Big Lebowski

9 degrees, but the winds were calm. I ride with safety glasses, but I'm thinking of getting some goggles on these really cold days.

wphamilton

I rode in today mainly to make sure everything was stable at work - as a software engineer I get antsy if I'm not staying on top of systems I've designed. Typical Georgia winter morning, above freezing, damp, encountering more deer than people on the forest path. I'll probably come in tomorrow also, and that's it for the year with 234 days commuting. I never missed a day (or was even late) due to weather or health or mechanical, so it's been a good year.

droy45

Thanks and good to hear you didn't lose power. Can you remember back in 98 how bad that was? I think in your area it was devastating. Very bad here too. Doesn't look good here for the rest of this week. A lot of snow last night is being cleared out right now and the shoulder of the road was impossible for the bike on my long commute. Then very cold below 0F temps are on the way for the remainder of the week. I hope things improve next week as I can't wait to get back on the bike. I have been riding around close by but just can't make the long commute.

mister

A nice ride in today at just under 40f. Lots of bums wandering the streets; it almost looked like The Walking Dead. What a great last commute of the year!

dramiscram

I remember very well. In St-Césaire some parts of the village were out of power for more than a month, we were in the worst area of it. But for me its good memories: I spent 3 weeks not working (garage closed for lack of electricity) helping out family and neighboors getting wathever they needed from food to fire wood. Helping other is always very rewarding.

Bluish Green

3 deg F this morning, but very light wind and very light traffic made it a nice commute in.

dcb23

Happy New Year everyone! Mods...time for that 2014 thread.

Temps just around 32F/0C....some police/fire activity forced a slight detour but otherwise the last inbound commute of 2013 was a pleasant one.

FenderTL5

stinging cold

Tractortom

Final commute of the year. Didn't ride yesterday as it was raining first thing in the morning, but did get on my bike this morning for the commute to work. 60 degrees with a 10mph wind from the NNE, and (of course) I was headed NE for the trip. Took about 30 minutes, very light traffic, and no fuss. When I got into work today, I went through my daytimer and found that I commuted on the bike 45 times this past year, out of 223 days worked. I EXPECTED to do a lot more than that, but this has been one of the wettest years on record and I have a perfectly good car, to drive on days when the forecast calls for an 80% chance of rain. I vow to do better next year, and bike twice as many times as I did this year.

Tractor Tom in Okeechobee, FL

tarwheel 

I have a confession to make. I had enough vacation leave to take off today but decided to work this morning so I could get one final ride and top 5,000 miles bike commuting for the year. Our on-line time system was down over the weekend, so I didn't realize that I had enough vacation left to take off an entire extra day until I checked our records yesterday. Since I was so close to reaching my 5K goal for the year, I decided to just come into work for the morning.

I really messed up my vacation planning this year and ended up taking off 3 weeks in November and December, with cold and lousy weather much of that time. One of my goals for 2014 will be to plan some bike trips and make better use of my leave. What threw me off this year is that my employer gave us an extra week of leave in lieu of pay, plus I passed the 15-year mark, which gave me another week -- so I had two extra weeks of vacation but didn't take off enough time while the weather was still nice. Despite that, I topped 9,000 total miles cycling for the first time even though I didn't take a bike tour for the first time in a number of years. I won't let that happen next year and already have at least two trips planned.

arsprod 

Well, you're not the only one, just maybe the only one willing to fess up! I did the same thing this year - didn't watch vacation time and was coming to the end of the year with 'use it or lose it' pto and worried I wasn't going to make my mileage goal for the year. I made the mistake of confessing (in another thread) but hold to my convictions - the goal was really important to me. I can take staycation time any day. Yeah, that's messed up!!



+1 here, reading this thread is part of my morning ritual. Hope someone is planning to start the 2014 version?!

PatrickGSR94

Well I was so close to topping 2,500 miles for this, my first year of commuting (only just started in May). Unfortunately today was my first ride in 3 solid weeks due to some respiratory crap I've been fighting plus I was off all last week. When I get home tonight I'll be at 2,486 miles for the year, and I simply don't have time to ride an extra 15 miles to get over 2,500. Oh well. Maybe next year I can top 3,000 miles.

This morning set a new record for coldest ride for me, 23° according to my bike computer. Toes were still like ice blocks and thighs were getting numb so I still need to make some changes.

wphamilton

I did the same thing as tarwheel, blowing off a vacation day that is, but I had a different excuse than a mileage goal - my commute mileage being way down this year anyway, only 3900 miles. For today I can only say "cold", mainly because I didn't want to mess with a jacket. A coworker following me out yesterday evening, and we commented about the blast of cold air as the outside door opened. Then she was literally stunned when she saw me prepping the bike at the rack just outside. She asked the usual questions, how far, how often, aren't you going to freeze (I only had on a jersey since it was no colder than about 45°!) and a new one, how do you keep from getting colds. After three years here, people still have the idea that it must be an ordeal.

This has been a really good year for commuting despite the lower miles traveled. I moved in May which shortened the distance to 7.5 miles, just about ideal in terms of convenience although I miss the longer ride sometimes. I've had zero mechanical issues with my bike built two years ago January, with I guess about 12000 miles on it total. No injuries or even little falls this year, not a single problem with any motorist that I can recall anyway. Yet plenty of adventures.

My commuting reports are getting a little repetitive but I'll still look in from time to time and for now I'll just wish everyone "happy trails" for 2014!

Greg M

Well last commute in this morning for 2013it was 21F when I left the house. No traffic to speak of.
Forecast for the rest of the week looks like the snow tires are going back on. As for vaction versus
miles, if they want to pay me to stay home, fine by me.

noglider 

I rode to a client today, about 5 miles each way. It's cold and windy out. The ride made me very sleepy.

I've seen bumper stickers that say, "A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work." My attitude about cycling is similar. If all I can do is take a couple of short trips in challenging weather, I'll do it gratefully. It still puts me in a good mood.

PatrickGSR94

Boss let us off work early yesterday, so I had the pleasure of riding home in daylight, 50+ degrees with warm sunshine. I still wore tights over bike shorts but only a jersey. Absolutely glorious ride. I took some roundabout ways near home which added a couple of miles. I actually rode 17.5 miles faster than it took me to go 15.5 miles yesterday morning when it was freezing.

I also did did a couple of errands by bike during work which added another 3 miles or so. I had a few other undocumented rides like that this year, so while I had 2,488 documented miles on Strava, I'm still calling it over 2,500 for 2013.

dcb23

35F/2C Dark, quiet, welcome 2014.

FenderTL5

43°F and raining when I left the house.
I rode 3 miles to the MTA stop, then rode another 1/2 mile to the office once downtown.
The temps are supposed to drop, into the teens by tonight, with snow mid-day.

My mirror was broken off the handlebar when I got off the MTA.

PatrickGSR94

New thread for 2014

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...-commute-today