I drove cuz I got back to the GYM for weight training. tomorrow will be swimming. should ride again Friday.

Mid 20sF, with fog. The neighborhood's wild turkeys were unusually loud when I left the house just after sunrise. Lots of ice on pavement this morning. Studs good!

Yesterday, a woman said in a concerned voice, "Ooooh be careful!", when I passed her on packed ice/snow on the MUP. I said, "I am. Got studded tires!" People think bicycle + snow = death.

Are they using that blue-coloured liquid up your way? (See how I spelled that Canadian for you?) The city here started using it and it sticks to stuff. One of my co-workers has had real problems with it sticking to his cassette until it forms a big mess and he can't shift. He has to let it thaw or pour hot water on it before he can ride home. It also irritates dogs' paws. People are complaining about it.

The Newark light rail changed their schedule - my train leaves one minute earlier now, so if means I'll almost always miss that connection. (Meh; What's 11 minutes out of a 2+ hour 3-train commute?)

My wife got laid off, so no carpooling for a while - bike/train for the indefinite future.

First day back commuting after hard winter hit in NYC in Mid December. It was GREAT!!!

I cant wait for the ride home.

I left late since the first exam I had to give was not until 10:20. There was still black ice all over. I learned my lesson last month, breaking my "drive-side" elbow and bending the hanger on some black ice.

Today I had the Schwalbe Marathon Winters on. Kids were slipping and falling on their behinds at their bus stops while I clicked merrily by! Pretty cool. And no broken bones!

Awesome.

37F, blinding sun. New brake pads came last night, will put them on later.

Was -5C this morning with freezing fog. No big deal and pleasant riding as usual. However, the ride home was 0C with steady rain that turned to heavy snow as I gained altitude. The down side is I just put on my normal wheels last weekend because the weather was nice and there was no forecast for snow this week (and they sooo much faster than my studs). Didn't have much traction, though, and the rear wheel kept spinning up my climb. Tonight, I'll put the studded wheelset back on.

Today, I took it to the next level. Normally, it's no trouble to bike around my school as we are quite known for being bike friendly. But today was no ordinary day, as those in California can tell you. There's been this horrible storm with 30 mph + winds and heavy rain tearing apart the place and there's no end for the next few days. To make things worse, I had class in an area not covered by bus service and even on a dry day the commute is quite out of the way. My bike didn't help as the rear tire is bald and the brakes find water confusing.
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I kinda had no choice but to bike and that folks is where things got interesting. I could get used to the deep puddles and the faulty brakes, but the wind, the wind was awful. I was on the wrong end of several of those 30mph winds and I actually felt the front of the bike get light and lean to the left. Now that is scary.

So what do you think? Am I a "real" cyclist now or is this something you guys do every day?

I bagged it and had my wife drive me in. 50mph gusts just aren't worth it.

First one since Friday. Had Monday off for MLK Day and yesterday for some Dr. visits (for both me and the cat).

Never ceases to surprise me how much more sluggish I feel after more than a couple days away from the bike. Compound that w/ some less than desirable nutritional choices this weekend and a general lack of sleep, and I feel MUCH slower than I did at the end of last week. Of course, according to the clock, I was only a few ticks slower on my 7 mile commute, but I felt it more. Nothing a few commuting days and a little more sleep can't solve, though.

Puddles around, but no rain by the time I left. Looks like the last dry-ish day of the week, though, with rain and some frozen precip. anticipated the next couple days. Can't wait to receive and install my fenders. It'd be nice to have them the next few days.

They seem to be aiming for me the last 2 nights. Rolling downhill last night, an Altima pulled out from a side street. From 30 to nothing pretty dang quick, and missed the rear of it by less than a foot. A block later, a Windstar pulls the same move. I had to double check all my lights were on, which they were. Another half mile down the road, almost ran head on into a cyclist going the wrong way, with no lights at all. Made it home safe and figured all would be well tonight.

Crossing a main street tonight after the light turned green, a Caddy pulls a right directly in front of me. No time to stop, but went around and hoped he did have time to stop, which did happen. Course, as he floored it by me, the d-bag had to yell. Then the dumas pulled into his apartment complex, and parked. I just yelled that I know where you live. Couple miles down, I see a pedestrian getting ready to cross the street. I can't believe it as he doesn't even look as he steps into the street right in front of me. Texting is far more important than living, I guess.

Ah well. Been pretty lucky for the most part. Just, getting all this wadded up into a couple of nights is weird.

took the road ride in this morning. Nothing too notable. In some way- no news is good news in this kind of weather. the ride home tonight was likewise uneventful. Saw another rider on the late night commute home on Commonwealth Ave. by BU- he was well equipped for winter commuting.

Oh, one thing did happen- one of my blinkies flew off the back of the bike tonight. It landed in the right lane of Huntington Ave. I went back to retrieve it- it was still blinking brightly in the road. This guy in a car saw me stop and saw me walking back to get it and actually aimed for it and ran it over! He gave me this weird smile as he went by me after that- it was the strangest, passive aggressive weirdness I've been the target of in a while.

Well the ride home in the rain (Tues. ) sucked because I had to take the main road over the flooded wash. Even though it was raining and night time. I was buzzed by four vehicles. What I don't understand if I am not going to get three feet when I am in front of them, how is that going to translate into three feet when I am over on the right in a narrow lane?

My ride into work Wed. night was uneventful. Now I am looking at the radar and wondering how wet I am going to get on my Thursday morning ride.

The second storm is on the way to you.

LAJ - sounds like an omen. maybe you should take a few days off and let the spirits fly crazy

BUZZMAN - that guy was such a freakin' display of human nature's depraved side

It was a chilly 20 F ( -6 C) ride in. Since last thursday, it has been nice in the afternoon. Today, they are calling for some precip, but nothing yet.

A comfortable 22F this morning. Lots more ice. Again: Studs good!

Word problem! Cyclist A, pushing his MTB with studded Nokians at 18MPH, sees Cyclist B 1/4 mile ahead of him. It takes Cyclist A 1/2 mile to catch up to Cyclist B. How fast is Cyclist B riding?

Yesterday on my ride home two very cute young women were looking at me. I returned the look (at my age it was probably more like a leer), and they yelled something but I was going too fast to hear what they said. I look pretty young, especially with my gear on. I hope they yelled something nice.

just commuted for the first time in 2010 this morning!!!!
found out it's only 12.23miles to work (but i'll take the longer, safer way home (16-18mi)).

man i feel AMAZING!!!!!! it was tough rolling out of bed at 4:30am and having to cycle in a knee brace is crazy annoying but i did it and can't wait to keep doing it!!!!
i've felt like such a fat, lazy, useless bag of rocks ever since a skiier ran into me from behind and tore my MCL but i'm healing up and finally back in the saddle!
cycling in new gear (Xmas presents FTW!!!!) is suuuch a morale booster too!
it was a GORGEOUS ~54*F ride, averaging just over 18mph WITH all the stop lights!

man i'm on cloud 9 right now! (lol i just googled "cloud 9" to find out exactly what it refers too lol)

Nice commute this morning. The streets were wet from an overnight rain, but it wasn't raining during my ride in. The temperature was fantastic for riding (somewhere in the 40s).

They use mostly Rock Salt, sized like small bits of gravel. Corrodes metal, bridges and it is very harmful to the environment. Every year the Region promises to cut back but I honestly do not see any evidence of reduction. They use Calcium Chloride before it starts snowing, especially on the bridges. The blue colored, (American), stuff you refer to may be Magnesium Chloride. Similar to Calcium Chloride.
Today's ride in was a little colder at minus nine but it is defiantly lighter. Pretty soon I will not need the lights.

The storms causing evacuations in CA are dumping a lot of rain in AZ. Opted to do the Cyclocross routine this morning and hoist the bike over barriers closing sections of my bike path route, rather than risk the drivers on the main drag in the rain. Had water over the BB, but made it in fine. However, if the forecast of 40+ knot winds is accurate, I will opt to be picked up this afternoon. Vision of the Wizard of Oz (with me as the witch on the bike) keep running through my mind.

I thought of that, but decided I would try a different way TO work to try and confuse said spirits. Perhaps if they don't have the tractor beam on me from the get go, I may be home by the time they find me.

Oh, and I changed my shorts....

35F and clammy. I was all fired up for a Pineapple Express-esque 4" of rain per day this week but it never came. Now it looks like we're back to normal.

Earlier this month, I thought I was a baddie because I biked in 35 F temps, and thanked all you snowbirds on this thread for shaming me into taking on colder temperatures. But then we went into an unprecedented 13 day long spell of sub freezing temperatures. So now I must confess, I did not ride my bike for two solid weeks. Too c-c-cold!

But today? I started out in my long tights and a windbreaker with my dry-weave short sleeve T under it. Five miles into it I realized I was WAY overdressed and pulled over to stash the windbreaker in my pannier. Temp was in the upper 50's and quite cool and delicious in a short sleeve T-shirt. The prediction is for rain later today and the sky is heavy with clouds. But temps will be in the 60's so I'll be fine riding home wet - in shorts and a T shirt.

In a word: excremental.

I was excited because it was the first day in a week without fire-hose rain or 30 mph gusts. But I left late, then flatted, then discovered I had the wrong sized tube, then discovered I my pump wasn't working, so I had to walk the last mile to the office in my clippy cloppy shoes. Sigh.