dcb23

egads: 55F/13C, rainy, windy, dark Yep, Fall/winter riding is appraoching!

scottsmith

It was foggy this morning but visibility was far enough to be comfortable with my existing lighting.

At 18km from home, I had the 3rd flat in as many rides (not always the same tire), got that fixed. Then with about 4km remaining I heard a ping of a spoke & noticed the back rim was wobbling & rubbing the brakes... Going to treat the poor bike to a tune-up very soon!

Dwayne

99% of the ride was great, but there's always the 1% that cooks my noodle.

acidfast7

single speed (44x16 with 23-622) is kicking my butt ... a much harder workout than with a 27-speed MTB.

spivonious

Had all of the lights going on this rainy morning. Rode directly into a stiff 12-15mph wind the entire way to work. This was my first ride wearing my wool socks. I think they did a great job - toes were cozy, and they are already dried out. Of course, they didn't get very wet because I also wore my water-resistant hiking boots instead of my normal sneakers. My waterproof jacket did its job, but boy does it get hot in there, even when it's only 50F.

dramiscram

I forgot to tell you but I was on radio this morning, talking about the fact that I commute 54.5 kms/day to work.
There's a link to the radio show web site where you can find a link to the interview but It's all in french.
https://www.radio-canada.ca/emissions...tot/2013-2014/ look for : 5h46 Le club des lève-tôt.

The morning commute was great, sunny sky, tailwind, cool 4° celcius.

tarwheel 

My fenders are earning their keep this week. We've had a low parked off the NC coast for days now, with a NE'er battering the coast and intermittent showers, cool temperatures and N winds. The radar showed a band of showers approaching when I got up this morning, but it looked like the rain would ease off after they passed. So I did some work from home and waited for the rain to pass. I ended up leaving for work about an hour later than usual, but avoided most of the rain although the roads were still soaking wet.

spivonious

Gorgeous!

arsprod 

Do you have front blinker?

Perfect morning - 51F, clear, no wind. Rode an extra couple miles through downtown neighborhoods just for the hell of it

jrickards

Cool (6C, 43F) and misty so it felt cooler but, despite (still) wearing shorts (but a thick long-sleeved jersey over a short-sleeved jersey), it was fine. However, when descending into a valley near the end of the ride, the temperature felt like it plummeted but there are no listed weather stations in the area so I don't know what the localized temperature was, likely 2–4C (4–9F) colder (at least it felt that way). Nice ride in nevertheless.

Because of the darkness for most of the ride (especially, the highway portion), I donned my reflective vest and attached my bright light so that I could see the side of the road (light) and be seen by cars in both directions (vest).

I can't wait for the arrival of my Polaris Grid RBS (Really Bright Stuff) jacket to arrive, it will be welcome on cold and dark rides, especially wet ones.



Encountered 2 idiots on bikes in the last couple of days. The first was on Tuesday, a bike-commuter who had no front or rear lights (it was still moderately dark), no front or rear reflectors on the bike and no reflective patches/areas on his clothes (I saw him from the front as he approached me and from behind as I followed him) yet he bombed from the sidewalk, across the road on the pedestrian crosswalk and back onto the sidewalk, nearly getting hit by a car turning right (would have served him right). Had I not had to slow for the car in front of me to stop (the car that nearly hit him, and me following the car, also making a right turn), I would have caught him and given him an earful. The second person was this morning but this person didn't affect my travels, this person, also in dark clothes, no visible reflectors or reflective wear and certainly no lights was travelling on an unlit street entering the city. These idiots are making bike-commuters look bad and are giving cagers more reason to dislike us.

Dwayne

I run a Philips SafeRide on high when I'm on the street, about as bright as a car's headlight, plus a reflective safety vest, and reflective tape on the forks. If you look to the left of me in the video, you'll see the car in the left lane nearly slammed into the idiot who cut us both off, so I don't think it's a factor of not seeing me if he didn't see the car to the left of me, too.

arsprod 

I figured as much... people are stupid!

PatrickGSR94

Fog this morning like whoa! I checked the weather before I left this morning at 6:30, said 60° and 100% humidity. Stepped outside and skies seemed mostly clear so I was like what? How can it be 100% if it's not raining?

Left the house and got on down the road, away from town, and suddenly the fog hit, and it was SUPER thick. I could barely see anything 100 feet in front of me. Car headlights didn't show up until about 200 feet away. I was a little concerned of a car coming up behind me and not being able to see me in time to slow or go around. Didn't have any trouble, though.

And yet there were STILL idiots driving in this with NO headlights on!

Everything was soaked when I got to work. I had to stop mid-way and remove my clear glasses because it made visibility even worse from the water building up on them.

Should be a nice ride home, about 80° or so.

daihard 

Cold but clear morning. Had to leave home around 5:00 AM to come in early for a conference call, but it turned out to be more pleasant ride due to significantly less vehicular traffic. Maybe I should make a habit out of this. That way I can leave early, too!

RidingMatthew

this made my heart skip a beat when I watched it.
I rode today because I said i was going to. I was dressed and rolling and it started to drizzle. It was my first 55 and drizzly rainy day. Though I eventually wetted through the windbreaker my gloves, arm warmers, and bib tights kept me warm. I now have an understanding why people in on the west coast drink a lot of coffee. The warm cozy feeling I had with my first sip this morning made the ride all the better. I actually enjoyed the ride this morning when it could have been wet and miserable. (could not see through my glasses but could see over them fairly well)

I would not be opposed to just clouds and no preciptation on the way home though.

ItsJustMe

Foggy as heck this morning, condensing on my glasses and everything else. Helmet was dripping.

I think the fog was the cause of a slight irritation that I have near work becoming a lot worse today. The road that leads to the driveway into work is quite busy in the morning, and it has a decent shoulder that I ride on. Generally in the last 100 feet before the driveway I look for a gap in the 50 MPH traffic, merge left then wait to turn. Once in a while I will get a car that just stops behind me and tries to wave me across the 50 MPH road. I won't take it because I was nearly run down taking one of these "nice gestures" a few years back.

So I just sit and wait for them to give up and continue. Unfortunately in slowing down or even stopping, they create a solid plug of cars - maybe as many as 50 or more, that will then take minutes to clear. If they had just continued along, there was a gap behind them before that I could have used.

This morning one of them sat there and built up a 1/4 mile queue of cars behind him, I'm surprised he didn't cause a collision. I finally just continued going straight past work and pulled into a driveway on the right to wait for an opening.

enigmaT120

It was dark, clear, and about 42 degrees when I left the house. A very nice first (and only) ride of the week. I miss my scenery fix, but it will still be daylight for most of the ride home tonight.

Jason Abbott

Sorry, didn't notice the reply notification. It's a bit over 13 miles one-way and takes about an hour.

Jason Abbott

No, I have a green Brooks. This bike with fenders and a tail bag.

walrus1

Got a piece of wax paper caught between my wheel and brake pads. I threw it on the ground cause I didn't want to cross the street to put it in a litter basket. I felt really guilty about littering when I was half a block away so turned around and threw it away. Released from my guilt I continued on my ride home.

dcb23

Rain, rain, and rain....and dark...but a bit warmer so there's that.

essiemyra

I did not commute to work by bike today, but will on my way home. My daughter dropped me and my bike at work on her way to work. I am looking forward to a nice ride home this after work.

tarwheel 

Another damp, wet, misty morning. It's rained every day this week after 3-4 weeks of totally dry weather. I managed to ride three days/95 miles for the week, which is not bad considering that I had to drive one day due to an across-town event. I took a rest day on Monday, which in retrospect was not well timed since it turned out to be the "driest" day of the week -- it rained much of the day but not during the morning and afternoon commute periods.

I have been in a funk the past two weeks due to my fall vacation being ruined by the government shutdown. I had planned to ride a loop tour of the Outer Banks, but can't do it with all of the National Park campgrounds closed. I was hoping the situation would get resolved in time to do the ride before the weather gets too cold, windy and nasty but that is looking increasingly bleak. I've got two weeks of vacation that I need to use before the end of the year or I lose it, but I don't want to just sit around the house.

jrickards

This jacket arrived yesterday afternoon so there was no sneaking in to work this morning. Loving the jacket but I dressed too warmly underneath and even with it mostly open, I was sweating a ton.

Cooler than yesterday but no fog, at least, that's how it started. At my house in which the neighbourhood is in a bit of a low point, it was 4C (39F) but clear of mist or fog so I put on my new jacket, a thicker long-sleeved jersey underneath, shorts with tights over top to keep me warmer in the cold and damp air. However, when I got about 3km (2mi) down the road, the mist and then fog appeared and it was thicker than yesterday: I was glad to have my lights and bright jacket. About 3km further down the road, I got to the highway and the fog thinned out a bit to mist and clear at points and the temperature seemed to go up and within another couple of kms, I was too warm, even with the jacket mostly opened: I shouldn't have worn the heavier weight jersey but just gone with a lighter weight long-sleeved jersey if I wanted another layer over the short-sleeved jersey.

I saw a couple of commuters on the road again but, unlike the previous couple of days, these people, although wearing dark clothes, they had lights and some reflectors/reflective wear. I waved and received waves or greetings back.

This is the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend so we'll see the rest of you on Tuesday.

droy45

Nice ride in this morning although it was quite foggy. Missed a lot of commutes this week due to storms on Monday and having to drive far away to job assignments the rest of the week, but today I got to ride.