Temps popped above freezing for a few hours yesterday so the pavement got wet, then when the temps dropped back into the low 20s everything turned into ice. Quite a bit of the slick stuff everywhere this morning, especially on the MUP. Slowed down a little extra around the corners and didn't have any trouble. Hopefully the headwind I fought on the way to work won't shift and I'll have an easy ride home.

Difficult commute this morning. My legs were tired, it was colder than I anticipated and there was a persistent headwind. I had brought some coffee in an insulated container, and for the first time in ages I got green lights at all of the long traffic signals. Thus, I didn't get to drink any of the coffee. Despite all that, it beats driving. It's a sunny day with supposedly a 0% chance of rain, something that the forecasters don't say around here much anymore.

I got lucky on my commute yesterday. The forecast called for a 30-40% chance of rain, mainly in the morning, but there were no showers on my ride to work. During the day, the forecast changed and they were calling for a 70% chance of cold rain during my afternoon commute, and a large mass of showers showed up on the radar about 1-2 hours before the end of my work day. However, the showers amounted to just a few sprinkles and totally fell apart by the time I headed home. That was nice.

Today was my 28th consecutive work commute, and also marks the first time I've gone an entire January without driving to work. My previous best January was last year when I drove 5 times.

Only logged 184 miles this month because I've been mostly working at a client's location which is 1/2 the distance from my office. The flip side is the shorter commute was probably a big contributor to me being able to go the entire month without driving.

We'll see what February brings. It's traditionally our coldest month and they're taking about a major snow storm on Tuesday.

I was expecting to drive yesterday but the car was in the shop so I just ‘had’ to ride.

I drive the thing about 1x/week, and I just dropped $900CDN (so like $100 US) on it. Ugh.

Dark and raining sideways early this AM. All good.

Still doing pretty good, 7 for 8 so far this month and year! Yesterday morning was cold and I was feeling tired and slow again. But then it warmed up nicely and I had a much faster, better ride going home. Actually got home before it was fully dark!

Last year I only got in a total of THREE commutes the entire month of February. I'm really hoping I can do better than this year. Unfortunately Tuesday is looking like storms so I may be off to a bad start.

Was a slow start to January (first ride wasn't until Jan 12 as it was icy just about every morning until then and I don't risk it in the ice anymore after a few slip & slide incidents). However, I'm at 274km since then (about 171 miles) and feeling good.

Tuesday though I lost one of my (expensive) Ortlieb Backroller panniers on the ride home somewhere. I usually only ride with one (left side), but brought the other one Tuesday morning as I was bringing in a new front fork for a buddy that I'd picked up for him. Riding home the pannier was virtually empty (just put in wet gloves and headband from the morning ride, plus my boxers/socks that I'd worn that day).

Got home and that right hand pannier was GONE. Suspect that there wasn't enough weight to actually open the clasps that hook and lock under the rack rail when I picked up the handle. Anyways, took a quick shower, grabbed my son and took the car out to re-drive my ~25km/15.5mi route (as much of it as I could along the roads; there were some bike paths too). No luck. Wednesday morning rode the exact same route; no luck. Pannier is gone.

Small silver lining: bike shop nearby "installed" the panniers for me so they could waive the local 7% provincial sales tax, and gave me another 10% off on top, so I saved a bit of money and get new Ortliebs. I'm going to sell my old one so that should hopefully help a bit too.

Pissed off more than anything that somebody would have stolen it off the side of the road or trail so quickly. It's gone; I've ridden the route multiple more times this week and never seen anything.

Hey it's nice to see you. Just this morning I said to my son I need to email you.

That's crappy about the pannier. I can't imagine another commuter snagging it. Which route did you take? Maybe if it was near a community center or library they brought it in for lost and found. Maybe somebody will hang a found poster.


Anywho I got on a spin bike Tuesday for the first time in weeks. I actually felt good and pedaled for ten whole minutes without stopping, though I got down to a really slow cadence a few times.

I've been really itching this past week to get a bike build going. I've really been enamored with the Fairdale Weekender Drop and I emailed them to find out about dealers up here. I got a reply within the hour from Taj himself which was awesome and makes me like the company even more. Now I just need to start that conversation with my wife...

Back on the bike after a few days out from snow.

Warm: 48F/9C coming in, most of the hard packed snow is gone from the Mt Vernon Train but there are still icy patches especially on the ped/bike bridges at the airport.

I can't say I felt strong but it just felt good to ride again. Two days of commuting by our Metro system reminded me of why I like to bike so much.

Same here. I'm not sure of temperature, but it was balmy, hot. I really appreciated the wind blowing across the remaining snow fields. The cool air felt good on the ride in. Many/most of the shoulders and bike lanes were available, less so on north facing (south) sides of curb lines. It's great to be riding again. Yay.

Back on the bike for almost a week and half. Tired, cranky and got buzzed by a minivan. Good thing it didn't stop after the righteous finger that was raised. Probably won't ride tomorrow if it rains, thinking of riding every other day in Feb.

He came streaking out of the darkness, so fast that I'm not even certain that it was a rabbit, and clipped my front wheel hard. No real damage caused, but that hurt.

Bike commuting has not worked out so well lately for me. My wife got a concussion and hasn't been able to drive. That means I've been having to leave work early to get kids to their activities. I've been burning through vacation hours to make this work but am about to run out of those. We already have a neighbor and friend helping too. If there were safe roads between home and activities, I'd have the kids bike to them, but it isn't an option unfortunately.

I did ride today. Monday works so that I don't have to leave early for kids activities. It was 50F to start off February. Couldn't believe it when I woke up. I skipped the tights and went shorts only. Felt great! High of about 66 today.

Riding the rest of the week will probably not work either, but I'll keep trying.

Sorry to hear about your difficulties, mgw4c. At least they have coincided with some not-so-great weather over the past couple of weeks.

My commute was great this morning. Very mild temperatures, about 50 F, for the morning ride, and the high is supposed to reach about 70. We had similar weather over the weekend, and very sunny for a change, which was a huge contrast from the previous weekend, when we had a snowstorms and temperatures below freezing the whole time. My wife went for a rare ride with me, and we had a very pleasant 18-miler on the local greenways. I then spent about 2 hours washing bike yesterday afternoon, as several of my bikes had accumulated layers of mud and salt. I also cleaned the chains with my new Park chain-washer and relubed them. Finally, I fixed a flat on my main commuter, the Bob Jackson, which was been idle the past couple of weeks.

I rode the Jackson today and it felt nice to be riding it again, and I had found myself missing the dynamo light that's on that bike. I have concluded, however, that the dynamo does slow me down, scrubbing about 0.5-1 mph off my average speeds. I don't really notice it while riding, but my average speeds on that bike have definitely dropped since I installed it in August.

A balmy 35F today after weekend temps in the 50's. I'll take it! Still having post shoulder surgery issues which is interrupting daily commuting. Today was fine and that's good enough!

Had a bit of a melt off over the weekend, so there was lots of sheet ice on the pavement this morning. 19 degrees and pretty humid so it felt colder than what the thermometer read. In fact, it was so humid that my rear view mirror completely frosted over about 4 miles into the ride, rendering it useless. At least there wasn't any wind so overall it was a pretty easy 8 mile commute.

Tomorrow should be an interesting commute. All the computer models have us getting snow in the 6 inches range, but more concerning is the wind which is supposed to top 40 mph.

What a great day it is down here! Yesterday, I took my Raleigh Comp GS out for a spin to meet friends (and the wife) at brunch. It's mostly the same route I use to get to work, but adds on a little. There was one heck of a hill I had to power through to get there! Really felt like I earned my bloody mary. First day I have been able to wear shorts while riding in a few months. I found a nice Craftsman 14mm crescent/ratcheting wrench in the road, as well!

Weather today is very much the same, maybe a few degrees warmer. The outside of my right knee was bothering me though for some reason. I noticed it yesterday, as well. I kept to mostly easier gears. I should be able to shed the jacket this afternoon and enjoy a ride in shorts and short sleeve jersey, and am very much looking forward to that! Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer, but I'll skip the ride. A few local municipalities on my side of the river are having a meeting about possibly starting a Bike and Pedestrian Master Plan, and I plan on attending the meeting to show support/interest. It doesn't start until 6 pm, and I would very much like to be home before 8 pm.

[MENTION=366933]mgw4jc[/MENTION]. I'm sorry about your wife's concussion. I hope that it wasn't too severe and that she recovers rapidly.

I hate places who can't have some empathy for situations like this. The last thing you need is to worry about work. I hope they are nice about running out of vacation.

Thanks. It has been dicey lately. Keep up the riding on my behalf.

My company has been understanding so far and letting me leave early when needed. I get a good amount of vacation time per year (earned incrementally every two weeks). But when I'm out 5 or so hours per week I burn through it quickly. We're hoping she can do at least some of the driving next week.

38F, gray, clammy

Sorry to hear about your wife's concussion!

You should be able to use sick time, if you have it, not just vacation. Family medical leave act allows use of sick time for child care responsibilities.

Thanks. We just have one bucket of PTO - Paid Time Off - to use as vacation or sick.

[MENTION=366933]mgw4jc[/MENTION] best wishes to her

My ride today was unremarkable, really. Cool and breezy. My strained left thumb finally seems to be healing up, touch wood. I really want to get rid of these compact drops... I've had an anatomic bar and the other stem I need for it for quite some time but never seem to get around to installing them.

Do drop me a line re your schedule; would love to stop by one day to say hi on the way home from work.

Haven't seen anything yet. Last I saw my pannier was @ 45th & Boundary across from Central Park. Rode through the park, then basically the BC Parkway home. I do like my new panniers though, and if I can get $60-80 for the one I still have I'd be pretty happy.

That's awesome! Were you using clipless or just cages?

Good luck with that; what's she think about you starting to ride again in general? Must be a bit apprehensive about it? How're the kids doing, btw?

Pretty good week last week at 192.3km = 120 miles. Had to drive today (kids were WIPED after my daughter's bday party yesterday where we had 26 kindergarteners in the house at once; I let them sleep in to last possible minute and drove them to daycare/school today). Looking forward to riding tomorrow.

Boo. That's a bummer. Someone should buy it.

I've just been using cages but I was thinking I should try my clipless shoes on, last time my feet were still too swollen...Maybe I'll try tomorrow. I think my shoes are clean, I think my mother-in-law hosed everything down when it got home. Though I have found some stuff on my pannier.

It is not something we have discussed, but we will with time. I think that everything is still fresh after the anniversary. But I have really been getting the itch and I spend a lot of time thinking of my build and what direction to go with the next bike. I think for me the apprehension will come when I actually go to push off the curb.

The kids are great.