Pleasantly uneventful. No near-misses or nasty drivers to deal with. :p
On the way home I stopped to buy a new battery for my bicycle computer.


:commute: Stats:ride:2017 :saweeet:
-------------------

Commute ratio (January): [2/31]

Near Misses: 0

Idiots met: 0



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

After 11 days off of work, I did not commute. I got some good end of year riding in, but no miles yet in 2017. I don't see myself getting out to the MTB trails until next weekend (it's been raining for 3 days, the trails are a mess and winter weather in the forecast), and not sure I'll commute this week either. May just wait for next week. Trying to get used to waking up early again!

Gorgeous morning. There was about an eighth of an inch of ice on the water this morning. The sound against the aluminum hull is pleasing in a strange way.

I finally tracked my ride home from the dock, it's 700 meters, making my total bike commute 1.3 kilometers! The ride was peaceful and my leg feels a bit better so that's a plus.


https://goo.gl/photos/yX43XSVHd6gvb3516

P.S. How much personal info comes through with those links?

[MENTION=175954]Tundra_Man[/MENTION]. I've been too worried to step on the scale, but I think I'm somewhere in the plus 10 pound range, my wife mentioned it last night. I need the in-laws to bring the spin bike over and to stop eating leftover chocolate and chips.

Today was my first commute in the new year! It was a very pleasant ride, though there was some person who beeped at me. Which made me jump a little, oh well. Moving along, the roads were wet due to rain last night. The temp was 37f degrees this am so no ice with those wet roads. Lucky me I get to ride!

Today was also my first commute of the year with the last being the 21st. Since I spent the last two weeks in Houston and 60 degree weather.. cold! Only on my face though. Moving to TX is more tempting with every trip.

When I click the link, I see your shoe size and glasses prescription strength. Oh, and a couple of photos too.

A foggy morning but warm at 50F. I skipped the tights and just wore shorts - quite nice.
I stopped for a sunrise picture. I missed the peak part, but thought it was still pretty.

Today was my first commute of 2017 and it's a great day for riding. It has rained almost continuously since New Year's Day here and the roads were still wet this morning, but the temperatures were very mild in the mid-50s. The sun is supposed to finally come out during the day, and the high is supposed to reach about 60 -- not bad for January.

Nice photo, [MENTION=366933]mgw4jc[/MENTION]. Winter seems to be the best time for sunrises and sunsets, but perhaps that's because bike commuters are often out riding during those times.

23F w/clear skies and a 12 mph north wind. Coldest ride to date! Very uneventful as there is little traffic on the roads. Not sure if lots of people are still on vacation or if it's because Oklahoma University students don't start classes until 1/17. No matter, I'll take what I can get. The cold drained the battery of my headlight to the point where it began to do its flash of "Hey, I'm running low on juice!" Never had that happen before. My e-bike's battery also loses about 40% of its power by the time I get to the office; during summer it would only lose 20%. I don't like the cold.

Woke up this morning to discover it was -6°F with a 15 mph wind which made the windchill somewhere around -27°F. My wife was lobbying hard for me not to ride, but I somehow got her to concede on the condition that I text here as soon as I arrived at the office.

The ride itself was actually pretty easy, even with the head wind. I wasn't trying to set any speed records as the plows had finally cleared the roads after Monday's snow, but there was a good layer of rutted ice left on the pavement underneath. My winter bike really gets my heart pumping even at low speeds, so halfway to work I got too sweaty and had to pull the mask off of my face.

Did have one "uh oh" moment. About a mile from my house I came up on an intersection controlled by a stop sign. The cross street didn't have to stop, and it's an extremely busy artery with traffic moving up to 50 mph. My route has me turning right, so usually I only have to wait a few minutes for a suitable break in traffic. This morning, however, there was a car in front of me trying to turn left. Must not have been a usual route for the driver, as I (and everyone else in our neighborhood) know turning left at this spot during rush hour is an exercise in futility.

My worry was that I wasn't far enough from home for my body to have warmed up, and I was wearing my normal light layers (to keep the sweat at bay once I do warm up.) I didn't know how long the guy had been waiting already, and I was now standing motionless behind him. Because I was turning right and he was signalling left I thought about squeezing between him and the curb, but his car was actually angled to the right. I figured if I did try and pass him, it would just be my luck that he would give up on the left turn and suddenly pull out to the right and mow me down. So I held my ground and waited, hoping I wouldn't freeze to death in the meantime. At least (according to Jack London) freezing to death is a relatively painless way to go, more so I would speculate than being crushed by a vehicle.

Thankfully we only sat there for about three more minutes until he saw a small break in traffic and gunned through for the left turn. Then I only had to wait about 30 more seconds for another break to allow me to turn right. A mile further down the road and I had reached operating temperature.

Helpful information, I'll keep it in mind! Also my first commute of 2017 and until reading [MENTION=175954]Tundra_Man[/MENTION]'s I thought it sucked. 18F with steady 15mph crosswinds gusting to 30 - 6F with the windchill. Someone always has it worse!

Ride home yesterday was pretty miserable. I felt like I had no strength at all. Hills + headwind + stinging drizzling rain in the face made for terrible riding conditions. Took 90 minutes to go 15.7 miles.

well, the arctic hammer fell on chicago overnight.

it was 11 degrees this morning, with a 17mph W wind making it feel like -5.

quite a big difference from yesterday morning's nice and balmy 39 degrees w/ light winds.

I only saw two photos of the dock and lake. The second is nice since its a panorama shot. Did you use your phone for it?

Happy new year to all. Hope Santa was good to you. I took all of last week off from work and the bike. I don't think I gained any weight. But I do feel it on the Ft Lee Rd hill a little bit more. Also am just getting over bronchitis. So was not inspired to ride from home last week at all. After two rounds of antibiotics and some of that 12 hour Mucinex DM suff, I think I am in the final stretch. Yeeeay. Yesterday and today were good commutes. Both in the low 40's F. Yesterday was wetter only going home. But overall not as bad as I expected. It should go up to 48F or so today. So I'll definately take it and enjoy it. :thumb: I just ordered some drivetrain replacement parts from wiggle.com. When I get around to it, will replace the cassette, chain and two chainrings on the front as well. I got the campy chainrings really cheap from a dude on ebay since they were slightly used. They still look better than mine (53t ring is missing a tooth).

I had to finish the work on my bike last night. I had changed the brifters (brake levers/shifters) and had to do all the cabling. Installing cables is my least favorite task of working on bikes. I moved the leather handlebar tape from my Bianchi. It has held up well and went on really easily.

I rode in this morning, and I think I broke my records for time. It took me 59 minutes, and that's with 2 minutes of not moving over the whole 13.4 mile course. I had a tail wind, but I was also pedaling harder. I want to get faster this year, and I'm pushing myself, at least in the mornings. I don't want to go too crazy in the dark. Rather than spending more time at 13 mph than at any other speed, that winning speed was 16 mph! Yeah! And I spend a good amount of time at 15 and 17 mph, too.

It was cool (43ºF) and damp and overcast, but there is no rain in the forecast. The sky is supposed to clear late this afternoon. I didn't wear much clothing, and I was fine. It's odd to see some people bundled up with scarves and big hats and even goggles. And they're not going as far as I am.

My tracks

Vroom vroom! :) 16 mph average is as good as it gets for me in general. I don't want to kill myself barreling through intersections like a dude did this morning on a track bike without brakes. He had a nice Cinelli aluminum frame with bullhorn handlebars. But I would need to have brakes on it if it were mine...

Driving my kid to daycare, I saw someone on a blue Bike Friday folder with drop bars, pulling out of my neighborhood and down the Greenback hill toward Folsom. With a folder, I suppose he was headed to the Folsom light rail station. Rainy day, didn't envy him with his no fenders.

28F. Brutal headwind the last few miles. Not sure if that means those clouds in the picture are going to cover us up, keep us warm tonight. It's so weird, all the standing water is frozen, everything else is bone-dry

I don't care how good those riders are, riding brakeless is inconsiderate.

I found I made similar time (and better in some ways) on Aug 4, when I rode my Lemond Ti. Not only is it a light, fast bike, when I ride it, I carry as little as possible, giving me another advantage. So today was my best time on a heavy-ish bike with luggage.

I hardly have any intersections on my route, which is amazing considering I'm in NYC the whole time.

It was a cool morning here, about - 6°C or 21°F. Everyone is muttering about the cold, I like it and since my ride is short I don't need anything extra.

I couldn't take the boat since my in-laws needed it today. But I'm not sure I would have been able push off from the dock with how thick the ice had gotten.

All photos are with my phone.

https://goo.gl/photos/PcN1FjpdkEguRPV79

[MENTION=366933]mgw4jc[/MENTION]. That's weird that my current medications didn't come up.

Lawdy I only averaged 11 MPH yesterday evening.

Ha, I only averaged 11 km/h or 6.8 mph yesterday.

I'll take 28F and dry over 35F and rainy any day. For me the brutal wind was a cross wind over my last mile. It was hard enough that I had to lean into it.

The guy who sits next to me at work is from Siberia. He probably doesn't think of 28F as very cold at all. Then again, he's been living in Oregon for five or six years so maybe his body has adapted to our moderate winters. I know 28F feels a lot colder here than I remember it feeling when I was growing up in Maryland. I guess part of that is also that I'm getting old.

One positive of this cold snap is that it's given me a proper chance to try out the Man***** Ranch Hand gloves I bought at an REI "garage sale" last year. I'm pretty pleased with them so far. My hands were actually a bit sweaty when I got to work this morning.

That's what we had before xmas break and I didn't have to stop during that because my chest hurt. But I could just attribute that to holiday sloth and suboptimal nutrition more than the weather...

Commute was about 14F this morning with a nice wind that helped me get to work. Today was my first time commuting to work as part of my commitment to go without a car for a year. The ride home; while warmer (21F), was rough. I had to ride into that 18 mph headwind. Ugh. That was awful, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.