Nice -12C ride in, -3C on the way home. The brown sugar around campus has mostly melted leaving wet sloppy roads. The MUP was all plowed, though several parts not very well, one section had moguls.

I'm still the only one using the indoor bike cage this semester.

Last night I picked up a Garant Snoflex emergency shovel. I bungee'd it to my pannier today to fix a few trouble spots on the MUP. In many spots where the MUP goes under a road or over a bridge the plow leaves a big pile of snow. It doesn't take much to clear enough of it out of the way so I can ride through.

I did not bring clothes to bike home in freaking 60F sunshine. My spare office clothes from summer are still here (cotton t-shirt, shorts), that'll have to do.

Smooth ride home as the sun was setting over the mountains to the west. The Wasatch range (to the east) was illuminated with beautiful orange and yellow light. 20 something degrees F.

Great commute today. 27 miles round trip. 32 degress this morning with no wind, and 48 degrees this afternoon with a mild tailwind. Had more energy after the commute than before, both morning and afternoon.

Riding home in the dark last night (15 miles) and about 1/3 the way got my first flat in a long time. Was tucked in and coasting on a step downhill and noticed the bike feeling a bit squishy in the rear. Pulled over right away to check things out and noticed the rear tire was pretty soft but fortunately not low enough on air to suffer any rim cuts or rim damage.
The only thing around for quite a ways was Penn Cove Pottery, a small shop with a well lit front porch so I wheeled over and did a quick tube swap after digging a sliver of glass out of the tire.
Got to get a longer pump. Those little short stroke ones work and are handy to just toss in the pack but using them SUCKS!

30 degree temperature swing today for me. Started out in the low 30's and rode home in the mid 60's. Glad to have some extra room in the panniers for the clothing that was not needed this afternoon...

seized pedal bearings last week. snapped chain this morning. *sigh*

Low 20s this morning, 30F coming home. Yesterday's freezing rain set the MUP up nicely, consolidating the last week's worth of fresh snow into hardpack for a nice, fast ride, despite the two inches of fresh that fell throughout the day.

Stopped by the store after class, and just as I was taking off from the bike rack I heard someone shrilly exclaim, "Oh my god, isn't that really dangerous!?" Looking over my shoulder, I saw a young woman looking incredulously at me, slowly shaking her head with this total wtf expression on her face. I wanted to stop and point out that I was probably safer riding my bike through the snow on the back streets and the MUP than she was trying to teeter her way across the parking lot in her high-heeled boots through the same snow, but more than that I wanted to get back to riding, so I just shrugged at her and rode off.

Trail was in such great shape that I added a few miles onto the homeward leg, rode out past the lagoon and out to Earthquake Park along the Coastal Trail, and wound my way home through the Turnagain backstreets. Had two positive dog interactions on the trail (I know, wtf, right?!), got a cheer from the pee-wee hockey team that was out playing at the lagoon (on account of the spoke lights, I guess; kids do love 'em), and somehow made it home alive.

I like creating my own words..precipitation!

Recap of last night, fairly chaotic. I snapped these shots on the way home. Those footprints tell the story about this morning, it was a slushy heavy snow. Overnight accumulation plus cooler temps meant that any uncleared surface was unpassable. The footprints are now solid ice. Oh, and I was scolded by a cop for going through a red...guilty for sure. Having said that, for the second time in a week, I spoted a bicycle cop with no headlamp in the dark!



That snow behind me was cleared out this morning, but it was a rather slick, icy plane.



I had no problems on city streets coming in today, headwind was strong and annoying as usual, but when I went from street to the Mall area I was stopped dead in my tracks. Had to dismount and walk the bike over to Constitution Avenue to continue.

Some unlucky person dropped their sweet Ironman sunglasses in the snow yesterday, they were wedged in a block of ice so I just scooped the whole thing out and rescued them.

35f nice and warm, supposed to be near 50 today so once again back in shorts

Last night was beastly. Hard blowing sideways snow, 6+ inches and growing. My train was on time so my bike and train were way faster than the gridlocked cars. Couldn't bike today as the trains were not operating so I had to drive. No car traffic at all!

Nice commute, nippy weather.
Passed a guy on an Atlantis that I've never seen before. Wanted to chat, but was late for work already.

35F and pleasant, otherwise unremarkable, except that I felt pretty strong this morning and managed a nice average speed to the train station.

5C and beautiful! Left home shortly before sunrise, got to work shortly after sunrise. Watched the sky turn red, then blue.

=( I must've needed sleep. My wife nudged me about 7:30, the time I'm normally getting out of the shower at the office, to ask me if I was still going to ride in. Nope. I really dislike driving, but I drove today.
I rarely sleep so deeply that I don't recall the alarm going off.
Oh, well, looks like I'll go to the gym tonight. A ride in would've been preferable.

30+ degrees! Who-hoo! And the mashed potatoes that have been all over the side streets have mostly disappeared. The only problem is the sizzling sound of the studs on the pavement makes me crave bacon.

35F, pea-soup. Brought better shorts to wear home if needed like yesterday.

The ride home yesterday was pretty yucky... perhaps the uglist I've had so far. Everything closed early, including my office, so I was out by about 3:30 or 3:45. It was liquid rain when I left. Within 5 minutes I was being pelted w/ ice and frozen rain and an icy, slushy, snowy mix was building up on the ground. It had reached about an inch in depth by the time I got home closer to 4:30. At one stop early on, I put my right foot down in a puddle that was much deeper than I thought, so I rode the rest of the way with a very wet foot. Wool socks don't help too much when everything is sopping wet b/c it had already been submerged in cold, slushy water!

I figured the MUP wa still a mess since it doesn't gewt plowed and my side street, which was plowed, still looked pretty bad. So, I went multi-modal today and rode my bike the .75 miles to the metro from home, locked it up and took the train in to work. Same routine in reverse headed home. I'll miss the longer rides today, but I know conditions would have been much less than ideal. Today's mileage on the bike will total... 1.5 miles! :-\

I rode in the same stuff yesterday, but started out around 5:00. The ice pellets were coming down hard by then, and were definitely stinging a bit. I was relieved when it changed over to just snow, but by the end of the ride, it was piling up so fast I was slowed to around 6-8 mph. The office is closed today, so I'm working from home. Hopefully the MUPs will be passable tomorrow. I posted a couple pics of the snow covered bike in the Surly Troll thread.

The secondary roads are a mess, and somewhere around freezing. There is ice under the slush on the road, so it made it difficult keeping the bike steady riding through it. Except for the highways, everythinng is a mess. When I stopped at an intersection, a police car was behind me with his lights flashing. I just made my right turn and he blew by to get onto the highway. I couldn't think of anything I was doing, other than pissing drivers off.

I had a beautiful ride home last night through all the trails. Quick and sunny but when I got home my bike was covered in mud. Nice farewell for my old hub. The rear wheel is now a nicely organized pile of spokes, hub and rim. Time to start building tonight.

Fog, again. At least today it's burned off for the ride home.

I feel sorry for anyone that had to work today around here! Roads, even main roads, are a complete mess. Its either slush, packed snow, puddles, or ice. There's no dry pavement whatsoever. I tried to get in a joy ride, but 2 minutes in I got splashed up to my hips with ice cold slush when a car overtook me. Almost fell a couple times with the ice ruts as well. Some idiot managed to nearly left hook me even though we were going about 5 mph.

Got home, took off my pants, and had some warm hot cocoa

Tried the WOD trail this morning, impassable. This is my first season snow riding, didn't realize how hard it is to ride in deep wet snow. Ended up driving to work w bike in trunk.

First day commuting round trip. 26 miles. 20* in the AM and about 50* coming home. Was a great ride. I can't wait to shed all the winter gear.