Today's ride in was absolutely glorious. The weather cleared up from stormy to sunny. Winds were high and shifty, so with a heavy effort, my overall time wasn't impressive, but it wasn't bad, either.

Did not ride bike last night to hospital where early this morning kids 2 & 3 arrived

congrats! Do you have a 2 seat trailer ready? Or 3 I guess. Maybe an xtracycle with seat and then pull a trailer...

Yay! Congrats!

Are mom and babies doing okay?

Congratulations on the babies!

The ride in this morning was very nice with the temp at 37f degrees and wet roads, but no black ice!

Wind out of the west this morning so easy ride in. Tonight will be hell. Decided to start looking for fenders for the Trek.. those random puddles are a pain. I'll refrain from discussing traffic.. can't fix stupid.

Last night on my ride to and from the Sudbury Cyclists Union meeting, it was cool (1C/34F) so the snow on the roads was slushy. This morning, after cooling a bit overnight to -5C/23F, the slush had hardened making it easier for my studded tires to grip but bumpier because the hardened slush formed bumps that I had to go over rather than through. Not much snow predicted to fall over the next week or so but it is going to get cold again to as low as -21C/-6F overnight -- the last week to 10 days had daily highs at or just above freezing.

I overdressed for the -5C ride in this morning and was sweating by the time I arrived. It was only a 22 min ride so I wasn't in any danger of hypothermia and it really was only once I was inside, putting my bike in the indoor bike cage, that I started to sweat.

Slacker! Errr, I mean congrats!

About 20 degrees warmer than yesterday at 57F. I thought a light jacket would be needed as there was a threat of rain too, but I got too warm and stopped to remove it after 3 miles.

I got a nice honking for no reason. I was on the shoulder and he had not even been slowed down by me, just decided to blare. I held my hand out like, "WTF?"

Congrats [MENTION=339610]Darth Lefty[/MENTION]

27F and a strong wind out of the west this morning made the first 1/3 of the ride, ummm brisk. Otherwise not too bad. Should be about the same for the ride home this evening.

Congratulations @Darth Lefty!

The MUP was yet unplowed after the 7+" of snow we got yesterday. I didn't feel like trying to pedal through that mess so I took new route to the clients office that I hadn't used before. This one was all on "emergency snow routes" which means they are the first to be plowed, so I knew the roads would be clear. It also would add an additional mile to my commute and a lot more hills, but I decided that was a fair trade off to not have to fight the unplowed MUP.

Knowing also that I would be riding on heavier traveled roads I decided to come in an hour earlier than normal. I'm glad I did. Traffic wasn't too bad, but I could tell that during rush hour this route would probably get pretty hairy.

They should have the MUP cleared by the time I head home tonight so I'll resume my usual course.

Congratulations to you, Mrs. Lefty, and kid #1! Hope to see you posting again on this thread in, oh, maybe about six weeks!

Nice ride to the station this morning. Nice restful ride on the train. Then I rode CitiBike down to Greenwich Village to meet a friend for breakfast. Then I rode back to my office.

Wham! Hammering the CitiBike along at top speed, I'd guess around 18 - 20 mph, I ran the last seconds of a yellow light (an "orange" light, ) and a traffic policeman stepped out in front of me in that classic "stop right there" pose, and his colleague asked me for my ID.

The cops were very nice. Fifty bucks! That's a discount; he charged me with "improper use of bicycle" rather than "red light" which costs $190. Well, no use pretending I'm innocent. On the other hand, if I added up all the traffic lights I've run since I started riding a bike in NYC, that probably adds up to about $0.10 for every time I've gotten away with it, or maybe $2 for every time I've done it with cops watching. Nonetheless, I was sincere when I told the officer I will try to obey traffic lights in the future. I thanked the officers and told them to keep doing what they're doing.

Last night there was heavy mist going to meet my wife for supper, which turned into a proper rain for the last 5 miles home. Lower 60s, so no problem with temperature. I managed to balance speed, head angle, and helmet visor so as to keep the top part of my glasses clear until the last couple miles home.


This morning was 20 degrees cooler, sunny, glorious! Except for the NW wind (18-24 mph) which made the ride drag. Mostly it's a cross wind, but it's enough to have to push through it.

Congratulations on the twins, Darth Lefty! Woo!

Congratulations [MENTION=326413]darth[/MENTION] and Mrs. Lefty!

30.2 F (-1 C)
Nice and easy commute today, even though I slightly overdressed and started to sweat a little bit on my way home.

Anyway, today I succeeded in doing a basic session of maintenance and TLC on the Thunder Child, including tire dressing (rubbing sidewalls with a sugar and warm water mixture, until they nicely shined ) and I really have to say that during the commute she went smoothly and silently, like butter. I was under the impression of riding a completely different bike than my usual battlecruiser.
I definitely should schedule some form of weekly preventative maintenance on my all-rounder fighting machine. I think she deserves it, as a brutal four-seasons-all-weather commuter and carfree-wannabe, utility MBB (Main Battle Bike).


Stats2017
-------------------

Commute ratio (January): [NA/31]

Near Misses: 1

Idiots met: 7



SCR FCN: 16

SCR score for today's commute:
- AM: 16+0-0 = 16
- PM: 16+0-0 = 16

SCR total score for 2017:
0

Thanks everyone

[MENTION=73614]rhm[/MENTION], good story, good perspective, well told.

And [MENTION=339610]Darth Lefty[/MENTION], I'm happy for your happy day. I wish you a lot of joy and rewards.

I figured I would beat the rain heading into work, but I was wrong. And guess what, I had a great time in the rain. It was light to moderate, but I didn't get cold or very wet. The clouds made everything dark, and yet, there was a beauty. Also, it was extremely unusually unwindy today, which made me feel really strong. Maybe I really should get a power meter so I know how hard I work on each ride. These are meandering thoughts. Anyway, I had a great ride in.

Uggh lazy today, drove. Between working extra due to coworker being off for 6 weeks, wind and the cold I'm just beat!

The ride in this morning was nice until I got to the last part of the downhill where I turn left onto the road where I work. It was all black ice on the right side of the road and a few cars coming down behind me. I had to ride more to the middle to stay away from the ice but with cars behind me in the dark, I get nervous. Anyway that is one ride done! And on to better things, today is Friday! The forecast is calling winds gusting up to 20mph so the ride home should be interesting.

Same temperature as yesterday, -5C/23F, and it didn't really get much warmer yesterday afternoon so the slushiness that might have occurred in time for yesterday's ride home, didn't happen. As a result, the packed snow and ice on my street and on the sidewalks that I ride on, was smoothed out a bit more by vehicles on the road and pedestrians on the sidewalk so today's ride it was a bit better than yesterday's.

Next week will be cold with overnight lows of -21C/-6F and a bit of snow over the weekend but my bike and I are prepared for it.

Have a great weekend!!

Yesterday's ride home was windy. I use a Garmin watch for both running and cycling. It tracks my mile splits as you can see in the image. Guess which mile had the strongest tailwind? Whheeee! Although it was about 55F, the wind made it feel much colder.

This morning was cold again just below freezing. I did have one lady driver pull out in front of me. I was in a left turn lane and she was looking to come out, also turning left which she should have done behind me after I went. I had to wait for oncoming traffic. I saw a small break but decided not to take it. That's when she comes flying out in front of me. Her windows were partially blocked from ice that wasn't scraped off, so I'm not sure if she saw me or not. If I had gone at that small break, she may have very well squashed me.

Chilly morning commute for this winter, but the temperatures are actually very close to our long term averages. It's just been such a mild winter that a normal day feels especially cold.

I had a close call due to my own stupidity, which shows that you need to ride smart and vigilant no matter how long you've been doing it. I started to pass some cars along the right shoulder at a red light so I could make a right turn. All of the cars appeared to be going straight and none had their blinkers on. However, just I neared the second car in the row, the driver suddenly decided to turn right and pulled right into my path. Fortunately I was watching, hit my brakes hard and avoided colliding with her. It would have been my fault, despite her rash move, so I chalked it up as another learning experience.

It must have been one of those days because I had a couple of other near misses that were not my fault. At another intersection, a driver cut across the line of traffic to make a left turn in front of me and the cars that were in the correct lane. One of the other drivers blew their horn and the crazy driver acted as if her behavior was perfectly correct. At the very next intersection, as I rounded the corner a cyclist was coming right at me going the wrong direction in the wrong lane.

Yep. As tempting as it is, never, ever filter on the right side.

I also did that in my early days of commuting. And I also had a couple of close calls that finally taught me that it's not worth the minimal time savings.

Went to the gym this morning and ran 5 miles on the treadmill. Yuck. I hate those things. But there's too much ice and snow on the pavement for me to run outside without breaking a hip.

Had a pretty easy ride to work. 9°F and about a 10 mph headwind.

Later this afternoon I'm going to ride to the cardiologist for my yearly check-up on my congenital heart condition. As part of their routine check-in process they always ask, "Do you feel well enough to walk to the examining room, or would you like a wheelchair?"

One of these days I'm going to work up the nerve to ask for the wheel chair, and then put my bike helmet back on as they wheel me down the hall.

Finally, first commute! 23f 15 mph, overcast. It's been overcast here for two weeks, and it took two weeks to get over a nasty cold, but finally got on the bike today! Finished last year at about 4500 miles. Looking forward to a good 2017!