Early morning rains mostly stopped just in time for me to ride to work. It was drizzling as I left and stopped that after a few miles. But of course my fenderless bike still got my knees and shins wet. I wore shorts only for the 50 degrees F. High of 64 this afternoon.

Drivers seem to want to wave me through at 4 way stops, even if they were clearly there first. I much prefer they go and I'll fall in behind them, especially if we're going the same way. I had to wave one guy yesterday and another guy today at different intersections.

My least favorite riding weather is 45F and raining. This morning, 45F and raining

That's our typical winter weather, including today.

But, today, carpooling from home.

Meh! It's cold enough I have to wear rain gear - warm enough I'm going to sweat and get cold. Meh!

38°F this morning and rain.

TL;DR: I crashed.

It rained all night, and the temp hadn't dropped below freezing. That's pretty unusual for January on the Great Plains. I decided to show a little moxie and ride my hybrid without the studded tires. Surely the rain and temps had taken care of most of the ice, right?

Well, it did take care of most of it. Unfortunately not all. About a mile from home I was coming down a big hill with a stop sign at the bottom. I was braking heavy on the front brake like I normally do. The next thing I know I was on the ground. The entire lower half of the hill was nothing but black ice.

After hitting the ground I flew over the bike and started sliding. Did you know that on a steep icy hill you can slide for at least 50 yards? Now I do too.

I came to rest in a puddle of water. My first thought was to get off the road fast because if a car came down the hill there was no way they were stopping. That was easier said than done. The ice was so slick I had a hard time standing up. Once I was on my feet it took a lot of careful shuffling back up the hill to where my bike was laying.

I gingerly walked the bike the rest of the way down the hill and crossed the busy street before I stopped and assessed the situation. The horn of my Airzound had snapped off, but I was able to snap it back in place. My front headlight was twisted, but that too was easily straightened out. Aside from a few scrapes and scratches (added to the many already on this bike) there wasn't much damage. Somehow my phone, which was in my pocket, survived without issue.

I, however, was pretty bruised up from the fall, especially my left thigh. No cuts or scrapes thankfully. The biggest annoyance was that I was quite soaking wet, and unfortunately was wearing my work clothes under my outer layer. Outer layers do a pretty good job keeping you dry when the rain is falling from the sky; not so much when you're laying in a few inches of water.

So I debated. Do I turn around and head back home to get dry clothes and the winter bike, or do I just keep going hoping I don't crash again and that I'll dry off before 5 PM. Going home would have meant facing that hill two more times (up, then back down; no good route around it.) I just decided to suck it up and keep riding.

Thankfully I didn't encounter any more black ice. There were some icy patches that I crossed, but they were quite visible and I was able to slow down and traverse them with care. I finished the ride without crashing. An hour and a half later I'm still quite wet and starting to feel the after-effects of the crash in my joints, but it looks like I survived another cycling adventure.

Upper 50's this morning, wet roads from yesterday's heavy rains but no rain falling. I had on my wind breaker to start but removed it half way due to sweating inside. Short sleeves and tights rolled up to 3/4 length the rest of the way in. Bit of a headwind but will have a big tail wind going home, with only bib shorts and jersey. Only problem was one guy pulling a MGIF pass on a curve with another vehicle oncoming. Idiot.

Love the lights, [MENTION=333933]timvan_78[/MENTION]!

My last commute was November 24; about 8 weeks to today. Can't remember why I didn't ride after that for a week or so before the snow hit in Vancouver, but since then it's just been snow/ice so haven't ridden. Anyways, with nearly a week of above-freezing temperatures I figured I was safe to ride. Nope; wiped out twice within half a mile from my house this morning.

First wipe out was when I felt the bike riding funny; realized I hadn't kept tire pressure up on the indoor trainer so pulled a slow wide u-turn to head home and it slipped out from under me. Tire pressure was 40 psi.

Inflated up to 95 psi. Felt better, but a few blocks later went dead slow into a roundabout and the bike slid out from under me again as I started to go 'round.

Presently riding Gatorskin 700x23. Think I'm going to try Marathon 700x32's to give me a bit more traction, but more importantly, much more volume. Will see how that goes. I don't want to be limited to the indoor trainer!

I hate cold winters. Luckily Vancouver rarely gets them.

I felt under the weather on Wednesday after riding into work, so I left my bike at the office. The weather improved yesterday, so I rode it home. I was able to ride without my jacket on a beautiful clear evening.

Still not feeling up to snuff, so I didn't ride today.

It's was like 4C out there today and all the snow that we got yesterday had melted. It was windy, wet and very sandy on the bike paths. Happy global warming not so much.

Bummer Dude. Glad you are OK. <40F and wet is primo black ice conditions. The temp is at thermometer height and doesn't take into account that the ground 5' below that is still frozen solid and flash freezes air moisture to the nastiest slippery surface imaginable. You can't even see the ice, sometimes, it is so thin (I have had eyeball level view of every little interstitial space in the pavement). But it is still a frictionless surface for bikes and pedestrians. My wife wiped out on that kind of black ice once spectacularly enough that a car in full control stopped and when the driver got out to check on her he did the full Charlie Brown feet above his head reverse superman. It's like the flipside of bikes don't hydroplane.

Anyway, very glad you are OK enough to type about it.

edit: and, yeah, studded tires do defeat that

26.6 F (-3 C), with only two idiots met on my way back home.


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

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

Nice ride home Friday. Decent tail wind and upper 60's. Made the trip in 66 minutes for an average of 14.1 MPH.

Seriously windy this morning! On a couple roads it was right in my face and gusts brought me almost to a stop. Lots of road debris, too. Almost hit a christmas tree blowing out into the lane, only noticed it at the last minute when my headlight caught on the tinsel they hadn't taken off it.

Upper 20's and a strong NW wind which is great in the morning. Sucks in the afternoon though!

Many a-mornings, today included, I debate in my mind whether I should put on slicks because the temps have been so mild, and yeah, there's been a lot of rain here lately as well. But temperatures are just around 2 to 4*C, and while riding on clean, but we pavement I would think, damn, slicks would be nice right now. But your story has confirmed for me that it is always better to err on the side of caution. The risk/reward is not worth it.

Glad you're okay, BTW. :)

32F this morning with almost no wind! Got a slightly earlier-than-usual start to the commute, so I made it to the office by 6:30 am. Uneventful ride in, just how it should be. Really liking my Lumos helmet as traffic continues to give me a lot more space than before. Amazing what some extra LEDs will do for you.

Warmish 52F with some wind this morning. We had a lot of rain last night but it moved out by 6am. I forgot to charge my headlight over the weekend and it was a bit weak for my ride in. It is charging now at my desk.

Apparently we travel the same direction! 43F here with 17mph NW winds which are mostly tailwind for the ride in. I tried to enjoy it and not think about the ride home!

It was low 40's F and really windy. Had to use the drops on the GWB going into the city this morning. Right before getting on the south sidewalk, I saw a small american flag whipping in the breeze. So that was my cue to "get ready". :) Going home will be wet and perhaps a few degrees colder. Will see. At least its on the way home (or more accurately to the car). So doesn't really matter how wet I get at that point.

Went down again this morning. Two days in a row. Arrrrgh! The worst part is I wasn't even on the bike when I fell.

When I left the house the roads looked quite clear of ice and snow. We're supposed to get 8 more inches of the white stuff starting this evening so seeing as the roads were clear I decided to take the hybrid with the slicks.

The roads were in great shape and I had no trouble. However once I reached the MUP there was patchy ice. Most of it was short stretches of a few feet so I just made sure I was crossing them perfectly straight and had no trouble even without studded tires.

Until I came to a long patch about 30 yards long. I decided it was more ice than I wanted to try and ride across, so I got off and proceeded to walk. I made it about 3 steps onto the ice when my legs went out from under me and I hit the ground. Smashed my elbow pretty good.

Unfortunately, I came down with my full weight right on the side of my front wheel. Knocked the wheel out of true to the point where it was locked hard against the brakes. Had to spend some time straightening it out the best I could so that it would spin again. Also bent my rear brake lever so it now had a 90 degree bend and looked more like a banana. Spent more time straightening that out too. My front brakes still aren't quite right (not releasing very well,) but they were good enough for me to finish my ride. I'll have to work on them more when I get home.

The remainder of the ride I just stayed on the bike even on the longer stretches of ice and didn't have any trouble. Once I got off the MUP the roads were clear again. Going home tonight I may try and avoid the MUP altogether, although that will add several miles and lots of hills and traffic to the trip.

@mcours2006 summed it up well when he said it's better to err on the side of caution when it comes to studded tires. I'm a slow learner and it took me two falls in a row to figure out that I just need to keep riding the studs until about May. As much as I hate them (and I really do hate them) they do their job so well that I forget they add much more than just a lot of rolling resistance.

The worst part is I'll forget this lesson and probably repeat it again next winter.

29F, clammy, partly cloudy then a wall of fog descended, you can kind of see the fog at the end here

Falling resistance, that's what you want!

I am currently in denial on studded tires myself, was really counting on the ground warming up so that black ice wouldn't be a thing, and maybe it has, there was no black ice today, but since it got farther below freezing last night than forecast, I hope it gets back into the 50s asap (like forecast) so the ground can warm past the black ice temps. If it doesn't happen and it does get black icy, and I don't find out until I ride through it and my front tire goes out, I will only have myself to blame...

[MENTION=175954]Tundra_Man[/MENTION]. I also think it's worth it to err on the side of caution when it comes to using studs. I'd rather take it slow with heavy tires.

I took the kids into town for a birthday party my son was invited to in Sunday. I dropped him off then went to run random errands, I ended up at the recycling center that has stuff for sale. I'm not sure what I was looking for but I found a play kitchen and was able to get it for a whole $2. So I managed to fit it in the bike for the ride home.

Hauling the kitchen sink. https://imgur.com/a/hNqn8

After getting home I finally succumbed to the virus or family had been dealing with since Thursday. My son was sick Thursday and Friday. Then Sunday my wife starts vomiting, which she never does. Then Sunday evening I get the chills and really bad aches. Thankfully I felt a lot better in the morning but still not great. I don't think my wife and I have been out of commission simultaneously ever; I'm thankful for the in-laws helping this morning to get that kids to school.

[MENTION=190611]joeyduck[/MENTION] that is a cute little toy! I was imagining a big plastic Fisher Price thing.

There were severe weather warnings today. We're due to get heavy rain and wind gusts up to 60 mph. I've been through some heavy wind lately, and I said no to that and took the subway to work.

I had my first ride to work of 2017 this morning and it was brutal. I've been fighting off the remnants of the bad cold that's been going around here and finally felt up to riding today. But I made it, and am better off for it.

We had gotten a bunch of play food and play kitchenware for the little girl over Christmas and we thought she would love it. I've not cleaned it off to bring in the house but while we were in the boat she enjoyed it.

As I lie in bed with our window cracked I've been listening to the sea lions on the beach. They have been noisy since five am. I'm lucky to live in such a great place.

Sorry to hear that. Smacking your elbow sucks on its own. But with front wheel damage it Sucks with a capitol S... :(

I debated it early this morning. Will take it easier over the bridge going home, though. Was pretty windy this morning there...

You may want to rethink that. It's getting worse. Do you have a way to get home off your bike?