When I commuted from this place to the Bronx for work, I typically had a headwind in the morning. And in the afternoon, I often had a HEADWIND because the wind changed! But it was milder.

We are having a real snow day. The mayor asked the governor for an exception to let us have a snow day, and the governor granted it. These two seem to be working together well.

I hope we get mayors like that in Milwaukee & Chicago soon, Tom. I love our governor; he's worked his way up from teacher through the ranks all the way to governor. Read the first few paragraphs of his Wikipedia page and you can see why he's so awesome:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Evers

I'm sad that he's not seeking re-election this year; I can't imagine we'll end up with someone anywhere near as qualified and with such a good moral compass. However, he has earned his retirement, as he's 75 this year. These last ten years really were "service" since he could've retired long ago

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In other news, it was a sad day yesterday, when I discovered that my left electric sock gave up the ghost. I got 1.5 winters out of them for $50. I think it was worth it, considering how cold our winters are. I'll buy another set soon and hand wash them to try to eke 3 years out of them.

Rode the Rockhopper again yesterday, and again it did not feel heavy despite weighing as much as my two lightest bikes combined. I guess the drivetrain and rolling resistance are low, especially compared to the bike it replaced. On the lighter bikes there is more of a "one with the bike" feel, but on the Rockhopper and the main commuter (2015 Charge Plug) there is more of a "riding on top of a bike" feel despite all my bikes having the same low-ish drop bar setup (except the 16" folder where the straight bars are still even with or below the seat.)

I rode the streets yesterday and while I observed some inconsiderate and even dangerous driving, none of it affected me except one brief encounter where I was almost right-hooked by a MGIFO (Must-Get-In-Front-Of). The sun was behind us and I have flashers on my helmet and rear rack, plus a brilliant high-viz windbreaker. This was at a reasonable speed on a wide residential street and there was one car, a few car lengths behind the offender. A slight application of the car's brakes would have had it tuck in behind me at a loss of 1 second...but lizard-brain says "MGIFO!"

On the other hand, I am enjoying riding home before dusk sets in. And then in two weeks Daylight Savings begins.

26 °F with a 15 mph wind from the south = Feels Like 15 °. HOWEVER... the south is mostly blocked by trees & houses for the eastbound leg of my commute, so not much effect there. Then, I turned north, and it became a nice tailwind. I was clippin' right along.

It's supposed to increase to 17 mph for my commute home, which is going to be tough. I'll probably tuck down into the drops for that mile and just spin in a low gear at 8 mph or so.

Bike club meeting tonight, hosted by the local Trek Store. That shop sponsors our club and he's having a pro bike fitter come and give a talk about short cranks. There'll be snacks and beer as well; should be a good time!

Expecting high winds in my face after work today too, may we both have the legs today!

As for me, too balmy of a ride in for February, nearly 60F at 6:35 am. I think it was colder in the house when I left! In any case, like Jeremy above, I was more or less blown into work this morning. Still haven't had to commit to the studded winter Schwalbe's, which is a bummer.

After riding my heaviest bike yesterday, I decided to take my lightest bike today... The 2006 Felt F-65, despite high winds expected in the afternoon.

When I wheeled it out of the shed the odometer still showed the 65 miles and 6 hours from my 64th birthday ride 5 weeks ago. I checked the brifters and although it was 38F the rear shifter was sticky so I hit both front and rear with the dry lube and shifting became fast and sure.

LeMond famously said it doesn't get any easier, you just go faster. True to to that, I didn't feel I was pushing any easier than on my heavy Rockhopper but I was flying! 3 to 4 mph faster than on the other bikes, except the 1984 Nishiki 2x6 just 1 to 2 mph faster. And the bike felt planted and compliant even though I just pumped the 700x25 tires to 90psi.

I took the light commute bag and rode the trails for most of of to the way in

On the way home it was 74F. The wind had kicked up coming down from in the north west. Had an odd standoff with two other bikes where 3 trails intersect in a park then hit the trails again.

The first 4 miles was north into the wind. I rode in my drops as much as possible which is good for another 1 mph. But in the wind it was less stable than the hoods which was surprising. Then I turned east and got a big push from the wind and just screamed down the trails.

I've been riding the Rock Island and Greenway trails to work for to the last 3.5 years... Even more often since I'm they connected them. But on the way home tonight I realized for the first time that on the 4 mile Greenway leg I cross Fountain Creek 5 times.

26 °F again this morning, with a 14 mph wind = feels like 15. It was tough. I made an extra stop at the grocery store to drop off some bags for recycling, so 2.4 miles instead of 2.0.

I got a lighter MTX trunk bag for the gravel bike, which I rode again. My cantilevered seatpost rack has a plastic dovetail slot that's a really tight fit for the dovetail on the bags. It's really hard to get on and off; I have to hold the bike with one hand and push or pull with all my might with the other, while trying to keep the bike from falling over when the front wheel inevitably turns sideways, so I've just been leaving it on. I need to change back to the regular rack for this bike this weekend.

There's another bike on the rack this morning; a commuter eBike with a Bosch mid drive. Cheap cable lock though, so it's a good thing theft is not an issue here.

36F this morning, almost cold enough for me to wear extra layer over legs and winter riding boots, but chose the simpler outfit for quicker wardrobe change at work. Unfortunately - a brutal headwind is predicted this afternoon for the 7 mile commute home, which of course is more less a westerly route... at least it is to be a warm wind. I shall go into my Pinion's low gears and enjoy spinning along at likely 4-6 mph.

35F, cold! Blinding sun (this week was supposed to be the new week that made up for lack of rain and mountain snowpack after last week didn't come through, but, not so far...)

I was going to say, no mountain despite the lack of cloudcover

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c00860e851.jpg

but it turns out it was just backlit

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3e508c4e98.jpg

The next four days will have some hours above the freezing temperature, so the snow will melt bit by bit. We got another half inch of snowfall today. This winter is like winters before climate change. I'm not ready to ride with the surfaces being how they are. Then on Monday, we will have cold weather again and possibly another two inches of snow. It's pretty frustrating for me since cycling is my primary form of exercise. I need more forms. I need to join a gym. Welp, next week on Tuesday and Wednesday, we're due for rain, and that may be another partial solution to the problems.

That's tough, to a soft New Yorker. ;)

When it starts to melt, the road gets wet and the dirty, salty spray gets all over everything. It's better if you have full fenders, but not eliminated. It causes the bike to start rusting almost immediately, so rest easy in your decision to take other modes of transit.

I bet it's almost as much exercise to walk and take the subway, so don't be too hard on yourself. You may not get as much cardio, but you'll get some joint impact to keep your bone density up!

If you could get a gym membership and keep it up, you'd sure have my respect. I can't do it.

I recall your commute is 4.5 miles or so. If you wanted to, you could do the subway on the way in, and if you have time after work, just walk the whole way home. At my pace, that'd be an hour and twenty minute walk. It's a long walk, but maybe you'd be up for it now and then. My walk is about 40 - 45 minutes, but that's too long for me. You seem to like walking a bit more than I do.

Or, I think you have the nice CitiBike subscription? I think they have full fenders, you could ride them until things clear up a bit.

Thanks for the suggestions! It's 3.8 miles by bike, each way, so yeah, good memory. I do get exercise on the subway commute, and I'm grateful for it. In the morning, I walk fairly fast. There are flights to climb, and I climb vigorously. Sometimes I don't get a seat so I stand, and it's not much, but it ain't nothin'. I have thought about walking home but had forgotten, so thanks for that!

Citi Bike is a wonderful thing, and one of the many reasons is that I don't care about the effects of snow and salt on the bike. It's also more sure-footed in slush and ice. I do have full fenders on my bike, and I also have a hose right at the building entrance (so lucky!) but still, getting my bike salty and grimy is a downer. Yup, soft New Yorker! You should see the deliveristas here. They are SO TOUGH, and they never complain. I have taken Citi Bike home a couple of times, and I might do that soon.

Again, thank you for the encouragement.

Monday, I rode.

Tuesday, it was supposed to rain hard, so I drove. It did not. Oh well.

Today, it was raining in the morning and I drove.

The 10-day forecast is promising

Yesterday, I rode the usual 2 miles in. It was 10 ° warmer in the afternoon and sunny, so I took an extended 12 mile route home. It felt good.

Today, I have an Auto Butler appointment this morning, where they detail my car every 6 months, so I drove to work. I take my computer with me and work remotely in the dealer's lobby, where they have Starbucks coffee and such. I thought about dropping the car off at the dealer, riding to work, then riding back to get it. Bike goes in the back. But it was only 20 ° this morning, so I gave myself the day off. Daughter visit after work; we'll go out to dinner somewhere and play some games, and she can tell me about her volleyball exploits. She's sad that I'm not letting her stay for the next game to help coach it, but time with Dad is important too, and I'm sure she's got a load of homework as well.

Here's a pic from my extended commute home last night. We do have some small dunes on the west side of Lake Michigan, but nowhere near as large as those on the east side. They're wooded. Believe it or not, a good place to hike.

It's also a pic of one of my favorite commuters in its current form:

• Topeak MTX BeamRack: This is heavier than I thought it would be. I guess it has to be, to be strong enough with the cantilevered design. It's only rated for 20 lbs. I'm thinking of taking it off and putting the proper MTX rack back there. I do like the BeamRack though, because the height is adjustable, and I can get it closer to the tire, which leaves more room for the bag below the saddle. (it was a tight fit with the regular rack...)
• The MTX rack back is their basic one, without expandable top or fold-down panniers, but it weighs half as much as the more fully-featured one. I got pannier supports for the rack, but decided to keep this a lighter rig and do the heavier shopping trips on other bikes.
• I went to plastic bottle cages; they really are better than aluminum, as they don't tend to stretch open over time.
• I have the saddle from my Tern Vektron on it, which is better than this bike's stock WTB Volt saddle, but not as good as the Selle Anatomica X and X-2 saddles I have on my other drop bar bikes. It's about a 12 mile saddle: after that, it puts too much pressure on my perineum area and I go numb down there. I will upgrade this at some point, probably not to a $200 Selle Anatomica X-2, but at least to a Selle Royal saddle with a proper cutout.
• It took three stem changes to find one that let this bike fit me. I normally don't have one that is so high, but that's what it took for me to not have neck pain on this bike. I needed a bunch of height, but also some reach.
• I still don't know what I can do with the single mount on each fork leg. Ideas?
• To get the hoods where they're comfortable, I just rotated the bar back. That resulted in the drops being angled a bit awkwardly. Now that I've got the stem figured out, I should unwrap the bar, move the brakes down a bit, and re-wrap around them, so the drops are level AND the hoods are located in a comfortable spot for me.
• I was wearing my Garmin watch, but forgot to start it; used the Strava app on my phone out of habit. For commutes, I usually use the app, as my phone always seems to have satellite lock, whereas it takes the watch a minute or two to get enough satellites for a lock.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...92d5b09ab8.jpg
Priority Apollo 11 belt drive. Convenient and low maintenance, with its Shimano Alfine 11 internal gear hub and Gates carbon belt drive. A bit on the slow side though..

• https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a99f68f36c.png
  Ride stats

Lovely day. Cherries in bloom, lots of grass, a few wildflowers coming in. Took formerly chemo kid to a checkup where he was amazingly good. Behavior kid did all his school work actually in school. I rode after the clinic. 68F. It’s too dry too soon, but it’s nice right now.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...fd8633c61.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...aa89a2475.jpeg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c2fac3732.jpeg

First eBike ride in awhile. Battery was at 26%, 19% by the time I got to work. I'm charging it for 3 hours @ 2 A here at work. Tires were at 40 psi, I inflated them to 50. They're 27.5 x 2.2", I think.

The weather's supposed to be good this afternoon; mid-50s but windy, so I'm cutting out of work early and going for a ride with a clubmate. Last night, I got the road bike out of the basement, inflated the tires. Fitted some new cleats to some fancy new Sidi road shoes I got at the bike swap meet for $30. Kind of excited for the ride tonight. It's going to feel good to not wear so many clothes.

40F, cloudy; supposed to be nice today so I pumped up the roadbike's tires and took off, POW, blowout right around the corner from the house going fullspeed down a hill to a traffic circle. Managed to bring it in under control, walked back up, switch over to the cross bike, back into the office, ~10 minutes late

Will check out that front tire tomorrow, plus also new brake pads for the cross bike

Nice pictures, Darth Lefty!

I rode the subway yesterday into work. After work, I took Smaug1's suggestion and walked over the Brooklyn Bridge. I've lived here so many years, and I'm pretty sure it was the first time I walked across it. Spectacular. It's an iconic site of the City, and from it, you can see many other iconic sites: the Statue of Liberty, the Municipal Building, the Manhattan Bridge, and I can't remember the rest.

Pictures here!

There are hundreds of people on the bridge as you can see, probably half of them tourists. That means the other half is foot-commuters. You might see the bike route between the foot path and the traffic lanes. The foot path used to be divided with bikes on one side and pedestrians on the other side but it got too crazy. The setup now makes more sense but it means cyclists don't get most of the spectacular views anymore.

I had an appointment to meet a friend in midtown so once I got back to Manhattan, I took a subway.

But thanks for that suggestion! I'll do it more. I really enjoyed it.

Today I took the subway again. Hey maybe I'll walk all the way home this time. I really need a de-stresser. This week has been rough even though we didn't have school Monday (because of the snow). A week after vacation feels longer than normal, even though, in this case, it was shorter.

That's totally cool-I walked the last 10 miles of the NY marathon year before last - no comparable views but it was fantastic opportunity to go to some places I would ordinarily never go or subway under

This morning as I swung onto the bike path, I shifted up as I usually do. Maybe I popped it twice? (Honestly, this is the first bike with trigger shifters that I've ridden for any length of time.) Maybe my Essa 8 drivetrain doesn't like that?

Anyway, I shifted and took a pedal, and the chain dropped! Couldn't believe it, especially since I was just about to pass another commuter (on a really nice old Bianchi, one of those dark gray ones). I tried to backpedal to get it on, but had to stop. I caught up to him a bit later, and h laughed a bit good- naturedly, and said "You're back in the game!"

Interestingly, this was one of my faster times in to work. I pushed it on the climb.

Oh, and this was the first day I commuted this year that I did not wear tights or a cycling jacket. It's California again, at least for a little while. 63 degrees this morning, looking at mid-80s or even 90 this afternoon.

I had considered walking over the Brooklyn Bridge on the way home but I got caught up in extra work after hours and had to get home reasonably quickly. Both the A and F trains stop at the subway station near work where the lines cross. Coincidentally, they also stop at the station near home but there, the F train is two flights below the A train so I have to walk three big flights from the platform to the street. I usually take the A train for that reason and because it's faster. This time the first train to arrive was an F train. I don't normally do this but I looked at my phone (which keeps track) and saw that I had climbed fewer flights than normal. So I took the F and walked up in my usual vigorous manner. At some point, my watch congratulated me, something it doesn't do on most days.

I realize I need to increase my goals and work towards them harder. Biking to work can be part of that, but I need more. I have a yoga matt, a barbell and a kettle bell at home, so those can be part of it. And I'm thinking about how I might fit in a gym membership to my scarce time.

It just occurred to me that YOU probably were taken to be a tourist that day, snapping all those pix from the bridge. ;)

Sure, that's possible.

By the way, I now live in a popular tourist neighborhood, the West Village. Nearly every day, I pass the Magnolia Bakery, made famous by Sex And The City and also Carrie Bradshaw's house on the same block. These places are often mobbed with people taking pictures. Saturday there was a crowd standing in the street, taking a picture of the house, and I took a picture of them. They didn't notice what I was doing. Oops, I shot it as a video, so I can't upload it. I'll take another later this week.