32F this morning with almost no wind! Got a slightly earlier-than-usual start to the commute, so I made it to the office by 6:30 am. Uneventful ride in, just how it should be. Really liking my Lumos helmet as traffic continues to give me a lot more space than before. Amazing what some extra LEDs will do for you.

Warmish 52F with some wind this morning. We had a lot of rain last night but it moved out by 6am. I forgot to charge my headlight over the weekend and it was a bit weak for my ride in. It is charging now at my desk.

Apparently we travel the same direction! 43F here with 17mph NW winds which are mostly tailwind for the ride in. I tried to enjoy it and not think about the ride home!

It was low 40's F and really windy. Had to use the drops on the GWB going into the city this morning. Right before getting on the south sidewalk, I saw a small american flag whipping in the breeze. So that was my cue to "get ready". :) Going home will be wet and perhaps a few degrees colder. Will see. At least its on the way home (or more accurately to the car). So doesn't really matter how wet I get at that point.

Went down again this morning. Two days in a row. Arrrrgh! The worst part is I wasn't even on the bike when I fell.

When I left the house the roads looked quite clear of ice and snow. We're supposed to get 8 more inches of the white stuff starting this evening so seeing as the roads were clear I decided to take the hybrid with the slicks.

The roads were in great shape and I had no trouble. However once I reached the MUP there was patchy ice. Most of it was short stretches of a few feet so I just made sure I was crossing them perfectly straight and had no trouble even without studded tires.

Until I came to a long patch about 30 yards long. I decided it was more ice than I wanted to try and ride across, so I got off and proceeded to walk. I made it about 3 steps onto the ice when my legs went out from under me and I hit the ground. Smashed my elbow pretty good.

Unfortunately, I came down with my full weight right on the side of my front wheel. Knocked the wheel out of true to the point where it was locked hard against the brakes. Had to spend some time straightening it out the best I could so that it would spin again. Also bent my rear brake lever so it now had a 90 degree bend and looked more like a banana. Spent more time straightening that out too. My front brakes still aren't quite right (not releasing very well,) but they were good enough for me to finish my ride. I'll have to work on them more when I get home.

The remainder of the ride I just stayed on the bike even on the longer stretches of ice and didn't have any trouble. Once I got off the MUP the roads were clear again. Going home tonight I may try and avoid the MUP altogether, although that will add several miles and lots of hills and traffic to the trip.

@mcours2006 summed it up well when he said it's better to err on the side of caution when it comes to studded tires. I'm a slow learner and it took me two falls in a row to figure out that I just need to keep riding the studs until about May. As much as I hate them (and I really do hate them) they do their job so well that I forget they add much more than just a lot of rolling resistance.

The worst part is I'll forget this lesson and probably repeat it again next winter.

29F, clammy, partly cloudy then a wall of fog descended, you can kind of see the fog at the end here

Falling resistance, that's what you want!

I am currently in denial on studded tires myself, was really counting on the ground warming up so that black ice wouldn't be a thing, and maybe it has, there was no black ice today, but since it got farther below freezing last night than forecast, I hope it gets back into the 50s asap (like forecast) so the ground can warm past the black ice temps. If it doesn't happen and it does get black icy, and I don't find out until I ride through it and my front tire goes out, I will only have myself to blame...

[MENTION=175954]Tundra_Man[/MENTION]. I also think it's worth it to err on the side of caution when it comes to using studs. I'd rather take it slow with heavy tires.

I took the kids into town for a birthday party my son was invited to in Sunday. I dropped him off then went to run random errands, I ended up at the recycling center that has stuff for sale. I'm not sure what I was looking for but I found a play kitchen and was able to get it for a whole $2. So I managed to fit it in the bike for the ride home.

Hauling the kitchen sink. https://imgur.com/a/hNqn8

After getting home I finally succumbed to the virus or family had been dealing with since Thursday. My son was sick Thursday and Friday. Then Sunday my wife starts vomiting, which she never does. Then Sunday evening I get the chills and really bad aches. Thankfully I felt a lot better in the morning but still not great. I don't think my wife and I have been out of commission simultaneously ever; I'm thankful for the in-laws helping this morning to get that kids to school.

[MENTION=190611]joeyduck[/MENTION] that is a cute little toy! I was imagining a big plastic Fisher Price thing.

There were severe weather warnings today. We're due to get heavy rain and wind gusts up to 60 mph. I've been through some heavy wind lately, and I said no to that and took the subway to work.

I had my first ride to work of 2017 this morning and it was brutal. I've been fighting off the remnants of the bad cold that's been going around here and finally felt up to riding today. But I made it, and am better off for it.

We had gotten a bunch of play food and play kitchenware for the little girl over Christmas and we thought she would love it. I've not cleaned it off to bring in the house but while we were in the boat she enjoyed it.

As I lie in bed with our window cracked I've been listening to the sea lions on the beach. They have been noisy since five am. I'm lucky to live in such a great place.

Sorry to hear that. Smacking your elbow sucks on its own. But with front wheel damage it Sucks with a capitol S... :(

I debated it early this morning. Will take it easier over the bridge going home, though. Was pretty windy this morning there...

You may want to rethink that. It's getting worse. Do you have a way to get home off your bike?

I guess I could leave the bike on the rack overnight and take the train home (worse case)? Was thinking of asking my mgr to let me go early. So might be able to skip some of the rain. Will see...

Edit: I left around 3:30pm but found out the GWB sidewalk was closed earlier. So had to take an NJ Trasnit bus from uptown port authority to Fort Lee across the bridge. There were four of us. None of the busses had a bike rack in the front, so the dispatcher let us go on one without. We unfortunately had to suck up the last few rows of seats and cram the bikes in the aisle at the back. Oh well. At least I made it home. If tomorrow is as bas as this afternoon, then will either work from home or take the train.

NE winds this morning.. that sucked! Just enough for my eyes to burn. Think in a couple months it'll be out of south in the morning!

45F with a light wind from the south. Forgot to refill my water bottle but I hydrate before leaving home anyway. Caught the train a mile from the front door, no biggie. However, less than a mile later, some idiot in his 1/2 ton truck cut me off in order to be second at a red light. He just couldn't spare the 1.5 seconds. My anger was translated into pedal power for the rest of my ride in to work, and I again made it in super early.

On yesterday's ride home it seemed light enough that I didn't need my headlight to help me see. I still turned it on as it got darkish, but there was enough daylight that I could see without it. And that was under cloudy skies which makes it get dark sooner.

Cooler this morning at 41F, so had to wear the tights. Taking a couple of longer ways through neighborhoods I managed 15 miles. Pretty much exactly too as it turned over as I pulled into the parking lot.

A couple months... seems like forever! Ride home last night sucked - same 15+mph winds but this time in my face and it was raining. And dark. This morning 39F with NW winds but a little tamer than yesterday. A couple months...

A windy 30F this morning... with winds continuing all day (and tomorrow). The temp, however, should get into the upper 50's this afternoon. It's short-lived, as we are back to seasonable temperatures by tomorrow.

Cool morning and dry for a change. We've had a tremendous amount of rain, fog, sleet and other forms of precipitation this month and the roads have been wet on nearly every ride. I washed all of my bikes a couple of weekends ago to remove all of the accumulated mud, dirt, grime and salt from riding on wet roads -- and it has rained nearly every day since then. My Bob Jackson touring bike has become the sacrificial rain bike since then because it has full fenders and a dynamo light system, and it is filthy again.

I'm into my last week of commuting, as I retire next Tuesday. I will need to drive my final day of work to bring things home from my office (including commuting gear that I leave at work), but hopefully the weather will be nice enough to ride on Monday. I should end up with more than 300 miles commuting for the month, which is not bad considering the weather.

Stayed upright this morning, so I broke my streak. Which is a good thing.

Easy ride in with a big tailwind. Snow is supposed to start mid-day, about the time I have to ride across town to a client location. Right now they're forecasting 2 inches per hour until we hit about 9 inches total. Depending on how fast it's accumulating I may leave the client's office early to head home before it gets too deep.

[MENTION=86492]tarwheel[/MENTION] Congrats again on retirement. Congrats on the 300 miles for commuting. :thumb: I have had a hard time getting motivated to ride this year. I had 5160 commuting miles and 6k+ last year. I think it is because I had my job and would love to find something more in line with my passion and calling.

PLUS The rain here has seemed to be at commuting times in the morning. :eek:

I did not ride today because my wife and I figured out that I don't have time to ride on Tuesdays and get to a Trail Life meeting in another town by 6:30pm kind of a bummer because I wanted to ride today. I hope to ride the rest of the week.

Welp, the cold mornings are back. We had several days of warmer (and wet) weather, and still have a couple of warm afternoons left, but this morning it was back around freezing, as opposed to low 50's last Friday morning. But my bike is clean (finally!), and it should dry out over the next week or so (finally!), although will be much colder. Thankfully this morning there was almost no wind.

This afternoon should be near 60, with a big tail wind so that will be fun.