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Saturday 29 October 2011

The Horizontal Rain

October is a tough month for bicycle commuting.  Here in Ontario, it's the rainy season.  Not passing thundershowers like you get in the summer, but a light misty drizzle that can go on for days.  The weather is still warm enough that I keep using my summer commuter bike.  That's a problem in the rain because boots don't fit properly in the toe clips, so I use shoes, and they get soaked.  Even if it's not raining hard enough to dampen my coat significantly, my feet end up completely sogged from spray off the front wheel. 
The weather can be deceptive too.  I've been hit with a downpour after heading out in what is initailly the typical light mist.  This picture was a day when the mist turned into proper rain through the evening.  It's about 11:30pm here, and I'm on my way home from work.  This night, the wind was gusting up over 50 kph, so I went through downtown rather than be exposed to such high winds on the overpass.  The surrounding buildings provide some protection from the worst of it.  The overpass would be just wild trying to ride through the crosswind and horizontally-moving rain. Now I'm not just that idiot who people see riding his bike at night in the rainstorm.  I'm the idiot who gets off his bike in the rainstorm to take a picture of it. 
Usually my anti-wrap spinning flagpole keeps it flying , but the combination of wind and rain managed to wrap it into a cocoon.  It's a great flagpole.  The bearings have stood up through summer and winter without seizing up.  That was my biggest concern -- that the bearings would suffer water ingress, rust, and then lock up.  It's an expensive pole, so I can't be replacing it every two years if it isn't durable. 

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