Another 30 degree temp swing in Austin today. High 30's to start...and almost 70 on the way home. Lots of sun too. I saw a small herd of at least 15 deer this morning on my way in. I have never seen so many deer together at the same time. Most of them were little...



They seem to be everywhere in certain parts of town. My commute routes through a hilly canyon which is where I took the picture.

^^^
Nice, just bring your rifle next time and you can pick up dinner on the way home.

19F and overcast. Loose snow and brown sugar all over the roads downtown, keeping the speed down. Drove the (un-studded) car a bit after work, and damn it's slick out there!

Easy commute in this morning, some patches of ice and other spotty areas where I needed to walk the bike over hard pack snow. One morning walker expressed concern for my well-being

Not even sure of the temp today, was not terribly cold.

My legs felt great yesterday after two days off due to weather and a saddle sore. Went to the doctor about the sore and some other issues, and ran a lot of errands since I drove. I've had persistent elbow pain for months, and it turns out that I have tennis elbow (even tho I don't play the game). Probably got it from kayaking a lot last summer, but it never cleared up. Hopefully I'm on the road to recovery now.

Still trying to get my birthday ride in for this year, which is getting tough since I turned 57. The weather has been very cold and/or icy every weekend this month, making it hard to tackle longer rides. This weekend we are finally getting a break, so I should be able to knock out a metric century.

24f Got a late start so rode in a bit faster, nice ride in though.

Ride much easier than recent rides. Some ice and slush but nothing the studs couldn't handle. No shoulder though so I must take the lanes on some roads I'm not comfortable taking.(cars are very fast). Temps are below freezing so nothing gonna change in the near future.

Great weather this morning, clear skies, strong tailwind and smooth roads. Too bad I took the bus . My homework went a little long last night (finished at 5:30am), so I didn't want to ride in tired. Debugging a recursive computer function can be very time consuming.

Got a compliment from a driver about my taillight yesterday on the way home. It's a magicshine. It was nice to know that people appreciate it, and it clearly makes an impact.

Day two of multimodal commuting. Just a short ride to the metro station from home. Looked longingly over at the portion of the MUP visible from the train last night, but saw it was still covered in snow and ice. Mostly just footprints visible, though I did see a few bike tire tracks. Hope this crap melts this weekend!

Countdown to arrival of LHT frameset: ~3-4 days! Buildup to be done next weekend hopefully. Exciting!

30F and all the snow has melted out of the bike lanes.

I found an insulated mug in my cabinet that fits the bottle carrier. Thought I would try it out this morning since I usually catch at least two lights on my way in. Thinking I was going to be pretty stying at the light, sipping some hot coffee.

You guessed it, didn't catch a single red this morning, first time ever. Thats good though, I would rather pedal straight on to work than stop every 5 minutes and drink coffee anyway.

Put new brakes on last night, Avid, much happier with them than the no name crap the bike came with.

Lost my light again due to a worn out battery, that won't take a full charge anymore. Fortunately, the sun was almost up and I wasn't in the streets, but on the MUP. My primary light should be en route back to me, repaired.

Stunning, calm, cool, blue morning.

We're moving into the "two sets of ride clothes" season. Mid 30's riding in, it's going to be near 70, going home.

I saw a female riding, dressed and lit like a regular commuter the other night, going North on Hildring, in SW Ft Worth. Never seen one here before.

43F and gray

Which Avids I'm looking to upgrade to SD-7s as soon as I can. Gotta save up again now for that though. Just spent a bundle on a new frame and some other new-build-related components.

I'll let the following image speak to this morning's ride:

SD5

I rode to work all five days again this week. It was 44 degrees as I rode to work this morning, and 75 degrees on my ride home, the warmest ride I've had in a while. But, just in case I thought spring was here, some weather forecasters are predicting an ice storm on Tuesday. I guess I'll just hop on my recumbent and ride to work on the ice...............NOT. I ride most days, but am definitely a fair weather commuter compared to some of y'all.

2011 days ridden to work: 18
2011 commuting mileage: 433.8

Late commute home today, Happy Hour called. Such a different environment after rush hour, really calm. I was able to explore some different streets and generally relax. Warm too, mid 30's I'd say.

Encountered two horn honking jackasses that wanted me to get out of the way despite the fact that I was riding behind a slow moving bus and truck. Both encounters ended the same way, with both cowards eating my slush.

Basically the same weather in Austin. High 30's to start - and almost 75 on the way home with a sunny sky. Great way to round out another 5 day week of commuting.

In the low 30's again. Was getting dark, and starting to snow.
The tiny snowflakes sparkling in my headlight beam on the last quite street before I got home made my day.

I did my first bike commute ever yesterday, just over 20 miles each way. I got into biking a year ago but was mostly restricted to weekend riding. Now I'm trying to work in a few extra rides during the week this way. I'll be happy if I can average one bike commute a week since other time commitments don't allow for more. The ride itself went without any problems and I even had an internally gloaty moment on the way home when I was cruising along on the bike trail parallel the to gridlocked interstate. I only hope that once I develop a better routine I can get out the door more quickly in the morning.

I love my 3 speed for the commute. For awhile now I have debated if I should take my old Schwinn Racer or not. Today I did. I have been missing great riding for a long time, that bike is perfect for my commute!

Just cold at 24 F (-4 C). The secondary and side roads are still a mess, and I guess they will stay that way until the weather does something about it. The plowing was uneven, so sometimes there is a side, then all of sudden, cars and bikes are squeezed into a narrow canal between ice and snow on the road. Sidewalks are still covered, so hopefully, I don't get a flat, as in the road would be the only place to change. I can only guess that budgets were the reason for the sloppy plowing. Something else is coming in on Tues and Wed, and it all depends on where the line is and the temps.

I was excited to see that when I woke up the temperature was 7C warmer than forecast.

I really should have checked my bike last night though. Front brake cable frozen, but I figured I could live with that. Then the battery in the headlight was dead, so I swapped that out. Then about a km down the street I realized my rear derailleur wasn't shifting, so I headed back home. I didn't have time to sort that out so no ride today.

An annoying thing that happens on a regular basis in the morning is ice on my spd cleats. Since they start off warm, snow melts and sticks to them immediately, then quickly becomes ice.

A little rough this morning. Had a large package (16x18x24", about 15 pounds) strapped to my rear rack, with my MS taillight relocated to the cargo strap on top. It was -5*F, and the temps yesterday were near freezing, so there were patches of ice that had been packed hard and smooth by cars then frozen to rock hard. Studs don't really grip on that stuff, it's like iron, so my rear wheel went out on me once, though I caught myself in time. I'd also put my old 4 cell magicshine battery on to see how it lasted; less than 25 minutes, so I was at the side of the road fishing around in my pannier for the disconnect, hoping no cars went past, because with me facing the wrong way all my reflective stuff and my helmet taillight were not visible from behind.

After that all got straightened out, no real problems. Other than the fact that I couldn't actually latch my helmet straps with the balaclava on; I tried and nearly choked myself. It's a Bell Metro, the largest size (I got a pumpkin head!) and the strap is already at maximum length. I may have to dice up a strap on another helmet to make an extender.