HardyWeinberg

39F and raining, one stretch of standing water.

Not much wind, though

groovestew

Last night I discovered a use for my granny ring...I haven't used it in ages, ever since I whipped myself into shape and could start climbing hills faster than walking speed. But my current route includes a very short (10m) but very steep section on a MUT that comes right after a sharp switchback, so there's no way to hit the incline at speed. With it being covered in an inch of snow, torquing on the pedals in a higher gear just resulted in slippage, but in the lowest gear I had, I was able to ascend quite nicely. Slow going, but effective.

Took the bus today, for several reasons other than weather. There was a decent dump of snow last night, and I might have ridden if not for the other barriers. I saw a couple of cyclists out there, but they were moving pretty slowly, spinning in low gear through the 2-3 inches of snow. Hopefully there's a nice path beaten for me for tomorrow.

tarwheel 

The temperature was about 15-20 degrees cooler today than yesterday for my morning commute, down near the freezing point. I was dressed for temps a little warmer, since it's supposed to reach the low 60s this afternoon, so it took me a while to warm up. It's getting to the time of year when people think I'm crazy for biking to work, but I like cool weather much better than hot, humid summer heat.

z90

Breezy and brisk. One of my rear blinkies fell off in the worst possible spot, in the middle of a busy intersection. An SUV quickly put all thought of retrieving it out of my mind by crushing it to dust.

jdgesus 

saw an old coworker on the MUP, chatted with him for a few miles.
kinda nice (but probably annoying to him)

groovestew

I was out and about with my family last night, -12C, blowing snow, sliding around on the slick roads (we were driving), and this is nowhere near the worst that winter can throw at us here in Edmonton. When we got home, I looked at my wife and said, "I think we should move to North Carolina." "Near freezing" in the winter sounds like heaven. We would die in your summer heat and humidity, of course.

gecho

I had to take my car to the shop today, I wouldn't have biked today anyway. Snow and 60km/h wind, it was pretty deep by the time I got home. I saw a few cyclists out today while riding the shuttle, no envy from me

Roads will still be a mess tomorrow, so I'll be taking the bus.

Sixty Fiver

You don't have to leave Canada...

I used to live in the Okanagan and winter temperatures in Pentiction typically average 0C through January and the daytime temperatures are in the +'s... it is a glorious place to ride a bike save for the 40C days in the summer.

You really can't win and how much winter do we have left here ?

5 months ?

Sixty Fiver

I went out for ride on my Raleigh 20 this afternoon and was hose most pleased at how well those knobby little 451's ran out on the hard pack (traction wise) but was not as impressed with the ride as the position puts you way back over the back wheel.

Will be commuting down to the bike co-op in a little while and will be riding the U.A.V. as it is rolling on some 26 by 2.1's and is all studded up and just does not know what a bump is.

It also has a more balanced / forward riding position which makes handling rougher roads a lot nicer.

Should be fun now that the cars have had all day to polish things up.

neil

This morning was pretty brutal. Walking would have been faster. The truly fresh snow was fine, but anywhere there were some tire tracks, but not enough to pack or clear it, it was very hard to keep control. Hoping that the roads will be better packed on the way home.

boro

I wussed out and took the bus. The other day my hands went numb and my shifter ceased to engage... don't know if it's cold-related or if it just gave up the ghost at the wrong time.

Think I'll have to travel over to EBC to see about studding some tires and a replacement shifter if need be. Need goggles and new gloves too - my face was killing me and my mittens didn't cut it.

Still, I don't like the bus.

buzzman

Long sections of the bike path I ride in on have been repaved and even more of it is under reconstruction. And today I took a streets route to sign a contract for a job and it's a street I've always hated to ride on and it's curbs have been moved back and bike lanes painted on the road- so much better! I've been a bike commuter for 40 years and about 30 of those years have been in Boston and NYC. It is amazing how much better it is with the added infrastructure in both of those cities. I have bike lanes now on my streets route (8 miles) to almost a mile from my house and it really does make a difference.

It's kind of like the difference between living broke and living with a little money in your pocket- sure, the former is possible but not always pleasant (to say the least) and the latter is a lot easier even though money doesn't solve all your problems.

Sixty Fiver

It was a nice commute... temp is currently -18 C but the wind has died down and the skies have opened up which means it is going to be a really cold night.

Helped my friend convert his SS winter bike into a 3 speed equipped mountain bike and he seemed pretty thrilled with the whole conversion.

My Kuwahara handled the snow, ice, and brown shugah really well despite my not swapping in my studded front tyre... will do that tomorrow as the roads, and especially the intersections, are just gonna get more and more polished.

deanp

I thought my ride was a little chilly, until I read the post above (-18c). It was around 30F/0C tonight and I rode against a stiff headwind enhancing the "chill" factor. I'll get the pay back in the morning rocking the big tailwind. We have "warm" front moving in, so it's not going get much colder overnight and we have a nice weekend forecast. When I got to work I immediately remembered that tomorrow morning the company is handing out our Thanksgiving bonus. I don't know how I'm going to carry a 15 pound frozen turkey home?

Chalupa102

Good commute this morning at 35F and sunny with winds from the W @ 6mph. Changed my front shifter to a friction shifter after having all the problems with the twist grip, and it worked out a lot better. I'm gonna keep the twist grip for the rear because it's never giving me any issues. Started this week on fire getting the fastest ever commute in Monday and the fastest commute home Wednesday. Today I was pretty slow for no good reason. Granted I had a headwind, but it wasn't that bad.

Fizzaly

37f And it was ever so slightly snowing, and of course this weeks unusual warm weather made this morning seem colder than it actually was.

tarwheel 

I overslept by 30 minutes but resisted the temptation to drive and still made it to work on time. It was my coldest commute of the fall so far, about 34 F, and I wasn't quite dressed for it. The temperature has been warming up a lot in the afternoon, so I been having a daily tug-of-war between dressing for the morning cold or the afternoon warmth.

gecho

Cold waiting for the bus today (-22C, windchill -34C), but on the upside the stars are brilliant on cold clear mornings. I got my Lake winter boots yesterday and did a quick run up and down the street, the snow yesterday evening wasn't packed enough to be riding on. Later today and tomorrow should be better. Tomorrow will be -20C so I'll tune the cleat positioning on the Lake boots and do some clothing layering tests, try out my goggles etc.

Fizzaly

Celsius always messes with me i can for the most part convert it in my head but every time i see it before i convert it in my head i just see the -22 and say damn, i mean really -22c is cold as hell, thats like -5f i think?

EKW in DC

For all intents and purposes, a tropical commute, relatively speaking. Upper 40s F, or ~9*C. Bit of a wind, a headwind for me, out of the north or northwest. NWS says it's gusting to around 20 mph. Certainly ridden in much worse, but it was enough to make me work a little harder on the ride in than usual.

Surprisingly few bike commuters out, it seemed. Perhaps people are choosing their mode of commute by the calendar instead of by the actual weather conditions. Kinda like the significant number of people I saw walking about a couple days ago dressed in bulky sweaters, overcoats, hats, scarves, gloves, etc., even though the temperature was close to 60F. Come on people, just 'cause it's November doesn't mean you have to bundle up every day. Some days are actually warm. Shoot, around here we get the occasional freak 60 degree day in January, much less November, so it should come as no surprise to anyone.

Last commute for a while. Taking some extra time off around the holiday next week, so I'm out all next week and a couple days the next. I won't miss work, but I will miss the commute. And I'll be on the other side of hte country, so I won't even have my bike around to enjoy a fun ride or two.

CptjohnC

You sure? 37 @ 7:45 was what the radio said (can't swear to the location, but I recall it being relatively nearby -- Vienna perhaps?), and my thermometer agreed. I admit I am a bit further west ;-)

Hmmm -- could it have been time of day? It might have been a little light, but overall I'd have said pretty normal for a Friday, and the rack at work was about average- full.

Anyway -- I overdressed for the weather, as I got nervous - every said it was cold, and I believed it. Probably should have skipped the long sleeve base layer under my wind layer, and stuck to short sleeves. I also should have skipped the wool socks, as my calves were sweaty by the time I got to work. My feet were nice and warm, though I think I might need larger shoes to get maximum benefit from the socks. Or maybe I just need some windproof booties.

Tried something a bit different today -- I drove a little further (I know, I know -- the wrong thing) to avoid having to climb the slippery, leaf covered hill tonight. It was a wash as to time this morning -- any gains from extra speed were easily erased by traffic on Chain Bridge Rd. OTOH, my cycling average speed definitely gained (13.9 MPH). I don't think I'd make a habit of this, but it is probably a good option in bad weather. That hill is a killer. I had to walk up much of it on Wednesday because my rear tire lost traction as I spun up, which brought me to a stop. I think I need to reconsider using the Custis Trail and W&OD for the ride home.

Sixty Fiver

Still can't figure out why you guys are the last hold outs to go to metric as it is so simple for relating temperature.

100 - water boils
0 water freezes

And -40 C = -40F

Was a balmy -20 C this morning and have only been out for my morning walk and foot commute with the girls... with no wind and a sky full of sun it is actually rather pleasant and the little one was not even complaining about the cold.

The cat even went outside for 5 minutes before he came to his senses... he has never seen snow so was pretty intrigued.

gecho

I few times I've had the thought that the forum should have built-in unit conversion. Hover over a number to convert speed, distance, temperature. Even if it required a special tag around the number.

EKW in DC

I left for work at 8:30. Weather Channel said 47 or something like that, and the NWS official data for National Airport (still can't stomach the Reagan part of that, even after all these years) online said 48 as of 8:50, I believe. I suppose some of that could be do to readings in different places. An extra hour of sunlihgt may have also played a part. I wore shorts and two tee-shirts - one short sleeved, the other long-sleeved and was quie comfortable on the ride in. Not cold, not hot.

I dunno. I normally see more people on my commute at that time of day, even since the time change. I am often one of four bikes parked at my office. Today I was one of two. Could all just be a fluky coincidence that I happened not to see too many, but on my trip from Alexandria to downtown DC, I saw, I think, six fellow bike commuters total, all on the MVT, except for one guy I passed by the Washington Monument.

EKW in DC

As an American fam of the metric system, I couldn't agree with you more. I think the the only metric measurements the average American understands are 2 liters (soda bottles), kilos (of illicit drugs - LOL), and some may have a vague understanding of KPH, thanks to markings in car speedometers. Maybe one day our country will get its head out of its butt and join the metric world (i.e., the world except for the US and some measurements in the UK), though I highly doubt it.

On second thought, maybe the Chinese will impose it on us in 2050.