Warmer today, and since the rains started again, the last remnants of snow are all gone. I took the bike today, and learned (again) the discomfort of leaking raingear. As always, my Firstgear overpants leak in the crotch - an artifact of the seating position on my bike, where the downslope of the tank and position of my legs forms a little depression where water collects and seeps through the zipper. When I got out of my gear at work, after a half hour in pretty light rain, I looked like I'd long since abandoned bladder control. The jacket's all right on the inside, so that's what counts, but the outer layer gets so waterlogged that the whole thing adds about 10 pounds.

I'm starting to think that by next winter I need to just suck up the tremendous price and buy myself an Aerostich Roadcrafter suit. The internet is full of glowing reviews of this suit; not as abrasion resistant as a full suit of leathers, but close; almost entirely waterproof; comfortable in just about any conditions; about 15 pockets; high quality; the best customer service in the world. Of course, I'll look exactly like a Power Ranger, instead of just a little bit, in my neon-blue jumpsuit, but what can ya do?

Also, I found a pretty damn good deal on another XM Radio unit today; actually, about the best possible deal, as it was free. It's the Audiovox XR9/XCS9. I picked it up as it is a cradle-mount unit, rather than having individual wires plug straight into it, which should be less of a hassle when mounting. It has a better screen as well. It's also a bit bigger than the Roady, though, and looks a little out of place on the bike - and the buttons look a lot tougher to work with gloves on. I'm not yet sure which one I'll end up using, but for the price you can't go wrong. The real reason I picked it up, though, was that its power adaptor and antenna are exactly the same as the Roady's. I was intending to buy an adaptor and antenna seperately so that I could use the unit both on the bike and in the car, without having to un-wire everything to transfer it over, but the cheapest adaptor I could find was $10 and the cheapest antenna, $29. Free for both is a much better price. :)