Coming home from work yesterday the temp was in the 30s for the first time in over a month. As a result, the MUP was jammed with people wanting to take advantage of the "nice" weather. I was still on my winter bike with the studded tires working hard to maintain 12 mph. I got passed like I was standing still by a few other riders who obviously weren't encumbered by studs.

As I was riding home I started to get some chain suck when shifting gears. I looked down and my chain was completely dry and rusted to the point where the links were sticking. I had lubed my chain before Monday morning's commute and it lasted less than four days. I don't know what chemicals they put down on the streets here but it's no wonder the components on my winter bike (and our cars) corrode so fast.

This morning it was 26°F. However the temp is projected to reach the mid 40s by this afternoon. When I rolled out of bed my body was letting me know that I'd put on a lot of miles this week (for January, anyway.) I just didn't feel like fighting that winter bike yet again, especially knowing that I was working at multiple locations today and would be putting on about 20 miles. I decided to risk it and ride my hybrid without studs.

Wow, what a difference. With hardly any effort I could hold 2-3 mph faster than I can with my winter bike using moderate effort. And that was against a 10 mph headwind. It's no wonder I loathe riding my winter bike so much.

There still were patches of ice, so I rode around them where I could and when I couldn't I just took great care to make sure I was going completely straight and not turning. Thankfully I made it with no issues. At noon when I ride across town the temp should be in the 30s so the frost will have melted and some of the icy spots should be just wet.

I keep an LED flashlight zip-tied to my helmet. I use it as an auxiliary light and as a backup if the battery in my handlebar mounted light dies. This morning I was running both lights to help keep an eye out for ice. About halfway to work the flashlight started turning itself off and on. After I got to work I messed with it and noticed that the highest brightness setting had stopped working, and if I set it to flashing mode it would only work for a few seconds before it shut itself off. This is the 4th light I've had that started exhibiting similar behavior. In this case the light is only about 3 months old. At first I thought it was because I was buying cheap flashlights, so this time around I spent money for (what I thought) was a decent one. Not sure why I'm killing flashlights so fast.