Weather Conditions - Clothing and Safety

Ugly weather, clouds, rain, fog and cold in the mountains down to about 3,000 feet elevation.  Ambient temp was 39F / 7C.  I decided to restrict training yesterday to roads with wide shoulder.  In such foggy and cloud-encased weather cars, trucks, RVs and other vehicles may not see me until it is too late -- even though I have eye-popping strobe lights both fore and aft.  

Clothing was dialed in well.  Protected me against wind chill (15F / -17C) on descent.  Able to shed some layers on return climb to keep from overheating.  

The helmet visor became hard to see through because of the heavy rain.  At high speed descents I cannot afford visual distortion by rain drops.  Same with my glasses.  So I took them both off.  I had a bill cap that I used at speed to minimize pelting rain.  It worked really well.  (You have to make do and invent solutions). 

I mounted my Garmin VIRB camera on my helmet to record the conditions but too late realized that ... the battery was dead. Still, it was interesting to have that `duck' on my helmet on the screaming descent.  

A major effort over the past six months has gone into designing and building a head rest that is comfortable, allows for steep recline in the seat and can be adjusted if I need to sit up, i.e., less recline.  I think I'm close to being on target at this point.  Soft enough to allow for no brain rattling when on rough road, firm enough to allow stability, low enough so that the helmet doesn't interfere, and at the right angle (90 degrees) allowing me good vision and least vestibular complexity.  Very lightweight, too. I'm pretty pleased with this and will post a few pics soon. 

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/13040403