Wet madness

In order to commute by bike, I think you need to be at least a little bit mad. With all that previous investment — new shoes, new cleats, new respectable-looking commuting shorts, new rack, new panniers — with all that, I still didn’t have quite enough in the game to really force the issue, to push myself over the economic brink at which I would have to say that I had spent too much NOT to ride to work every time I could. It would take a spectacular gesture, a single stupidly expensive piece of equipment to send me over the edge. And it would have to be something that would answer my final objections, which were that the laptop was slopping around in the panniers I had and was likely to get wet, or banged up, or both.

Enter Arkel’s laptop briefcase pannier. Insanely expensive. Why? Because it’s worth it. I knew I didn’t want to stand around in the rain working the bungees and buckles of the other pannier; Arkel has a single bungee, and a single levered locking system. My old bag would slop about and wouldn’t let me stand up on the pedals without risking catching the bag in the pedals; the Arkel simply doesn’t move. Worried about the laptop bouncing around? It goes in a sleeve and hangs from the top of the bag, instead of resting on the bottom. Worried about rain? I can’t imagine how this fabric would soak through (they give you a sample with your bag and dare you to rip it), but for a reasonable-ish additional fee, they give you a fantastic, bright yellow reflectorized rain cover that wraps nearly around the entire bag. It’s stiff, sturdy, as big as you need it to be, it straps down tight and when it’s off the bike, it looks like a briefcase. And at the price of  $235 with the rain cover, pricey enough that now I have to ride, in order to justify the 78 days of riding the bus that it cost. (Oops.)

So when the forecast this morning said it would be raining in the morning and raining perhaps a little harder on the ride home, I dug out rainpants I haven’t used in years, the wrong raincoat (meant for sport riding, not commuting, and not at all waterproof in a drenching rain), popped on my new little Cat Eye loop lights, and set off. Luckily I know just about every crack in the road, because there was a LOT of rain and the potholes were inundated. Got there, locked up under the portico of the Capitol and walked up to my office. Happily, I had a change of shirt there, because the one I wore was soaked. Coming home, I got even wetter. Seriously wet. Wetter than I’ve ever been, and that includes being submerged. But at least I’d ridden a few pathetic miles more than I would have otherwise.