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-   -   2017! The how was your commute thread! (https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/1093311-2017-how-your-commute-thread.html)

HardyWeinberg 01-24-17 10:52 AM

1 Attachment(s)
28F, foggy (really!)

no motor? 01-24-17 11:45 AM

Second day in a row for me! I'm a fair weather commuter and am pleasantly surprised to be able to ride like this in January. It's great to feel some of the atrophy be reversed too.

noglider 01-24-17 11:57 AM

:lol: You folks are tough, maybe too tough! I thought better of riding yesterday and today. I could manage it, but I don't feel like I need to prove my toughness these days. [MENTION=446591]TheNormanRider[/MENTION], I'm glad you turned a bad story into a good one for yourself.

TheNormanRider 01-24-17 12:06 PM

Thanks, [MENTION=152773]noglider[/MENTION]. Such a rare instance of bad behavior from a cager here, but I'm sure you New Yorkers got it way worse than us. If I remember later tonight I'll post footage of the incident here.

pdlamb 01-24-17 12:08 PM

Lovely ride except for one little thing. Skies were clearing, no rain, no stiff wind (either way), early morning start got me past all the normal chokepoints before traffic built up. Low 40s felt chilly compared to the last couple weeks.


That one thing? It cleared up as I warmed up and got to work. That bright shiny thing was visible in the sky again - what do they call that, sun? Beautiful day for a ride, and I have to work. Best I could do was make a wrong turn and add another mile.

mcours2006 01-24-17 12:16 PM

Our second car is going into the shop for a week at least so we're going to be a one-car family for the time. Wife uses the other car every day, so regardless of weather I'll be riding. Forecast doesn't call for any bad weather for the next seven days.

It's great to have this weather in January for commuting. I do miss the sun though:(

TexMac 01-24-17 12:28 PM

40 degree and some fog.. bike path flooded so used the alternative plus some intervals before work. Can't complain

PatrickGSR94 01-24-17 12:52 PM


Originally Posted by pdlamb (Post 19333240)
Lovely ride except for one little thing. Skies were clearing, no rain, no stiff wind (either way), early morning start got me past all the normal chokepoints before traffic built up. Low 40s felt chilly compared to the last couple weeks.


That one thing? It cleared up as I warmed up and got to work. That bright shiny thing was visible in the sky again - what do they call that, sun? Beautiful day for a ride, and I have to work. Best I could do was make a wrong turn and add another mile.

lol yeah I had bright sun less than a mile from the office, shining right in my face in some areas, which made it very hard to see in my helmet mirror. And of course motorists were approaching from behind, which is why I always run flashing lights in daylight. I usually stop about halfway in the mornings to switch one of my lights from steady to flashing.

noglider 01-24-17 01:34 PM


Originally Posted by TheNormanRider (Post 19333231)
Thanks, [MENTION=152773]noglider[/MENTION]. Such a rare instance of bad behavior from a cager here, but I'm sure you New Yorkers got it way worse than us. If I remember later tonight I'll post footage of the incident here.

Well, yes and no. You could say New Yorkers are ruder than people elsewhere, and maybe it's true, but we are also tolerant. We roll our eyes and move on. I don't see things escalate here often. There's a lot of noise, but that is all there is sometimes. I rarely open my mouth. Once someone came the wrong way down a bike lane, and the bike lane was unusually closed and narrow because of a temporary construction barrier. The lane wasn't narrow enough for two cyclists abreast, going in the same or opposite directions. As he came close, I stopped dead and yelled, "Not cool dude!" He apologized. Things rarely play out that way.

Tundra_Man 01-24-17 02:28 PM

Rode across town over lunch to a client's location. Snow hasn't yet started, but it's snowing hard south of us and moving this direction so probably will be riding through some accumulation on the way home tonight.

Interesting observation from my lunch ride: I completely rebuilt my winter bike this last fall with all new drivetrain, brakes and cables. I installed a KMC "Rustbuster" chain. 9 weeks ago was my first winter ride. I've put 267 miles on this bike since the rebuild, and oiled my chain two times since then. I looked down as I rode today and noticed that my "Rustbuster" chain was nothing but rust.

Boy do they use harsh chemicals on our streets here.

TheNormanRider 01-24-17 07:50 PM

@noglider - I remembered, so here is the footage. Some cagers just gotta be second to the red light.


kar 01-25-17 05:27 AM

1 Attachment(s)
On Monday around 8am, -13deg. C

TheNormanRider 01-25-17 07:19 AM

34F with a moderate northern wind. I'm on the Denali today and that wind slowed me down enough to add 15 more minutes to the commute. Gotta remind myself how much I love the e-bike, but also need to train more on the conventional bikes.

locolobo13 01-25-17 07:32 AM

35° F this morning

ptempel 01-25-17 07:46 AM

Took yesterday off and worked from home. Rode in today and it looks to be a nice day. Was around 38F this morning but forecast claims it will go up to the upper 40's F this afternoon. I still need to finish my drivetrain replacement (chain and cassette). I also hear some grinding in the BB. Its very slight and only noticeable off the bike pedaling backwards. So will have to yank it and check next time.

arsprod 01-25-17 08:15 AM

Another mild morning 39F but winds have reversed 180 degrees with same intensity and rain. I'll take it - much rather have headwinds in the morning than the way home!
[MENTION=86492]tarwheel[/MENTION] congrats on your retirement! Today's my birthday and I'm on the downhill run now (pun intended) to be able to think about that. Hopefully you'll find another daily commute to check in with!

tarwheel 01-25-17 08:19 AM

Chilly ride this morning but sunny and dry, and the high is supposed to reach about 70 F this afternoon. It should be a nice ride home. Rode one of my faster, lighter bikes because my touring bike has felt so heavy and slow lately. I've also been riding the tourer almost exclusively due to all of the rain and wet roads.

Happy birthday, [MENTION=322871]arsprod[/MENTION]. January birthdays are tough due to the weather and, in my case, the usual lack of funds from Christmas spending. My birthday is Jan. 19, which is actually sort of nice because I get a holiday (MLK Day) near it every year.

Tundra_Man 01-25-17 09:01 AM

Well, the streak remains alive at 220 consecutive work commutes via bicycle. Just have to keep it going until Feb. 10th to hit my year mark.

Woke up to 6-10 inches of snow. I had about 10" in my driveway. The north side of town reported they were closer to 6". Spent an hour shoveling before I left the house.

Today would have been an easy day for me to throw in the towel and drive to work, but coincidentally I had set up an appointment to have my truck serviced so I wouldn't have a vehicle anyway. I threw my bike in the back of the truck and drove to the mechanic's shop, then unloaded it and rode to work.

It was tough, tough riding. Except for the extremely busy streets which I try to avoid on bicycle anyway, the plows had not yet started moving the snow. The roads I took had been driven on which compacted the snow down into a thick mushy sludge that was slick as heck. I certainly wasn't setting any speed records as I slowly wobbled my way through that stuff. Bike slid out from me a few times but I managed to stay on my feet.

I was barely moving through the mush, trying my best to keep the bike upright. As I headed up a steep hill I started to have doubts that I could make it. About that time I guy out shoveling his driveway saw me and yelled, "Yeah! That's the way you do it dude!" I raised my mittened fist in triumph and proceeded to power myself the rest of the way up the hill and all the way to work. His encouragement gave me the boost I needed to finish the ride.

Yeah. That is the way I do it, dude. :)

mgw4jc 01-25-17 09:09 AM


Originally Posted by HardyWeinberg (Post 19333022)
28F, foggy (really!)

That's some hardcore fog there.


Originally Posted by pdlamb (Post 19333240)
Beautiful day for a ride, and I have to work. Best I could do was make a wrong turn and add another mile.

Sounds like you took a right turn. Or maybe it was a left?

Chilly morning here at 34F for the ride in, but warming to near 70 so looking forward to that.

I waved in response to the long horn blare from the jacked up pickup truck as it went around me. With mittens on it could have been an all finger wave or a just one finger. I guess I may have slowed him down a few seconds and he wasn't happy about it.

rhm 01-25-17 09:30 AM

Monday afternoon, rode CitiBike to Penn Station in the wind and rain. On the east-west streets it wasn't too bad. On the north-south streets the wind was so bad I could barely pedal the bike. Got to Penn Station in time to see that my train had been cancelled. Within a few minutes all the NJTransit trains on the departures monitor, at least those heading west beyond Newark, had been cancelled. The station was already packed with people waiting for those trains --three or four trains per hour for three hours or so.

We have a vacation house on Long Island. Call it a cabin, a cottage, whatever. It's little. I normally take my folding bike on the train to get there, but I didn't have time to go back to my office for the folding bike, and I didn't want to go back out in the rain anyway. I got on the train to Long Island, took a taxi when I got there. And this turned out to be a good thing; in the storm Monday night, the gutter on the roof at the back of the house backed up and let water into the house, and it came dripping through the bathroom ceiling. That kept me busy for a while; and in themorning I discovered that part of the fence had blown down; and some fascia on the house blew loose. I was occupied in domestic maintenance, still in the rain, until noon yesterday. So the NJ train fiasco worked to my benefit. It took other people 4 or 5 hours to get home Monday! :eek:

Today was delightful in comparison, blue sky, light breezes...

HardyWeinberg 01-25-17 10:28 AM

38F, gray.

Right-hooked, hit-and-run at an intersection. No damage. I was focused on safe landing so didn't get my phone out to take a picture of the guy as he drove away.

It was an orange chevy monza looking (and sounding) thing but I think it was a newer Japanese car tuned to sound like that. We were going to the light at the same speed, I was right next to him, and he just turned into me. Thanks.

TheNormanRider 01-25-17 10:51 AM


Originally Posted by HardyWeinberg (Post 19335196)
38F, gray.

Right-hooked, hit-and-run at an intersection. No damage. I was focused on safe landing so didn't get my phone out to take a picture of the guy as he drove away.

It was an orange chevy monza looking (and sounding) thing but I think it was a newer Japanese car tuned to sound like that. We were going to the light at the same speed, I was right next to him, and he just turned into me. Thanks.

Holy crap, dude, hope you're all right. What an ass for doing that! Cagers can be so oblivious.

the sci guy 01-25-17 10:56 AM

Mid 60's, cloudy, wet from overnight rain. I thought it was supposed to be nice this morning!

I live Tweeted my commute this morning (tweets, not streamed), to show some of the good and bad of commuting in Houston. https://twitter.com/theSurlyBiker in case anyone is interested.

HardyWeinberg 01-25-17 11:02 AM

Thanks. I am fine. Angry.

noglider 01-25-17 03:55 PM


Originally Posted by TheNormanRider (Post 19334227)
@noglider - I remembered, so here is the footage. Some cagers just gotta be second to the red light.

https://youtu.be/9p3F2c9vUIw

I've watched this five times and don't see the problem. You both stopped at the red light, he in front, you in back. You didn't have to brake hard to avoid hitting his bumper, did you? If so, that's not evident.


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