, and then I remember I don't have any investments and worry about that. I worry about what people think of me. I worry about my water heater. I get into imaginary arguments with people I haven't seen for years, and even though these arguments are taking place within my own head I often lose them.

Riding a bike is one of the best antidotes for that world. By the end of my ride this morning my false priorities had fallen away, and I was wet, dirty, happy, and ready for more. 

All of that said, I'd really like the sun to come back.

If you don't normally ride in the rain, then there are a couple of things to keep in mind. When riding on bike paths, you may encounter some things that get extra slippery when wet. If you've done any Urban Walking in your life, you probably already know about these things:

Salmon colored "non-slip" death trap.

White rectangles of slippery death.

Multi-colored goose bomb of slippery death that will also make you wish you had fenders.

If it's chilly outside, make sure you keep your feet dry. Get some waterproof shoe covers or--if your ride isn't too long--put some baggies over your socks. Cold feet can make an otherwise great ride pretty miserable. 

One additional bonus of riding in the rain is that you can go ahead and eat that donut, because you exercised today. 

Not pictured: second and third donuts that I definitely did not earn but ate anyway.

So let's remember that crying only makes more rain and riding bikes makes donuts. 

Video of the Week

Yawp Cyclery Kits are Available

Here's a little good news: Yawp Cyclery kits are now available to order. Here's more good news: if you're interested but don't know what size you wear, there is a Primal fit kit at the bike shop and you can stop by and try on samples. If you haven't worn Primal's Helix kit before, you should know that it's one of the nicest kits out there. It feels like you're being hugged all over by puppies. 

We need to have your payment and order by Monday, April 13th, and kits are due to arrive by June 12th. Pricing to pre-order this Primal Helix kit is as follows:

Jersey: $95

Bibs: $130

Shorts: $120

We hope to meet women's minimums as well. If we don't, Primal says that typically ladies prefer the shorts over bibs.

If these kits look like something you'd want to wear, stop by the shop or give us a call and we'll get one on the way for you.

Being fast isn't as important as looking fast.  --Walt Whitman

Blog Postponed on Account of Dirt

As they say, it's time for a 20-mile loop somewhere. Well, that somewhere is here! Stop reading this blog and get out there.

What do I do with My Rapha Bag?

A very kind person recently gave me a Rapha 'cross jersey--a fine thing in both the world of gifts and the world of cycling apparel. I don't wear many things that are not wool, but so far I am quite impressed with this jersey. Twice I've left the house wearing nothing but the jersey (and pants, etc.), and the temperature has fallen drastically during my ride but I've stayed warm. There's a classy and thin shoulder pad on the right shoulder, for carrying my bike over barricades, I presume. As I'm not leaping many barricades these days, that shoulder is where I keep my parrot. In any case, the jersey isn't the point of this blog.

The jersey came with a little bag, that in itself is also quite fine. I own very few things that are made as well as this bag. Someone even took the time to write a little paragraph about...well, I'm not sure what, exactly, it's about. It may be about an animal that accidentally wandered onto a cyclocross course.

It may also be a rewrite of that Schwarzenegger movie Running Man, which was probably a rewrite of "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell. Clearly, the protagonist, or "you," are certainly going to be eaten if you get caught by these gun-toting, jodhpur-wearing, hunter-cyclists. This reader was unfamiliar with the word "jodhpurs," and a quick google image search explained that jodhpurs are the answer to the question, "What would I wear if I wanted to look silly?" In any case, close reading isn't the point of this blog.

The point of this blog is to pontificate the function of this little bag. I'm going to presume that, the Brits being such tidy people, the bag is for toting your dirty cross jersey home after the race, because you don't want to get the back seat of your Aston-Martin muddy. However, if you're the kind of person who either doesn't race much or who rides to and from races, that leaves you with a very nice bag that has no function. Obviously, I tried this first:

This wasn't ideal. The bag has no insulation, and carrying beer at the end of a tether tends to shake it up. I then though it might work well as a tool bag, so I put a spare tube into the bag. It immediately turned into a Rapha-style premium inner tube.

This fine, premium inner-tube is fully woolen and stylized with a pink stripe. When I used this spare tube, I felt just like I was on Le Mont Ventoux, losing the Tour de France in the 60's. Unfortunately, the bag isn't ideal as a tool bag, as the straps, as fine as they are, tend to get tied up around almost everything else in my bag.

The only function that occurs to me now is to ship a bunch of these Rapha bags down to the south pole and distribute them to the penguins there to be used as Huddle Sacks.

"I'm dry and out of the wind. Thanks, Rapha!"

Obviously, saving the penguins has been the overall goal of this blog since its inception, so I guess we've met with success. That's not to say we're giving up. We'll be back next week with a first look into penguin mittens. They're so cute! We'll see you then.

Snow Day

I was going to write a post about biking in the snow, but this video is essentially 10,000 pictures shown in rapid succession, which is worth 10,000,000 +/- words, and I don't feel like writing 10,000,000 words. So here you go!