noglider 

The forecast called for rain all day, so I took the subway today. It looks like Wednesday through Friday should be good for cycling here.

TheNormanRider

32F, or was it 31, this morning, a very calm wind, and cloudy skies. I felt unmotivated to ride for some reason, and the cold really got to me. Even after the 10 mile ride I still felt chilly; strange because I've ridden in colder temps. Hope I don't feel the same way going home.

tarwheel 

I should have known better. The local forecasters predicted a near-zero chance of rain during my afternoon commute time at 5-6 pm today, although they did call for rain later tonight. However, I should have relied on my surefire method of predicting rain -- washing my bike (or car). I spent about 3 hours washing bikes on Sunday, so I should have known that it would rain on me today. The showers started right on cue, about 30 minutes before I leave work.

rhm

I got home before the rain yesterday. Then I got a text from my daughter, she needed me to find her dance pants and bring them to her at school. No problem, it's just a few minutes away. Found the pants, rode over to school, found my daughter, went back to my bike... and now, of course, it was pouring rain. Got completely drenched riding home.

Pretty foggy this morning, but not raining. Saw three deer hanging out in front of me. They looked at my light coming at them, puzzled, and eventually moved out of my way, very sluggishly. A quarter mile later, three more deer, behaving the same way. A half mile later, another deer ambles across the road right in front of me. And then... yup, another one.

esmith2039

Freezing fog.. interesting. No wind and uneventful. Starting a hour earlier at work, amazing how much a hour earlier changes things.

Phil_gretz

Warm fog this morning made today's ride in a bit warmer than I'd expected. I arrived sweaty. I like watching the teeny water droplets swimming around in front of my lights.

mgw4jc

No good deed goes unpunished!

You were being stalked. I saw one this morning in some trees off to my right. I think he didn't hear me coming and may even been asleep. He was off to the side of the MUP in some trees standing with his front legs spread apart trying to decide left or right. A second later he just did a u-turn and bolted into the woods. I'm lucky he didn't just T-bone me.


Me too.

Warm 60F this morning. I wore a light weight long sleeve shirt and shorts. No jacket or even gloves needed.

ptempel

Was a good commute in today. However I got a bit delayed by some fire trucks on Haven Ave and going to 2nd Ave bike lane. I saw two fire trucks just north of NY Presbyterian and they needed to direct traffic a block or two the wrong way down Haven Ave. Later on I ran into Moses on his MTB on St Nicholas. I rode with him and he showed me the bike lanes down 120th street and 2nd Ave. They're nice but are a little out of my way to work. But wanted to check them out since I'm always up for a better route. It should dry up later today and go to 43F or so.

I managed to dodge the rain yesterday. It didn't start raining until after I already was at work. Then in the afternoon it stayed to a really light drizzle. So only a wet road ride to the car. Its nice to not get soaked so I'll take it!

arsprod 

Yeah... what is freezing fog?! Pretty pleasant 36F and wet this morning - decent winds but crosswind

Tundra_Man 

Monday afternoon we started to get freezing rain. When I left the office at 5 PM and walked over to the bike rack the sidewalks were very, very slick. Chippped off a layer of ice from my seat and began the 8 mile ride home. The main roads that had been salted and had traffic were slippery, but not too bad.

Once I hit the MUP though, it turned into a sheet of wet glass. I was still able to ride without too much trouble as long as I didn't do anything crazy. About a couple miles from home I came across a guy walking in the snow along the side of the MUP. He asked me how I was able to keep the bike upright as he couldn't walk on the pavement. I stopped to chat, put my foot down and discovered I was completely unable to stand on the ice. I had to keep my hands on my brakes and lean on the bike to stay upright. We chatted for a minute and then I continued on my way. Made it the whole way home without going down, so it was all good.

Tuesday my cold got the best of me and I opted to stay home.

This morning I decided to try heading back to work. The roads and MUP were still incredibly icy, so I had to be careful and not get too aggressive around the curves. Despite my increased awareness, as I came down one hill that had a sharp left turn at the bottom I got going too fast. Of course, there was a giant ice patch right at the bottom where I needed to turn. I hit this patch at much too high rate of speed and my tires started to slip.

I slid sideways across the ice until I hit the ridge where the plows had piled up the snow, at which point I high-sided and flew off the bike. I landed in the snow bank unharmed. Nothing I could do but laugh out loud at my own stupidity.

Needless to say I was even more diligent the remainder of the ride to work.

HardyWeinberg

Pineapple express! 50F and raining (but not pouring during my commute). 30+F warmer than the last couple weeks. Dialed it back to crocheted fingerless gloves and just one shirt under the raincoat (and shortsleeved at that). Stuck w/ the tights (vs shorts) just to keep my legs less muddy.

Was stopped at the biggest intersection of my commute, <1 mile from work, and a huge gust came that I had to fight to stay upright. Gust died, I popped upright, and the traffic light blinked out. Everybody stared (backlog in all 4 directions) and I went and then everyone going my way and the opposite started up (it was our turn anyway but the people waiting for turn arrows could still be waiting now for all I know...) Next 2 lights were up and my office has power.

KCBikeCommuter

Freezing fog sucks! It was around 27F as I left the house, but the roads weren't too bad until I got closer to downtown. The rear tire slide out a bit as I went around a corner... which made me 'pucker' pretty good. When fog starts freezing on the road it's much the same as black ice. It's tough to see and damn slick!

I could see the interstate was a parking lot, so I'm still glad I rode the bike today.

Multiple accidents reported as freezing fog complicates morning rush

HardyWeinberg

Freezing fog is another source of black ice where the air is warm and humid but the ground is still frozen solid. So a weather station will report temps above freezing, maybe up to 40F, but that is measured at thermometer height (2m I think?) while when the ground never thawed, the humid air hitting it will form a basically invisible layer of ice. It is the worst.

joeyduck

I can confirm the weather @HardyWeinberg is getting.

I missed the big rains yesterday and today on the bike rides. But I got them in the boat. I bailed the boat this morning before getting going and when I got back to it about 5 hours later I bailed a greater amount as the morning.

Anywho, I miss the cooler air. I was gald I had my fully Helly Hansen rain gear and full rubber boots since the boat ride back this morning was very wet, with winds blowing the waves into the boat. The waves themselves weren;t bad it was just the wind.

Good luck @Darth Lefty! I am rooting for all of you.

Darth Lefty 

Thanks Richard. Looks like they might come sooner yet

joeyduck

Exciting, yet terrifying. How is your wife feeling? How many weeks has it been?

Darth Lefty 

Swollen. 35-1/2

joeyduck

I can not even imagine. That is considered full term with twins, isn't it?

Darth Lefty 

Ideally for them they'd keep baking to 38 but 36 is pretty normal. The doctors balance between the preemie complications of having them out too soon and the pregnancy complications of leaving them in too long.

dcb23

Lot's of barricades up this morning, had to detour about 1.25 miles to make it into the ofice in DC.

Phil_gretz

...rode the fixed gear this morning. I really didn't have much jam, but made it in. Maybe I'm tired. It'll be warmer this afternoon with light winds, so that's good.

rhm

I rode a new old bike today. It's an old Bottecchia, the kind that was all Campagnolo Nuovo Record at one point, though it came to me as a bare frame. A few days ago I set it up with 650b wheels, dynamo light, fenders... but I hadn't taken it out for a shakedown ride more than a few hundred yards. So today I rode it to the station. It works. I can't say much more than that, at this point, but hey, it works.

Just before I get to the station, I go over a bridge over the tracks, and from the top of the bridge I can see the station for a moment. This is the moment at which I find out whether I'm on schedule, or late. If there's a train in the station, I'm late, but if I hustle maybe I can still catch it (which is what happened yesterday). Today I saw a train just leaving the station, so I assumed I was too late. So I did not hustle. Moments later another train pulled into the station: wtf? I hustled. It was my train. I caught it.

mgw4jc

Yesterday afternoon it was 70 degrees and a friend texted to see if I wanted to go for an afternoon ride. Work was slow enough that I took off a couple of hours early and met him. We got about 20 miles in and then I proceeded home. That made for about 47 mile day and I was hungry and tired by the time I got home.

Twenty degrees colder this morning than yesterday morning. Only 40F today. Pretty sunrise though, but no good picture taking spots.

tarwheel 

Chilly morning for this January with temps in the mid to upper 30s, but it would be a mild morning during a normal year for weather. High temps have been in the 60s-70s here all week and are supposed to continue through next week. I drove yesterday despite the warm weather because my legs were really tired from several days of tough rides beforehand. It didn't help that I had to ride home in the rain with headwinds on Tuesday afternoon. Anyway, the day off did me good and I felt my better today -- which, incidentally, is my 63rd birthday.

Tundra_Man 

Yesterday afternoon the temp hit 40 degrees. What happens when the temps hit 40 degrees in January in South Dakota? On the way home I saw people out on the MUP walking in t-shirts and shorts.

Today I'll be riding about 20 miles between various clients. I really didn't want to do that on my winter bike (too slow) so I decided to gamble that yesterday's warm temps melted off the ice and I could ride my hybrid. I spent time gearing up the hybrid and wheeled it out of the garage. Once I could see down the street I started having second thoughts about how much ice had melted off. So I wheeled it back into the garage and spent more time moving everything back over to my winter bike.

Turned out to be a good choice. Once I hit the MUP there was still tons of ice. I would have surely gone down hard without studs. I should have known better that a single day at 40 degrees wouldn't put much of a dent in the ice accumulation.

Made it to work on time, but just barely.