My Evening Commute

[Crickey7]

The forecast claims no significant chance of precip till about 7-8, but that sky looks ugly.

[ShawnoftheDread]

Some sprinkles downtown right now.

[KayakCyndi]

Here goes nothing ….

[ShawnoftheDread]

I ran into a torrential downpour that wasn’t on radar when I left. Strong rain from the Italian Store to Annandale Road. Quite refreshing.

[Dickie]

Timed that one well for once. Tried to leave the shop at 6:00 just as the storm hit…. hung around until 6:30 and rode with clear skies and perfect temps. Arrived home in time to have a beer on the balcony and watch the next wave come through. Doubt I’ll be so lucky this evening.

[Terpfan]

@Crickey7 115112 wrote:

The forecast claims no significant chance of precip till about 7-8, but that sky looks ugly.

Yep, this was precisely the conundrum I faced around 4:30. My weather apps (plural) said 0% for 5pm hour then they ranged on the 6pm hour from 15-40%, and most said 50-75% in 7pm hour for rain. But the sky to my west looked menacing. I decided to leave at 4:40 instead of my usual 5pm. By the time I hit Key Bridge, I felt a few sprinkles.

The sprinkles started to pickup by Memorial Bridge so I sped up and seemed to be beating the storm. Alas, I had to grab a prescription at CVS really quickly. CVS was on like record time and I was in and out in 2 minutes. Boom, thunder. Boom, downpour. I was so close, yet so far.

Tonight, I’m just going to presume every weather app is wrong, assume it will pour on me, and hope for the best.

[Powerful Pete]

Things went very well timing-wise last night. I left work with dark foreboding skies and mounting wind, enjoyed the entire thunderstorm (drenching me more or less on the entire 4MR path) and then arrived home in North Arlington when the clouds were dissipating.

Awesome. Except for the very damp cycling shoes this AM…

[mstone]

@Powerful Pete 115154 wrote:

Awesome. Except for the very damp cycling shoes this AM…

n+1 shoes!

[hozn]

@mstone 115155 wrote:

n+1 shoes!

I love having a shoe/glove drier. (especially in the winter) I have a fanless one, but I’d probably get something like http://www.amazon.com/MaxxDry-Boot-Shoe-Glove-Dryer/dp/B001O3ATVC/ for even faster drying.

Alternatively, a hair dryer in the shoe works great (on cool) and only takes a fraction of an hour per shoe, but do it in the basement unless you want your house to smell like cycling shoes. I only made that mistake once

[Powerful Pete]

Wow. Talk about wild and crazy technology…

[hozn]

@Powerful Pete 115163 wrote:

Wow. Talk about wild and crazy technology…

I’ll tell you, not putting wet shoes on for that sub-freezing ride into work is pretty priceless. Well, maybe not priceless, but certainly worth more to me than the $25 that my shoe/glove drier cost. My only complaint with my model is that I can’t dry both shoes and gloves at the same time.

Of course, I also have multiple pairs of cycling boots and redundant gloves.

And of course, you can just use the hair dryer, it just requires remembering to switch shoes and then turn it off. (And sometimes people want to use hair dryers on their hair, which tends to be at odds with the device being used in smelly shoes.)

[ShawnoftheDread]

I just stuff my shoes and gloves with newspaper and stick them in front of a fan in summer or a heater vent in winter. Always dry by morning.

[Crickey7]

From late April on, it’s sandals. Dry in no time.

[Powerful Pete]

What kind of pedaling performance – do you notice a major change vis-a-vis “real” cycling shoes?

[Crickey7]

The sandals feel surprisingly heavy, slightly heavier than decent bike shoes, and your foot does move around a little more. I’ll sometimes go German tourist on them and wear a pair of socks, which still allows breathability and reduces the moving around feeling.

[Author]

Posts