I hear ya on the parkas, etc. Low 50s when I left home this AM. I wore shorts and a tee shirt. I saw people wearing more for their bike commute today than I wear in February on 10-15 degree mornings. Crazy IMHO.

Commuting so far today has been better than yesterday, when I broke a spoke on the rear wheel. Replaced spoke this AM and had a very nice ride in. Weather was absolutely perfect for a bike ride. Can every day be like this please? Well you can leave out the headwind we had, but otherwise spot on. Low 50s clear blue sky. Aaaaah...

Well, a lot of the people I see (like the guy in the balaclava yesterday morning) are barely pedaling, just sort of cruising along just slightly faster than walking speed. I can imagine that getting chilly (he was also about 2/5 of my size . . . . )

It was 36 F. when I left the house, so I finally wore my O2 rain pants over my shorts. I bought a Merino blend long sleeve shirt at Costco over the weekend and tried it out. Very comfortable but it's no better than the 3 or 4 athletic shirts that I've received "free" at the various races I've run in. In big letters it says "Merino Wool and in fine print it says 11%. I need to start wearing my hiking boots for riding now, as my feet took quite a while to warm back up in the retired running shoes I've been using all summer.

Very pretty star-lit ride. There's no hint now of sunrise before I finish my ride, so I have to make do with the Dallas city lights.

Nice ride in. I've been wearing my poly stretch open face balaclava pretty much every day now. It breathes well and keeps the cold air out of my ears (guaranteed to cause a headache) while not inhibiting my hearing.

I added a replacement mudflap to my front fender. I used a vinyl table placemat from a dollar store. Much longer than the old one.

Seeing a big pile of leaves on the ground reminded me of a phenomenon I saw about 12 years ago. We had a sudden very hard frost with zero wind that night or the following day. All the leaves from the elm trees across the city fell into neat perfect rings below the trees. I'd never seen that before and never since.

Which in turn reminded me if the one time I saw a field full of thousands of snow rollers (snow balls formed by the wind under just the right conditions).

Starting to get cold. High 40's. Long pants and heavy tshirts come out, shorts and t-shirts are going back in :-( A little bit headwind, not too bad. Rode pretty hard though. Beautiful morning.

Still mostly comfortable at 61 deg.F when I left the house, then into a light rain/drizzle all the way to the Metro. My jacket got wet, my socks got wet (wearing 6-6-1 SPD sandals) but nothing tragic. Exit the Metro in Los Angeles, dry and still about the same temp. so no problems.

Rick / OCRR

I assume you live in Queens (riding the Queensboro) into NYC or is the other way around?

I am out in Jackson Heights. Commute in once or twice a week. Actually trying to increase that.

What do you ride if you don't mind me asking. I was late for work and was stuck on the Queensboro this morning at 6:30 watching all the riders go by haha. Wish I woke up earlier to ride in.

Cool, clear with cloud cover, and the car boys and girls played nice today.

I come from Astoria to Manhattan, 4-5 days a week (only 6 miles each way). You're probably an additional 1-2 miles East I assume.

I ride a Giant Escape 2 Hybrid, with hybrid Kevlar bead tires.

I'm up at 6, out by 6:15-6:20, I'm usually in the office by some time before 7.

What are you currently riding?

Good ride in, and a tad warmer at 54F (12 C). Rain tonight and tomorrow, got to remember to pack for it. Yesterday, going home was beautiful with the sun on the changing leaves. It was a color show.

36F/2C, no wind. Sunrise was around the time that I left. I think I may have to switch from front blinkie to proper headlight next week, at least.

Rode half a block, and realized that weird feeling on my head was my missing helmet and riding glasses. Sigh. Guess I was zoned out this morning. Turned around and went back to get properly equipped.

First day of the season I saw something other than "green" on the weather radar. :eek: It was over the Adirondack Mountains. I shall not speak its name, for fear it comes this way. :D

52 degrees, 5 mph wind.

Apparently they repaved a particularly bad stretch of crescent ave while I was using my scenic route this summer.

I saw they were repaving 21st street recently as well, but I'm not so sure I would opt for that road even with bike lanes. There are multiple taxi garages, a large DOS depot, as well as most traffic coming off the 59th street bridge on that road. Not worth the possible half mile I would take off my route to be in that mess.

I felt pretty strong going up the bridge. Traffic in midtown was a little thicker than usual for 6:30am.

So many ninja cyclists either riding with no lights or the worlds most anemic blinkies.

One woman on the bridge had a white high instensity LED blinkie mounted on the rear of her bike. From a distance it was difficult to tell if she was moving in the same direction as me riding or if it was someone walking a bike towards me. Not cool. I wanted to give her a peice of my mind, but abstained.

People with poor/no lighting infuriate me.

Second day on my longer commute route to the new office. My roundtrip totaled 30.1 miles yesterday, about 8 miles longer than my previous route. I'm actually following the same route for about two-thirds of the way and just adding another 4 miles or so each way. The extra 4 miles really slows down my average speed, however, because it has a lot of hills and traffic lights, and I'm currently having to lock up my bike in a parking deck across the street from my new building. They are supposed to have bike racks in the new building but are still installing them. I also have to remove my seat bag, lights, computer from my bike, which I previously didn't have to do when I could keep it in my office. On the plus side, my new office is much nicer, more comfortable and a far superior working space.

A milestone today: 500 trips to or from the office! The Clean Air Campaign website I log it on says I've reduced 2.6 tons of air pollution total and 3.1 tons of CO2 (I guess they subtract my breathing), and $2600 in fuel and maintenance savings. It's all good!

Tore my MCL playing soccer over the weekend... it will be a while before I can commute.
What do vehicular-cyclists do in these situations?

I believe the term is HTFU... LOL. Just kidding. Torn ligament... Ouch! Here's to a speedy recovery.

Ride in this AM was su-weeeeeet! Temp low 50s. Bit of a tailwind. Made for a nice fast ride in. Off to run some lunchtime errands on the bike now. Cloudier Wx predicted for the PM commute, but no rain til later in the evening. Sounds like tomorrow will be one of those days I get full use out of my Cascadia fenders.

Upper 40's and very headwindy on the way in. I've been riding in a 63 GI pseudo-singlespeed mode lately, so that was rough. ;)

Woohoo! 3 days in a row! Nothing particularly special about my ride; I felt like I was taking it pretty easy, but my clock seemed to think I made about the same speed as usual. Probably because I was in sync with some of the lights I usually have to wait for. Perhaps this is a case of going slow to go fast ;-)

Tomorrow is my regular work from home day, so I'm excited that the rain is supposed to come then. Sorry to my fellow DC area bike commuters; I'll feel your pain in spirit, though.

***Edit: So much for no rain until tonight; I just walked to the other side of my bldg (the side with windows!) and saw water falling from the sky and making the ground very wet. Perhaps it will stop before my ride home?

10 miles feels like 40 with a head wind and 45 mph gusts. I can't wait for the ride home, with the tail wind I might set a personal best!

You assume I don't like riding in the rain. Usually, as long as it's not a torrential downpour I'm totally into it. I actually prefer it some days. Less competition for space on the MUP. :) There's something special about the sound of the tires on wet pavement, too, that I just really like. I'll feel your "not commuting today" pain in spirit. ;) :thumb:

-4C this morning, which is better than the -7C it was when I woke up. I got a tweak done on my bike fit yesterday. It takes a while to adjust to the new saddle height / position so I was a little sore riding in. It looks like last night's cold is going to convince the remainder of the leaves to fall. Still no snow in the forecast, but the first snow of the year always seems to arrive with little notice.

Route 15 time trial today; temps were nice, very little wind or cars in the early hours. Chance of snow tomorrow?

Temporarily mount a motor on the bike, then take it back off when healed?

Looks like I jumped the gun this year with the studs. Been wet and warm(er) since this current weather pattern moved in on Friday. Overnight lows keep being forecast in the low 30s, so I haven't taken the studs off. Pretty sure that if I unmount 'em, it'll freeze overnight and I'll just have to remount 'em in the morning. =/

On the upside, these studded tires are a lot narrower than I'm used to (40mm as opposed to the 54mm) so I don't feel the slow down nearly as much as in the past; and they've got good tread for the mud, so I can still take a couple of shortcuts that are off limits to my street slicks. It's supposed to drop to the mid-20s tonight, so I'm keeping 'em on for one more day, at least.

Steady rain all day yesterday and again this morning, but I see the sun shining out the window, so maybe I can ditch the rain gear for the ride back.

Fair enough, though I won't envy you the rain in the morning; chilly and raining definitely isn't my cup of tea. I definitely agree with the less crowding on the MUP - I don't remember it being this bad last spring... or last fall! But you're right: I will miss my ride tomorrow.

And I'm really torn for tonight's ride home -- I hate riding on the Towpath in/after rain, as it just mucks up my drivetrain too much. But I don't really want to take the 'long way' either. Decisions, decisions.

conditions have been a little tighter than usual on my route home, making for slow riding towards the 59th st bridge.

i often try to pace skinny riders as a form of motivation to push harder. i do have a competitive nature so for me it's the best way to keep me from being complacent in my commuting efforts. i guess i'm sort of racing but at the same time well aware that as a 260lb clydesdale, carrying maybe 25-30 pounds on my back, most guys can dust me off without too much trouble.

if a guy my height of average build wants to race.... sure after you strap on 50lb sandbag and a 30lb backpack, lol. XD

coming off the bridge i had a skinny guy (no pack/pannier [no lights either]) on a comfort bike perched 15 feet in the air grinning like an idiot, who just sailed past me up a small hill. no way i couldve caught him.

up ahead i caught up to a young dude, probably half my weight, on a fixie with toe cages [no lights]. he didnt seem to like the fact that due to traffic, i was basically pacing him. he came up hard on a red light, with many peds crossing, including small children. he had to skid multiple times to stop, and thankfully did so but precariously close to people. he made some inoffensive comment regarding the fact that i was keeping up with him and told him i like to try to keep up with the skinny guys. light changes, he says, "let's go!", and we took off up a hill. i was about two car lengths behind him when i got caught at a light, and dude was gone. i wish i would of had more of a chance to try keep up with him.... oh well. maybe next time.

near the end of my ride there is a pitted, busy, highly residential block, with many children scurrying about.

today on this same block a mother, who was standing in the middle of the street basically let her children run right out across the street in front of me. i had time to stop, but just barely. i was flabbergasted. i just dont understand how people can be so careless.

all THAT being said, i hope it rains tomorrow, so i can test out the boots and jacket i recently purchased. :D