Gearhead: ‘Moustache’ umbrella offers room with a view

The Bay Area's rainy season is off to a roaring start, which means it's time to pull out those full-coverage, sturdy umbrellas.

Back in January 2017, GearHead recommended two excellent umbrellas, the Lewis N. Clark Automatic Travel Umbrella and the Repel Easy Touch Umbrella, both in the lower $20 range. Ratings remain high for both umbrellas, so they're still excellent choices.

However, here's an umbrella that offers something a bit different that you might find appealing, too.

The Hunter Original Moustache Bubble Umbrella has a see-through 100 percent polyethylene canopy. It's great to be able to see everything around you when you're crossing busy streets in the driving rain. In addition, the umbrella's bubble shape tends to do a better job of keeping raindrops off your upper body than a regular umbrella with a flatter canopy.

The Moustache opens manually and sports a convenient crook handle that hangs nicely on your arm when closed. It's stylish and sturdy, and the bottom detail on the canopy comes in a variety of colors.

For women, the Moustache ranges from $45 to $50; one with multipattern detail is currently on sale for $30 (six detail colors are available). A scaled-down kids' version comes in four different trim colors and costs $35.

Oddly enough, for an umbrella called “Moustache,” there is no version available for men. For them, Hunter suggests the straightforward and ultra-compact Original Mini Umbrella at $45. hunterboots.com.