"WTF is it with cagers? Got honked at IN the bike lane. two blinkies running in the rear, reflective bands on my ankles and messenger bag, not like they can't flipping see me..." ~ CCrew

You are doing the right thing - in more ways than one... That is why they hate you.

"Well keep trying, I salute you. I lived in MN for too long to know what you're going through." ~ Wheel

Thanks man... That's why I come here. Enjoy your ride! Days like I described make the nice weather we do get all that much sweeter.

Yeah it was beautiful! More the reason I was determined that I was going to ride this morning. And what's funny? The honking WAS on Fairfax, as I come up it on the way in! Wonder if it's your cager

What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. I must have said that to myself a half dozen times on my way in this morning. The conditions here are not as bad as what you have but it snowed last night and I beat the plows out. As long as I stayed in the fresh snow the front wheel tracked nicely but as soon as I had to cross or go with car tracks, it was a struggle to go in a straight line. Came close to putting it down more then once.

What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. I must have said that to myself a half dozen times on my way in this morning. The conditions here are not as bad as what you have but it snowed last night and I beat the plows out. As long as I stayed in the fresh snow the front wheel tracked nicely but as soon as I had to cross or go with car tracks, it was a struggle to go in a straight line. Came close to putting it down more then once.

It is not my fault! I have no idea why it double posted. Honest. No really.

That darn cager (i wish it were only one)! Luckily I only see about a mile of Fairfax.

Great. It was my first winter commute. I sometimes would commute to work in the spring/summer and fall, but I'm going to try to make it a more regular occurrence.

it was a beautiful ride today... roads were reasonable and the snow was salted enough to be slushy... And my hi-tec plastic bag covers for the shoes kept my tootsies from freezing/getting drenched.

too bad I forgot to bring my bike lock... hopefully no one steals the bike... its in my work garage - which has 24hr security guards... but you never know.

39F and raining.

For the first times in years I actually wished it snowed more. Weird things winter commuting does to me. It was very little and too warm to accumulate.

Adam

i love how quiet it gets after the snow... riding through the side streets of downtown chicago after school or work... its so (relatively) quiet. Just hear my tires scrunching the snow.

got off to a late start but decided to ride cuz it was snowing. dropped the 700 x 35c studded Marathon Winters down from 80+ lbs psi to right around 60 psi and hauled butt. wicked fun but struggled with fogging glasses. at one point I had one hand on the glasses to pull them away from my face and struggled to stay upright when my front wheel engaged a long road crack. stupid fogged glasses could have killed or injured me! hooked up my computer and hope these settings are close cuz I have some decent STATs (meaning close to dry weather regular tires) I felt good and strong with good speed and many times was dancing in the pedals (but seated).

temps were in the 20s
I was over dressed with base layer; fleece shirt; fleece vest & cycling rain jacket. I didn't need the both the vest and the shirt. I like the vest for the pockets.

I rode in full daylight but had significant snow flurries so put the Magic Shine on seizure inducing strobe :-)


13.49 miles
26.3 MAX mph
13.9 mph avrg speed
58 minutes saddle time

Last night was great. Made good time and felt good. Finally starting to feel I have some legs again after my extended holiday-induced lack of cycling made me lazy and pedalling harder.

Non-commute for me this AM. Got an inch or two of snow last night, and I know they don't plow the MUP that (by necessity) comprises 50+% of my commute, so I just took metro. And here I thought a pair of studded tires would have been a waste of my $ around here for the typical winter with a couple days of snow/ice on the ground.

[Cue the atypical winter.] :-\

My coldest ride ever. It was 8°F, wind chill -10°F. It had snowed a bit overnight, enough to close schools down here but not enough to keep people home from work. It was blowing around in the road. The bus was running late enough that I caught it going outbound and didn't have to wait out in the weather at all.

Tough week this week with significant amounts of snow on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. I don't mind a little snow, but when the road is covered and cars are sliding, well that's my cue to take the train. I love snow, and I even like riding in snow, but I don't like sharing the road in snow. I wish I had a MUP all the way to work. That would be ideal.

Wet roads but not raining; wore my new shoecovers nonetheless. Tried again to make it to the top of the big hill in 34x21, failed again. Got a nice pace over the bridge, then drifted down through spooky misty Stanley Park.

Enjoying the mtb so much on these dark wet commutes that I might get something more road-oriented - a non-rain, daylight-only bike - to replace my smashed-up Ronin.

I've just got a pair of thick wool blend socks, and I may add a thin polypro pair underneath because the toes have suffered a bit the last couple days. My shoes have some insulation that seems enough to keep everything warm down to about 15 degrees.

"And here I thought a pair of studded tires would have been a waste of my $ around here for the typical winter with a couple days of snow/ice on the ground." ~ EKW in DC

Definitely NOT a waste of money. They only have to save you once... Nokians, with carbide studs wil last a loooong time. The studs will last as long as the tire itself according to Peter Jon White. Put them on in the fall and forget about them until you remember them because they just saved you from a nasty wipe...

Besides, If you are running on your studs, you are saving your summer rubber. Just don't ride too hard on things other than ice and snow. The studs won't wear fast but they can be ripped out.

An inch of lovely, fluffy, pristine snow this morning. And I saw another cyclist out in it, 5:45 AM in sub-rural NJ, first time in over a year I've seen another cyclist in the morning. Pretty cool, I thought!

Oh, by the way, if that was you, on Carnegie Ave... you need better lights!

Platelet donation on the way to work this morning. Pretty good deal: a unit of platelets and a unit of plasma for all the cookies I can eat.

great ride home
a little slower and longer than the ride in but that's OK considering the elevation gain
got yet another use out of this hand warmer! I think that makes 3 round trips!

12.96 miles
26.1 mph max spd
12.4 mph avrg spd
1 hr 2 min saddle time

Cold, wet and dark. Reason to pause before "going" on a green light and checking intersection first: vehicles traveling at a high rate of speed blowing their red light with nary a brake tap.

I didn't work today but I did 14 miles of errands, starting out at 16º F (my coldest temp while riding) and a 15-20 mph headwind on the outbound leg (note the flags standing straight out from the poles):



The balaclava worked fine. I had to expose my nose when it got too foggy and cover it up when I got cold again.



What did I wear? From the bottom up, two pairs of socks, leather shoes, bike tights under jeans, a t-shirt, turtleneck, sweatshirt and nylon windbreaker, wool gloves with mitten caps (pretty cool actually- they are gloves that have exposed fingertips, but also have mitten caps you can fold over the fingers to keep the wind off), balaclava and helmet. I could have used a hat on top of the balaclava for the upwind portion of the run. Errands included going to the doctor's office to get new prescription scripts (we have to do mail-order under our new insurance), a trip to the eye doctor, a beef brisket lunch,



and a stop at my favorite LBS which is in the same shopping center as the barbecue place. Then home.

We have a rare WEEK of sub freezing temps down in New Orleans. Every day between 25 and 45. I put in some extra miles starting at daybreak this morning. Chill factor in the teens, 25 mph wind. No frozen precipitation luckily, as we have no infrastructure for dealing with that stuff. Just cold. Especially the ride home at 7pm which is 2 hours after sunset. Brrrrrr. The HIGH today was 35°F.

(Dang that Bar-B-Q looks tasty!^^^)

Stevens Point, Wisconsin
Rode to work at 10pm, zero degrees.
Wet plowed streets I chose were heavily salted.

Quiet and cold.
bill; marathon Winter's on an old mtb.