Natalie Saliva doesn’t wear makeup anymore.
She knows in the time it takes for her to bike from her apartment on Northwest 16th Avenue to campus, it will melt off.
With a Florida summer on full blast, bicyclists like Saliva are finding creative ways to adapt to the almost-daily downpours.
Saliva, a 21-year-old UF wildlife ecology and conservation senior, said she bikes because she doesn’t have a driver’s license.
Her close-cropped hair sparkles with rain and sweat as she recalls a bicycle crash that left her unable to bend her pinky finger. A little water isn’t going to stop her now.
“If I get wet, I get wet,” she said.
Saliva prepares for the weather by wearing sleeveless tops, packing as little as possible and bringing a plastic bag to protect her laptop and books.
“I’ve thought about wearing a poncho, but honestly, I think it’ll be too much of a distraction as I bike,” she said.
Jake Sauls, a 21-year-old UF applied physiology & kinesiology junior, has seen bicyclists walk into class wearing plastic bags secured with tape.
“You’re going to walk in, and people are going to freak out, and you’re just a bag man walking around,” Sauls said.
He said he bikes because he doesn’t trust the bus system, and he doesn’t like walking.
“It’s just faster,” Sauls said.
But convenience isn’t always the top priority for Rahul Benda, an 18-year-old UF chemical engineering freshman. He also bikes because he prefers it over walking, but if the weather radar shows clouds, he’ll take the walk.
Benda said he brings his bicycle into his dorm room every night.
“I also have a nice bike, and I don’t like it to rust,” Benda said.
Muhammad Rahmani, a Student Government Free Bike Repair employee of three years, said he sees a lot of students biking through the rain and leaving their bicycles to the weather.
“Dangerous? I suppose so. But really, they just don’t work,” Rahmani said. “You just can’t ride them. The chains are rusted to hell.”
Rahmani said students should take their bicycles inside, or at least cover the chain with a plastic bag. Rusty chains are the No. 1 preventable problem at the repair shop.
When it comes to actually biking in the rain, he said to not bother with a poncho because it might get stuck on the bicycle parts.
“Just be a man,” Rahmani said. “Cover your stuff, and just ride carefully.”
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 7/29/2014 under the headline "Bicyclists skirt summer showers"]
