Covered Bicycle Parking in Philadelphia

With the last few weeks of daily rain storms one of the challenges that many bicycle commuters faced was where to park their bicycle in the hopes that it would be dry. Fortunately Philadelphia Magazine reporter Emily Lehman found a solution, by crowd sourcing the search for covered/sheltered bicycle parking available to the public. In her article, “Where is Covered Bike Parking in Philadelphia”. A simple appeal to the public and a Google map located all of the current bicycle racks with covered parking. If you know of any others please add your comments to the the article link above.

There are many reasons why cyclists like to keep their bicycles dry, rust being a key factor and that can be addressed with some basic maintenance. But the most annoying is water logged saddles. Bicycles seats (saddles) are made up of open celled foam, similar to a household sponge. When a saddle gets caught in a rainstorm it soaks up that water like a sponge and it takes forever to dry out. One of the most common solutions is to place a plastic bag over the saddle, but that is never any real guarantee that the saddle will remain dry or that someone won't remove it. 

There is another solution:

There are a number of plastic saddles on the market that will stil provide the level of ergonomic support you need. Some examples can be found here; scroll down to see the reasonably priced models and here.