These are for every day riding commute and errand stuff, not doing 50 miles in shite weather on a tour.

  1. One enemy is outside water, the other enemy is inside water. Don't dress up too thick or too waterproof or you're just gonna steam from the inside and have won nothing. if you're cold, fire up those watt bazookas to keep you warm.

  2. Following that, get a thin water resistant (not waterproof) jacket. It'll let air out and keep you dry through most everything up until an actual storm and at that point you're just gonna have to deal with getting wet, or going full condom rainstuff and going slow.

  3. Either get Rain Legs or cut up some full size rainpants to fit length and attach them some way at the knees. 90% of the water you get on your legs is because you're thights are catching them from above, this is where rain legs help, but without cocooning you in plastic so you arrive sweaty as shit anyways.

  4. 5% more percent is from water being thrown up from your tyres. Get Fenders. Then elongate your fenders. I do not know why there is a global conspiracy to make fenders too short, but they all are. Elongate them in both directions. Cut up plastic, flaps, whatever, just make them longer, they're all too short.

  5. The remaining 5% percent will get your shoes wet from roadspray, so if wet feet are a problem for you, get some shoe covers but leave the shins and the ass side of your legs uncovered for heat regulation. If you're sure to get sopping wet anyways, go for thinner socks and shoes, at least they dry faster.

  6. If you're just riding city or some gravel, swap out your knobbly MTB-tyres for something with less profile so there's less shit being thrown about by them.

  7. If you can, fit some chain protection. Not only will that rescue your pant leg, but the chain also moves and also throws shit your way. Keep that shit in a cage.

  8. For the head: Helmets are surprisingly good at keeping water out despite often having holes for air. If you're going without one, a standard basecap or beanie or whatever helps you through moisture and doesn't make you all sweaty.

(I'm short haired so if anyone has some good suggestions for longer hair I'd gladly edit it in here)

  1. For gloves it's a bit more personal preference but I prefer thin ones. I find the hands usually get warmer quicker than the gloves get cold from the water and as long as you keep em on and keep moving you're good as far as temperature goes and the thin ones dry better. Thick ones just get waterlogged from outside, waterproof ones make your hands boil uncomfortably. Alternatively, get handlebar mittens.

  2. Leave what you can exposed for heat regulation. Do you need a facemask or is that where you can bleed heat? Is it icy rain that'll frostbite your hands or can you get away without gloves to dump some of the heat from the rain protection? Does a t-shirt under your light jacket do the trick (after 5 minutes of riding, it's gon' be cold when you begin) and a sweater / shirt / whatever in a drybag for your destination feasible? Everything that doesn't ruin your fit or appearance can easily just get wet, you wipe it off when you get there.

  3. Avoid puddles or alternatively lift up your legs like a little kid going through them. Yeah it looks a bit goofy, it beats having mucky puddle water all over you.

  4. Keep your distance to other wheeld vehicles. You don't wanna get caught in their spray.

    • 6bicycles [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      I mean yeah, but when you're biking the rain tends to come in at more of a horizontal angle due to the speed. 15km/h is a leisurely pace on a bicycle, but that's a sprint for most people.

      There's buildups of clear plastic cage all around covers and rainponchos that you can attach to your hands or handlebars and somewhere else so they don't get gusted up by wind but in my experience they are an aerodynamic nightmare. And if you're going slow enough that this doesn't matter to you, you might aswell get the full rain condom on and take it slow but with better visibility and also one gust of wind doesn't send you flying into traffic.

      • KiaKaha [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Follow up question: what do you do if you have to wear a suit to work?

        • PeludoPorFavor [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          when i used to be more of an all-weather biker, i straight up would just bring a change of clothes with me.

          in my experience, you are always just gonna get wet in some way or another, so if it's possible, just bring the suit jacket/shoes/pants in a waterproof bag and change.

          if you're at the point where changing isn't an option, and you live somewhere with the infrastructure, just take transit of some sort.

          I basically just stopped biking as commuting once the weather gets too consistently shitty. and if i look at the forecast and it's gonna be gross I don't either. I also live in a city where i have options, which i know isn't the case for everyone.

        • 6bicycles [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          3 years ago

          Don't wear that one on a bicycle, not a great idea anyways. Darker pants you can get away with as you don't see every possible splotch, riding with a suit jacket fucking sucks balls anyways so fold that into your desired dry means of bike transportation, like a pannier. Torso shouldn't be a problem anyways.

          If they expect you to show up immaculate in the worst of storms? I dunno, start a revolution to get that car brained bullshit outta people's heads or something. All the bicycling tips in the world is not going to help you against someone who thinks if you're visibly affected by the goddamn weather you're doing your job wrong.

    • 6bicycles [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      Don't wear glasses but seeing this has become a common problem with corona and masks maybe there's something there? Tucking the masks under the glasses seems to be the go to with people around me