Cycling in the rain

While I was in Oxford, I cycled to work come rain, fog, frost, or any combination of the three. The resulting sense of hardiness led me to make a vow — a flexible, open-to-future-interpretation, subject-to-conditions-and-possible-reneging kind of vow — to ride my bike to work much more frequently and regularly when I got back to Melbourne. It shouldn’t be hard, I thought, since fog and frost and rain are all rarities in Melbourne, especially in summer, but even, of late, in winter too.

This morning I awoke to a grey and slightly damp day (a relief after some hot humid weather), but, remembering my vow, I decided to cycle regardless.

Now there are people who would argue that any one of the following reasons is more than sufficient to explain why I arrived at work almost totally soaked, and certainly damper than I ever got while I was in Oxford:

• There was an unvoidable large puddle that I hit at a reasonable speed resulting in a correspondingly reasonable splash.
• I wasn’t wearing waterproof overtrousers.
• The rain got heavier after I set off.
• My route in Melbourne is a bit longer than most of the regular routes I was doing in Oxford.
• The rain was blowing straight into my path.
• I wore my lighter weight rainjacket which is waterproof enough but has the disadvantage of not “breathing” thus making it possible to get drenched from the inside.
• I wasn’t wearing a beanie under my helmet which might have helped keep my hair dry.

I, on the other hand, hypothesise that most of my extensive dampness was due to the fact that Australian water is wetter than English water.