Great inventions of cycling... 1898 - the rain cape
Very early cyclists just got wet. The waterproofing options were so awkward, inconvenient and clammy that either they put up with the rain or stayed at home.
The first real improvement came in the very late 19th century with oilskin, which was cotton canvas coated with linseed oil and wax. It was almost waterproof and almost breathable.
For the next few decades, the standard rain-garb consisted of a vast and very heavy oilskin cape designed to cover the rider, the bike and both wheels down to about axle level. When combined with a sou’wester hat, it did a reasonable job of keeping the water out.
It also did a fine job of collecting any passing breeze. The aerodynamic inefficiency of the cape was such that an even moderate headwind would reduce a rider to a standstill, while a brisk crosswind would blow them off the road.
When synthetic fabrics became available in the 60s and 70s, they were still usually fashioned into a huge flapping cape. It took racers in the 1970s to devise the jacket-shaped rain cape, which was often transparent to show the rider’s racing colours underneath it, and to let onlookers marvel at the whole steamy ecosystem that was happening inside what was essentially a terrarium.
Modern rain jackets work much, much better – to the extent that riders actually use them. This comes with the bonus that their unvarying black colour renders wet bike races almost totally impossible to understand.