Amazing 3D art from Shinaro Ohata
So it's Autumn already!
I've been continuing the cycling to work despite the rain and I love it.
Cycling home gives me something to look forward to with the current monotony of work. It's quiet at the moment which means a bit monotonous and I'm better with the hectic crazy pace, so I'm finding it quite tiring.
My waterproof jacket is really good, but I kind of wish it was better looking. Oh well. It works.
The weather is still too hot to wear the sleeves though. I think in Winter, I'll really only need a Kathmandu thermal underneath.
I still have to work out what to do about my legs getting wet though. I still haven't decided on a coat solution or a wrap or waterproof pants.
I just found out about the Agu rain jacket with cycling specific front panel: from tweeting #WomenTalkBikes - Janet LaFleur (One Woman, Many Bikes) - a great blog I came across in my googling of commuting clothes for women - sent me a link to her rain jacket post.
Sometimes, being in Sydney, you are not sure what to make of Northern Hemisphere commuter cyclists' blog posts about bad weather gear. A lot of them seem to cycle in snow and immense rain and I feel like we're lucky in Sydney, it's quite tropical and not really at all as cold as most places that people cycle.
Although, what I really want is the Georgia In Dublin leggits and rain wrap....
I found a blog post that confirmed the rain wrap worked with a cross bar...
I think this solution will work well for me as my winter outfit mostly consists of shift dresses, tights and boots.
But I am still thinking about it.
Lights
As we travel towards the end of Daylight Savings, I bought a headlight.
Last week when cycling in the rain, I didn't want to admit it, but it was really hard to see in the rain. On top of the water on my glasses, and the darkness, and my weak front light being dispersed all over the place due to the water, it was ok, but not ideal.
(image via photobucket.com/user/esparza90/)
No, it wasn't that bad.
The suburban streets were ok, but there's 2 streets on the way that are quite quiet and it was difficult to gauge the road surface.
I decided to get a stronger headlight. My current Moon Comet one is only 100 lumens.
So I decided to get the Serfas 250 lumen headlight.
It was the same price as the Moon version and more lumens, a bit clunkier for the bigger battery (to last longer) - but because I'm not fussed about weight, I thought I'd go for the hardier one.
(Serfas TSL-S250 usb rechargeable)
Once my husband showed me how to clip it on the handlebars - it wasn't intuitive to me... - it was great - it was very effective at lighting up the road in front of me.
My husband bought himself a set as he is about to start off road riding.
Bobbin Head
So I made my husband take me on a driving recon of the Bobbin Head ride.
The first uphill was long and not too steep.
However, the second uphill was super steep but quite short. By the time I got my phone out to facebook an OMFG photo, the uphill had ended.
It's a bit scary.
People often say, just drop down to the lowest gear and spin.
Not sure how much "spinning" I'll be doing.
I've immediately started resistance training (even on my tiny commute), as I think I will pretty much be "stomping" up those slopes!
P.S. Amazing bike commuter photo series!
An amazing photo series from San Fran about various cyclists here:
Eileen Lloyd, 64, occupational health and safety
Commute = 160km
