{"id":735,"date":"2010-07-13T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-13T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wabikes.org\/2010\/07\/13\/pants-or-no-pants\/"},"modified":"2010-07-13T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-07-13T15:00:00","slug":"pants-or-no-pants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wabikes.org\/index.php\/2010\/07\/13\/pants-or-no-pants\/","title":{"rendered":"Pants or No Pants?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’re a bicyclist, you’ll know that excellent feeling of accomplishment when you wear the right clothes for the conditions. As a year-round commuter in Massachusetts and now Washington, I adopted the threadbare but still true axiom that there was no bad weather, just wrong clothing choices.<\/p>\n

Here are a few examples of the types of weather I’ve ridden in.
\"Stupid<\/a>
Conditions:<\/b> Sleet storms when icicles formed on my helmet, sheets of ice coated my arms and bike, and only my monster studded tires<\/a> kept me upright. (The picture above shows a real snowy day I attempted to ride to work, but it took 20 minutes to ride 1 mile, and I had a 13-mile commute. Part of winning a battle is knowing when to retreat.)
Clothing:<\/b> Long-sleeve wool jersey, Gore-Tex jacket, two layers of gloves, fluffy ear warmers, bike shorts, long bike pants with nylon fronts and warm fuzzy insides, two pairs of wool socks, Gore-Tex hiking boots.<\/p>\n

Conditions:<\/b> 10\u00b0F, sunny, with a 10-mph headwind, when people in cars wore heavy layers and I couldn’t keep my glasses from fogging up every time I paused.
Clothing:<\/b> Too many layers to count, and still my fingers and toes had an alarming white look to them when I finally got to work.<\/p>\n

Conditions:<\/b> Steady, relentless rain and 45\u00b0F, with wind so gusty and nasty that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep my bike on the road.
Clothing:<\/b> Gore-Tex jacket, thick non-waterproof pants, lightweight long-sleeve shirt and bike shorts; one pair of wool socks and booties.<\/p>\n

Conditions:<\/b> Flood water up to my axles<\/a>, across roads so deep people in Explorers didn’t brave it.
Clothing:<\/b> Bike shorts and jersey; summer-weight socks and clip-in shoes.<\/p>\n

Conditions:<\/b> Muggy 90\u00b0F temperatures that left my arms and legs slick with that nasty sweat-and-sunscreen that seems to have a La Brea tar pit<\/a>-like fascination to tiny bugs.
Clothing:<\/b> Bike shorts and jersey; summer-weight socks and clip-in shoes; sunblock.<\/p>\n

\"Cape<\/a>
Of course, I’ve also ridden in innumerable beautiful days ranging from 30\u00b0F to 80\u00b0F — days where I’ve wondered, “Why would anybody choose to drive on a day this gorgeous?” (The picture at right shows me on my first-ever two-day ride, the MS Cape Cod Getaway<\/a> in 2008, one of those delightful days when the weather cooperates perfectly.)<\/p>\n

All this to say that, in general, I have a pretty good idea of what clothes work well in what conditions. Yet this morning, I completely misjudged the weather. Instead of having a comfortable ride in the rain, I arrived at work more than damp, having eschewed jacket and dry foot covering for an optimistic vest and sandals. Why, why, why (I asked myself) did I not wear a jacket? Because (I answered myself) it is JULY, and I shouldn’t still need my jacket and long pants.<\/p>\n

Have you ever worn exactly the wrong clothes? What was your excuse<\/strike> rationale for choosing the wrong thing?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’re a bicyclist, you’ll know that excellent feeling of accomplishment when you wear the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[19,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commuting","category-bike-gear-maintenance"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPants or No Pants? - Washington Bikes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wabikes.org\/index.php\/2010\/07\/13\/pants-or-no-pants\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pants or No Pants? 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