Foggy ride into work yesterday morning!

Cool pic [MENTION=491137]mchb[/MENTION]. Some fat tires too!

Left a little later than I like due to adding some air to the tires and lube to the chain. But cutting out one slight longer / more uphill section got me to work on time just fine.

Low 20s this morning. The coldest I've ridden in this season. My toes got cold, but not really until the last 2 miles. Sunny and getting up to 50 this afternoon.

Derailleur replaced and the winter beater back on the road. Perfect temp and no wind but hit the train for 30 minutes. Got to talk to a walker I've seen for the last 2 years though so not all bad.

Erm, "hit the train?"

Seems like every autumn there's a night when I wake up and think, "How did I sleep through that? Surely there was a massive ka-WHOMP when all those leaves hit the ground?" Last night was that night, about 6" of leaves all over the back yard this morning. (Come to think of it, maybe that's what woke me up...)

So I started out the ride with two concerns. What's the minimum amount of work I need to do today, so I can get home early and get the leaves up before the rain hits and they get all wet? And how to get to work today without taking the MUP, which is probably covered over since it's been too cold for the runners to clear off the last few days -- and it probably got re-covered with leaves last night.

Naturally, it started raining a mile from the house. Not too heavy, probably less than a quarter inch in 40 minutes, but I don't have to worry about getting the leaves up before they get wet -- too late now! And my routing concern changed to how do I get to work the fastest from HERE? Took a few streets I almost never ride, then up and over the hill to miss the MUP, and the rain stopped before I hit the downhill.

Not the best of rides, not the worst of rides.

The 40% chance of freezing rain they predicted yesterday turned into a 100% certainty for last night's ride home. Glad I rode the winter bike with studded tires.

This morning the ice was even thicker. When I was on the main thoroughfares it wasn't bad because the city had put down ice melt and the traffic was keeping things wet but not frozen. The back roads and MUP, however, where 90% of today's ride occurred was pretty treacherous. Temp wasn't bad at 23F and the breeze was light. I took my time and made it to work without incident.

About 1/2 mile from home it occurred to me that my feet didn't feel right. I looked down and realized out of habit I had put on my clipless shoes even though my winter bike has platform pedals. I was so focused on dealing with the ice that I hadn't noticed until this point. I didn't feel like backtracking across even more ice, so I just decided to live with it. The cleats kind of slid around on the platforms, but I survived.

Windy! Last night, the wind was still a crosswind, slightly in my face, but I had some segments when it was at my back. Even the in-my-face segments were tolerable, so no complaints. There was one short segment when I was facing it directly, and it took a lot of effort to keep moving.

By this morning, the direction shifted slightly, and the intensity has increased. The city has issued a high winds warning. It was more in my face this morning than yesterday morning. A couple of side gusts nearly knocked me down. So this evening's ride should be fun. The people coming the other way this morning looked like they were flying.

Tuesday evening while I was struggling against a headwind, a thin woman on a bike with panniers passed me easily, and I wondered how she managed that. Then I saw she had an electric hub in her rear wheel.

Woke up to 30F with freezing rain and sleet. Headed out on the studded tire bike and then turned around and switched to regular commuter. The streets and MUP had patches of ice but mostly clear. The bridges were pucker factor 10 but no falls. I so hate riding my "winter" bike that I'd rather fall than ride it. I really need to get a different winter bike.

45F, gray, clammy. My shoes this morning had not dried out from the rain of Monday's commute, despite taking the insoles out. I knew I should have stuffed them with newspapers.

after the big snowfall on sunday night, i rode today for the 1st time this week. 6 miles of my 8 mile commute route are along the north shore channel path from lawrence up to church st. in evanston.

the chicago portion of the path had been half-assed plowed, but not salted so it was an icy rutted-footprint mess in spots, covered by the 1/2" of new snow we got last night for extra wintertime fun. praise jeebus for my schwalbe marathon winters and their 248 studs per tire!!!

north of devon, up in lincolnwood/skokie the path had been plowed and salted, so conditions were much better, though still with some significant patches of icy ruts that the salt didn't get to along the way there too, so the marathon winters proved their worth there once again.

even with all of the icy danger, it was still a hell of a lot more fun than riding metra commuter rail!

I just checked the wind map. The direction has shifted even further in my favor for my trip home this evening, but the speed has subsided a bit. Oh well, I'll take it.

Got a good wake up ride this morning. A car actually hit me from behind this morning. It's dark but I have my rear blinkie and reflector and was sitting at a well lit light waiting for it to turn. When it turned green I was just starting when Bam somebody hits me from behind. He was turning right. There was plenty of room so he must have just missed seeing me. He was going slow so no worse than being pushed by a schoolyard bully. Afraid I said some bad words. We both went our separate ways.

The bike was fine. The rear tire feels like it may have lost air. I just filled it up yesterday. I'll check before I go home tonight.

2 mile later, the light turns green, I start, and the NB left turner tries to beat all of us SB people. There were cars SB too. For a second I thought he was going to hit me too. Said some more bad words.

Wow, glad you're okay [MENTION=272560]locolobo13[/MENTION]. That could've been much worse.

A good 20+ degrees warmer than yesterday morning. Shorts were sufficient for the ride to work. A good ride except for kind of losing energy and getting really hungry at the end.

When I get to my building I take my bike inside and park it under a stair well. I have no problem opening the door to the stairs as I walk my bike in. But occasionally there is a lady there talking to a friend and if she sees me coming she'll step over and open the door for me. One time I joked with the guy she talks to that I have a personal doorman. Today she didn't see me right away but when she did she went to open it as I said, "Don't be slacking on your duties now!"

My first post into this thread and this is about my ride home on Tuesday night. I was about 2 miles from home, riding my year-old Kona Rove DL and started hearing an aweful clunking noise. It worsened when I stood on the pedals. My first thought was a bottom bracket issue or a loose crank. I stopped to check and everything related to the cranks seemed fine, so I continued to the house. I did notice that there was now a wobble to my bike. I couldn't quite figure out where it was coming from. Once at home, I put the bike on the rack and started going over it. Eventually, I found that the drive-side chain stay was broken, right where it joins with the seat stay (just in front of the rear axle). Yikes!

I purchased this bike in October 2017, so it is barely a year old. Luckily, I did register it at Kona.com, so the frame has a lifetime warranty. My LBS, where I bought it has already ordered my replacement frame and I'll drop it off on Saturday morning. In searching the web, I've not found any indication that this is an on-going issue with their bikes, so this really is the purpose of the warranty--to cover defects in one of their products.

In the meantime, I drug my old commuter bike (1986 Austro-Daimler Mixte) out of the garage and immediately wondered how I ever put so many thousands of miles on it. The geometry and fit just felt weird. It took about a day and a half to readjust to it. She feels good now and I'm happy to go old-school until my current ride is back in action.

3rd day of icy pavement. Tomorrow they're talking up to 10" of snow, so I guess winter has officially arrived. 30F this morning and lots of fog.

My rear derailleur that started causing the chain to jump on Wednesday has been quickly getting worse. Jumped so bad this morning that it bounced the chain right off the sprocket. Unfortunately it was as I was trying to turn left through an intersection when suddenly I had no power. Had to waddle the bike around the turn as traffic stared at me, feeling like a complete idiot. Once around the corner I pulled to the curb and got the chain back on.

My old derailleur is so rusty and nasty looking that it's surprising it works at all. I can barely make out the brand and model through the corrosion (Shimano Altus.) The jockey wheels are almost round with little pointed nubs. The cage is kind of crooked after repeated crashes where I've had to try and straighten things back out. A decade of winter riding has finally taken its toll on this old thing. I ordered a new derailleur last night. Just have to milk this one for a few more days. It was only about a buck more to upgrade one group level higher, so I went with a Shimano Acera this time around. Probably won't notice a difference, but why not?

Damn man - bad words are the least you could do. You sure there's not a target on your shirt?! Much warmer today, 41F, foggy, almost no wind. I'm grateful for the mild weather at the end of this week - I need some easy riding!

A band of showers came through this morning, so I got wet. Warm, upper 50s, so I was wondering if I should wear the rain jacket downstairs to rinse the sweat off in the shower, but I decided there was a limit to my dorkiness.

Did you remember to yell, "Yabba-dabba doo!"?

43F, multilevel weather

I think my words were closer to Yosemite Sam's than Fred Flintstone's.

Had a great ride home yesterday without super strong winds like earlier in the week. Rode home to a date night with daughter. we had a great time together catching up. It was pretty fun to just have a good conversation with a 15yo.

Rode in this morning and was so thankful for the newly installed albeit not correctly fenders on my bike. They will fix this weekend but the sunrise was quite pretty today and this is why riding a bike is better. .

Sunrise on Nov 30, 2018

Major interstate closed for 2 years as they rebuild


the view east of two demolished bridges.

Slightly windy seaside day as expected from this time of year!

Glad I ride a bike.. a lot of wrecks on bridges this morning due to ice. The studs have no problem with that. Overheating lately and not sure why.

Damp roads, but not enough to kick up spray. Cool and clear for a nice ride in this morning. Though there was more roadkill than normal.

Forecast is for a high of 67F this afternoon, but then only 51 or less the rest of the week.

So going into this last weekend, "Snowpocolypse" was supposed to happen. We were supposed to get somewhere in the 6"-10" range between Friday night and Sunday morning. A decent amount, but not one that will phase us come Jan-Feb. However, the first major snowfall of the year always freaks everyone out. Once we get that first snow out of our system (pun somewhat intended) everyone calms down and the subsequent snows rarely slow down life as we know it. So I was bracing myself for the annual freak-out.

Sure enough, by Friday afternoon the local news outlets were in full force telling everyone that Armageddon was about to arrive. The amount of "freak out" seemed to be above our typical first-major-snow-of-the-season normal. By Friday evening, before a single snowflake fell, announcements started being made about events getting cancelled due to the pending weather. The schools shut down all weekend activity, including a Winter Formal dance. I couldn't believe it. A friend of mine even called me to get my opinion about whether or not he should cancel his event on Saturday night. I told him he may want to wait until it at least starts snowing. He reluctantly agreed that maybe it was a little early. I told him that by 2 PM on Saturday we should know whether or not the snowfall will be significant enough to cancel his 7 PM event. Even then, I encouraged him to keep it scheduled as our weather here is to unpredictable for any forecaster to consistently get right, plus we're in South Dakota and people would still drive through 10" of snow to attend.

The snow was supposed to start by 10 PM on Friday night. I went to bed at 11:30, and not a flake had dropped. When I woke up on Saturday, still no snow. By then the weatherman was telling us we would see a "significant snow event" starting at 11 AM. Closings were still getting announced. Even our local cycling group cancelled their fat bike ride due to inclement weather. What? Isn't inclement weather the reason you buy a fat bike?

Around 1 PM flakes started to fall. My friend immediately cancelled his event. By 4 PM the snow had pretty much wrapped up with only about an inch on the ground. Ugh. I think weathermen and politicians are the only two kinds of people that can constantly be wrong yet people still believe them.

So on to this morning's commute. 23F with a 10 mph headwind. Because we only got an inch, the plows didn't run. By this morning the main roads were in pretty good shape, but the back roads were a bit sloppy and snow packed. The temp hadn't gotten above freezing since our ice storm last Wed, so there are still plenty of icy spots. The MUP was either snow covered where the wind had drifted it, or covered in sheet ice.

It was a slow commute, but I made it.