Jim from Boston

The weather prediction has held true and I arrived to work at about 7:30 AM. I started out before 6:00 AM and road conditions in Kenmore Square were at the extreme limit for my Marathon Winters. Though the roads were ploughed with a hard-packed base, that was covered by loose wet, and rutted snow up to about 2 to 3 inches deep. The only way to ride was in a continuous line of my choice. However I was stymied by going toward the Longwood Medical Area, with fairly heavy traffic that I had to accommodate on narrowed roadways. My goggles accumulated a lot of snow requiring frequent but incomplete cleaning, and I saw a flash of lightning.

My alternative was to ride two miles to the commuter rail station. There was nil traffic going towards downtown and I could plow through pretty well and caught the train which was on time. I rode about a mile from the station to my destination in Norwood on wide, lightly traveled roads with conditions similar to those in Boston, and felt comfortable going at about 7 to 8 mph. I kept my feet out of the toeclips since skids, but not falls were frequent.

The drivers in Boston were pretty tolerant of me and the only shout-out I got was when passing a pick-up truck stopped at a light and I was told “Go Home.” I previously quoted a thread, “When does hardcore become stupid?”. Today, hardcore would have been to leave at 5:00 AM and ride 14 miles, my shortened ride was prudent, and to ride the distance with a late start would have been stupid.

Fizzaly

31f nice improvement over yesterday, day two of not smoking and at least it was warm out this morning supposed to be lows in the low 30's and high in the mid 40's all week, what is spring here already?

gecho

Yesterday afternoon's ride home was nice. They did a second pass on most of the MUP leaving a nice hard smooth snow that I could go fast on. They still haven't finished a section close to home so I had to get back on the road. I was impressed, I took a lane on a busier street had lots of people pass and no one honked. At -22C it was a bit colder than the ride in, but felt warmer.

This mornings ride was the coldest yet. -27C / -39 with the wind chill, since I was going against the wind it would have been even more of a wind chill. I think that temperature is close to the limit for me. I switched to patform pedals and wore my heavier winter boots, but my feet were still cold near the end of the 1 hour 8 min ride. I had to stop a few times, so I was probably outside for about 1h15m. I stayed on the road for the whole ride in so it would take less time.

I could have used another upperbody layer, though I wasn't entirely uncomfortable, as I swapped a poly fleece layer for my heavy cycling jersey with provides more wind protection. The inlet valves on my respirator started to ice up. One was stuck closed and when the other started freezing shut I had to stop to break the ice. The cold was too much for the adhesive on my helmet mirror, which fell off when I raised my goggles at one stop. One spot on my face below my goggles started getting cold, so I had to take the scarf off my stomach and put it around where my goggles and respirator meet.

The ride home is supposed to be warmer with a tail wind.

tarwheel 

We missed the brunt of the latest snowstorm to hit the Southeast, but still had enough sleet and freezing rain to make the roads unsafe for cycling. Black ice is everywhere except the heaviest traveled roads. Hopefully the weather will be sunny and warm enough today to make it safe for riding tomorrow. I'm going to drive home via my cycling route to make sure there aren't any icy spots left. I've bike commuted the last 3 winters and never missed so many days to snow and ice as I have this year.

fletchh

Cold ride in at 27 F (-3 C), and about 3 in (7 cm) of snow. The side and secondary roads are a mess, but the main roads are good. Lots of traffic, due to coming in later. I rode in tire tracks when I could and down shifted when I couldn't. Helping drivers learn how to drive in the snow while bicycles are around, is not easy, but overall no real issues. I still hate uphill left turns, which are worse in the snow. Oh yeah, and the wind is back.

HardyWeinberg

38F, downpour, and however much snow fell last night compacted to about 3" of slush. Awesome!!

But I am really glad that one coworker beat me into the office 'cause my keys have gone missing. Standing around in that stuff out there would have been no fun at all.

EKW in DC

I got caught in that last night, too. Took some pictures of myself and my gear when I got home, but my phone's camera isn't the greatest, and the pictures just didn't do justice to the ice buildup on my fleece, helmet, headlight, handlebars, etc., from the freezing rain.

The ride in this morning was OK. The streets are all good; it's the unavoidable sections of MUP that were not in as good a shape. Snow/ice. Luckily, not too rutted - probably b/c in most places it's not really deep enough to get too rutted. I do hope that some of it melts during the day (sun and 36 today, so fingers crossed).

mkeller234

It was snowy!

truman

20F. Colder than yesterday, but not nearly as uncomfy. Wore better gloves and ran a new route to the train station. Stellar sunrise today.

Steely Dan

today was my first commute where my studded winter tires actually came in handy. we got about 4" of snow yesterday and the lakefront bike path, though kinda half-assedly plowed and salted by the park district, was an absolute sloppy, gloppy, slushy, icy mess. one big problem though is that my front fender won't fit between my fork crown and the big fat knobby snow tire. that's a situation that is gonna half to be remedied somehow.

HardyWeinberg

I had been wondering about gearing my fixie down further for the winter (further for winter than I did for fall), and this morning's slushfest confirmed that I should have.

dcb23

Not so bad coming in, the same modest amount of snow as already reported for DC area folks...the Mall around Washington Monument was unplowed but rideable, I also stopped and snapped a few Phone-cam pics will try to post these as soon as my phone decides it wants to send them!

Was pleasantly surprised to see tgracks in the snow from earlier riders and ran into a woman at the office who just started commutinig a few weeks back.

Aeneas

Not going to work today, but last night's ride home was tough... not for any other reason than it was immediately before the snow storm that has Long Island shut down today, but because I was riding at rush hour. I'm generally willing to give cagers some leeway, as long as my safety isn't in question, but a particularly clueless cager put my life in danger last night. I was the last vehicle through a yellow light, probably should have stopped, but I was going a good 20+ MPH trying to make the light. As I'm passing through the intersection, the crossing traffic gets their green and I hear engines start to rev. As I reach the far side of the intersection, a car making a right turn doesn't even bother looking for crossing traffic and proceeds to make her turn directly into my path. I got pushed to the extreme left side of the lane, I was even with the driver side door and the cager had no idea. I yelled a couple times, no response (and I have a fairly loud voice!), laid on my brakes as the car continued to move to the left. If I hadn't taken evasive action, I'd either have collided with the driver side of the car or gotten pushed into on coming traffic. I pulled into a pharmacy parking lot to collect myself for a couple minutes, then proceeded home without incident.
Moral of the story, I'll pass on the rush hour ride from now on. Given the option, I'll wait an extra hour at work, 6PM before I head home...

scroca

Not a great ride this morning. At 6am it was still dark, with temperature at 19F, windy with windchill at 6F, and I hit a pothole hard enough to pinch flat my back tire. Took about 15 minutes to replace the tube and go on my way.

I repaired the damaged inner tube at work, so now I have a back up for the ride home.

jdgesus 

slush, but mostly gone by the time i got my a** out of bed

caloso

You guys are amazing. I'd be breaking out the snowshoes.

wisaunders

Yes, it was a good sun rise, I had to take a pic.

GriddleCakes

30F/-1C at the house, 10F/-12C on campus! WTF am I supposed to do with a 20 degree differential over an 8 mile ride? I had to pull over at mile 5 to throw on the emergency jacket, and it looks like I'll be peeling off layers as I ride home tonight. Plus the wind picked up and knocked all of the hoarfrost off of the trees, so everything is brown again. At least it'll be a tailwind heading home.

bijan

-7C/19F riding in with a headwind. -4C/25F riding back with a tailwind. Haven't had snow in a while, but there were a couple of flakes coming down on my way home.

bijan

Sorry to hear about your trouble with the weather. Though in truth I am happy to hear it was below freezing, and the problem was it getting colder (or warmer) during the ride.

I get annoyed with posts of the form: "it's 50 degrees in the morning but 70 degrees when I ride back. Waw I don't know what to do. I have to take off and carry a piece of clothing."

proantibicycle

My commutes for 2011 so far have been pretty awesome. It is unusually cold for Santa Barbara (about 40F in morning) so my body needs a little time to adjust. I know I shouldn't complain about a measly 40F but hey, it never snows here.

You are sooooooo good looking!

proantibicycle

Does everyone in this forum live where it snows?

Titmawz

Yesterday it has been foggy for the first time in a while. Riding in it was kinda cool =)

caloso

About once every 20 years here.

jdgesus 

tailwinds + downhill + fixed gear = spin class

i bet i looked ridiculous