25°F this morning with clear skies and hardly any wind.

But the big story is ice. Lots and lots of ice. We received 8" of heavy, wet snow yesterday. By the time I rode home it was about 34°F which meant all that wet snow was turning into soup. Then once the sun went down and the temp dropped well below freezing, all that heavy wet snow turned into rock hard ice.

Today when I reached the MUP I was very pleased to see that they had plowed it during the night. However, because so much of the snow pack was frozen solid there was a lot of rutted ice left on top of the pavement. Not ideal, but much better than riding through the full 8" of frozen rock ice. And besides, I have carbide studded tires so I don't have to worry about ice, right?

Wrong. Unfortunately about 1.5 miles from home I hit a big patch of glass ice ending with more ruts and I went down hard. My front tire lost traction on the smooth part and as I was fighting to regain control my bike hit the ruts and then I hit the ground. My left hip, elbow and head (thank you helmet!) took the brunt of the impact. My right shin caught the pedal and I lost some skin. Nothing broken, but I'm bruised and sore.

I got up and confirmed that I wasn't gravely injured. Then I realized that I had come down right on my phone in my pocket, so I pulled that out and snapped a picture of the scene to confirm the phone still worked. If you look closely you can see the grooves my studded tires were cutting in the ice as I was trying to keep the bike upright.

I gingerly walked back to the bike and confirmed that it was OK. Then I thought, "I need to get back on the horse and finish the ride," so I did. Admittedly, I was a lot more cautious for the remainder of the 8 mile trip as I wasn't sure if my old body would handle a 2nd impact like that mere minutes later.

https://scontent.ffar1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...b2&oe=5B6468B3

Ouch! Rutted ice is the worst and the most common here. I ended getting different studded tires with more side studs just because of it.

We got a little taste of spring yesterday evening with 60 degree temps but winter's back this morning, 34F. Each day it's been a degree or two warmer - not enough!

The stiff west wind last night (which was a nasty cross-wind going home) swung around to an equally stiff north wind this morning. Tailwind! I altered my route a little bit to take in the longest straight N-S runs I know.


Not too chilly, about 45F, but I was glad to be wearing more than yesterday's shorts and thin jersey. All in all, a pretty nice ride.

I had to stop a few times just after leaving the house, to futz with my headlight wires. It was working intermittently or not at all. Dunno what I did, but I got it working. Still, that's going to require more attention when I get home this evening.

Saw a fox running down the sidewalk and was able to keep my light on him/her for a little while. Strange how a fox moves so differently from either a dog or a cat.

34F, sunny; 12 mile rather than 6 mile route this am

Damn, [MENTION=175954]Tundra_Man[/MENTION], you are the badassest this year.

Or maybe I've just slammed my head on the pavement one too many times. :lol:

New bike arrived in time to toss it in for the camping trip!

Ad me to the headwind club today. But since it was the first day in a long time I was able to ride in it didn't bother me too much.

So this week I started the first of my 2018 commuting in N.Ireland. Not a fan of cycling in sub-zero weather so its been a long wait! Three days of cycling in to work for me this week - afternoon starts and after 1am commute home.
Its been a consistent week of headwind in, tailwind home. No complaints as its uphill home.
I found a new route to work that I had overlooked entirely. Turns out that a cycle path near my house takes me most of the way to work! On paper I'm now doing 8.2miles to work instead of 7.5 miles, but the time it takes is the same - mainly due to avoiding a large climb and general surface of the road being far better!


Loving my commute at the minute...long may it continue!

Yay for Friday! Another nice uneventful commute to work today. Although there were no added miles due to the temp being just 35 f degrees and I was not feeling the extra miles this am.There was some sort of wind today as the weather person spoke of wind chill. We are at mid-April wind chill does not happen in April. Most likely on the way home I will be feeling extra miles as the temp will be in the 50's.

Very nice about the path! Nothing wrong with not taking the shortest route. I add about 2.5 miles above the shortest route just to have less traffic and a more enjoyable ride.

Yesterday I forgot to mention the 6 or so deer that I saw on the MUP. I rounded a corner and saw them about 50 yards ahead. They took off into the woods as I approached.

I didn't ride today, but at least wanted to complain about yesterday afternoon's headwind. It was quite strong and consistent. I took the shorter route home which had me going with some slow traffic. I was able to draft behind a pickup truck for about half a mile or so. That helped. But on one section nearing home, I had to drop to the small front gear to climb a gentle grade that normally is not tough at all.

Cool, almost crisp, clear, and calm. A good ride, but for some reason I'm frazzled -- could be not able to get the lock I keep at work open. I hope looping it around the handlebars is enough to deter scoundrels for one day...

@nd day in a row!! Woho!

37F, sunny, lenticular clouds galore

It's been cold and windy here, and today is colder and windier. I'm taking a bus upstate after work, so I left my bike at home and took the subway to work. I didn't feel like riding Citi Bike to work, because those bikes are tanks, and 6.5 is not a fun distance on a tank. I might ride it to the bus terminal which is a slightly shorter ride.

I'm pretty good at enjoying the outdoors even when the weather isn't ideal, but today I am really getting tired of the prolonged wintry weather. Today is January 110th.

[MENTION=60072]HardyWeinberg[/MENTION], that looks like a smoke ring above Rainier.

That's the lenticular cloud! There are others that were recently launched this am

Damn, I concentrated too much on getting rid of a wheelsucker by doing cadence training while crossing the 520 bridge to notice Mt Rainier this morning. I faffed about and set out later than usual when it was already 50F. If I'd left half an hour earlier, I'd probably have worn my jacket instead of a short sleeve jersey with arm warmers, which I could've taken off halfway through.

A very nice commute in this morning with the temp at 34f degrees and clear skies that are light when left the house this am. I took the longer ride in this morning despite the cold weather due to it being light out I can enjoy the scenery on my ride.

Sunny, 36F, no wind and most importantly: no snow, ice or rain.

Beautiful morning. About time spring decided to show up. :)

Rode my fixie for the first time this year, just because I could.

https://scontent.ffsd1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...6b&oe=5B9C2E94

Finally feels like Spring! 47F, high chance of rain the rest of the day but temps near 60

The weather forecast called for mild temperatures and lots of sun, so I knew I would be a fool not to ride. On Saturday, I took a challenging 32 mile ride over lots of hills, and I'm still stiff from that. I really should stretch. But I rode today.

I saw a guy riding a weird bike with the shortest wheelbase I've ever seen. The two wheels were almost touching each other. The handlebars were under his butt, though he was sitting upright. I can't describe the bike any further, as we passed each other quickly.

In my experience, faster bikes yield faster times. Here is my new Lemond titanium bike. I swapped the frameset with someone else, as mine was too small, and his was too big. This rides pretty much like the previous one. I didn't put much effort into speed, and I had a headwind, yet my travel time was low and my average speed was high.

https://ridewithgps.com/photos/3549231/large.jpg

Nice ride this morning after the storm blew itself out last night.


Half a mile from the house, the wind had blown an old, big tree over the street. It was supported by four utility wires: the trunk up top, and three branches lower down. I was tempted to stay and wait for the work crew to show up and cut it down, but headed on in to work (gotta love grid streets!). Seems to me if you cut off any one branch or trunk, you'd risk loading the remaining wires up to the point they might break. I'll have to check the clocks in the house when I get home . . .


Oh, yes, about the wind. I was riding across a bunch of beautiful white petals on the last hill before I got to work. Then I saw some of those white petals still attached to a twig, with locust leaves on it. I sure hope I didn't pick up any thorns!