Commuting - I cheated this morning........ feeling dirty

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/1113/metra.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/441/metra.jpg/)

i just couldn't do it.

the storm has passed, leaving chicago without even a dusting of snow on the ground (all hype once again), but the marine forecast was still calling for 40 knot winds this morning along the lakefront, gusting to 50 knots (55 mph!), straight out of the NW (my 11 o'clock for the ride in). i can do the rain, the snow, the sleet, the ice, the what-have you, hell i can even appreciate and enjoy that stuff, but egregiously strong headwinds like that just sap all of my enthusiasm, to say nothing of making me really, really late for work. punctuality can be hard to maintain when you're struggling to chug along at 5 mph (i've got a ~15 mile one-way commute).


so, Metra commuter rail to the rescue for the chicken's way out....... I am not a man....... < head held properly in shame >.......


on the bright side, winds are forecast to stay steady and strong out of the NW, so it could be a really fast and fun ride home tonight!

You did the right thing, plenty of time ahead with better commuting weather. That is one slick looking cycle you've got there. I'd like to have fenders like yours but they get clogged with snow in the winter here.

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/1113/metra.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/441/metra.jpg/)

on the bright side, winds are forecast to stay steady and strong out of the NW, so it could be a really fast and fun ride home tonight!

I'm directly on the other side of Lake Michigan from you. The winds are crazy for sure. Have fun on tonight's ride.

I cheat similarly almost everyday.

We had winds 25-30mph with gusts of 40+mph this morning.
I rode three miles to the MTA P&R, threw my bike and myself onto the bus and rode 10 miles into downtown. I then got off the bus to ride the rest of the way in (another mile).
The headwinds and crosswinds were brutal this morning. I expect that as the front moves through, I'll have headwinds and crosswinds from the opposite direction on the way home. Just once, I'd like to experience what a 40mph gust feels like as a tailwind.

i like the bike
what is it?

what kind of fenders does it have?

the picture looks like you are sitting away from it like you are ashamed to be with it. haha.

The trick would be to ride the train, and bring your bike along, so you could ride home with a 40mph tailwind! ;)

... which you did. My brain did not process what I read. Sigh.

That is one slick looking cycle you've got there. I'd like to have fenders like yours but they get clogged with snow in the winter here.
thanks. deep snow isn't a huge issue in chicago because we have a super aggressive fleet of plows. we had a mayor in the late 70s who lost a re-election bid because he didn't get the streets plowed fast enough after a blizzard. all subsequent mayors have been hyper-vigilant on the snow removal front.






Just once, I'd like to experience what a 40mph gust feels like as a tailwind.
it's fun, like a descent that never ends.

when the gusts get up into the 60+ mph range, even as a tailwind, it gets a little scary.






i like the bike
what is it?

what kind of fenders does it have?

thanks. the bike is a 2011 Scott SUB 10. fenders are Planet Bike Cascadia's.

the wonky aerobars are my own addition. they look kinda stupid on a hybrid commuter bike, but if you had to battle lake michigan winds on a daily basis like i do, you'd understand. ;)

here's a better shot of the bike with gatoroskins instead of the marathon winters.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/1853/img0085cj.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/404/img0085cj.jpg/)







The trick would be to ride the train, and bring your bike along, so you could ride home with a 40mph tailwind! ;)
that's exactly what i did. the picture in the first post is a pic of my bike on the train this morning.

Steely Dan I like that bright orange bike. My road bike is a Scott S40 Speedster it is a fun bike.

Steely Dan I like that bright orange bike.

it certainly doesn't hurt from a visibility standpoint. it's such a deep and vivid orange. the paint job on the bike is a work of art by itself, but this is a transportation bike, so it has accumulated it's fair share of nicks and scratches.

I think you did the right thing. I think I'm done commuting, and wimped out of walking 4 blocks to the store at lunch due to the cold and wind.

that's exactly what i did. the picture in the first post is a pic of my bike on the train this morning.

My eyes and brain are turning into swiss cheese with age. Sorry about that! ;) How was the tail wind? Did you hold open your coat with outstretched arms, for the full square-rigger sail effect, riding at 40mph without pedaling? Since you're not posting from the Hospital, my guess is "no." :D

I think I'm done commuting.
don't stop now, it's just starting to get interesting! (50 mph headwinds notwithstanding ;) )






How was the tail wind?
i'll tell you all about it as soon as i get home. it's only 3:15pm here in chicago, so i've got a couple more hours to go before i get my release.

according to the marine forecast, the wind is still supposed to be out of the NW with wind speeds of 30 knots, gusting to 40 knots! yee-haw!

don't stop now, it's just starting to get interesting! (50 mph headwinds notwithstanding ;) )
I'll be back as soon as I can. I'm getting a jacket made by Lou at Foxwear, and he's telling me he's got plenty of options to help keep me warm. but nothing that can turn off the headwind.

i'll tell you all about it as soon as i get home. it's only 3:15pm here in chicago, so i've got a couple more hours to go before i get my release.

according to the marine forecast, the wind is still supposed to be out of the NW with wind speeds of 30 knots, gusting to 40 knots! yee-haw!

you should be home about now!

Just once, I'd like to experience what a 40mph gust feels like as a tailwind.
sort of off topic, but I could not resist. I look for these winds where I live, strong NW winds in the afternoon. When we get them, I ride UPWIND and uphill for a few miles, then the fun starts. I turn onto HWY 154 here in Santa Barbara, and navigate the roughly 1 mile of downhill. On my previous bike, a Trek 7000 mountain bike, I once hit 52.8 mph at the end of the hill, and then applied brakes furiously. With a strong tail wind it is an eerie silence traveling at such a high speed. Nothing like it. Can't wait for the right conditions to try out on my Cross Check.

I woke up this morning to find 4" of fresh snow on the ground (with more still falling). I took the bus.

Sexy bike.

Nothing wrong with why you cheated. Only Rocky would ride in that amount of wind.

thanks. deep snow isn't a huge issue in chicago because we have a super aggressive fleet of plows. we had a mayor in the late 70s who lost a re-election bid because he didn't get the streets plowed fast enough after a blizzard. all subsequent mayors have been hyper-vigilant on the snow removal front.


I cheated this morning too. Barely made it to the bus stop there was so much snow on the sidewalk. 13 inches fell on Thursday. Streets were all cleared but a lot of lumpy hard pack. Haven't had conditions like this in several years.

I can see it's going to be interesting getting around.

I would rather ride in rain than in wind, especially if it's gusty. The last thing I need to worry about is being blown into traffic. The overpasses have pretty narrow bike lanes and the wind gusts come right down the train tracks. There's nothing wrong with taking a break or wimping out once in a while.

With winds about 20mph from the NNW (my 2 o'clock, roughly, for most of the ride?) with gusts of 30ish mph, I got blown about a bit heading to work today. My commute is hella short. I can't imagine choosing to fight a stronger wind on a much longer ride, especially in a place where it is actually cold.

Full frontal gale force winds are a perfectly adequate excuse to hop the Metro. No shame in that.

But a tailwind for the ride home? That's a "must do"! :speedy:

you should be home about now!
Yeah, sorry about that, I had dinner plans last night, no time for internetting.

The ride home was pretty good, but the wind was a little more WNW than I was expecting, so some of the gusts were almost cross winds. Still better than a 30mph headwind though.

i just couldn't do it.

the storm has passed, leaving chicago without even a dusting of snow on the ground (all hype once again), but the marine forecast was still calling for 40 knot winds this morning along the lakefront, gusting to 50 knots (55 mph!), straight out of the NW (my 11 o'clock for the ride in). i can do the rain, the snow, the sleet, the ice, the what-have you, hell i can even appreciate and enjoy that stuff, but egregiously strong headwinds like that just sap all of my enthusiasm, to say nothing of making me really, really late for work. punctuality can be hard to maintain when you're struggling to chug along at 5 mph (i've got a ~15 mile one-way commute).


so, Metra commuter rail to the rescue for the chicken's way out....... I am not a man....... < head held properly in shame >.......


on the bright side, winds are forecast to stay steady and strong out of the NW, so it could be a really fast and fun ride home tonight!Pansy. :D

i just couldn't do it.
...the marine forecast was still calling for 40 knot winds this morning along the lakefront, gusting to 50 knots (55 mph!), straight out of the NW (my 11 o'clock for the ride in)...

I'll wager there aren't many of us who would have tried; and then none who would have a second time.

I cheated this morning too. Barely made it to the bus stop there was so much snow on the sidewalk. 13 inches fell on Thursday. Streets were all cleared but a lot of lumpy hard pack. Haven't had conditions like this in several years.

I can see it's going to be interesting getting around.

Gerv... wasn't that something else? I didn't go to work Thursday because of the blizzard. I did ride into work yesterday though and it was a rough and slow ride but unlocking the fork on the MTB helped out a lot. Today looks to be a lot better so I can go to the mall for that last gift. Remember that black MTB I picked up late year? It is the new winter commuter. You can see it in the Winter forum.

fasthair

Steely Dan, you have no justifiable reason to feel guilty. The fact that you typically ride in the rain is more than many (including myself) will purposely commit to.

I commend everyone that finds it within themselves to purposely commute by bicycle in the rain and manage to enjoy it somehow. As for me, I’ll never find joy in riding in the rain for a host of reasons that I’ll refrain from elaborating upon. I’ve only been caught in the rain twice now in 2,916 miles of bicycling, but I’ve outrun quite a few storms by waiting to head out between small breaks in the weather fronts, then ride like the wind to get home, many times arriving home just as the first raindrops begin to fall. On this matter, I have countless successes!

For the many decades that I rode my motorcycles, there were times when I had no choice but to commute during rain and though my rain gear kept me dry, I never enjoyed riding in the rain via the slippery surfaces and delayed braking from wet discs and pads that could suddenly grab upon drying out from the heat generated by braking, as well as the idiots that would cut very closely in front of me because I had left ample safe braking distance in front of me (which they eliminated by cutting so closely in front of me).

In truth, I even hate to drive my car in the rain (and snow) for fear of the imbeciles that just won’t slow down during inclement weather. I’ve heard many of these imbeciles brag about how they don’t have to slow down because “they have 4-wheel drive.” Imbeciles! I’ve occasionally witnessed these buffoons hydroplane on highways and spiral out of control into guardrails as well as go off the roadway and flip their vehicle, but I cannot feel sorry for them. They’re simply too stupid to be behind the wheel of thousands of pounds worth of vehicle. In their hands, the vehicle becomes a weapon that typically assaults the innocent, so the last thing I want to do is commute by bicycle amongst them under these inclement conditions.

I'm totally speechless, amazed and somewhat skeptical! How DID you get a complete subway car all to yourself? :lol:

I'm totally speechless, amazed and somewhat skeptical! How DID you get a complete subway car all to yourself? :lol:

Clearly, everyone else rode their bicycles.

I'm totally speechless, amazed and somewhat skeptical! How DID you get a complete subway car all to yourself?

it was a Metra Commuter rail train car, not a subway* car, and because i live downtown and work in the burbs, i was reverse commuting. i live two blocks form one of the major downtown commuter rail stations so i was the first person to get on that particular train car. full-size bikes aren't allowed on Metra trains during the regular commuter route rush hours, but because reverse commuters are only a small fraction of regular commuters, there's plenty of room on the reverse commute trains for bikes. Also, it was the friday before christmas weekend, so the typically sparsely populated train was even less populated due to people taking the day off for holiday travel.




(*) off topic: the word "subway" is really a NYC term. we have a rapid transit intra-city train system here in chicago too, but we call it the "el" (verbal shorthand for "elevated"). most of the system is run on elevated ROWs (most famously on the loop tracks of downtown), but there are sections that run underground, at grade, and in expressway medians too. however, regardless of the ROW type, it's all still referred to simply as "the el" by convention. when you hear someone in chicago refer to the el as the "subway", you know they're from out of town. ;)

..... i live downtown and work in the burbs, i was reverse commuting. .....

:thumb: That explains it... I was wondering how you were able to pull off taking a full sized bike on to Metra at rush hours! I'm a typical Metra commuter, whereas I live in the 'burbs and work downtown. I take my folding bike (Riese and Müller, Birdy RM1) on the Metra, but I have to keep it in a bag when it's on the train. I was getting lectured for about a week before I broke down and bought a bag for it. :p

Your comments about snow in the city is spot on. My challenge this winter (being my first year as a bike commuter) is if the roads will be cleared of snow between my house and my local Metra stop. It's doubtful, it remains to be seen if I will be bike commuting this winter.

it was a Metra Commuter rail train car, not a subway* car, and because i live downtown and work in the burbs, i was reverse commuting. i live two blocks form one of the major downtown commuter rail stations so i was the first person to get on that particular train car. full-size bikes aren't allowed on Metra trains during the regular commuter route rush hours, but because reverse commuters are only a small fraction of regular commuters, there's plenty of room on the reverse commute trains for bikes. Also, it was the friday before christmas weekend, so the typically sparsely populated train was even less populated due to people taking the day off for holiday travel.




(*) off topic: the word "subway" is really a NYC term. we have a rapid transit intra-city train system here in chicago too, but we call it the "el" (verbal shorthand for "elevated"). most of the system is run on elevated ROWs (most famously on the loop tracks of downtown), but there are sections that run underground, at grade, and in expressway medians too. however, regardless of the ROW type, it's all still referred to simply as "the el" by convention. when you hear someone in chicago refer to the el as the "subway", you know they're from out of town. ;)

LOL Guilty as charged! I'm from WAY outta town! Here in Montreal the terms 'metro' and 'subway' are pretty interchangable. We have similar restrictions on bikes during rush hours so congrads on being fortunate enough to be going against the flow! The advantages are ..... OK - I'm a little jealous! :notamused: :lol:

We have similar restrictions on bikes during rush hours so congrads on being fortunate enough to be going against the flow! The advantages are ..... OK - I'm a little jealous! :notamused: :lol:

yeah, the advantages of being a reverse commuter are pretty sweet. it gives me options while riding a full-size bike that i wouldn't otherwise have.