I wimped out today. Woke up and checked the weather app: 39F. Nope, I said, not doing it today. Haven't got cold weather gear yet. Really need to get to shopping. So I drove, went to Starbucks, then went to the office.

Nice ride home, about mid 50's so I was comfortable in bib tights and long sleeve jersey. No motorist problems at all. Had a little light left at 1635 when I left the office. Pretty dark when I got home at 1750.

Lucky you, PatrickGSR94. Unfortunately, on my way home, I had motorist problem again. Actually, while I was riding on a completely free, four-lanes city road, I stumbled upon an idiot driving -guess what- a gigantic, iperinflated SUV, The idiotic donkey, unable to pass me despite his bloody expensive, yet worthless (in his hands) wheeled tank, honked at me liberally for at least 15 solid seconds, despite the fact that there were three lanes completely free on that road, and my Thunder Child was the only other vehicle at that time.
I didn't honored him with a single glance. And I didn't bother myself to take the lane this time. I simply let the idiot go away and disappear like melting snow, while continuing to listen to classical music on my bluetooth speaker. Too much money and time on this donkey's hands.

Atvar stats
____________________
Near Misses: 0

Idiots met: 1

SCR score for today's commute:
- AM: 16+0-0 = 16
- PM: 16+0-0 = 16

SCR total score for 2016:
8

It might have been a cold 36 degrees on my morning commute, but I did not over dress for it. I wore a t-shirt under my long sleeve uniform shirt, blue jeans, warm socks, my insulated work jacket, and my reflective vest. My hands did get cold so I need better gloves.

On my way home last night, going through a neighborhood, I suddenly see a gun pointing at me. I raise my hands up and ride no-handed. I continue to ride as I stare the gunman down. It was an intense 3 seconds, but then the 9 year old lowered his orange and white Nerf gun and waved as I rode by. I live to ride again.

Cool morning at 36F. I went without the tights this time. It feels like it warms up pretty quickly, so I just let my knees be chilly for the ride in.

I do need to find some new mittens though. I have a pair that are 10+ years old and worn out, but I haven't found a good replacement. The ones I have are North Face Gore WindStopper. They're kind of a stiff fleece, but are so worn, the wind isn't stopped like it should be. I don't think these same ones are made anymore, but maybe I should do some more Googling to be sure.

Happy Friday!

Holy crap (literally)!

Me too - 5+ year old Burton snowmobile mitts and same issue, they're just not blocking wind anymore. I'd love to get another pair but, of course, they don't make them any more.

Almost 10 degrees warmer this morning at 44F. Doesn't look like that will last - tomorrow morning supposed to be in the mid 30's

Holy unholy head-wind, Batman!

i was riding straight into a 30mph N wind (gusting to 40mph) this morning.

even though my commute is only 5 miles, that's still a bit of a workout.

hopefully i get a wicked tailwind for the flight home!

I rode salmon much of the way, looking for an ID I lost last night. Probably when dragging a kerchief out of my pocket to deal with the smoke. It's still thick, hard to breath.

Also last night I was ninja for a few miles after my battery died - it was charged but just died. It was too dark for my mirror then ... but at least I had a helmet so I'm not breaking all of the safety rules.

Hope you recover quickly, Tom. One of the nice things about riding is being able to do a "farmer's blow" from your nose. Just make sure that noone is directly near you. :) Low commuter volume is another nice thing. Today (Friday) felt like it was a holiday traffic-wise. Nice clear roads all the way...

Speaking of which, it was a nice commute today at 49F. I pushed it and dressed for 50's F and was fine. Later on will feel like beach weather. OOOH YEEAH! :D I noticed that a spoke on the drive side on the rear wheel went loose. So loose spokes (mostly NDS) are still my pain in the gleuteus maximus so far. Have been wanting to put some blue locktite on the spoke threads for a while. Just need to get the motivation to do that...

It's a holiday today, but yet, here I am. Should be a short day...I need to wrap up a few things I didn't finish yesterday that need to be done before Sunday.

Nice and quiet on the roads today. Continuing along the lines of [MENTION=227213]wphamilton[/MENTION]'s scofflaw ways, I ran three red lights and at least one stop sign. I also keep forgetting to mount a bell on the bike I've been riding the past several commutes, so I've not been completely faithful in announcing my passes to pedestrians on the MUPs.

Good on you for fighting the wind. Its what separates the men from the boys (or the women from the girls). :D I have been lucky with the wind except for a few rides across the GWB. I got a really good dose of wind going north on the Hudson Greenway from Battery Park to the GWB one day back in March. Holy cow. If I didn't shift down and spin, I would have been toasted and fried...

I saw this creature today! Country folk, what is it? Turkey? Chicken? Alien? It was a little bigger than it looks in the picture. North side of Chicago, about 500' east of the I-94 viaduct on Forest Glen Ave.
http://i1043.photobucket.com/albums/...&1478884108402

Buzzard looking for something dead to eat. Did you stop near road-kill?

Really? A buzzard? I was leaning towards chicken.

No...it was just sort of hanging out. I didn't notice any roadkill. If there was...it was under leaves in the gutter.

From that angle the face looks a bit buzzard-esque, but I can't tell for sure.

The body looks a lot plumper than most of the turkey buzzards I've seen. So either it's eating really well, or you're probably correct with a breed of chicken.

Hah! Yeah I had the same wind for 12 miles :cry:

The Turkey Vultures I've seen have white feet, but that's from them pooping on them, helps keep them cool.

Was the bird's head totally naked and red? That would point me towards a vulture, too. But I ain't no ornithologist.

The commute in this morning was a bit chilly with the temp at 29f degrees but the clear skies with the supermoon made it very pretty. I dropped my car at the mechanics so they can do an oil change and it failed inspection so I need to have a sensor replaced. I will pick it up after work on my way home. The garage is less than a mile from where I live.I happened to run over an already dead squirrel. That felt weird.

38F and I decided to stick with the shorts only. Kinda cold on the knees, but not so bad. Nice sunny morning ride. I could see some haze off in the distance though that must be coming from some of the mountain wildfires.

I cannot believe I am still commuting this late in the season. Cold morning rides, but not bad. The ride home makes up for it.

30F this morning, 60 this afternoon - that time of year I pack more riding gear than work clothing

A little chilly and windy today, but all in all a great commute. The new album from Tribe Called Quest was my soundtrack, and on first listening I really like the album.
Was good still in shorts and with knee warmers and a light jacket.

Very nice ride. I'm actually looking forward to it getting a bit colder. I don't have a proper lightweight cycling windbreaker. What I use is fleece lined, so when it's too cold for just a couple lightweight shirts, but not cold cold, I tend to overheat a bit.

Absolutely beautiful this morning, with the Supermoon and all. 37, clear, beautiful. I did not wear extra tights over my shorts and kneewarmers, and I was really comfortable. Being too hot on rides is its own special kind of torment. Especially when all the sweat makes you cold.

Dang it, I should have gotten a picture of that moon! It was clear, except for a large bank of clouds which obscured much of the moon this morning at 5:30. It made for a great ride, getting peeks of the moon through the clouds in the west, and the barely lightening sky to the east. Makes me glad to be alive.

I also have not seen many coyotes these past few mornings, which I guess is a good thing that I'm not taking them by surprise anymore. I'm sure they keep far away from my obnoxious lights that break the peace of those predawn hours. There's plenty of rabbits (and domestic pets, alas) for them to eat.

It's a lovely day. It's bright and cool and crisp. People on the bike path were pretty bundled up, but I wasn't. I kept my hat and jacket and mittens in my pannier. I wore a lightweight merino wool t-shirt and a dress shirt over that. I wore summer cycling gloves.

Last night, I continued with my bike renovation. I installed a front rack instead of the rear rack I had on previously. This made it necessary to rewire my lights and attach the headlight to the rack in a novel way. It had been attached to the fork crown. I pulled all the wiring forward so it could reach the headlight in its farther-forward position, so I had to splice an extra length of wire going to the tail light. In case any of my wiring failed, I brought a spare battery powered headlight. The lights held up on the trip into work this morning.

Just before I got to work, my front wheel broke a spoke. The first spoke broke 8 weeks ago, so it's time to rebuild this wheel. I had to open the front brake and finish the trip with just the rear brake. Maybe I'll ride home on the front wheel from my office bike and fix this wheel at home.