Riding in the rain thoughts (all practical)

Riding a bike in the rain is kind of tough.  At least it's tough if it's cold and you're trying to arrive at your destination looking presentable.  If the temperature is decent and you're not trying to look dry and clean after your ride the first few minutes feel a little jarring, but after acclimation it feels great.  If you need to be dry though, there are 3 methods I know of.  They all have drawbacks, none is perfect, and you'll surely want a combination if you do this much.  

The first method is to fit your bicycle with fenders.  These keep most of the water on the road from being picked up by the wheel and sprayed onto you and your bike.  I've heard that folks who use a sufficiently long fender all the time experience significantly longer chain lives as a result of less road grime contaminating the chain.  The draw back for fenders is that they don't block all the road spray, and they don't block water coming from above or even from another vehicles tires.  My fenders don't even keep my feet dry when it's not raining but there are a few puddles out.  I still run them when rain is call for 3 of the next 5 days.  I've placed some studs and wing nuts on my bike to make installation a snap.  Still, you'll want something in addition.  

The second method is to wear a waterproof outer layer.  In principle this should be all you need.  However the waterproof outer layer has many drawbacks.  The first is that you can easily get over warm and begin to sweat.  Then you show up at your destination smelling like a locker room and looking like you took a shower with your clothes on.  If it's a cold rain and you have breathable water proof items, this problem can be mitigated.  However it's really difficult to find good waterproof gear.  Most of it leaks somewhere.  Even if it works well when new, after a few uses leaks pop up.  Then you end up showing up to work and enjoying the feel of wet socks all day.  Today I got to work to find the knee area on my pants was quite wet.   The rain pants I wore are specialized aqua veto pants.  They worked well up until this point. Shoe covers are a huge problem.  Many of the shoe covers that claim to be waterproof are not.  They also wear out quickly.  

The last method is simply to bring a change of clothes in a ziplock bag.  I favor this method, but it can be awkward finding a place to change at every location you might want to go to.  You still need to dress such that you don't freeze on the ride to your destination.  Also it's never nice putting on wet clothes, so bring a few ziplocs if your trip has multiple legs.  If I'm going to do this, I'm typically going to wear sandals, as bringing along multiple pairs of shoes is too burdensome.  Sometimes I just bring fresh socks or some such arrangement. 

 All this is far more complicated than simply getting in your car and going where you want to go. Most every choice is a compromise.  However I still find it worthwhile to ride all over weather raining or not.