I had made a decision to commute to work by bicycle earlier this month, and for which endeavor my All-Weather-Bicycle (AWB) project was born. I installed a front fender and a rear rack which also functioned as a fender. These items' importance I learned while riding through puddles and patches of wet mud, promptly ending up splattered with the same. At the suggestion of a friend, I then also purchased a pannier - basically a bag that sits on either side of the bicycle, in my case, mounted on the rear via the rear rack. So far things had been going well, although I was only able to test the bicycle in light rain conditions and wet surfaces (after a rain).
Tonight was my first test in riding under "inclement weather" conditions: night-time, heavy rain with winds 23mph gusting to 38mph, ambient temperature around 8C, visibility probably at 200 feet or so with my front LED light, and road conditions were wet with patches of deep (3-4") puddles of water.
I hit my first snag right off the bat when the bicycle hit a bump and the pannier slid forwards. There is a strap holding the sides of the pannier together at the rear (difficult to describe without words), and the forward motion then carried this strap into my rear wheel. This strap, oriented horizontally to my rear wheel, was then rapidly captured by the wheel and forced forwards. The bag, however, retained the strap aft (so-to-speak) and as a result my rear wheel instantly locked up. In the conditions described above, traveling at decent speed (15-20mph), I immediately began to fishtail and had to brake heavily on the front tires without exerting too much force so that I wouldn't be thrown off the bicycle.
After re-positioning the bag, I continued on my journey back home fighting the headwinds and trying to see (my visibility deterioriated at this point to <20 feet due to the water droplets forming on my glasses).
Another bump, another fish-tail. Dis-mount, re-position, re-mount, repeat. Bump. Fish-tail. Dis-mount, re-position, repeat. Hey - I'm getting good at this, but it's getting dicey. I'm going to be riding on the road soon (currently I'm on a dedicated bike path), and fish-tailing across the road in this condition with medium traffic wasn't my idea of a safe ride. So, I unlatched the rear strap in hopes of solving (temporarily) my problems. I could also see by now the multiple contortions the bag underwent as it was dragged by my rear wheel was deforming certain stiff members of the bag, designed for forming support. As a result, it was getting more and more likely to snag on my wheel.
Oh - and each time I rode through a deep puddle, the water would stream and cascade over my legs, into my shoes...
Luckily, the ride home was rather uneventful after unhooking the strap. Yes, it did rub against my rear wheel for the remainder of the ride, but I was able to pedal against the friction force.
On arrival at home, I was better able to re-evaluate my own personal condition. By "all-weather-bicycle", I meant a bicycle that I could ride to work, regardless of the weather condition, and arrive in a presentable fashion. Being a resident/intern, this would mean a shirt/tie and pants with white coat.
I realized now that I will need much more work on this concept. While the fenders and the rear rack did their work admirably, I ended up clean but thoroughly soaked. My gloves were so wet, I had to wring them out to dry. My feet/socks/shoes were soaked completely. My pants, too, were soaked. So were my underwear. The only thing that remained dry was my shirt, safely under my rain jacket.
Lessons learned:
1) I'll need rain pants, most likely, if I'm to arrive in a presentable manner
2) I'll need to engineer a better solution of mounting the rack/pannier to the bicycle
3) Maybe additional lighting
4) Someone needs to come up with windshield wipers for glasses...it's just not working well for me these days when I can't see out my glasses...
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