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<center>![IMG_20201028_182447.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/bengy/LS9vO7nN-IMG_20201028_182447.jpg)</center>

Before coming to The Netherlands, the thought of riding a bike anywhere was a pretty abhorrent idea to me! I would just get puffed at the first sign of a hill, and the bike would weigh much more than I did... so all in all, it was a terrible way for me to get around. Public transport and walking was the way to go... or a car. 

Now, in The Netherlands, the country is set up really nicely for bikes. There is the road infrastructure, which keeps the bikers safe and the driver training which helps bikers avoid being hit inadvertently by cars. Of course, there are always going to be idiot bikers and drivers... but in the main, it works really quite nicely!

In addition, there are just no hills... so, there is much less effort to move sideways in the Earth's gravitational potential field. That said, there is the quite heavy wind... and the rain. However, since the purchase of our e-bikes and our modded bakfiets... the wind is absolutely no problem at all!

.. but there are times when you need to be kitted out for rain! The saddle bags (and the bakfiets lockbox) always hold a set of regen-kleding (heavy plastic wet weather gear for biking). This gear is pretty strong plastic, in the form of a jacket and a pair of clown sized pants that go over your normal everyday gear.... thus encasing you in a wind and water-proof layer. It actually gets quite warm in there with all the biking, but it really makes the difference. You can't feel the water or wind... except on your face, which will get drenched. 

... but it makes riding in the wet actually quite fun! 

<center>![IMG_20201028_182503.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/bengy/a5vSidCZ-IMG_20201028_182503.jpg)</center>

The first few times that I used these water proof clothes, I ended up being nice and dry when I got to my teaching or wherever I was going. Fresh in the face from the wind and rain, but that was okay. However, my shoes (and socks) would be completely drenched through... and everyone knows that there is absolutely nothing WORSE then wet and waterlogged shoes. Even in front of a heater overnight, they are still wet in the morning. 

There are also shoe covers that you can buy that wrap your normal shoes in a thin plastic, a bit like when you go into a science lab or clean room. However, I found that they tended to not have great grip with the pedals of the bike, and were prone to getting ripped at the worst possible time. Plus, you had to make sure that there were definitely NO gaps between the pants and the plastic covering... too many points of failure!

So, I've taken to dumping my normal shoes in the garage and putting on my high gumboots (which I normally use for gardening...) instead. When I get to student's houses, I tend to take off my shoes anyway... so, it is no problem at all to just have socks underneath. With the rain pants over the top of the gum boots, it means that I have lekker dry feet when I get to where I'm going!

<center>![IMG_20201028_182509.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/bengy/4RNL3dXn-IMG_20201028_182509.jpg)</center>


Finishing it all off is some protection for the hands... it doesn't really matter if your hands get wet, but when you are at around 25kph (5 football lengths per burger for our American friends...) in wet and cold weather... well, your hands will freeze! A set of ski gloves rounds off my my very fashion conscious attire! 

The other day, I saw that someone had a set of covers for the hands which attached to the handlebars and handbrakes of the bike. They were a pretty luxurious set, sheepskin on the inside and water proofing on the outside, which meant that you could keep your hands ungloved... or lightly gloved. It did look pretty awesome, but I guess that would be just asking for someone to pinch them off your parked bike.




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