JoeyMac

a blizzard started halfway through the afternoon here, so the boss sent the entire company home 45 minutes early. All of my co-workers were very concerned about their drive home, dreading it. And a couple different people even asked if wanted a ride home in their cars, and I laughed and said, "no way! How dare you insult me like that! I don't need no stinkin car ride!" And they just looked at me like I was crazy. At least the one other guy in the office who rides bikes to work understood.

The ride home was without a doubt the most fun ride home from work I have ever had. Traffic was backed up way down the main road out of downtown to my neighborhood, so I just blew by blocks and blocks of non-moving cars, laughing the entire way. What a site I must have been! I slipped around a little bit on the turns, but even that was fun! In fact as I got closer to my house I started swerving around trying to fishtail as much as possible. Then I got to my house and decided I hadn't had enough yet and continued on past my house and kept going down the road past more and more cars stuck in traffic, with drivers looking very cranky to be driving in such weather. I can remember a time a couple years ago when that was me. But now I am wiser, and understand that a bike ride in the snow is infinitely more fun than a car ride in the snow. Bring it on, winter!

Kilted Commuter

My first fixed-gear commute. Wow!
I need a bigger chainring, currently riding 65.2 gear inches, or 4.8 gain ratio (see Sheldon Browns pages for calculators): 39/16 (I'm not ready for 53/16, even in mostly flat N.Orlando)
Will probably try to mount the carradice bag as the messenger bag chafes after a while
This changes everything.

beingtxstate

Good commute today. It was cold at 18°F this morning, 25°F in the afternoon. It was pretty windy both ways, but I never felt it Not like some of you in the pacific northwest....hurricane force winds! YIKES

buzzman

ice, snow, sleet this morning. threw on my studs and headed out the door. Was thinking I shouldn't have taken off the slicks till I get a few blocks from the house and realized conditions were really great for the studded tires.

Bike path was plowed in portions and other parts were a slushy frozen mess. took me an hour to get into Boston (usually takes about 40 mins max). Took the Comm Ave route home and was glad to have the sutdded tires for the black ice spots.

The studded tires are a workout though. Always takes me a bit to get used to this kind of riding.

Jabba Degrassi

Oh today was interesting. I pulled a low speed fall in some slush, went over my bars trying to stop in time to pick up my light which had come loose from said fall, and managed to break my rear derailleur clean off at the bracket.

Luckily I suffered only a sprained wrist and a sore knee. Even if I could afford to fix my bike up right now, which I doubt I can, I think I'm done until spring time.

CliftonGK1

The intersection at the entrance to the MUP was a little bit under water this afternoon. (Hopefully I'll get a better pic tomorrow when I have my good camera, not just a phone where 2 drops of rain blur out the lens!)

Mazaev

Seriously nasty cross/headwind tonight. Had to lean into it a couple times and felt like I was riding @ 45 degrees. Otherwise, a pleasant 32F with seemingly no one else out; at least no one (else) with a smile.

trombone

Bad luck, Jabba - that sucks. Glad you're basically OK. And that looks like a little bit of water, Clifton. Did you actually ride through it?

Interesting comment on the FG, Kilted. I'm going to get a singlespeed / fixie. I'm currently doing my commute without changing gear, keeping it at 39/17 which seems to work OK. Assuming I get a flip-flop, I'm debating whether to go 39/17 (or equivalent) on the fixie and 39/16 on the freewheel or whether I should drop it all up or down one. I've read conflicting advice; the better drivetrain efficiently points to going up a gear, whilst the idea that I might use thie bike on routes with bigger hills than my commute indicates a lower gear. Ho hum.

My commute was lovely, BTW.

hankbrandenburg

Brutal commute home tonight - 25 MPH headwinds with high gusts. Made for a good workout!

tarwheel 

Chilly ride in this morning, but nothing like you guys up North. Cold mornings are still in the 30s here, although it might dip down into the upper 20s later this week. I left about my usual time today, but traffic was heavier for some reason. It took me several minutes just to pull out of my neighborhood, and I got stopped at every long traffic light on my route. The wind was still whipping this morning, even at 6 a.m. I thought it would be straight out of the N or NW, but was out of the W. So some stretches where I thought I would have a nice tailwind turned out to be a strong crosswind instead. All in all, that made for a slow commute this morning.

littlewaywelt

*mental note...don't complain the next time it rains...

JoeyMac

Fantastic! Still snowing hard and in the 20s, and still so much fun to go plowing through it on my heavy-as-hell mountain bike. I got to work in just a few more minutes than it usually takes, and all anyone here in the office is talking about is how long it took them to get home last night and back in this morning. Everyone hates driving in the snow! I love riding my bike!

savethekudzu

38F and dry (as usual). Rode in alongside someone I've encountered on the trail before.
Very little trail traffic; 38 minutes, which I really hope to be able to reduce someday.

Amber_

It's been EXTREMELY windy here for the past two days. Last night on the way home the wind was so strong it blew my extremely heavy self + bicycle into a parked car. I rode the three miles to my fiancee's house and had him drive me home later. This morning I drove the 6 miles to my bike and rode in. The wind is still fierce so I'm glad I only have three miles to go after work too. It's also in the 30s. Brr.

Flimflam

Wow, some serious weather all 'round. I rode in with it snowing today, wasn't too bad though - my three layers with the middle being a short sleeve didn't work last night so well, nor this morning so I'll have to change that up a bit. I swapped top layer for today to experiment that way.

Good ride, lots of ice blocks on the road (frozen lumps/sheets stuck to the road) - they weren't so bad, I just tried to avoid them where possible.

Riding the MTB again, just can't see the roadie being good without fenders and on icey stuff.. snow is one thing, icey hard pack is another

mikepop

Plenty of snow and ice on the road after yesterday's storm. Took it slow and only skidded a few times. I had to take the full lane a lot, as ice sheets extended out from the shoulders well into the road. Most drivers were ok with this, and were either patient enough not to pass until it was safe (or they were too nervous to pass - either way it worked out fine for me!)

I did not factor in that since I'd be going slower I would be generating less heat and therefore be much colder than usual. Luckily I have some extra layers here at work for the ride home.

MyPC8MyBrain

Well, I have to say that for it being December 4 in Colorado, I really did not expect to be riding in this morning wearing shorts and light windbreaker. 58f when left the house. Supposed to get up to 68 this afternoon.

Gotta love that Global Warming

Running the lights in both directions lately. I hung an extra blinkie on the back strap of my helmet last night. Seems like the cars gave me extra room today. Maybe it was so bright they were trying to get away from the lights.

Only 17 days until the days start getting longer again !

Itsjustb

First commute since the day before Turkey Day. The partial muscle tear in my calf hurt some during the ride but not as bad as I'd feared. It hurts more now because I'm sitting too much at work.

Great commute today. First, the hawk that lives at the end of my street "greeted" me this morning, calling a couple of times as I rode past. Then the rest of the ride was great too--I even ran into and passed another commuter from my building, a guy whose bike I've seen many times on the rack but never spoken with. He arrived a few minutes after I, and we chatted some on the way into the building.

caloso

Wet. Not a downpour, certainly nothing like Clifton's ride, just a steady farmer's rain. I'm annoyed with myself for not having fenders on the bike so of course my feet and behind were soaked. I'd broken down my "rain bike" for a powdercoat job that now probably isn't going to happen. Argh.

HardyWeinberg

nice, warm, sunny, shorts t-shirt. Turned corner for last mile, howling headwind/squall. Now a couple hrs later it's sunny again.

pinkrobe

I had yesterday off from work [gotta burn through those flex days], but today, instead of waving to my wife as she rode away from the house in -20C, I got to join her. The pogies I made are still working great, so my hands are warm all the way in. My feet started to get cold after about 60 seconds, so I'll have to work on them next. I'm also finding that discretion is the greater part of valour, so I'm hanging out in the far right lane more than usual. Now that the drivers are used to the snow, they're driving faster, and I can't keep up. I'll move back to my usual spot after the next blizzard.

Sparky005s

First time I've had to ride in the rain since getting back on the bike this year. It was a lot of fun, other than getting cold wet feet. The neoprene booties I just bought are not big enough. should've checked that before it rained. I also think I'm going to glue some velcro to the front of my visor so the hood on my coat will stay in position. It was my first ride in the rain on my new Schwinn DBX bike. I love the disc brakes!

buzzman

chilly and windy ride in this morning.

this evening a touch of snow falling and lots of black ice on the roads with a wind in the face. the studded tires are definitely a work out but I'm liking it because I'm taking the road route in and back so I'm pushing a little harder.

and to CliftonGK1- great pic. The out of focus feels more apppropriate makes me feel like I'm there!- but glad I'm not- though it does look kind of fun. thanks for the photo.

Cyclon

Me: Fully loaded Bianchi Volpe with two panniers, lights, water bottles, the works. I was wearing full fingered gloves, long pants, wind breaker, helmet.

Other guy: Some guy on a road bike wearing shorts, t-shirt, sneakers. No helmet. No lights.

Time: 6pm in the dark cool night

I was waiting at a traffic light and a guy on a road bike showed up and waited along side of me. When the light turned green, I gently take off and went happily on my way. I eventually look behind and noticed he was over half a block behind, then one block behind, until I couldn't see him anymore. Anyways, about a mile later he eventually catches up as I was waiting for the traffic light to turn green. The guy decides to run the red and takes off. Then he keeps running light after light.

I guess he didn't like the fact that I was on a fully loaded commuter set up and I was in the lead. The only way he could pass me was by running reds while I was obeying the traffic signals. After a while I would trail him by a couple of car lengths. I don't think he like the fact that I could keep up.

Oh well. Regardless, it was hilarious.

tarwheel 

So, I'm riding to work this morning about 6:45 am in sunny NC, and start feeling little prickles on my face. It felt like little gnats biting me, or small bits of gravel hitting my face. Then I notice little white flecks in my headlight beam. It's sleeting! We rarely ever get icy weather this time of year. In fact, Raleigh has never had a white Christmas dating back to the 1800s.

Maybe it had something to do with the LED Christmas lights I put on my bike frame last night. I picked up a string at Target for $5. It's powered by 4 AA batteries, and the string is just long enough to wrap around the main triangle with the battery pack in my seat bag. Looks pretty cool, particularly in the dark.