PatrickGSR94

Mine usually don't start to feel cold/numb until after 45 minutes or so - my commute usually takes 80-85 minutes on winter mornings. Also I have what seem like abnormally long toes (2nd toe is as long as my pinky finger) which I think contributes to the heat loss.

Darth Lefty 

Driving today. Our nanny is on a leave so I dropped off wee man for his first ever full day of daycare. The drive to the day care was fine but from there to work it was a horrid stop-and-go slog down a major surface artery, five miles in a straight line took 30 minutes. I'm not a particularly fast or strong cyclist but I definitely could have done as well or better on a bike. Weather prevented, and I didn't have a plan. I'll have to ask the daycare if I can leave the trailer there in the future!

esmith2039

Cold! Supposed to get some on the way home, going to be interesting!

Tundra_Man 

I've found my hands sweat inside of insulated gloves no matter how cold the temps. In fact, my hands can be painfully cold and still wet with sweat. To make matters worse, the insulation in those gloves will keep the insides wet for days. Even putting them in the dryer won't always dry them out. After a few weeks the smell can become quite noticeable, and over time the odor permeates the fabric to the point where washing them won't even remove it.

So last year I bought a box of vinyl gloves at the home improvement store. I put those on as a base layer underneath my winter gloves. One box of 100 gloves will last me most of the season. When I arrive at work my hands are soaked with sweat as normal, but the moisture is trapped inside the vinyl and the gloves stay completely dry. As a result, my most recent pair of winter gloves have lasted much, much longer than previous pairs. Even more importantly my coworkers and I no longer have to put up with the mysterious funk emanating from somewhere in the office, that eventually gets traced back to my sweaty winter gloves.

As a bonus, the gloves are handy when cleaning/lubing your chain so you don't have to wash the grease off your hands. To get double use out of a pair, I'll usually come home from work and do my chain maintenance while I'm still wearing them.

PatrickGSR94

ew yuck, don't your hands end up like prunes? Mine do with nitrile gloves after only 15-20 minutes with them on. Something about these ski gloves it seems like my hands sweat more with them than with thinner gloves. Maybe because it holds in more heat? I dunno...

spivonious

12F with wind chill of -10F or so with gusty crosswind. Two layers on my legs and three layers up top did the trick. I actually arrived at work a bit sweaty.

Feet just had medium-weight SmartWool socks and sneakers. The key is to loosen the laces on your shoes so you can get maximum bloodflow to your toes. It makes a big difference on cold days.

mgw4jc

@tarwheel - Happy Birthday! I hope you're enjoying your birthday cold snap.
@PatrickGSR94 - Have you tried toe warmers for your feet? I bought a couple of pairs to use on the really cold days. Placement is a bit tricky, but seemed to help.

timvan_78

wow, you guys have some cold. 9degC/48degF and not raining this AM. I had a nice tailwind home last night.
It's starting to get light during the AM commute. This time of year I'm commuting both ways through clouds of crows as they roost above the dark, wet MUP. Trust your fenders & keep your mouth closed!

oldgrowth45

Today's commute was wet, both ways... ugh. Love my fenders.

Rock Head

High 20's, I had to find my running pants. Head wind at 16mph. Lovely memories when its 80F at 6am while heading to work. Sorry, no potentiality dangerous conditions.

ericmerg1

18 degrees after windchill 17 miles 15-25mph gusts headwind, made for a slow ride

dcb23

Cold again but no wind today: 18F/-8C

Prediction of snow Friday afternoon, might need an early departure from work to beat it.

Phil_gretz

I wonder how best to handle the snow tomorrow...

Today was pretty nice, but my fingers were tingly by the time I arrived at work. Hand warmers, maybe?

bmthom.gis

Brr. On the way home yesterday I got a puncture when I was ~3/4 of a mile from home...on my most hated road (no shoulder, high volume of cars, and narrow lanes...I'm sure I piss people off routinely). I didn't completely flat out and was able to limp on back home without stopping, though once I got off of the main road I was tying to put as much of my weight forward as I could.
Didn't ride today - it's a gym day (plus after yesterday, I felt entitled to sit in a heated car). Wife dropped me off a few blocks from work, so I had a pleasantly chilly ~mile walk down to my favorite coffee shop and back to the office.

bmthom.gis

Handwarmers might get too hot. I used two pairs of gloves yesterday. I have some thin knit ones I put on first then the more wind proof ones over top and my digits kept pretty warm, but not too hot. Let us know about the snow!

arsprod 

Uhh... ride over it?! I had planned to work from home today and glad I did - I get to miss riding on 5" of new snow. If it's just snow and not ice, traction is no problem. But it's incredibly slow and hard work.

wphamilton

We're looking at ice pellets and possibly snow this evening, but more likely just rain and sleet.If we do get snow, even a tiny dusting that sticks on the ground and looks white, our traffic will lose any semblance of order, snarl up and slow to a stop, with the unwary spinning out of control on open stretches and on hills. It's a circus.

Sill I'm really hoping it does turn to snow and not freezing rain. I can handle 0.1 inch of snow but that rain is cold!

Tundra_Man 

20F and a light tailwind. Easiest ride I've had so far this year. Got about 1" of fresh snow yesterday afternoon and during the ride home last night the footprints and tracks from other bikes on the MUP made lots of icy ruts to really slow me down. 1" isn't enough for them to plow so I was worried they'd be even worse by this morning, but to my surprise they softened up and I hardly noticed them.

Had a guy on a fat bike pass me and give me advice that I'd ride faster if I had wider tires. Ummm... ok, thanks. I'm riding kind of slow because I'm in my work clothes and don't want to completely sweat them up.

ptempel

Was 28F this morning and a good ride in today. Yesterday was colder, around 15F and more windy. They closed the GWB yesterday morning to put calcium chloride over the ice on the south sidewalk. So I took my alternate route down to the Weehawken ferry and paid the $10 to ride it. Was still a decent commute despite the cold and windy conditions. Only minor complaint is my toes going numb again. But it was toward the end when going uptown after the ferry.

The NYC area is supposed to get its first real snow storm Friday night into Saturday morning. Might be 8-12 inches or so. Might be making a snowman with my son if it does happen.

arsprod 

Phil_gretz

EDIT: Snow will be Friday evening...

PatrickGSR94

Crazy cold ride home with some wind. I thought it was supposed to get near 40 by the afternoon, but it was 31 when I left the office.

Had one guy honk for no reason as he passed in the left lane just before I turned right. It was not a friendly honk, but I had not held him up in the slightest. I did make it through a yellow light just before where he had to stop, which was good because it held off traffic while I slogged it up a hill. Then after the hill the light changed and he came on by and passed, so I don't know what that honk was about.

I'm now 5 for 5 for this month and year so far, but I'm afraid my streak may be at an end. The rest of the week is supposed to be nasty. Rain today and 33 deg. Rain tomorrow and 40 deg. Possibly snow on Friday. I'm not doing 31 miles in that, heck no. Next week will be more sun, upper 40's into the 50's, so I'll be back at it next week.

esmith2039

Cold, slush and snow.. overall not bad though. Figuring out where I should ride is interesting. If there's no cars along the side can ride in the thin layer but if there is a car can't ride in the thick slush and have to go over to the car tracks. Drivers have been fairly cooperative though. Not sure on riding tomorrow/Friday starting demo on a bathroom and need to save some energy.

RidingMatthew

trying to get back into the gym and have done some running and lifting this week going to do an indoor triathlon Friday. Seemed fun and a little weird so I figured I would try it. My upper body was seriously neglected last year with a lot of riding... I hope to do some crosstraining to increas my overall strength/ health plus they are calling for snow today and friday and it has been super cold all week.

Driving the CIVIC all week

timvan_78

it's been busy commuting the last few days. Last night I was riding in a pack of about 7 or 8. I took a different route (10 th ave) this AM (dropping off library books) and it was busy as well. Lots of cyclists--lots of blinky lights.