Originally Posted by motofranz .
I am a casual cyclist that enjoys riding in warm and hot sunny weather mostly on bicycle trails in King County....
That would have limited you to about a dozen or fewer days this summer depending on how you define 'hot and sunny'.
FWIW, I live in Seattle and ride year round. The only days I won't ride is those few days in the winter when it's rained and then the clouds pull back and the temps drop leaving hard to see water ice on the roads. Realistically that's only a handful of days each winter and most of the time it's wet and dark but with temps in the 40's or higher.
Most folks around here have a nice bike for riding in dry weather and a rain bike usually equipped with full fenders, heavier puncture resistant tires and often with disc or cantilever brakes for better wet weather stopping power along with blinky lights to help ensure we're visible on the nasty darker days. You get used to riding in the rain and if you dress well it's not a big deal. Sure you get wet as in soaked through regardless of what hi tech cycling garments you wear but as long as you stay warm it's not really a big deal. The roads have much better traction when wet than many folks imagine, especially with the coarse asphalt and chip seal roads that are popular around here.
It really pays to make peace with the rainy weather if you're going to live in the Pacific Northwet very long, riding in the rain is no big deal as long as you're reasonably well equipped for it. One bonus is that the longer rails to trails like the Burke Gilman, Sammamish River, Centennial and Interurban trails are much more fun to ride on wet days when you pretty much have them to yourself and aren't working your way through the hordes of sunny day trail users.
A lot of us make peace with the onset of rainy, colder and darker autumn weather by riding and racing cyclocross bikes. It brings out the inner child to rip around slipping and sliding in the mud on a cross bike and some of us actually start looking forward to wetter days. I see you started this thread yesterday while it was 'RAINING CATS AND DOGS', yeah yesterday was pretty wet but there were still upwards of seventy riders ranging in age from around 10 years old to those well into their 60s if not 70s out at Marymoor in Redmond last night having a blast ripping around the velodrome and the surrounding fields during the Wednesday night cyclocross practice session, yeah it was a muddy mess and I ended the evening with bike and body covered in mud and soaked through but it was still great fun, great training and beat the heck out of riding indoors on the trainer.
-Dave
