Antbrewer wrote:Many of us (older ones) will remember the good old cape.
Yes, I used to use one and they were pretty good unless it was really windy. The other problem was the difficulty of indicating - the large increase in traffic eventually made me switch to a jacket and overtrousers (and now Rainlegs), but I still occasionally take a cape with me on quieter roads.
Just a quick update. I got a cheep cycling poncho from eBay for 11£. I have also water proofed my gore tax jacket and took both on a 4 day touring in Scottish highlands. I had rain every day which allowed me to test the poncho.
I have to say that it worked very well in heavy rain when my jacket would get saturated. It even kept my shoes dry. The ventilation was superior compared to the jacket. However, I would not use it in stronger wind or heavy traffic. It was very easy to deal with condensation on my back - I would just flap the poncho from time to time and that would let the air in.
I am very glad that I got the cheep poncho. It is very packable, light weight and made of durable material.
However, poncho does not replace waterproof jacket - both are good for different conditions.
I carry a umbrella attached handy to the rear rack. Umbrella is great for stopping rain from getting into open panniers. I have also used it during cooking / lunch and pee breaks.
Lidl is doing a "hiking poncho" as a special on thursday. Appears to be orange/yellow. Don't know anything about its quality as I am already sorted with a military type thing for my camping adventures. May be worth interested folks checking out.
