RainGo 

RainGo is a collapsible rain canopy that fits on to a mountain bicycle.  It was developed 1994 to ‘97.  It keeps the rider dry from the knees up, has been extensively tested on city, and highway, and logging road, and used in all weather. It was made to fit through a standard doorway, and folds down into a stuff sack, like a tent.    I use one of the skins made 23 years ago still today, with regular use, on a Mountain bike with an electric motor.  I use a different windshield, though, as the old one eventually cracked.  Everything else is 23 years old.  It makes for a great winter bike, in Vancouver, BC.  A SunGo skin is also easily created to fit over the same frame, however this is not the scope of this Kickstarter project.  A second project will be launched, next year, if this campaign is successful, and RainGo accessories will be included

This campaign is about getting the manufacture tooling created.  My intent is only to break even, and to start interest in the product.  RainGo was created to fill a void of dignity that I felt was missing, as I cycled in the rain.  Cyclists are my people; it pains me to see motorists splash, endanger cyclists, and remove dignity.   This product works.

Cost effective production of the mounting hardware, the cost of marketing, and entry price offering were the big stumbling blocks of my original plan to create this product.  I put it away as a main focus, and tried to make it cheaper to produce over the years, and this is what I’ve learned:

– Plastic, and material sewing is easy to source, once the pattern and materials are right.  An intended change from the skin pattern shown is to add stretch material at the top of the windshield, to pull  the zipper taught over several different geometries of Mountain Bike

– Strong is important in this design, and the materials need to be just that: super strong.  The mountings are presently vinyl-coated, hand-worked steel. This is relatively expensive for production.  They should be made from a glass-embedded plastic, family injection mold, or some other fast strong form-able material.  Vinyl coated steel is the intended fallback, in this campaign, if a strong plastic mounting system isn’t developed.  I mount both the RainGo mount, and an eBike battery, on the same down-tube, and have not had a problem; I expect that from a plastic mount, as well

– So far as I know, only one manufacturer in the world makes the poles strong enough, and they’re not cheap.   Welded with sound, swedged back and forth, for material evenness and strength, heat treated and anodized, these poles impress me to no end.  When looking for alternatives,  the ones I’ve tested fail in comparison.  The main two RainGo poles are the most important; also the manufacturer is responsive, helpful, and knowledgeable.  These poles have also helped in two large crashes.  The superior poles are necessary 

– The original RainGo design windshield was a co-polyester (TXP).  It appears that materials matter less than coatings, for clarity, and beading, and the plastic will be chosen for cracking performance, as rain beading and defog chemicals are available for automotive windshields, and eyeglasses, already.  Hitting potholes dislodges most of the water from the windscreen without wipers, even without chemicals, as the structure shakes with each impact

– The side vinyl will be selected for clarity, and the turnbuckle for strength, through a sewing manufacturing sample return.  Vinyl varies a lot, and the one turnbuckle needs to be robust 

 – I’ve used RainGo with electric motor kits on Mountain Bikes; it works great!  It keeps everything dry: hands, controls, controllers, batteries and BMS.   It was designed to keep the rider dry at a stop light, as well as in motion.  Legal pedal assist motors, set up properly, are supposed to stop assisting at 20mph (32kmh).  Canada adopted the standard created in the US; it includes brake sensors, and a Max power.  Bike route speeds are reasonable in my RainGo, as I travel in the rain.  Higher than bike route speeds are not endorsed

This campaign should allow a break even, and I’ll do another campaign, even if the first one costs me a (little) bit

Below is a really old development photo