F-Blog – Rain eating

I went northwest today in the full knowledge that I was heading into much rain, and was not disappointed. Saw some fine country, and many an unseemly grey-stone country estate with Oz-size gates and portly, tanned men driving Navigators in polo shirts and big stainless wristwatches, perfecting that tough-to-achieve Tony Soprano look.

I was testing my new jacket, a Shift fabric number I acquired yesterday evening for summer riding. My beloved black leather was beginning to kill me in the hot, especially when gridlocked under direct 2pm sun, surrounded by trucks on all sides belching diesel heat from underbellies. The Shift was ideal – warm, comfortable, lightweight and ultra non-blowy, and it stayed dry even in persistent moderate rain. Its red-grey-black high viz factor also gives me peace.

So I went south, stopped for a feed in Milton and when I stepped back out for more tar, things had gotten serious. I decided to head home, via Derry Rd instead of making for the QEW, where there’d be more chance of carnage. I slid into my rain pants and matching jacket – over my jeans and Shift jacket – a hyper-yellow foul-weather combo made for sailing. I’d only tried it once before, during the Marblehead yacht classic (Boston to Halifax) in 2001 and had frozen my ass clean off the whole way. But they worked pretty well this time.

My main problem riding through cats and dogs was seeing anything beyond my speedometer. I wear glasses, so riding visor-up gets them nice and wet. Visor-down and I am in a killer London fog at anything under 50kph. So I settled for 50% vision mode the whole way home… quite nerve racking I guess, since by the time I killed the engine in my driveway, my shoulders were locked up into a tense jam that I hadn’t noticed till then. Though nothing a double vodka couldn’t set right.

The F800GS continues to augur deep into my heart. Such an able, willing damsel, in all circumstances.

paulfenn

F-Blog – Rain eating