Hi All!
My wet-weather gear strategy keeps evolving, and I am beginning to think I will never be totaly satisfied with it. I've tried pretty much everything and have concluded I likely won't stay "dry" and will just haveto content myself with varying degrees of damp-to-wet -- either from rain or sweat.
For my top half, I've gone the rounds from waterproof-urethane coated jackets to rain capes, to a couple full Gore-Tex suits and DWR jackets (hooded and collared) and am now back to a hoodless, waterproof coated rain jacket with generous pit-zips and a vented cape back, made by REI. It looks like any of the thousands of neon-yellow cycling rain jackets you see here in the Pacific Northwest of 'Merka. Nicely detailed, it has pit zips, a little inside key pocket, and some reflective trim. It cost about $80 and ended up working as well as anything I've owned.
The rain cape I used to commute daily to the first four years at uni was terrible. It vented from below okay, but I got sweat-soaked where it lay across my back. The front was secured by brake lever loops and caused the occasional Bad Moment when side-drafting city buses in traffic to make up for the terrible wind-resistance of the cape. The thing also caught wind like a barn door -- even from the side! I used it with waterproof knee-length backless gaiters that also covered my shoes. I sold the lot to a fellow student. She rode more slowly sitting fully upright, and it worked great for her.
The Gore-Tex stuff all came from Early Winters in Seattle. They were an early American adopter of the material, and their construction and designs were top-notch. However, back in the early days of Gore-Tex (1980 or so), the process of building garments with it was not fully refined. Seam tapes came off after awhile, and delamination of the membrane was common -- it looked like blisters. EW did an outstanding job backing their lifetime warranty when mine failed, and hand-made me a replacement suit using the old one as a pattern long after they stopped making it. The jacket had shielded pit zips and a very handy "tail" that could be tucked up inside or dropped for bottom coverage when riding in a full-tuck or could be used as a seat when off the bike. That really came in handy, because the lower half of the suit consisted of seatless 3/4 pants. The idea being that you wouldn't want to sit on something unbreathable while riding atop your leather saddle. The lower 1/4 (feet and shins) were kept dry by booties with waterprood coated-nylon bottoms and Gore-Tex shafts.
Gore-Tex worked...okay...for me so long as I was dry (remember, this was a rain jacket) and it could pass moisture as vapor and/or be vented with the zips. The problems came with the rain -- once coated with liquid water, it no longer passed moisture vapor, soon steamed up inside, and I got about as wet with sweat as I did from a much cheaper coated jacket that required less care.
I now use lightweight ripstop nylon rain pants from Stearns (via Wal-Mart) that have snaps at the bottom and an elastic waist. They work pretty well, breathe to a degree, and the DWR (Durable Water Repellent) finish can be renewed either with spray or by tossing them in a hot cothes dryer for 20 minutes. They were cheap at USD$19. I sewed and sealed my own shoe covers from coated nylon with velcro back closures and an cinch-cord under the arch. They worked surprisingly well, but eventually the coating came off and now they aren't even a little waterproof. I don't relish remaking them, so I am on the lookout for some sort of replacement that will work with toes clips and last longer than the stretch-polyurethane coated ones. No luck so far.
My hands get some Early Winters lobster-claw Gore-Tex overmitts I modified by adding a matching Gore-Tex gauntlet. They still work great 32 years later. I wonder if they'll ever wear out!
My head gets a coated lycra helmet cover, and that means I wear my covered helmet in camp, since the jacket has no hood. It works okay, but can become too-warm quickly. My first cover was coated nylon, but didn't last. I found a brand-new JandD coated nylon cover in the traffic lane one day, but it doesn't fit ideally. Next up was a Louis Garneau, made of coated lycra. The latest is a neon-yellow (visibility!) Sugoi Zap (
http://www.rei.com/product/756396/sugoi-zap-helmet-cover ); I may add a tail to keep water out of my collar, something like this:
http://www.rei.com/product/804979/showers-pass-bike-helmet-cover The stretch-lycra covers really have it al over other materials for fit on the helmet; no flapping or wrinkling, which is nice.
So, there you have it. Anyone know of some good, waterproof or DWR shoe covers that work with toe clips/straps and are durable? Thanks in advance.
Best,
Dan.
