35F and pleasantly ordinary

42F, clammy, partly cloudy. Went for full-finger gloves because the glove cuffs inside the coat cuffs were a nice extra bit of insulation.

After more than a week off the bike waiting for the snow and ice to melt it was great to be back on the road today -- temps in the mid 40's, no rain.

My one gripe is that the local roads dept uses gravel to help provide traction when it snows and immediately afterward all of that gravel gets deposited in the bike lane where it will likely stay until spring. A couple of times today I felt like I should have swapped in my gravel tires. But, hey, I ride a CX bike to work and I like gravel grinding, so this couldn't spoil the enjoyment of the ride.

All the snow/ice is prettymuch gone. got absolutely drenched the last couple days, so prettymuch back to normal for this time of year, I would say.

I've been loving the string of tiny LED christmas lights that i rigged up this year.

Happy Birthday and enjoy the warm day!

a few good rides so far this year my favorite was when we got 8" of snow Saturday before last. I got the mountain bike out and played in the snow. Such a fun ride. Not really a commute but still fun

Pleasantly uneventful. Above all, no idiots met , though I returned home late from work.


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

Commute ratio (January): [NA/31]

Near Misses: 1

Idiots met: 5



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

The temp was 33f degrees when I left the house with wet roads. I was unsure of the black ice conditions and I wanted to ride so I did. I was extremely careful but I only saw small amounts of icing over on some small puddles. Otherwise the roads were just wet, but with the temp sitting so close to freezing you can't be sure of the variations. Anyway, a safe uneventful ride and it is Friday!

45 degrees, fog, mist and wet roads. But it felt great. Hoping next week I can ride the non-studded bike! I mentioned a third bike with fenders and non-studded tires but the look I got from the wife was a no!

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.


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

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.