A coworker joked about me not riding in the rain. Ten years ago, I would have. I had fenders and a poncho and a "just ride" attitude. Now it seems like I'm on-call. It's been hard the last few years with behavior kid and chemo kid. Now no-longer-chemo-kid is vying for behavior kid's crown. I am eager to get riding more. I am feeling unfit and more like a water balloon sometimes. At least nothing is injured.

35F, supposed to be snowing, but bone dry. Some blue sky at sunrise but no mountain. Blinding sun now at lunchtime.

My kids are now adults. I can say, "This too shall pass." You've earned a lot of respectability for carrying on through these challenges. I hope you are rewarded somehow or that you find things you're grateful for. I've been where you are. My kids took turn being a frightful challenge to me. It reminds me of how a wise man told a tale which I can't remember but the imagery is how a kid (as in baby goats) butts its mother's udder with its horns. That's how I felt. But we carry on. And now I volunteered to be disrespected by high school students. It's OK, though. I love them all. Truly. This is the process of raising them, and I signed up for it.

Chinghis, how bad are the rain storms there? Is it that people are just not used to them? Or is it that people deal with them badly thereby making them unsafe?

Got my butt in gear this morning and swapped wheelsets on the Rockhopper from studs to smoothies. Had to adjust the brake cables. The smoothie wheel rims are narrower than the stud wheel rims I put barrel adjusters on the brake cables on this and the old bike it replaced. Going from one wheelset to the other is usually as easy going from one end of the adjustment to the other. But this time I tightened the adjusters all the way and the V-brakes weren't grabbing. The pads must have worn down with the road sand and grit even though I haven't had occasion to ride in the snow as much this year. Still, all in all less it took less than 15 minutes.

Those drop bars are really forward but comfortable. The bike's heft made itself known on a couple of hills, but all in all it was a fast, thrilling ride. The 26 x 2.125 tires soaked a stretch of broken pavement that usually rattles the other bikes (and me).

With the wider tires, on the way home I took some optional gravel segments of the trails with ease. The trails being flatter than any street route the bike's weight was not an issue on the ride home.
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Also for the ride home the weather apps said upper 50s and a quick trip to the parking lot confirmed it. But by the time I left it was noticeably cooler. 42F infact. So I stopped after 10 minutes and put on the long pants and long fingered gloves, but keeping just a windbreaker over a T-shirt. I stayed just cool enough that I didn't break a sweat even when hustling the big bike down the trails.

With daylight now from door to door I can exchange smiles and nods with other cyclists, runners, joggers and pedestrians.

Fixed the pinhole in the front tube and wonder how that happened. Dark and cold with a light wind. Colder tomorrow morning. Looking at teens by Friday….

BobbyG is your headlight (on your fork) attached with a braze-on or do you have an interesting mount there?

Beautiful morning, even if it was quite windy. I took a long route this morning, 7 miles instead of 2. It was just beautiful. It rained last night, so the pavement was wet and I took the ZiZZO again, with its full fenders, with the front one extending down nice & low. The wind was out of the south-southwest. I lucked out on this ride:

1) I started heading east, which was downhill, and the slight tailwind.
2) I turned south, into a bit of a head wind, but since the trees on the bike trail blocked the west element of the wind, it wasn't too much. Didn't feel like an 18 mph wind.
3) I turned east again, downhill into the lake basin with an element of a tailwind.
4) I then turned north on Sheridan with a bodacious tailwind. It was only turning west uphill for the last stretch where I felt the brunt of the headwind, but I strategically took back streets so the houses knocked it down a bit; no wide, straight-through streets.

I'll have to try to remember this day as I fight headwinds this spring, feeling like they're always against me.


Mid-50s today. It "should" be in the 20s this time of year in this part of the USA.



Here's the skinny. 1 mph faster than usual for this bike. It didn't "feel like" 38 ° to me...

32F partly cloudy

Cold for here, mid thirties F, but clear this morning, and I rode at dawn. There was a lot of rain the last few days but I didn't see any evidence of frost - not quite cold enough to get all the waterlogged things below the line. The wooden bridge where I sometimes see frost actually had its puddles iced over instead, but only the very surface.

There's some deadly drama up in Tahoe, from the storm that passed through. A back country ski tour group didn't make it back before the heavy snow fall and was caught in an avalanche around lunch time. Six were sheltering under a tarp until rescuers made it to them last night. Nine are missing and probably lost.

They can be pretty bad, actually. We got all sorts of "EXTREME WINTER STORM" warnings via text and email earlier this week. A lot of it is warning people who live in or near "burn-scar" areas that got burned in last year's fires.

The worst of these storms have luckily been overnight this week. Someone with a personal weather station just mentioned that overnight the winds were 40 mph. Just had a regular headwind and heavy sprinkles yesterday on the way home, not too bad.

A hose clamp around the light that is looped through a hose clamp on the fork.

You've got to say a bit more than this, Hardy. That was just an under-achieving weather report.

I've been hearing about this. It sounds like they found the 9 that were missing, but 8 of them were dead.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2294:

The last couple of weeks has been uncharacteristically warm for a South Dakota February. Most days have had highs in the 40s, wtih some days in the 50s and low 60s. We've even had a couple mornings that didn't drop below freezing. I've only had 6 commutes this season with a below zero air temperature, and right now that looks like that number will hold. The entirety of our snow came in November and early December. All this to say, it's been a very easy winter of bicycle commuting.

Yesterday the temp started to drop, with the day's high reaching about 35°F. The big news of the day was the wind. I woke up yesterday morning to hear the wind howling. There was a wind advisory issued, with the wind holding steady at about 25-30 mph, and gusts topping 50 mph. A few semis got blown over out on the interstate. Thankfully I fought the wind on the way to work (7 mph average on my road bike) so I had an easy push on the way home.

This morning the wind has died down to a more reasonable steady 15 mph, with very few gusts. The temp, however, was 14°F with a -2°F wind chill. The humidity was above 90%, making the chill feel even more pronounced. After a few weeks of warm temps I had lost my winter skin. While I like the warmer weather, in some respects it's easier if it just stays cold.

I had gotten up early with the intentions of riding the 8 miles to our company headquarters. However, I was fighting motivation. I had pretty much resigned myself to sitting down in my chair and napping for 45 minutes, then riding directly to a client location much closer to my house. I actually started walking towards my chair when my inner voice said, "You wuss! You've ridden through a lot worse than this!"

My inner voice can be pretty harsh at times.

I sucked it up, put on my cold weather gear, and rode the 8 mile trip to our office. I don't think I had worn my ski goggles since January. The wind came at me sideways for most of the ride. I'm not going to lie, I arrived at the office quite frozen. My toes, thighs, fingers and cheeks were numb. But I made it. The pain of the endeavor is temporary, but the sting of quitting is forever.

I'm with my daughter tonight, but still wanted to get a ride in today, so I extended the morning commute again. This time, just to 4 miles.

I'll then ride home for lunch and come back to work in the car. My daughter has a volleyball game after work; I'll cut out early to watch that, then I think I'll grill sausages and broccoli for us for dinner. Maybe I'll get out again after dark for a ride? We'll see how I feel.

I've been steadily ramping up the mileage with the good weather. Feels like about time to get the road bike out of the basement.

One day you will be unable or unwilling to do the ride. I hope you do not feel ashamed or defeated, because you won't be defeated. You've already won.

↑ I wound up making "the ride home for lunch" 11 miles and spent most of my time doing that. It was worth it.

Today, it was much colder and drizzling. 35 °F, felt like 15, they say. Not too bad, since I've acclimated myself to riding when it is 30 ° colder.

I took my gravel bike, as it is windy today and that bike is MUCH less effort in the wind than my little upright folder.

Let me also share the story of an a-hole motorist:
It's cloudy here today, so I had my lights on. Both on strobe.
This guy was flashing his high beams at me, I thought to indicate I should go. (he was waiting, oncoming, to turn left) There was still traffic coming next to him, so I pointed at it. After I moved on, I realize he was having a little tantrum because my headlight was on strobe and he felt quite dazzled by it. Too bad. My life is more important than your comfort at one stoplight for 10 seconds.

Ha! Sorry... There was some embedded sarcasm detectable pretty much only to me because we've been supposed to be getting rain/snow all week to make up our mountain snowpack shortfall and anyway that was another sunny day... (snowpack remains at ~1/3 of goal)

Today, also 32F, but the puddle in the driveway had a solid skim frozen across the top, also a daffodil blooming, and cloudcover was 100%.

I went to a MD appointment before work, 4 mile detour (roundtrip), and 2 miles of it on this road that is just terrible, uphill, no shoulder, on the way to a quarry so can get tailgated by tandem dumptrucks which already can barely climb the hill, or just stuck behind them because they really can't go faster than bike uphill speed even without tailgating a bike... no shoulder, but there is space to bail out if necessary, except for the I5 overpass, no bailing there. Anyway, made it there, back, and to the office not too late for the 1st meeting of the day...

↑ That's more like it!
A proper commute report.

Today's commute felt slow, but came in at a reasonable time. Two roadies passed me on the bike path; I heard them behind me for a few minutes, so they weren't flying or anything. I sat behind them for a bit, thought about turning on the assist to really keep up, but didn't. They left at the next exit.

I'll give you all a weather report, though: 42 frickin' degrees this morning, per my tracking apps. Oh, right, a slight headwind, too. AI says that with my downhill speed and that temp, the windchill was about 32 degrees. Almost tundra-like

Today's commute was in a taxi to the Mexico City through heavy traffic, on an airplane from Mexico City to Newark, NJ and then in a car through heavy traffic into NYC. Actually, nothing went wrong. Customs took an instant. My recent flying experiences have been trouble free. We got so caught up in calculating the tip for the Mexican taxi driver that we forgot to pay the base fare. He ran into the airport to catch us, and of course we were embarrassed. We thought he'd be able to take a card, but no, and we had run out of Mexican cash. We paid the equivalent in US money plus extra to make sure he was happy, and he was.

I've had commutes like that. Sometimes it's low tire pressure which can dampen "road chatter" between the pavement and the bike, making it feel slower. (Same with my bikes with fatter tires.) Sometimes it's just me...I'll feel sluggish, but my legs are still strong. It's better than the opposite where I think I was flying, but the data shows the opposite. But the worst is when I feel slow and I am slow.

Welp, you may have heard the news. It's midday Sunday Feb 22 as I write this. The northeast is having a big snowstorm. NYC rarely gets really big snowfalls, but here we are. The prediction for the City (which usually gets less snow than the outlying areas) is for 11 inches today and another 2 inches tomorrow.

We used to have "snow days" when students were not expected to go to school, and we could play in the snow. We would make up the time by extending the school year one day for each snow day. But the schedule is not built for that anymore. It will probably be a day of remote learning. I think it's a shame the kids don't get to play in the snow, and I expect that teaching remotely will be hard. I've never taught a class remotely, though I did tutor small groups remotely during the lockdown. This school year, we've had two days of remote work, one for Election Day and one for Professional Development Day when it was all adults and no kids. It was packed with work and ultimately more tiring than being there in person.

The snowfall we had about three weeks ago is finally melted almost completely. I guess it's good that we're not piling new snow on the old, dirty stuff.

It was a tough commute this morning. 22 ° (feels like 7, they say) and 17 mph headwind. "Flurries" too, which means some snow in the air blowing around, but it doesn't seem to ever land or stick to anything. I took the gravel bike again, as it is more aero. I wore my puffy construction man's jacket though, which acted like an air brake on a funny car.

By the time I commute home, it will only be a 10 mph, so I get gypped out of the tailwind too. I got a couple good rides in yesterday though: a Zone 4 26 mile ride, mixed probably 60/40 between road & gravel and an offroad demo ride on a full suspension eMTB. We did beaches, a trail with fist-sized rocks, hard packed dirt, sandy (but not too deep) trails. That part was only 8 miles and in Zone 2. Today was going to be my recovery day anyhow, hehehe.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2296:

2°F air temp today, with the wind chill slightly below zero. When I went to bed I thought I might wake up to face my 7th subzero commute of the season, but the mercury stayed just above zero.

Due to a very sunny weekend, the dusting of snow we got on Friday is mostly gone. I took the road bike, which is not generally a great cold weather bike due to my ventilated clipless shoes, and the derailleur's propensity to not want to shift into higher gears in extreme cold. But the light wind was at my back, and the humidity was low, so overall it was not as cold of a commute as I expected. I rode 4.5 miles to a client and thought I could have easily kept riding.

Last week one of the employees at this client posted "guidelines" about the use of their locker room area. The guidelines were mostly about not leaving items unused in lockers for months at a time, and people hanging towels to dry outside of the lockers. This started a war of words, with people scribbling their retorts on the posted rules. The guy who originally posted the guidelines contacted me, assuming I was one of the authors of the retorts. I told him I didn't write anything, although I did read them for entertainment purposes. I also said that some of the concerns of the responders were valid, if not tactful. In any event, I told him I'm getting moved to a different location next month, so it's really a moot point what I think regarding their organization's locker room.