Sunday, October 25, 2009

A Little Wet... no make that A Whole Freaking Lot Wet

Yep its that time again, seems us crazies on the bike have a whole lot of water to deal with (poor brits are getting drenched!) so I have a question for our two readers out there (hi mom! hi Jim!)

I don’t mind too much riding in the rain; it’s annoying but doable.

How the heck do you keep the water off your glasses at night, cause when its raining at night I literally cant see anything, even if its a light drizzle, water drops on the glasses magnify any light out there and my headlamp which works nicely, can not even be seen by me. I have a very rural stretch, about a mile, and I am scared I am going to hit something, either a living animal crossing the road, hearing no cars coming, or a dead one that missed the cars use road memo. It scares me to death. In the urban setting I am mostly ok and know the route enough to be fine, but I am biking on a 50mph rural highway! Lucky my double Planet Bike rear lights are bright enough to make sure I don’t get run over but none the less, how do you do it???

Second my franken-bike is a mountain with front shocks, which means I have no mounting ability for a front full fender. I have a mountain bike fender that prevents water going into my face, but it does not go low enough so my shoes, pants, socks, and lower legs are always soaked, and it’s not a fun feeling. Is my only option to replace that front fork with an unsuspended one and deal with the (loads) of potholes (they hurt as it is and I can feel the shocks working)

Thoughts on this?

Oh and while I am at it, in the winter I wear a full lycra mask to prevent my skin from freezing (no joke, it happens) its nice and dandy and all but unless I breath properly and even then sometimes the air travels up and fogs my glasses, which promptly freezes and then I cant see anything. I then have to take them off and everything becomes a big fuzzy blur, but it’s the only way I can get home when that happens, short of stopping ever minute to warm and melt my glasses.

Is somebody trying to tell me if I wear glasses I shouldn’t bike? Cause they are certainly causing problems...

The frames are metal, couldn’t I hook some type of heater to them and heat them up, maybe using a battery or my own body heat? Or white Vinegar to prevent fogging?
I am also thinking Rain-X (the car windshield stuff) for the glasses but idk how I feel about that stuff so close to my face all the time and having to reapply it every time I clean them...

1 comment:

  1. A peaked cap keeps the worst of the rain off, but isn't the complete answer. If you have fabric gloves you can just keep wiping the lenses - they smear but it's better visibility than raindrops (and should keep the fogging down). Other than that, I don't know (and if you find any foolproof answers let me know because I get this problem a lot!)

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