In praise of... rain capes

[EltonFrog]

A memory stirs.

On Sunday, whilst in the car I saw a bloke cycling in a yellow cape, and it reminded me that I had one just like it in the early 70's too, I had totally forgotten about them. I too remember the smell, and the way is sort of creaked when it was rolled up, and like @Apollonius says I used to sit on the tale of it as well, it was always kept in the tartan blue/green rear carrier box.

I remember wearing it on one particular foul ride home from my after school job from Paddington to Willesden Junction when the the sky was dark and the rain biblical but with a hurricane wind behind me, I sailed home along the old A40 on my Dawes Kingpin, feeling a bit smug warm and dry under the waxy yellowness of the cape, it felt like I was flying. (Edit: this would have been 1969/70 I was 12/13)

How odd the memory is, until Sunday and reading this thread I'd forgotten all about it.

 

[steveindenmark]

They make great Sails and drag you towards water. Im a sailmaker, I should know

 

[steveindenmark]

They make great Sails and drag you towards water. Im a sailmaker, I should know

 

[GrumpyGregry]

They make great Sails and drag you towards water. Im a sailmaker, I should know

Whatever direction you are dragged in it is towards water thobut? Especially in Denmark!

 

[palinurus]

I've got one, I use it for those few really rainy commutes each year (assuming it's not also really windy). It's pretty good except I have to remember to tuck it behind my front light otherwise it obscures it. I like how my hands and feet (mostly) stay dry.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Good for squatting down and doing impressions of outsize traffic cones.

I've still got one, but rarely use it. And my knees are so bad that getting up after impersonating a traffic cone would be troublesome.

 

[srw]

Earlier this week I got utterly drenched on my way to work, when I discovered that my showerproof top wasn't anything like rainproof, and I had to spend all morning in a wet shirt and jacket. The Brooks Brompton pannier, unlike the Brompton "touring" bag doesn't really have room for a proper cag and overtrousers to scull around at the bottom of it, so this thread has provided food for thought.

Does anyone have one of the Carradice capes? Style-wise it's the least unattractive of the options linked (the Water off a Duck's Back one would be stylish for a woman, but the detailing is a bit Red Riding Hood in the photos). It's also available in a proper big size. Brooks also produce a couple of capes, which come with their own saddlebag (an attractive option as a Brooks rider with a couple of saddle loops looking for something to hang from them), but there seems to be a fiddly and gimmicky magnet gizmo involved.

Of course the other question is what head protection the stylish gentleman around town wears for the winter. A Bowler seems just a little too retro.

 

[RichardB]

Of course the other question is what head protection the stylish gentleman around town wears for the winter. A Bowler seems just a little too retro.

I commuted for several winters with a cape and a sou'wester. Technically, it works really well. The hat sheds rain onto the cape, and the cape sheds rain past the saddle/saddlebag and onto the rear mudguard. I now realise it was a style disaster, but at least my head was dry. I am seriously considering another cape, but I might pass on the sou'wester.