This ride had been arranged for months and as the
time approached, a slight feeling of apprehension grew.
Late October can be lovely in the United Kingdom,
but a sixth sense nudged me into preparing for the
worst. My existing wet weather gear was ready
for retirement and for the ride from Bristol to
West Sussex I felt it was time to upgrade.
The online weather-forecast was alarming;
black clouds and three raindrops for every
hour of the day across England. It would be a
tough test for the new rain suit I had ordered
from Motogirl.
I’d been told by them that “Our waterproofs
are designed to be worn in light showers for
2-3 hours and heavy downpours for an hour”.
Although the 210T Polyester Taffeta fabric
is light and pliable, it looked sturdy and
reliable. But was I asking too much of it?
I had chosen an all-in-one suit in the hope
that there would be no rain creeping up the
trousers and under the jacket soaking my
clothes.
The 3M reflective stripes and logos picked
up every gleam of light as the suit hung
on the coat-stand at home, once or twice
making me jump out of my skin, I had no
worries about not being seen in the gloom.
An early start to beat the rain yet by the
time I was on the road, a steady downpour
had set, at least it wasn’t cold.
Saturday morning traffic on the M4
towards London threw tyre-tread loads of
water at me, I didn’t care; I was warm and
dry. Six hours on the road. I assessed my
situation at the South of England Classic Mo-
torcycle Show. I was grateful to not experien-
TRAVERSE 110