I voted "no, don't be stupid" not because of the weather, but because it would be stupid to go to the office when you could work from home. If you had a good reason to go to the office, I'd say ride in if you feel comfortable.

Yeah, I was thinking studs weren't so expensive as I went sliding all over the place this morning. All in vain though since I can't get onto our network at the office.

Gosh, we've only got cloudy skies, no rain, 44 degrees & a 25 mph NW wind blowing. I'm working from home today so this means that I have NO excuse not to go out later and ride for an hour or so...!

thanks a lot, John, for setting the criteria so the rest of us know just where to stop making excuses and go out to ride...

jyo: You rode in this slosh? How long is your commute? I had a miserable time just walking, and the snow felt like the man-made stuff at a low-rent ski resort: granular and wispy.

It took me about two hours to do my 14 miles to work today. Personally I was ok due to excellent waterproof clothing, and the road conditions were consistent; but just slow due to all of the sloshiness. The only bit that I found risky / made me question my sanity was the 400 yard stretch of my commute with a 6% gradient descent onto a highway overpass, with traffic merging in and out. Dicey enough on a cold, dry day, but particularly tough with freezing hail flying in your face and occluding the vision in one of your eyes.

It's 32.5 degrees and everything is covered in about and inch of slush right now. If it freezes soon it's going to be a big mess here.

Heh, my commute's only 2 miles so it wasn't so bad, just the surprise fishtailing.

Oh man do I remember that storm. Two weeks with out power,5 to 8 inches of ice on everything.

I did ride in today but for the way home I took a short truck ride out of the city then snowshoed for the last 8 miles home.

Glad to know you decided to stay at home. While the challenge is out there, it's good to hear you still make rational decisiions first. We wouldn't want your name on the Bikeforums Wall of Rememberance just yet.

Man, I just got back from lunch and saw a few of the True Bike Messengers — those guys on the Murray mtb's with the plastic bags on the saddle and the massive homemade rack on the front wheel — and I felt like a pretender. Nice I get to choose whether to ride my bike to work.

Work from home. We had the ice come through my area; don't try it without studs. Yesterday I slogged through 1/2 - 2" of MUP heavy slush and snow - it takes a lot of energy.
Last night we got over 2" of what I call sleet (or the heaviest snow imaginable). It's getting so crusty I'm wondering if my 2.25" MTB tires would ride on top. As it turns out I'm carpooling with my wife and she feels safer when I drive (though I'm not sure with all proclamations she made).

Man, I decided to wimp out and grab a ride from a coworker for the ride home. But when even I think riding in these conditions is stupid, it might be time to listen to myself.

I rode across Boston, about 5 miles from JP to Allston, this morning. At 9:30 there were slippery compressed tire tracks on our side road but the main roads were already slushing out. I fought a gusty north wind on the way there, so progress was doubly slow. Studded tires front and rear were somewhat helpful but I was getting down to pavement the whole way so thin tires would have been OK too.

Coming home at 3:30 was much worse, even with a tail wind, there was 4 to 6 inch deep slush most everywhere and a large part of the bike path in Brookline had hard slush that made riding impossible. I made it fine and had fun, but I will not likely ride tomorrow because things are going to ice up as the temperature drops.

I just switched from a Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub to a Nexus 7 and I'm glad I made the upgrade because the selection of lower ratios were very helpful in snow. Rain gear and good boots make this sort of riding so much more comfortable than it would have been a few years ago!

Matt

I stayed home too. I won't ride if the roads are bad, mostly because of the cars. I'll drive tomorrow. Friday will probably be a crap shoot too because of the wind. I hate the wind when its real cold.

I did not ride today because 1) my tires, while studded, are not enough for what the streets were like this morning, and 2) my laptop came home with me yesterday and I worked from home, along with a reported 1700 other people at my company.

Piece of cake both ways. It would have been difficult had I driven in, as cars were having problems on the hills. On the return, there was lots of bare pavement and a nice tailwind. The deep sleet was a new experience, much heavier than an equivalent layer of snow, but not nearly as slippery. I'd thought we had maybe two inches of the stuff because it was so firm. In actuality, it was closer to four inches, and the tires sank down only half way.

Paul

Actually, it didn't turn out to be as bad here as it might have been. Enough snow and wind, but no freezing rain, and visibility looked mostly okay, from outside my home office window. I'm thinking I probably could have done it, but (a) I didn't know that this morning, and (b) why bother?

I ended up going with my family to another family's house for supper, just a few blocks away so we could actually walk through the storm. They live on a pond which is long-since frozen over and have a small square of ice shovelled off, so we spent some time sliding around in our boots and sliding down the small hill on some sleds. It's about time winter finally got here!

This morning (Thursday) I have an inch of ice on everything.

my ride home last night wasn't as bad as the ride to work, largely because I got delayed at work and didn't leave until 6pm, when the sun had set, most automotive traffic had died down and the snow had stopped. Remarkably, as I was pushing my bike out the door of my office, my phone rang and I saw it was my mom calling.

Mom: "Where are you?"
Me: "In the office. About to head home."
Mom: "are you in your car or on that bike of yours?"
Me: " ... mom, do you want me to tell you want you want to hear or do you want me to tell the truth?"
Mom: "Oh, you know, I just worry. I was seeing the reports on the news about the blizzard, and..."
Me: "I'll be fine, mom, and I'll call you when I get home, ok?"

Riding through Bedford was a little dicey, especially when I realized that my cantilevered brakes weren't having much of an effect on icy slushy rims. For once, I pine for disc brakes!

Crossing I-95 on 4/225 was remarkably less frightening that I had expected, again, I think because there weren't as many folks on the roads in that hour, and most of the ones who passed me gave me a pretty wide berth. Entering Lexington and comparing them against Bedford was like a lesson in the value of property taxes. Bedford was a slushy mess patrolled by volunteer ploughmen. Lexington invested in some magical salt compound that pretty much disintegrated all of their snow. For more than half my ride, the surface wasn't any dodgier than what you'd see after a particularly heavy rainstorm.

Stopped briefly at Wilson Farms to buy a bouquet of roses for the sweetie. Long stems wouldn't fit in my panniers so I just stuck the bouquet in between my seatstays and rear fender.

Mass Ave in Arlington was starting to see congestion and a lot more slush and snow, and it was tricky to ride on tire tracks since these would inevitably drift into the parking lane and massive mounds of snow. Also, hail. Stopped at a red light in front of a bunch of teenagers shivering and waiting for the bus who were all, "what kind of crazy person rides his bike in weather like this?"

Pointing at my bouquet on the bike, I just said, "Valentines delivery person."

"Aww, you're the sweetest crazy man, I've ever seen."

Rest of the ride was relatively uneventful. Some hail alternating with freezing rain. Ploughed into a snow bank while following car tracks and got some slush in my rear derailleur, which had to be cleared out because it was messing with my chain tension. Rode through one puddle with water up to my bottom bracket. Fortunately, water resistant hiking boots + waterproof socks = r0x0r my s0x0rz. Got home ok. Called mom, celebrated Valentine's with warm cocoa after girlfriend got home from her commute.

Not a bad adventure, all things considered.

There's bold and then there's bogus. Sounds like you did the right thing!

Thanks for the moral support Still feel like a sissy though, so I did the only thing I could, bought stud's so it won't happen again.

You can put studs on the bike, but you can't take the sissy out of the rider. Shoulda stayed home like the rest of us, Nancy.

You sound like 1/2 of my coworkers Thanks.

Gawd, I don't wanna know the other half!

I rode today! It was either grab my bike off the front porch and go, or spend another hour digging out the car, so it was an easy choice. (I'll still have to do the shovelling tonight, though. )

Slipped and slid all over the neighborhood streets, but the main roads were better, as long as I stayed in the right tire track of the car lane. I did pull over a few times to let cars pass, including one semi-intentional slide into a snowback along the side! I thought it was rather graceful; I didn't fall, just stopped with my front tire embedded in snow. Had the bad weather bike, of course, a Huffy internal 3-speed, so I didn't mind getting it all snowy. Some guys in a pickup truck went by with one pointing at me and saying something to his buds; I just waved. Fun.