Artkansas 

After years of commuting in the 120 degree heat of Coachella Valley, the high 90s of Little Rock seem cool. Actually I like it over 107. There is an amplified presence. Things seem sharper. Your bike is hot to the touch. If you don't keep rolling your tires may melt.

Sweat is no way to measure heat. With enough humidity, I can sweat in the low 70s.

TalkingHead

you last two are some tuff hombres

-40? what the hell

fudging a bit are we

ia gree heat isnt so bad, it does keep you in tune in some weird way. Though im just a newbie rider compared to most on here

uke

Man, I only come out in the last hour or so before sunset. Even then, when I return half an hour later, I'm all sweaty and in need of a shower. Clothes damp, etc. I do believe one of the biggest reasons people stop excercising after grade school is because of puberty and the increased sweating we all do from then on. You don't really notice it when you're a kid, but when you're an adolescent, and all of a sudden, feeling like a fish in a bowl with all the social expectations to navigate, the idea of exercise and creating even more smells becomes a frightening proposition. As a result, you find other ways to pass the time. Of course, things like ineffective PE classes and fatty foods and the sedentary lifestyles championed by televisions have a lot to do with it. But I wonder if a fear of social embarrassment has more to do with why people stop most kinds of fun that demand a sweat than we realize.

HeIncreasesMe

I work with mostly folks in their 50's or early 30's who all think what I do is great, but it just doesn't fit their life style. Or they live to far away. We have a decent public transit system called BART that even people with bikes take (Some people who live 30 miles from work will bike 3 to 10 miles to BART and ride BART all the way to work)

....so most people aren't feeling like they need to ride their bike due to gas because BART is still very reasonable.

anthegreat1

i honestly don't check the weather. I look out the window to make sure it's not raining and just go. If I know it's 90+ outside it'll just discourage me. I always take plenty of water with me so I'm always prepared. i honestly don't know what the hottest day was for me, they're all hot because I go all out.

Hot Potato

It was in the 90's just the other day, and I stopped in the parking lot to chat with another man who frequently commutes. Conversation must have gone on too long, becuase the road tar melted onto my tire where I stood straddling my bike. "Thwik...Thwik....Thwik.... thwik..." all the way home becuase I couldn't get it all scraped off with what I had on hand.

Old Dirt Hill

Every winter in Minnesota we get a week or two in the winter where the temps drop into the -40F range. I'm out there riding in it just like I am when we have a week or two in the summer where we get the 100F temps.

shubonker

What do yo wear when it's so cold?

dobber

Although my commuting days are (temporarily) over, I really enjoyed the hot and sunny days, with just a hint of breeze. I'd take alternative, long loops home just to enjoy the day.

Correspondingly, I also enjoyed those crisp winter mornings, where just the mere act of going out the door was enough to warrant a medal.

Grim

Co workers are use to it now.

They are impressed that I have stayed with it now for over 8weeks. I use to get a lot of questions when the heat is up or smog warnings. I just take my times on those days.

I have found that I can deal with the heat a LOT better now. 85-90 even with high humidity is not a big deal to me now that I have the right clothing. I work in a 20k SQ/FT warehouse (tossing around what makes I phones work). So being sweaty is just part of a normal day. I just start sweating 30 minutes earlier. I like the cold so I don't see the mild winters we have here being much of an issue.

I have inspired one of my co workers. He bought one of my bikes that was a little small for me but perfect for him. He is hitting the local paths and he wants to ride to work. He has a pretty bike unfriendly route and plans to use the local mass transit that has bike racks on the buses for part of the ride. His concern is the small window he has to make on a transfer and if he misses that it will mean 45 minutes late to work. Hopefully with the increasing ridership they will ad more buses. I think once he does it a few times he will be a regular commuter like I have become.

Another co worker is looking at it and lives about the same distance as me. His route is not as bike friendly as mine but I would do. The rest of the people are just way to far away or are content to be 280-300lb eating huge lunches. I was well on my way to that but when I ht 240 I had enough. Still eat lunch with them but I take half the lunch in a doggy bag and have that for lunch the next day.

maddyfish

People question my wife all the time. "You rode today,in that?!" She rides to work 3 miles, all down hill, in skirts, buisness suits, pantyhose, sometimes dress shoes, sometimes sneakers. The ride home up hill is a different matter though. It is ALL downhill to her work. I can get there with 10 total pedal revolutions, mostly into the parking garage, and out of our driveway.

Thepurplem0nkey

I have a degenerative cornea disease in both eyes that, among other things, causes me to be extremely sensitive to sunshine and heat. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to commute to work on my bicycle, but even in the 105+ degree weather out here in Los Agneles, California, I have been pleasantly surprised by how quickly I have adjusted. Sure, my energy gets sapped pretty quickly in the heat just like anyone else, but at the speeds I ride, even the slower speeds on on the hills, provide a bit of a breeze so it helps. I'm also wearing tons of eye protection (I wear about 2 grand worth of special, customized contact lenses that allow me to get outside without passing out or puking my guts out from the light) on top of the visor helmet. My co-workers also are surprised when I ride in this weather, but the honest truth is I never feel more "worked out" and pumped then when I ride in the heat. I sweat like a fat *******, I pant like a bear in heat, but I feel absolutely great afterwards knowing I accomplished something most people at my work can't even imagine doing. Walking into my home drenched in sweat on a bikers high is an extraordinary feeling.

-TPM

SPlKE 

Same here. I look forward to these hot days for so many months, I get a little crazy if I can't get out riding when it's hot.

97 yesterday, and everbody saying "how can you stand it?" The water from my bottles felt like drinking hot tap water! Heh. I have another 2 + hours of heat riding planned for today.

Lamplight

You are obviously insane. The heat index hit 105 here around noon and it's not even August (when summer really gets going). From the end of May through September here is complete misery for me. I can't walk to the mailbox without being covered in sweat and bugs, and riding to work at 6:30am is like being in a sauna. And people actually move here for our climate?!?! All summer long I'm dreaming of winter, and all winter long I constantly thank God that it's not summer. All my life I've never been able to understand why everyone seems to love summer and hate winter, but I guess I'm just weird. My coworkers don't say a word to me when it's 112 outside, but they can't believe I ride to work when it's 30.

Old Dirt Hill

Layers...lots of layers.

In a nutshell, I wear a cycling specific base layer of the wicking variety. I then put on a layer or two of something warm that you would wear outside when it's very cold. I then top it off with an outer layer or two, which usually includes a wind proof shell.

For hands, I wear these awful looking army surplus mittens over wool gloves. I cover my head with multiple balaclava type things. I typically don't wear a helmet when it's below 0F, in lieu of lots of warm coverings and ski goggles.

It doesn't hurt that my winter commute is only about six miles long. Thankfully, we only get the -40F type weather for a short period of time - and it's only in the mornings. Usually it warms up to -10F or so by the time I'm riding home.

Hot Potato

I rode a motorcycle below minus twenty degrees farenheight.............. Once.

nykoelle

Maybe because I'm new to riding or because I'm out of shape or because I'm an idiot and didn't drink enough water, but I tried to go for a ride yesterday and wound up walking the bike back up the hill on my street home, then almost vomiting when I got inside. The heat hurt bad. I had a stomach ache all day. Isn't going to stop me next time though... think I'll just make sure I drink enough before I go.

Santaria

Nobody here, sadly, mentions my riding.

They do mention my 10+ mile runs at lunch though

My boss tried to swim once with me, but after then first 500m he said 'this sucks' and got out of the pool and left. He's not so tough for a guy who claims he could swim 1 mile easy

/shrug

cg1985

Yea, I don't mind riding home when it's super hot. We have built in air conditioning. But On the way TO work, it's nice when it's not so hot, the less sweat to worry about. Luckily, I haven't had a problem with sweat yet this year.

There is an impending storm coming up here for my commute tonight... Hoping I can beat it home.

gopnik

I kind of don't like it when coworkers make comments or/and ask questions about my riding to work. Lots of them think it's really weird. Many of them even make fun of me. So, I rented a locker in the gym in our building so I could change and keep by bike related stuff there. This way when I show up in the office nobody knows if I drove or rode my bike to work. I look the same. No need to answer idiotic questions.

SegFault

$0.02 from another cold-weather cyclist: I often have problems with balaclavas due to ice forming around the mouth from the water vapor in my breath. Adhesive moleskin patches or petroleum jelly over the bare parts of the face (mainly cheeks, and especially the nose) are a good alternative to prevent frostbite in temps this low.

deez

I got 3 "You RODE today!?!" comments today... and there's only like 8 people in the office today.

I was like "Yeah...why not?" I don't really watch the weather anymore (cause its always wrong) so I had no clue I was supposed to be fearing the heat. It took me maybe an extra 3 minutes to get to work...although I did get smoked pretty hard by some super hero...I gave chase for a couple of blocks but it was all i could do to keep from losing ground on him. Dude had to be doing 25mph easy

ItsJustMe

The only difference for me is above about 80*F I start actually carrying water, and above about 95*F, I mostly finish a bottle in my 11 mile ride. I haven't not ridden due to any kind of weather yet. My coworkers mostly stopped asking about it when I came out the door under the canopy where the smokers were hiding out, got on and rode off into a hailstorm.

recumelectric

Sweat is g o o d. Clears out the toxins. 'Course, I don't like being sweaty at work. Just on the way home.

recumelectric

That makes me so sad for you. I've had the heat episodes, too. The whole nausea and wondering if I will ever return to a normal temperature can be a little scary. (One time, I went into an office building along the way, put my head under a cold fountain, drank alot, and then sat in the A/C for a while. I figured if anyone confronted me, I would tell them that I just didn't want to die. No one confronted me. They just seemed to know better somehow.) It usually happens when I haven't ridden in a while, and then choose to go out for a while in hot weather.

Hydration is very, very good. I ride with a 2 liter Camelpack these days. So are nuts, bananas and orange juice a few hours before riding. Lately, since I've been able to, I've been taking a multivitamin an hour or two before riding, since I hear that we can sweat out a lot of the water-soluble vitamins.

I've been doing late afternoon/ evening rides, and again, it's because I can right now, but it's still in the triple digits when I go out.