Low Tech

I went out for a quick little, hour-long ride (I thought the rain was supposed to hold off 'till noon!) during which I could not help but think about the boys at this year's Tour of California, stage four. On Thursday they set off on the longest stage of this year's Tour, 135 miles from Seaside down the coast to San Luis Obispo in absolutely abominable conditions. Strong winds, rain and 45 degree temps made the going extra miserable. They were out there for 7 hours and averaged only 18 m.p.h. , almost unheard of for the Pro's.
As I made my way to Keswick dam I encounted some heavy showers, but the key to my relative comfort was the fact that my bike has fenders and mud flaps. So the leeward side o' me (aarr, I had me directions fuddled up!) stayed quite dry. Which started my thinking about how light fenders could be made (from carbon fiber) and why in the world don't the Pro teams have purpose built "Rain Bikes". They use special bikes for time-trial and mountain stages, why not Storm bikes?