Spooky Halloween Commute
11-05-02 | 02:21 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 95
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From: Portland, OR USA
Spooky Halloween Commute
It has been a few days, but I wanted to share my halloween commute home as it was memorable.
I got off of work at 9 pm, and despite the weather warnings of 25 mph winds out of the east, I added an extra layer and headed home.
The ride began wonderfully. As I rode through backstreets and neighborhoods the wind swirled fallen leaves through the shadows of my headlamp and the streetlights. Moving silently through the leaves watching the shadows play seemed perfect for the evening. It was an appropriatly spooky night. The best of autumn and halloween.
Then I got onto the flat bits and the wind just beat the hell out me. It was only about a five mile (8k) stretch, but man, oh, man did that wind make me suffer. It was cold, dark, and even when trying to hammer I couldn't go much faster than 14 mph into the wind.
Then, of course, my headlamp went dead. Now usually I have a white blinky light to back up my headlamp, precisely for situations such as this. Unfortunately it had come free of its mounting and gotten crushed by a passing car earlier in the week. (Beware of Trek single white LED flashers, they don't mount securely.) So now I'm in the dark, getting beaten up by the wind on a dark halloween night.
By this time, I'm grateful for the big hill, as it blocks the wind and I'm up and over and blasting down again towards home, a hot bath and a pot of tea.
(It was a miserable ride, but memorable, and I've gotten a new Niterider headlight to replace the old vistalight and a new front flasher too, because redundancy is cool.)
Well, pleasant commutes to all of you
Oso
I got off of work at 9 pm, and despite the weather warnings of 25 mph winds out of the east, I added an extra layer and headed home.
The ride began wonderfully. As I rode through backstreets and neighborhoods the wind swirled fallen leaves through the shadows of my headlamp and the streetlights. Moving silently through the leaves watching the shadows play seemed perfect for the evening. It was an appropriatly spooky night. The best of autumn and halloween.
Then I got onto the flat bits and the wind just beat the hell out me. It was only about a five mile (8k) stretch, but man, oh, man did that wind make me suffer. It was cold, dark, and even when trying to hammer I couldn't go much faster than 14 mph into the wind.
Then, of course, my headlamp went dead. Now usually I have a white blinky light to back up my headlamp, precisely for situations such as this. Unfortunately it had come free of its mounting and gotten crushed by a passing car earlier in the week. (Beware of Trek single white LED flashers, they don't mount securely.) So now I'm in the dark, getting beaten up by the wind on a dark halloween night.
By this time, I'm grateful for the big hill, as it blocks the wind and I'm up and over and blasting down again towards home, a hot bath and a pot of tea.
(It was a miserable ride, but memorable, and I've gotten a new Niterider headlight to replace the old vistalight and a new front flasher too, because redundancy is cool.)
Well, pleasant commutes to all of you
Oso
12-26-05 | 09:49 AM
#2
Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 5,603
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From: northern California
Bikes: Bruce Gordon BLT, Cannondale parts bike, Ecodyne recumbent trike, Counterpoint Opus 2, miyata 1000
We had a Halloween Ride in Denver. Past various Halloween displays and ending at a visit to a "known" haunted house. Would have been better at night.
12-26-05 | 11:19 AM
#3
Senior Member
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 12,103
Likes: 96
From: Wilmington, DE
Bikes: 2016 Hong Fu FM-079-F, 1984 Trek 660, 2005 Iron Horse Warrior Expert, 2009 Pedal Force CX1, 2016 Islabikes Beinn 20 (son's)
Ken, up in the left hand corner of each post there is a date and time stamp. I realize that when searching on various subjects it can be easy to miss this stamp and reply to a very old thread but it seems you've really got a knack for it. I think I've seen at least 10 threads now that you've dug up from 2+ years ago and replied too. I hope you don't take offense to this as maybe you do realize the threads are old but want to reply anyway. But, if you have been missing that date stamp, here's a friendly reminder to try and pay attention to it 
