From a thread on here about waterproofs..

“A study has shown (and my own experience of commuting every day) that in an average year in a part of the UK, if you commute every day you will get wet 7 times. Hardly worth spending £150 on a decent light, breathable waterproof (that isn’t cheap).”

Discuss…

is that per week for those of us living in wales?

edit: have been known to work on for an hour or so if raintoday maps suggesst a break in rain due.

You’ve edited to miss out the bit about buying the Aldi specials.

I agree. Here in the east, full on rain is pretty rare. I get wetter from mud then from actual rain.

I presume you mean commuting by car and getting caught in a sudden rain storm between the car park and the office? There is no way on God’s green earth that you will only get wet 7 times over the period of a year commuting by bike. I’ve commuting twice a week since September and I’ve been drenched more than 7 times. Way more.

I have to say that’s complete bollox. I walk one mile to the train station twice a week and have done for the past year.
I’ve been caught more than 7 times – IE when the forecast was wrong. And it’s rained many more times when I’ve had a brolly.

Fair enough, I wasn’t on a bike but it would have been more than 7 soakings

Very much depends where you are. Like I said above, it sounds right for the east, but not elsewhere. And how wet? Soaked or a light shower?

If getting wet bothers you commuting by bike is not for you, however…getting wet doesn’t happen that often and the real problem is the psycho f***wits in tin boxes,so if you can deal with that the upside is you become a human rather than zombie diabetes case.

I think I agree. I commute by bike 2x a day 5 days a week 47 weeks a year in the West Midlands and I could probably count on 2 hands how many times I have needed a coat. I spent £150 on a new coat last year and I have used it 3 times and it’s hung up at the back of the wardrobe. I have probably jinxed it now and will probably get rain every day next year.
Just don’t get me started on headwinds.

According to yr.no, we have 18 wet days per month in winter and 6 in summer in Dunblane.

I always maintain that in the outdoor centre we only lost 2-5 days a year maximum due to extreme weather…

I also have a ‘so what’ mentality, it’s water. I’m not going to drown. I find it a bit sad that people at work seem to be put off so many things ‘because it’s raining’. If I get to work wet, within 10 minutes I’ve showered and dried.
(But I fully understand the problem if you can’t shower at work.)

I call bullshit ( at least in my experience), I cycle 4 miles to work (and back home) everyday and I got soaked pretty much everyday in December, I say soaked but I was wearing my Berghaus goretex overtrousers and my Rapha rain jacket so at least I was dry underneath. This was in damp n’ dreich Galloway so it may differ if you stay in the dry climate of southern England

Pretty close to what I have experienced so far this year doing 4x a week.

Sounds about right, commuted 3x’s a week this year, got the waterproof trousers out the backpack no more than three times (Yorkshire).

The original source for that fact is (I believe), Richard Ballantine’s Bicycle Book. Im pretty sure it’s based on Met Office data or similar. Will see if I can dig out my copy.

A few months ago, as the clocks changed, people on here were moaning about commuting and training in the dark.
So I decided to do a wee survey of how many times I got a soaking on the commute (or night rides).
Now normally the north east of Fife gets a pretty good deal weather wise, and I would have agreed that 7 was close to the maximum days that I would ever expect a proper soaking.
Not this year.
So far it’s worked out that 50% of my commute has been raining or wet roads, this is by far the worst I can remember since moving up here. I am blaming El Nino and toughing it out till Spring.

For a proper drenching that “requires” a waterproof it sounds about right living in Dundee. Maybe a bit more but not by much. I seem to get wetter from road spray after overnight rain than rain during a commute. I usually commute (5 days a week, year round) in waterproof shorts and a windproof as a result.

The reason to spend the £, is that you can wear a breathable jacket as your shell all the time. With a cheaper one, on cool days, you end up wearing a windproof and carrying your chunky waterproof. I carry a small, light Altura pocket rocket in a light windproof gilet. Wet 7 times a month on average in the Lakes, and I was part time bike commuter.

I will wave to you on the bridge next time Shackleton 😀

IIRC it’s based on a London cyclist with a 30 minute ride at either end of the day 5 days a week.

I seem to remember that stat being about getting wet on bothe the out and return journey.

The original source for that fact is (I believe), Richard Ballantine’s Bicycle Book. Im pretty sure it’s based on Met Office data or similar. Will see if I can dig out my copy.

That’s my recollection too – also my experience in London where he lived.

Generally in my experience -true!

(Commuting to/from local station each day, 5-days a week in West Mids)

That’s the figure given by TfL in London to encourage cycle commuters. It’s for those traveling at typical peak hours I believe, five days per week

So, found the ‘updated’ bicycle book, which includes a relevant quote from the original, but not the supporting evidence that I’m sure I remember. Anyway, the quote is as follows:

There is no measurable rainfall twenty days a month. Cycling is out of the question only fifteen days a year. And in the time between 8-9 a.m. and 5-6 p.m. it rains only twelve days per year.

I can believe that. Those suggesting it rains far more, have you got full length mudguards? Since having those I rarely use my waterproofs, because while there is often water on the road, it is fairly rarely actually raining when I am commuting.

I commuted by bike 10+ miles each way 5 days a week in that London so 2 hrs a day for about 4 years (now just 2+2 miles a day)

Properly rained on maybe once or twice a month, so as my commute was longer than average if say that’s about right for what has to be the UK s most cycle mad city with easily the highest number of cyclists

(Get my waterproofs from aldi/ army surplus tho and some sort of mudguards)

I could get rained on 7 times in a month never mind a year. In fact I get rained on at least 7 times a year even though if it’s raining in the morning I say “**** it” and take the car.

What is this ‘rain’ you speak of?

Hmmm. I live in Dundee, which is statistically very dry, and I’m pretty sure I got soaked 4 or 5 times in December alone.

Granted the last couple of months has been uncharacteristically moist, but 7 times a year seems a bit light.

I remember when I was doing Non Motorised Transport Planning at uni, the lecturer gave us a stat that in the UK, for every half hour commute, on average you’d only get rained on 1 in 14 days…basically telling us a bit of rain is no excuse for not riding to work when preaching to the masses!

In a wet summer three years ago I had a 20 minute commute and got wet on just two occasions (this is west Yorkshire) but was lucky on several occasions: I rode in one day completely dry, put the bike in the bike rack and walked inside, by the time I got to my desk the heavens had opened. My current commute is 21Km and I’m more likely to get wet from surface spray than actual rain.

It does seem like it’s more likely to be dry during the commuting hours (this month excepted), no idea why, just an observation.

Christ, you lot are terrible at statistics.

Old stuff I read years back said it rained 1 in 3 days – obviously north and west see more, south and east see less. But 1 in 3 days is twice a week for commuters.

It rarely rains all day, usually bands pass through, so maybe half that?

And it rarely rains hard enough for it to really make the ride miserable.

So maybe 7-10 days a year you get properly unpleasantly wet might be true in some parts of the country. And if that is forecast, I drive anyway.

My commute is normally about 20-25 mins, not worth it IMO to be getting changed into cycling gear, I just wear the clothes I would wear to work. In that clothing there are at least 40+ days a year that I decide are not suitable, and probably another 5+ that I get caught out and wet on the way home, although that doesn’t bother me so much.

If I was changing into cycling gear I could half that amount to being easily bearable.

Although 7 days is a bit optimistic, Even though I live in the wet west of Scotland, you’d be surprised at how little I actually get a soaking on the commute.

I only have an 8.5 mile commute, and most of the moistness comes from surface water – a full length set of mudguards and neoprene overshoes deal with that pretty effectively. And I don’t bother with waterproofs, I prefer a softshell type jacket and full length Lusso tights, as they dry quickly too for the way home if I do indeed get a soaking (and I get too hot in waterproofs!).

Flexitime makes a bit of difference, if you can wait for the shower to end or set off before it reaches you can improve your odds. Especially these days with rain radar maps and apps.

But 7 days a year is still bollocks in the vast majority of the uk.

Agree with the ‘it doesn’t really rain that much’ if you commute on your bike.

However, still worth having a waterproof for when it does IMHO – riding into rain is not pleasant! You don’t need £150 though – £50 will get you something good enough. Given my commuting kit tends to end up with a fair bit of grime on it I wouldn’t spend a lot on it in any case

This thread is making us Mancunians sad.

Manchester here and I reckon on getting a proper drenching a couple of times a year so I can believe that number. light shower and drizzle dont count as rain….if the gore phantom can deal with it for 30 mins then its not wet.

another way to look at it is how much is a tank of fuel?
cycling is still going to be cheaper than driving.

when i say proper drenching I mean strip of in the cellar before being allowed in the house kinda wet!