Finally commuted! First bike ride of 2017. Low 50s, overcast, but enjoyable af. One of the coffee shops is celebrating their 4 year anniversary and giving away free lattes/tea/coffee all day!

first 2 commutes of 2017! we've had snow/ice, which this area is NOT used to. It had been 1,000 days since the last significant snowfall, and now we've had sustained sub-freezing temperatures. It was dry the last few days so I rode. There's still patches of packed slush that has frozen, and a few spots where daytime meltwater freezes to ice overnight.

Dead skunk in the middle of the road yesterday AM, had me singing that old song.

I worked from home today, but I want to take a bike out to the grocery store for a little fun. I made it down the hill from my house, but the bike was sliding all of the place. Trying to do that with a load of groceries seemed like a bad idea, so I gave up and came back home.



Total distance: 0.9 miles. I walked about half of that.

Back to below the 20's but a very pleasant tailwind. I'd rather almost have this morning versus yesterday when it was 60's but had headwinds from hell, both back and forth.

Just under 50F this morning and I overdressed a bit. I stopped after about 4 miles to shed a layer. Then my route dropped down to a drainage creek and the air got a good 10 degrees colder. I got chilled a bit but didn't stop again and it warmed back up once the route climbed back up.

High today over 60F. I'm off work tomorrow and we may hit 70. I may have to ride a bit just to enjoy that.

Warm but very wet commute. It wasn't raining but the roads were "sweating" due to the quick warmup after 4 days of below freezing temperatures and several inches of sleet/snow. Hopefully the roads will be drier this afternoon, as it's supposed to be sunny with a high in the upper 60s.

Two drivers right-hooked me this morning, but fortunately I was being vigilant and avoided any collisions. It's very annoying, however, when drivers rush to pass you and then almost immediately turn right.

Same here. Warm and wet. It kinda started raining halfway to the station, big drops, not many of them. After Saturday's snow and the rain that followed it, the surface of the D&R Canal towpath is getting pretty muddy. Unless we get a hard freeze, looks like I won't be riding it again for a couple months.

Not feeling the greatest. Started getting a sore throat yesterday afternoon. Don't feel bad enough to stay home, just bad enough for it to be annoying. I went ahead and rode to work anyway, justifying that if I was too sick to ride, I was too sick to go to work period.

Thankfully it was pretty easy weather this morning for January in South Dakota: 8°F with a light headwind. Pretty uneventful commute. I took my time and made it with no issues.

EDIT: Just discovered that we're out of coffee at the office. We are officially in crisis mode!

I agree... today, although colder, was a much nicer commute.

I overslept this morning, which got me off to a later start than usual. It wasn't a big deal, just a bit more traffic to deal with. The late start did allow me to run into one of the few commuters that rides along my route. I usually (although only occasionally) only catch him on my evening commute. We had about a 5-mile stretch where we were able to yap and catch up a bit... which is a nice change from usual.

20F, sunny, frosty

Unfortunately only my 2nd commute of the year yesterday. We went from snow and ice last Friday and Saturday (snow day off work and school Friday), to 60's and 70's this week with huge gusty south winds. Yesterday morning was a HARD ride into work with gusting head winds. 15.5 miles took nearly 90 solid minutes. But then I had a massive tail wind going home and it only took 67 minutes (63 minutes moving time). I was spinning hard on the one big downhill, spinning out 50x11 and got to 39.8 MPH. Just barely missed 40!

Only motorist issues were in the morning, a Sheriff deputy in a pickup passed me shortly before he had to turn left (me going straight), and honked for some dumb reason. In past experience local Sheriff deputies have always been pretty respectful and safe when passing. Oh well. One person's house continually has their large dog roaming around the front yard, who charges me whenever I ride by. I may have to send them my own letter one of these days, I don't know.

No more hard packed snow/ice to contend with so today was the first commute since last Friday. Felt good, and with a sunny, warm day will have a great ride home. Snow is still piled up in the bike lanes, and there is an awful amount of sand on the road surfaces so I will have some challenges.

Out of eight commutes this year I've had a couple with ice and low temps, one freezing rain and sleet, and once with a lot of flooded sections, but today is incredible. It was nice enough this morning, but outside at noon I was seriously tempted to stay out and play. Going home may be the nicest trip in months.

Quite interesting, since on my way home I was caught by freezing rain and subsequently by an ice storm. Which is quite unusual, at least here in Italy. I had to pay possibly more attention to other drivers' intentions and moves, but otherwise it was a nice commute. I was pleasantly warm. Thanks to what I learned here on BF, I was nicely dressed in layers and I had multiple newspaper plies in my shoes, and my feet were toasty warm.

First and last commute for this week. TGIF! Finally warm enough temps so there was no ice and snow on the roads. The temp was 45f degrees when I left the house this morning, with a full moon and clear skies it was a very pleasant ride.

59 degrees at 4:45 AM when I left the house this morning, what happened to January? It felt like spring, with warm patches and cooler patches here and there along my ride. Now I think it's cooling off.

NE cold wind, chained popped off, tired and cranky.. probably should of drove.

Another sunny warm day today with morning temps about 50 F, and the high is supposed to reach 70. We've gone from near record low temps last week to near record highs yesterday and today. Fortunately the streets were a lot drier today but I still had to be careful in spots due to wet pavement on corners. I was hoping that the nice weather would continue into the weekend, but it's supposed to turn colder and wetter. I really need to wash my bikes, particularly since I've been riding all week on streets that were treated with salt during the winter storm.

There's a big international music festival going on these days, that attracts a lot of foreign visitors which is nice of course, but they are not used to bikes and lots of them are quite unpredictable. So it's one hand on the bell and the other on the brakes in the cente. Weather is ok, a bit wet and very windy, but it's not freezing cold.

Just wait, it's on its way back to you! 24F this morning and I expected black ice from the heavy rains the last couple days so put on the studs - nothing. Oh well, freezing rain is on its way for the weekend so I'm ready!

Consecutive work commute number 214:

0°F this morning. About 1/2" of snow fell overnight and it was still coming down during my ride to work. However I had a light tailwind so it was actually the easiest ride I've had in a while.

There is a stretch on the MUP that is about 100 yards to sheet ice. Thankfully I knew approximately where it was located as the snow was hiding it. I saw some footprints and marks in the snow where it looked like some pedestrians had slipped. My rear end got a little wiggly, but I made it through without going down.

Yeah, we're supposed to get hit with freezing rain this weekend here too! Bulk of it will be Saturday night and Sunday. There is a slight chance for this afternoon, but I'm hoping it doesn't materialize... because I don't have studded tires!

Worth getting just for ice storms when no one can get around except bicycles with studs!

Yep, that's what I've kept telling myself for the past couple of years. But telling myself and actually getting it done have been two different things. I may pay for my procrastination this afternoon.

This AM was good: cold & dark, full moon lighting up a million frosty diamonds, then a pink sunrise lighting up snow-covered mountains.