Wind, wind, wind. 33F and did I mention it was windy? There are high wind warnings for this afternoon, possible gusts up to 50mph. It's a direct crosswind for me and most of my route is fairly sheltered from westerly winds. Could be interesting!

32F, pea soup fog, same as yesterday.

Sorry to hear that. Yes, definitely have to avoid the paint in the wet. This is a big rule for motorcycle riders as well, and it always makes intersections with cross-walks and thick white stop lines (basically every intersection in NY) interesting.

I'm fairly certain there are type of paint (or texturing) that municipalities can use to provide better wet grip, but I'm not sure if NYC even considers that since there isn't a sizable scooter/motorcycle population.

Awesome, I'm cheering from you!!

If someone offers me a ride home, I'm going to take it. Otherwise, 10 out of my 13 miles are to the west. Wish me luck. Maybe I'll make it home before I have to be to work again tomorrow.

Some funny stuff from the last few rides.

This morning I saw two identical baby pacifiers about 100 feet apart. This was on the dirt trail parallel to the MUP used by dog walkers, horse riders, and alleged mountain bikers.

Last week Weds night there was a guy riding up the local climb one-legged, with his right clipped out and held away from the pedal. I called out, "Showoff!" I was kidding, but he didn't realize it, and he yelled back, "No, I'm doing a drill." Yeah, I guessed that, because there's no other reason for an adult to be doing something so silly-looking.

A coworker has been shopping for a road bike. The bike shop has steered him to a store-brand Ultegra-level, full-on carbon road bike for about two grand OTD. He's going to bring it to work tomorrow for a demo ride at lunch. I don't know whether to talk him out of it, he's a big guy who doesn't ride that much and I think he'd be way happier on an endurance or gravel or similar bike, but he sounds like he's already convinced it's a great deal.

11 miles of headwind.

I've been on my racing style bike for a week now, as I'm changing out my commuter's bottom bracket bearing, chainrings, chain and front derailleur cable.


Today's gusty tailwind made the ride in quite the sprint. I was flying and it felt pretty great, reminding me of 40 years ago.

Snow squall but not bad during the ride in. The conditions were -6C/21F, gusty wind but I was comfortable. Decided to use my mountain bike shoes (summer) with neoprene overshoes to block the wind and cold. Not perfect as my toes got a bit cold but not bad.

[MENTION=175954]Tundra_Man[/MENTION] - quite the commute challenge there riding on peanut brittle!

Very nice Patrick!

Been there. Done that. Got the bruises. That and wet leaves.

It's funny to me when somebody shells out the big bucks for a 17lb bike but is packing an extra 30-40lbs in their gut. Who knows? Maybe the higher price will guilt him into riding more often.

As for me, I beat the rain home last night with only a few drops hitting me. But the overcast skies made it quite dark at 5pm.

Wet roads this morning. This morning's high of 55 is supposed to be the warmest all day. A good 16 miles this morning.

Today was a much easier ride than yesterday. The MUPs had been plowed leaving a thin layer of packed snow/ice which slowed me down a little, but nothing like yesterday. The streets had been driven on enough that it was sloppy, but easy riding. The headwind was down to about 15 mph. The temp was up to 27.

I averaged 11 mph which was nearly twice as fast as yesterday, and arrived much less sweaty and surly than I was yesterday. 12 mph is about the top of what I can manage on the best days with my winter bike, so I wasn't too far below that mark.

Our high temp for the day happened on my way to work. The temp is supposed to steadily drop throughout the day and the winds pick back up. It should be in the teens on my way home, but thankfully I should have a tailwind.

When it's cold I wear thinner wool hiking socks. (Not the super thick kind that are good for 3 days hikes through the back country. The thinner kind that are a little thicker than cotton athletic socks and are good for a day hike)

They are perfect for a cold bike ride. They keep my feet warm, and if I sweat at all they wick the sweat out and the passing air keeps the socks dry.

Today I stuck my head out the door and it felt calm and not too chilly so I geared up with a t shirt, light sweatshirt, and finger less gloves and headed out...about a mile into the ride when I hit the downhill section where I go a lot faster...I realized it was MUCH colder that I thought and I was freezing. Oh well. Live and learn.

But...my feet were warm!

Hopefully it warms up by the ride home...if not..oh well.

I was wearing long, merino ski socks, fairly lightweight but maybe thicker than my summer weight short merino cycling socks so perhaps I'll loosen my shoes.

It's looking a lot like winter outside right now, more snow falling but it appears that the wind has died. I may not be cycling home if the snow is too deep for comfortable safe control.

Snow is where I draw the line. That's just not fun for me. It's more dangerous, less enjoyable.

Too many suddenly unexpected hazards in the road...like finding out that extra lane that's safer to ride in hasn't been plowed, or being all the way right and suddenly seeing a hunk of snow jutting out in the road meaning you either go left into traffic or stop in the road. Or finding that a sidewalk you normally cross over hasn't been shoveled so you suddenly have to lift the bike and climb over a snow bank to get to your street. Snow and biking just are't a good combo fro me.

But that's in Maryland, where we get 2 serious snow storms a year and everyone freaks the eff out like it's the apocalypse. I'm sure in Canada where you get snow all winter the city services do a much better job of maintaining the area to make all the routes passable for cars and bikes, and the world doesn't lose it's collective mind causing everyone in a Prius to suddenly brave horrendous conditions to get bread and milk at the same time.

So the locality has a lot to do with if snow riding is safe I'm sure. It looks pretty!

Right now, last night was the first snowfall (we had some earlier this fall/winter but they've melted away) that is currently on the ground and it has snowed a bit more since 7am this morning when I rode in: both snowfalls are currently soft and fluffy so not so bad. It'll get worse through the season.

The citizens of our city are often lambasting the city for poor plowing so winter conditions aren't really that good. I think motorists think that the city to should make roads in winter as easy to drive on as roads in the summer so that they can drive just as fast. They don't want to adapt their driving habits to winter conditions because that means taking more care, slowing down, paying attention more, in other words, more effort. I think that the plowing is reasonably good (although last year, our short, residential cul-de-sac was plowed 4x after a decent snowfall: the 1st was needed, the 2nd was nice, the remainder were just so that the plowing contractor could pad their pockets IMO). More focus should be on keeping the sidewalks and paths clean because pedestrians are more significantly affected by snow than powerful motorized vehicles that can push through snow more easily than pedestrians can. Yes, improved plowing of sidewalks and paths will help me cycle more but, IMO, who cares, I'd rather pedestrians be looked after better than making it possible for cycling to continue. (You struck a nerve! )

I didn't get a flat on my ride to the station today!

Two flats last week, one yesterday, all basically the same problem, which I'm not sure I've diagnosed yet. Current thinking is: the rim strip wasn't quite doing is job. Yesterday while fixing my flat I took it off and put it back on more carefully, making sure it's perfectly centered. If I get one more flat, I'm replacing it with wider tape.

I made it home yesterday in 90 minutes with the winds W30G40. No way to measure the actual winds, but a couple gusts all but stopped me and I'm wondering if some of them weren't more in the 45-50 ballpark. Of course, I would love to have those bragging rights, but no way to tell.

I've attached a clip of this bike computer app I use sometimes with yesterday's numbers plugged in - the wind only goes up to 25 though (I'm generally not interested in the numbers except when I change something or have unusual riding conditions, like yesterday's wind). When I plug in my ride numbers, usually I'm between 100-125 watts unless I'm feeling especially energetic.

I took the other picture this morning about halfway to work in the middle of Amish country. The sunrise got even prettier after I snapped it and I was able to enjoy it for the rest of my ride in.

The forecast is calling for winds W15G30 on my ride home, which SHOULD feel easier than yesterday's. Hopefully. On yesterday's ride home I wasn't able to get out of my lowest gear (42-24) except for the 3 miles of southbound riding, just couldn't spin up enough to shift. Long term I don't think this gearing is going to toot my horn (52/42, 7 sp 14-28) for this type of commute.

Nice photo!! I've been taking more and more photos lately, generally only a couple each day but many more than I had been taking previously. I'm using Strava (phone app) so my photos can be shared with my followers and I've also created a Google Photo Album called Commuting by Bike and I add them to that.

rode today and the cold weather has made it way to NC. coworkers are amazed I rode today begged me not to ride the rest of the week. I laughed and confessed my sadness that I have to drive to pick up my daughter somewhere on Friday. Supposed to be snowy conditions. ( doubt it but at least that is what the weather says.)

[MENTION=390976]Phamilton[/MENTION] how does you computer know you are in the drops or hoods? just curious

[MENTION=390976]Phamilton[/MENTION] how does you computer know you are in the drops or hoods? just curious[/QUOTE]

The "computer" is actually an app on my phone. Known values are entered along with selected handlebar location, the app does the rest.

I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to come up with a clever answer for you.

ahh I did not think about it being for the app to know where it is mounted. I just could not figure out why it mattered to the app where it was located. just didn't make sense in my head. I appreciate the straight forward answer versus something clever.

Rain drops were starting when I left work, but my route took me out of their path soon enough.
Cooler today at about 40F.

Tomorrow is looking like rain with temps in the 30s. Not a fun combination. I'll have to see how bad it is in the morning I suppose.

Thanks. This paint is also new (maybe about a week or two old?) so is more of a hazard than other road paint. Live and learn. Reminds me of driving on newly paved road a long time ago. Was following another car at the usual distance and it made a sudden stop. I slammed on the brakes and missed the rear bumper of the car by inches. This is the stuff you don't learn in driving class.

This morning was a nice ride in. Its colder but not too bad. I'm kind of mixing up dressing for 40s F with the winter cap, winter gloves, and shoe covers. One mistake with my baseball sized road tatoo on my left leg was using a 4in x 4in gauze pad. I put it on last night with tape. I ended up having to peel it off sice it stuck to the scraped area. You can imagine how I felt taking a shower. Enough of that. I'm letting it dry out for now.

Winter officially arrived.

4°F this morning with a -19°F wind chill. Had a 10-15 mph headwind on the way to work. Roads/MUP are starting to get clear spots in the pavement after Monday's ice and snow, but there are still plenty of areas covered so I was glad I had the studded tires mounted.

I rode 8 miles in 55 minutes, and arrived at the office completely drenched in sweat with my heart rate way up. It feels like I get slower every single winter. I always seem to forget just how pathetically pokey my winter bike is, and how much more inefficient my body is once the temps drop.

The good news is I dressed about right. Wool socks under my hiking boots. Long riding pants. Wicking shirt for a base layer, long sleeve t-shirt for the middle layer and my windbreaker on top. Balaclava, goggles and winter gloves covered everything remaining. The tips of my toes were a little chilly but the rest of me was fine.

Tried out my new container of "Cat Crap" today. Rubbed it all over the inside of my goggles. They still iced over at the 6.5 mile mark. Normally they ice over around the 6 mile mark. Probably not worth the $10 I spent.