This is how we do it in Puddletown

[darkemeralds]

This is the story of riding in the rain.



Common knowledge: It rains a lot here. But these last few days? Monsoon. Never seen anything like it. Downpours, day after day. So when your main form of transportation is a bike, and you look out the window in the morning and see this:



...what do you do?

Well, if you're me, you put on your merry rainboots and your raincoat and go outside:


...and if your bike lives outside and you forgot to cover the seat, you dry it off:


Then you load up the coffee cup, put a plastic bag around your computer and stuff


...and you put on your helmet 'cause it's a pretty good rain-hat.


...and off you go. You don't bother with makeup because of that one time when three hours into your workday somebody suggested you look in a mirror and you realized that your mascara was halfway down your face.


There are puddles liek whoa.



And if you get stuck on the bridge, it's coffee break time!

It's not without its beauties, though:




...and when you get to work, only your knees and your raincoat and boots are wet and it's not that bad!



...but I could do with a little sunshine.

Comments

[lamentables]

Oh! Thanks for the Pashley link - they are very much in my part of the country, with lots of local dealers.

I'm wary of spending that much money on something when I'm not sure I'll use it. But the idea that I could cycle the couple of miles to the Post Office and enjoy it is most appealing. (The PO is probably my most frequent journey.)

[darkemeralds]

May I recommend the rental option? A lot of good bike shops have one or two bikes for rent (usually as loaners for customers with bikes in for repair). That's how I decided on the Dutch Workcycles bike--it was the model I rented.

If you were to buy a Pashley and decide you didn't like to use it, I have no doubt that you could sell it. They're eternally fashionable and very high quality (especially for the price).

[lamentables]

Thanks for the advice. There's a bike shop in Leamington Spa, a town we used to live in and frequently shop in, which stocks Pashley bikes. I think I'll go there and investigate options.

abrinsky has a bike, but it has been stored in the garage untouched for a decade. I'll have a chat with him about whether he's interested in getting it out and having it serviced, so that we can cycle together. I'm very nervous about the whole prospect, so his company would be reassuring to start with.

[darkemeralds]

Here's an interesting thing I've been reading about lately: for adults who never learned to ride a bike in childhood, or who haven't done so in such a long time that they feel wobbly, there are training bikes that are basically a bicycle minus the pedals, and set up so that the rider's feet easily touch the ground. You "scoot" and lift your feet as you feel confident, and put them down again when you don't, and in this way gain a sense of balance.

It is almost exactly like the bike's first precursor, the Pedestrian Curricle, which I came across in my Regency researches.

I understand that this type of bike is becoming the standard for training newcomers to bike-riding (rather than "training wheels" which don't serve much purpose).

[panisdead]

I understand that this type of bike is becoming the standard for training newcomers to bike-riding (rather than "training wheels" which don't serve much purpose).

It's certainly becoming more popular for teaching kids to ride, although the models sold for that purpose are godawful expensive. When we were thinking about it for Hoss, a friend instructed me to just take the pedals off his bike. He figured out how to balance before I got around to it, though.

[darkemeralds]

Yes! The little wooden balance bikes are beautiful artisan toys, aren't they? I only see pretty well-heeled kids on them. Taking the pedals off the bike the kid is eventually going to ride seems much more sensible, and I'm pretty sure that's how the adult-training situation goes. Though the adult bike would be lower, probably, than the one the rider would eventually buy and ride.