Just The Tip: Wet Shoes
Quote the rules of cycling all you want, riding in foul weather is not enjoyable. Bearable yes, enjoyable no. The part I enjoy least about foul weather riding is cold wet feet. Shoe covers do a great job to keep you warm, some do a decent job of keeping them dry. But when it comes to torrential downpours or long rides in the rain almost no shoe cover is flawless at keeping you dry.
While you can always dry and warm your feet when you get home, it's your shoes that need some special attention to ensure they are not damaged from all that water. Here is a sweet tip on leather shoe care that I learned and want to share with you after a long ride in the rain this past weekend.
When you're safely home and dry take the insoles out of your shoes and stuff them with newspaper. Just regular single sheets of newspaper.
(The air will help dry out the insoles quickly but you if they are nothing special, you can put a towel over top of them and stand on them to help transfer the moisture to the towel.)
Newspaper is very absorbent and by stuffing it in your shoes, you are giving the water somewhere else to go besides just sitting in the nice leather upper. The paper will soak pretty quickly and you can change it every few hours until the majority of water is out then you can let the rest air dry. Once they are completely dry it's a good idea to treat the leather with a good conditioner so they'll look like new for years to come.
