Is it just me? I don't care if I only get 100 yards before it starts hauling it down, but what is it about actually setting off in the rain that's so demoralising? 🙁 meant to be heading out in 20 minutes, and it's bucketing down. I'm really really not feeling it!
Never a problem if riding with someone else, I guess then it is just a bit of a laugh and you don't have a choice, but solo, when you can delay... Yea, it's a little tougher. If you only need a dry 100 yards though, have you got a turbo you can nip on for a minute or two? 😉
If you didn't want rain, then you shouldn't live oop t'north.
That's what you get for having riding from the door, mate!
If you'd already loaded all your kit in to the car and had to drive 30 mins to get anywhere near a hill it's not so bad.
Unless there's a nice warm pub, there's normally a pub.
Allot of my riding is solo and I always chicken out if it's poring it down when I set off. Result, I get fat/crap over winter.
Need to pull my finger out this winter. Have got a turbo trainer so hope to keep my fitness up but I need to man up and just get wet.
Love it, best riding is in winter. Empty trails, fewer tourists and every ride feels like an adventure. 😀
Not looking forward to wet school runs in the coming months 🙁
I am with the OP on this one - rain on a ride? No problem.
Raining when about to set off? Nice cup of tea and find something else to do.
Agree with OP 100%...apart from a Sportive from Settle earlier this year (which I had paid for and the Yorkshireman in me wasn't wasting £25....) I don't think ive ever set off in the rain. If it rains once im on the move and warmed up I don't give a monkeys then.
My favourite is waking up with the south Dales fine and dry, getting everything ready, driving 50 miles to the Lakes and the heavens opening as I pull into the car park at Grizedale.
Must really get tougher this winter.
I hate setting off in the rain, I would rather not bother. Once I have started it doesn't bother me at all.
Started raining half way through this mornings ride, proper soak to the skin stuff, i'd have definitely been peeved if it started when locking the door before setting off, always makes me angry that 😆 But midride no probs!
Few weeks in August shifted the biking days about due to rain, so today was the first ride this year i've got soaked on! This summer and last has been drier than a packet of jacobs crackers without a drink.
I'm just thinking about going having an hour on the bike in the rain. I quite like it, as long as I'm prepared properly.
I set off in a monsoon downpour this morning, it had been torrential for 30mins previous but my free-time thumbs-up was restricted so I had no choice. Opted to leave off the rain jacket, and within 10 mins it had stopped and was lovely day.
Sometimes you get lucky, others you get piss-wet through(as the age-old Chinese axiom goes)
I'm currently sat in motorhome at foot of mam tor in peaks listening to the rain and finding anything to do except get ready to go out....my justification not to go is that visibility is very poor and riding on my own I could be out there all night if I crash!!! And I've got a nice cup of tea and some Swiss roll too...
I'm just about to invest in some nice waterproof gear to get me through the winter,once I'm out in it I'm ok but chest suffers when I get soaked and makes me pretty Ill.
I quite like it. There's no such thing as the wrong weather, just the wrong clothing.
I often ride shorter routes in the rain but, with riding from my doorstep, sometimes a massive downpour is enough to send me running for my jersey etc.
Well we set off in the rain, and it pissed down constantly for the entire ride. That rain where it's like being in a cloud. Couldn't see a thing. When you're wet, you're wet! Brilliant run though. When we walked in soaked and filthy to the pub for the post ride pint, everyone looked at us like we needed sectioning! 😀
You must be carting you own weather system with you. Beautiful day here in this bit of the NW
By the time whe had parked up it had stopped raining so had a pleasant ride up above Derwent and finished off with a late lunch at the Ladybower inn. Managed to christen my new to me ride, just needed a few adjustments.
My ride today was prematurely ended by a dreaded migraine attack, so I'll take a bit of rain over that any time 🙁
Well I never got out but we are here for the night so a nice early start in morning before all the red socks turn up.
If you are riding in bad weather, you are a bad-ass. Full Stop.
Mr Overshoot - it's the Pennines mate. We do literally have our own weather system. We rode past 4 Resevoirs today. There's a bloody good reason they put them here!
I was riding with an old riding buddy from Uni, who came up from London. We've not seen each other for nearly 20 years. Last time we rode together he was on a fully rigid Ridgeback, I was on a Raleigh Activator. And it was carefree days when you didn't have to snatch rides in between parental duties. I don't think anything could have ruined the day! Not even the sometimes biblical rain. Good times! 😀
Have to agree that its almost impossible to set off in the rain but its totally fine if it rains after 2 minutes. Few weeks back we had day after day of rain, I finally had no choice so headed out in the rain got absolutely soaked, on approach back to the car I thought to myself 'well done girl you've headed out in the rubbish weather when most others would be far to chicken to do so, you've done good'. Pulled up at the back of the car and theres only one other car with a guy unpacking....... a CX bike in the wyre forest...... properly crushed my self congratulation!
I set off in the rain. It was grim. I got lost on the moors. I got muddy. It stopped raining. It rained again. Water got in my Sealskinz.
First ride in an MT500 Jersey/Jacket thing. Brilliant for £28.
As long as it isn't raining sideways (windy) then it doesn't bother me.
Turns the ride into more of an adventure and enhances the 'get away from it all' feeling I believe.
Need the correct clothing though, or else it is plain miserable.
Lovely sunny ride today down south 🙂
Binners you are on the wrong side of the hill!
Tomorrow is looking cracking, wall to wall sunshine from dawn with highs of 18-20*c
Biking with a BBQ&beer chaser?
Northerners ain't what they used to be. I blame the Guardian.
Rule5 Shirley?
Heading out into lashing rain is great makes me feel about twelve years old again when the weather was irrelevant and all I did/worried about was riding my bikes and sailing.
Agree with OP
After Hast in New Zealand I think Shaw, Oldham must have one of the wettest records going.
Just like this morning, 10mins in and slogging thru the rain up Ogden onto the Pennine Bridleway.
But then again there was no one else about so could really motor on the downhill bits.
Character building, my grandad used to say 😉
Was out in the Clwyds today one side mist/rain, the other dust and sunshine, as per usual I'd picked the wrong start point so start n finish were in the gloom.