Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1356:
Temp this morning was projected to be a -9°F, so before I went to bed I made plans to do a split commute by throwing my bike on the rack and riding the bus for part of the way. I make this concession for my wife when the temp is -5°F or colder as it makes her feel better. Also, due to the bus schedule, by the time I ride from the downtown terminal to the client's office it's usually pushing 8 AM. Therefore if I'm planning to ride the bus, in order to save time I'll shower at home before I leave rather than after I arrive at the office. So before I called it a night I moved all my toiletries out of my back pack and into the bathroom.
So this morning when I got up the temp said -4°F. Hmmm... not as cold as they predicted, but they also said the temp wouldn't fully bottom out until around 9 AM. I had already mentally prepared to ride the bus so I went ahead and showered. But then as I was putting on my gear I noticed there was no wind. Cold temps are a LOT easier to deal with if there's no wind. I decided to just ride the whole way and save the hassle of the bus. Besides, when I'm standing and waiting at the bus stop I'm usually colder than when I'm riding. This way I'd be generating heat.
Overall it was a pretty easy ride. The relative lack of wind (3-4 mph) actually made it feel a lot warmer than the previous morning when it was 1°F with a 20 mph headwind. By the time I arrived at the office the temp had dropped to -7°F which exceeded my wife's cutoff, but she was still in bed so I didn't have to have that fight. My hands and feet got a little cold, but that's generally a "given" in sub-zero commutes. Thankfully because of the temps I didn't sweat much so it wasn't a problem that I showered at home.
I've ridden the road bike this entire week. I've noticed that when the temps get below about 10°F the shifting on this bike gets wonky, where any shift that slackens the cables (downshifting on the front, upshifting on the rear) doesn't always want to happen. I can usually get the bike to shift by banging on the brifters which must wiggle the cable enough to make it move. This morning no amount of banging was going to convince the bike to shift, so I pretty much had a single speed for the whole trip.