Riding in the rain

[callison]

I had thought that I had a pretty good rig for foul weather riding. Yesterday I spent an hour in extremely heavy rain and my BMW rainsuit did precisely the same thing a cheap rainsuit does - it soaked through in the crotch area. Looks kinda bad when you unsuit at work...

 

Does anyone know of a rainsuit that actually works and lasts for more than one season? It's bad enough the Guzzi gearbox gets wet, I don't want my "gearbox" to get wet as well

[RichMaund]

My "First Gear" Rainsuit is in it's third season of use. It REALLY got used last year! Seemed like I got rained on every time I rode the bike more than a hundred miles.

I'd call it a top notch suit.

[taminatorv]

My Aerostich Roadcrafter leaks in the crotch area after 15 minutes of heavy rain. My BMW rain suit that I paid way too much for is better, but does leak after about an hour in heavy rain. When I'm not lazy and really want to be dry, I wear the rain suit over the Aerostich. That, my Gortex boots, and an electric vest keeps me comfortable in bad weather. I'm still looking for absolutely waterproof gloves though.

[Guest russ]

My First Gear Rain Suit (under $100) seems to work well enough.

[Orson]

I rode all day in the rain in my aerostich one piece suit and I was comfy the whole time. It wasn't until I took the suit off at the end of the day that I realized I was wet in the crotch area. I guess that's kind of a plus...that I was getting wet but didn't realize it.

I'm no garment expert but, I would wager that a perfectly dry rain suit doesn't exist. If it did, those around the world sailboat racers would have them!

[callison]

When I got soaked the other day, I had on one of those BMW under garment thingies with the weird phase change material. I stayed dry while the clothes outside got wet. Dry is good, wet is embarrasing. I did the same ride two days later but the rain only lasted for 15 minutes instead of an hour and I didn't have any soak throughs. I was a whole lot more careful about ensuring that the BMW rainsuit was closed up properly and the interior "bib" drawn up as far as it would go. There will undoubtedly be more days when I get to "test" the rain garb and I'll get an opportunity to see if it was suit permeability or just poor technique while donning the suit.