Every so often I'll have one of those days where I contemplate whether I should get up out of bed and ride to work, or turn over and sleep for another 30 minutes to an hour. This usually happens in winter when it's cold and dark outside, or if I didn't get enough sleep the night before. This morning I got up nearly 30 minutes late from my usual bike commute wake up time, and I considered just skipping again, even though today was my first opportunity to ride to work so far this week with all the weather and work commitments I've had.

I decided to go ahead and ride anyway, and I'm sure glad I did.

It was a little chilly to start at around 37°F. But since I left the house about 15 minutes later than usual, there was already a decent amount of ambient light outside, just before sunrise. Within about 20-30 minutes the sun was shining brightly, and I felt great. Hands had warmed up nicely inside my gloves. There's just something about the sun shining on a bike ride. Even if it's a little cold, the sun makes you feel warmer, and just generally feel good about life.

Anyway, the ride was great, and I had pretty much no issues with motorists, which is always good. It was just slow as usual. Despite only having to stop for 2 traffic lights, I've pretty much come to terms with the fact that I'll never be able to make the 15.5 mile commute in much less than about 80 minutes, except for when I get the Bafang system for my utility bike, and start using that for some commutes, hopefully to reduce my car use even more.
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Dang, apparently there is no more "autosave" function when typing posts, and I had typed a lengthy post but accidentally hit the Back button on the side of my mouse. Now it's all gone, so I had to retype all that above a second time.

That's how it usually goes for me, too. I often have a hard time getting myself to ride but I'm never sad I've ridden.

I've been thinking about it and I really think I'd get a Zuma 125 or similar before I got an e-bike. I hope you enjoy yours, though.

Wouldn't want the maintenance associated with another internal combustion engine, or deal with registration, licensing, insurance, etc. Once I outfit my utility bike with the Bafang BBS02 system, the bike's total cost will be less than $1,500 since I built it up from a bare frame using mostly parts I already had.

I busted my tail and beat this storm home! avg 17.7mph for the ride.

Just a few rain drops right as I got home.

I've had that happen. One time going to work I even had rain all around me on 3 sides, and the skies opened up literally seconds after arriving at work. The radar showed a V-shaped cut into the edge of the rain, right where I had been riding. Thankfully it wasn't actually one of those inflow notch "hooks" where tornadoes get started. It was just a lucky break I think.

I put new rear brake pads/holders on last night and fiddled with fenders a bit.
Wet this AM but didnt get soaked.

Took my road bike with skinny tires. Flurries began as I left the house. Turned to squalls about half way there. Then accumulation on the ground. WTF?! Had to wash off the crap that accumulated on the bike.

It was nice for the first 20 minutes though. Felt like I was flying compared to the heavy bike with studded tires I rode yesterday.

Wednesday afternoon had the looming storms and tornado watches in surrounding areas. Lucky for me though it mean a good tailwind most of the way home. I averaged just over 18mph for that ride home. That was fun!

I was off work Thursday, but back in today. Cold again at 32F, but warming to upper 50s.

When I got to work I got a text from my wife saying my son is in the bathroom with stomach bug stuff and youngest daughter is hiding in her bedroom so she doesn't get it.

Was a cold one this morning at around 31F. I threw on the balaklava for the hell of it. It usually only comes out in the 20sF but this morning was close enough. I don't expect it to get much warmer later on. But what a huge difference not having the wind gusts that I experienced yesterday. I looked up the wind advisory on wunderground.com and saw that the gusts were up to 52 mph at Laguardia airport. So the wind yesterday was fairly heavy for NYC. I also saw a motorcycle blown over on 110th street yesterday. So thats another indicator for how windy it was, I think.

Man, it cooled off in a hurry last night! The mercury wend down with the sun, about 10 degrees in an hour.


I faked myself out this morning. I thought about getting out the medium weight tights to deal with just-barely-freezing. Then I thought about riding home in them at 50F, and went with the light tights. Then I forgot about it. I thought I had the heavier ones on, and thought myself warm all the way to work!

45F and raining. All my clothes dry from last night's commute home except my gloves. Not sure how much will be how dry for today's pm commute.

A good Monday morning commute. A couple of colleagues were late to work due to an accidents and stand still traffic on the interstate. A good day to commute by bicycle me thinks. I saw one other biker on the MUP. That's heavy traffic for me.

Oh, and I broke 1000 miles for the year last week. Still hoping for 6,000 for the year. I'm a little behind on the average per week I need, but that's been due to days off here and there.

62F this morning with a strong southern wind. Wet roads from some overnight showers, but other than that the ride to work was uneventful. Leaving home at 5:30 am is proving to be the sweet spot, even though leaving at 6 am isn't too bad, just a few more cars on the road.

today was my first bike commute in over a week!

last week i had a very mysterious and quite painful injury pop up in my hand when i woke up monday morning.

being a typical guy, i of course didn't get it checked out or anything and just assumed it would go away on its own.

over the weekend my hand was feeling much better and it was 100% this morning so i hopped on the bike and rode!

after nearly 10 years of doing this almost everyday, it's still so much fun to get back on the bike after a small break.

55°F this morning, but crazy windy. Went out for a 5 mile run before I left for work. Hadn't run in almost two weeks due to my ankle that likes to give me fits a few times each year, so I didn't try and push the speed at all. Amazing how fast atrophy sets in. A couple hours after I finished the run my joints are now reminding me that I haven't participated in that activity for a while.

After a quick shower I hopped on the bike. Had a mostly 25 mph tail wind on the ride to work. This afternoon winds are supposed to pick up to about 40 mph steady with 60+ mph gusts. Have to ride directly into it to get to my son's school conferences and then home. Should make for an interesting journey.

Ain't that the truth! 52F with wicked southerly wind, i.e. in my face. I tried to outrun the rain and didn't - so I busted my butt for nothing! This is predicted to be the week of the winds... I hate wind

Dreary overcast day, with 10 mph south (head) wind. At least it was warm enough to skip the jacket and tights. I was due for a recovery day, so I just geared down and took my time.


If I were less stiff so I could just move, I'd feel a lot better!

35F, big heavy gloppy snow at home, nasty spitting sleet at work, happy Monday...

Stiff headwind this morning held me down to under 12 MPH average! But that's ok because I'll be sailing on the ride home!

58 degrees but a strong wind like everyone else! Knew it ahead of time so just took it easy, wasn't extremely bad that way.

Effin' cold this morning!

Got a good 15 miles in this morning. A little bit of headwinds, but a comfortable 50F. Possible rain showers this evening, but hopefully it will hold off until after I get home.

Not sure why weather.com keeps showing me an alert for a Freeze Warning for last Saturday morning.

Strong wind again today, but at least I got to ride directly into it.

Steady rain, 54F, 10mph headwinds. The weather pundits forecast 17mph southerly winds and I was thrilled that they were wrong. They weren't wrong about the rain though

Felt weak yesterday, feel worse today, so drove. If I had brought my computer home last night I would have stayed home. The only reason not to bring the computer home was that I wasn't looking forward to dealing with it identifying (or not) the things I plug it back into in the morning. Would be nice if that process were smoother.