While I was waiting to leave England at Heathrow airport, I wandered into a small cycling store called Runway Cycling near my hotel at the very edge of the airport. I was trying to burn off some left over pound notes so I bought a highly reflective, medium weight rain jacket made by a company I was unfamiliar with - Everything to Cycling (ETC).
As it was the middle of summer in SoCal there was no opportunity to wear it until recently when we had a slight cooling trend and it was going to be about 60F at night in Big Bear at 7,000'. I drove over from my house as the sun was setting to explore a new section of bike trail and try this jacket.
The pedal path, on the north shore of Big Bear lake is a lovely trail and has recently been extended into Big Bear City. It's only about 10 miles out-and-back so it was an ideal ride for the Brompton. I also wanted to test a new rack bag for the Brompton, but that's another post.
The trail had a lot of debris on it from the recent monsoonal rain storms so the Brompton's wide tires were put to the test and passed with flying colors. It was a stunningly beautiful night, riding a dedicated bike trail through lakeside forest. I tried to get some pictures, but I really needed a tripod.
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| Big Bear City from across the lake |
I stopped to take a photo of the jacket. I put it on a sign post and illuminated it with my small helmet lamp to give an idea of how reflective it is. You can't see any of the surrounding trees, just the jacket.
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| Incredibly reflective |
It's a medium weight jacket so even at 60F I was getting warm. It would be better at 50F and below. It has massive pit zips which help cool you down and storm cuffs that let you get it on and off while wearing gloves but also allow you to cinch them down to stop rain getting in.
I'm planning to help support some brevets next year and I think this is what I'll be wearing at night. The riders will see me easily.
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