Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1521:
Temp dropped down to 17°F this morning. Fall has officially arrived. Thankfully the wind was pretty light so while it was cold, it wasn't unbearable. This temp will feel pretty nice come February, but my body hasn't quite acclimated yet.
With the temp dropping below 20, I moved to the next layer of cold weather gear. Below this threshold I add: full balaclava instead of just my headband, ski goggles instead of just glasses, and a full sleeve shirt instead of just a t-shirt. No snow has fallen yet, so I was still on my road bike. Might as well enjoy the speed while I can, although at these temps "speed" on my road bike means about 13 mph.
Had one brief moment of panic: I was barreling down a hill in the dark when suddenly I realized that some idiot was still running their lawn sprinkler, and the water had flowed out into the street and created about 50 yards of sheet ice. By the time I saw it there was no chance at slowing down, so I just pointed the bike straight and held on. Somehow the skinny road bike tires stayed upright the whole way. Yikes! Seriously, our lawns stopped growing a month ago; stop watering your lawn!
I also got a chance to try my birthday present for the first time. Last June my wife got me a pair of neoprene socks. They're technically made for scuba diving, but I figured they probably will work for cold weather as well. Up until today it's been too warm to use them, so they've just sat on my shelf next to my balaclava. Today was the day to give them their inaugural run! They worked pretty well at keeping most of my feet warm, but my toes were still pretty cold. I think I'm going to still need my toe warmers on top of these scuba socks. The other thing I noticed was going forward I should probably wear regular socks under them. While my toes were icy, the rest of my foot was sweaty and there was nowhere for the moisture to go as the neoprene doesn't breathe. It would be good to have an absorption layer otherwise these neoprene socks are going to get funky quick.
A few minutes after I got to the office, a co-worker who also rides walked in the door. He's fighting a rare autoimmune disease, so normally he chooses not to ride below 20°F. For whatever reason he decided to make an exception today and ride anyway. I was standing in the break room when he came in all bundled up for the weather, similar to how I had been a few minutes prior. The first thing he said to me was, "Do you ever start to wonder if we're both a little crazy?" lol
Dropped my latest bicycle commuting video: