Nice picture from Alaska! It's a far cry from that here in Vermont. 41F/5C, sunny, with a tailwind. Supposed to be in the upper 50sF for the next 3 or so days! Crazy for November.

Still fueling myself a little bit with leftover Halloween candy. Got a bunch of Cadbury stuff we bought in Quebec.

Yeah, crazy Alaska pic for sure.

Today was a cool 45 degrees in old New York.

I'm not 100% sure why, but the motorists seem to be more tolerant of cyclists lately.

Light conditions have flip flopped now due to daylight savings ending.

Almost full light when I left the house, but will likely be full dark when I leave.

Forecast looks dry this week except for thursday.

Temperatures look fine for the next ten days as well.

It seems that in Manhattan and the northern parts of Brooklyn where biking has increased people have become much more courtious to us. South Brooklyn where I commute is a different story however. I constantly have cars trying to run me off the road or just honk like crazy even if they have room to pass.

We got our first snow yesterday, so I took a 16km refresher ride averaging 11km/h. I forgot how difficult it is to push through the loose stuff.

Today I left extra early so I wouldn't have to deal with many cars as not much plowing or sanding has been done yet. I'm using the mountain bike this week. I didn't put the studs on the touring bike yet as I'm optimistic that the snow will melt by the end of the week. It was -13C and the roads were packed and shiny. The only way to make decent progress is to be out in the packed driving lane. The parking lane is slow and very difficult to stay straight. Monday's commute was 35min, today's was 59.

The batteries in my tail light died some time during my commute. I need to stop using that package of dud Rayovacs. Getting a set of lithium AAAs for the winter is starting to look more attractive.

The morning commute was more pleasant and a lot brighter with the end of daylight savings time. The leaves are just starting to change here, so my commute route was very colorful this morning. The weather has been fairly constant here the past few weeks with morning temps in the upper 30s and low 40s, and afternoons in the upper 60s -- which is just about ideal in my book. My legs were tired from riding 90 miles over the weekend, but who's complaining?

29F (-1C), cloudy. The weekend snowstorm had been cleared from the streets, making for a nice early winter ride, with the leafless trees, gray skies and snow-covered grass.
I miss the dark mornings - the sky was already getting light at 6:30 when I rolled out. It'll be dark again soon.

Between seeing Mardmakarm's flooding and the northern snow, I was downright happy to be racing t-storms home in the rain last week. My hat is off to you all braving the elements like that. The sun is already up and warming the day here when I leave at 7:30, and we have yet to get to freezing cold. Tonight will be the first that I actually need my light. I'm thankful to have it so easy.

It was about 38 degrees F., dark, and drizzling. That will pretty much cover 98% of my commutes for the next nine months or so. Oh yeah, it was foggy too. I was happy I didn't ride the motorcycle, as in these conditions I become one of those timid old people who drive 35 mph max everywhere. Except that I do pull over to let other people by.

It's not snowing here in eastern Iowa yet, but I did make my commute a little more interesting by taking the just-completed fixie.

Do I dare go out on a limb and say it? But at this point commuting in NYC is beating the Boston commutes because of- the drivers!? Yep. While the NYC drivers are aggressive, really aggressive, they don't match the Boston drivers for their hostility. Despite the volume of traffic and the occasional hostile driver it does not compare to the constant hostile aggressive motorists of the Beantown.

It is a noticeable difference. People in general here in NYC are quite a bit more considerate than Boston. Granted there are exceptions and I've encountered a few but nothing like Boston for just down right mean and nasty motorists.

But man, the roads are in bad shape here. Broken pavement, potholes and metal plates all over the place. Still a jungle to ride in every day.

The ride home was a bit more challenging than the morning ride, but I saw several other riders out having fun. I encountered a wide range of road conditions: slush, brown suger, loose snow, packed, polished, ice, bumpy ice, pedestrian packed, and depressed tire track channels. The ride quality of some of the side roads was actually much improved by a layer of packed snow. On the way home I saw a bike that was locked to a post at an intersection. It was also there this morning, so I think someone was out riding and decided to throw in the towel.

There were very few bikes at the university today. It would have been very challenging riding today without studs. Once the roads (who am I kidding, sidewalks) clear up people will start riding again.

I rode on a couple sections of MUP on the ride home. It was sort of packed from people walking on it, but was mostly bumpy and uneven. I pretty much had to shift to my lowest gear and bounce along at about 9km/h. But I did get to see a bunch of geese. Its neat watching them come in to land on the water (in the event of a water landing, yourself can be used as a floatation device).

suppose to be 49 F and partly cloudy .. no rain expected ..... might leave early and get alittle more peddling in ... didn't do any yesterday

thr ride @ 2am will be 40F and clear .... looks like a great day to ride

fog isn't fun to ride in ... it was 32 and foggy the other night.... my headlights were pretty much useless ....

Good for you, GriddleCakes!! Apparently you and I have about a 1.5 inch difference to our perfect amounts of fresh snow... despite living in Southern Canada, I prefer 0 inches of snow.

Cheers!

Very interesting and challenging commutes today.

44F and sunny with winds from the SSW @ 4-6mph this morning. 61F and sunny this afternoon with winds from the SSW @ 5-9mph.

I didn't commute at all last week because there were no classes after the all damage from Oct 29's snow storm. I was really hoping all debris would be cleaned up by this week. For the most part the roads were clear, but Rt 20 (where the shoulders are usually nice and wide) was probably in the worst condition that impacted me. There were trees and branches everywhere (most snow is melted though). I was constantly running over smaller branches and/or having to stop to wait for traffic to clear so I could go around the heavy stuff.

On the way home I took a slightly different route which left Rt 20 and put me on some back roads for a while to avoid the debris. The roads were nice and quiet, but much hillier and longer distance as well. By the time I got to climbing the hill to my house, I was pretty beat.

I could always attempt to ride in the lane instead of the shoulder on 20, but that traffic is heavy, impatient, and fast (45-55mph). I'm really hoping the shoulders are clear soon or I'm gonna try to find a different way because I really don't want to stop cycle commuting.

Very nice commutes out and back today with temps just over 40 as I rode in and then 60+ for the dark ride home. Drivers seem like they need to get used to the dark.

As I rode I was thinking how much I love being on the bike...no particular reason!

Picture clipped for brevity . . .I am in awe.

41 degrees, no wind this morning. Even though we switched to standard time, the whole ride was in the dark before sunrise. It felt like 60 degrees.

Then, in the afternoon, the weatherman told us that there was going to be a high wind warning - so I kept glancing at the TV in my place of business until finally the National Weather Service issued the high wind warning . . . it was going across the bottom of the screen . . . watching . . . watching . . . then there it was - 30 MPH FROM THE WEST!! WOOOHOOOO 30 MPH TAILWIND!!!! I AVERAGED OVER 300 MPH!!!!! (or it felt like it, anyway . . . . .)

temperature was a near perfect, 58.

cutting crosstown i was blatantly cut off by a silver 2 door mercedes.

i hocked a loogie on his corner panel when i passed.

once in astoria, on a busy avenue, a black mercedes tries to pull a u-turn from a parked position opposite my lane. He jammed on his brakes, and i jammed on mine (with little time/space to spare) and i then proceeded to roll by his front bumper with middle finger extended. he had a surprised look on his face, as if i wasn't surrounded by hundreds of lumens of light.

"always a mercedes, always a BMW." - because when you drive one, you now have the right to drive like an idiot.

....for all of my complaining, i would not give up cycling to work for anything.

50% chance of rain (thursday) usually means just the right amount of water.

sweet

I had a total of 8 hours of sleep Saturday and Sunday, worked a 15 hour shift Saturday night, and was the supervisor Sunday night. I hit my wall about 4 hours before it was time to go home and couldn't even bring myself to swing my leg over the bike to start to try to pedal home.

I listed to the signals my body was giving me and called my brother to provide sag wagon services. I didn't even really feel like taking wheels off to get the bike in the truck but it made it easier to get home. 8 hours of rest later and I woke up with a migraine headache, a crystal clear signal that I way overdid it. I'll take it easy for the rest of tonight; tomorrow's agenda includes voting, grocery shopping, and at-home chores.

dark and smelly... why does it smell so badly outside?!

oh man, those metal plates are so treacherous in the rain.

also, there are many manhole covers right on the apex of turns, just so you can wipe out on them when they are wet. i had a close call with one not long ago, and learned to be a bit more wary of them.

while i was cheating on my 6 mile route with a gorgeous scenic 8 mile route, they apparently repaved much of the stretch i ride in LIC.

fresh blacktop is a small concession for wards island, and the east river esplanade.

Build my Surly LHT yesterday evening. Had a really fine ride to work today. Steel is real ! The LHT just needs some minor adjustments!

Nice ride in at 37F (3 C). It is supposed to be gorgeous today, but I will wait to see, as gorgeous is only for a couple hours this time of year. Going home yesterday was beautiful, and lots of traffic.

Nice ride in, wore the shorts in anticipation of a warm evening. And I ran into a colleague riding in as well...that was great! First time I've seen a fellow commuter from the office anywhere outside of the bike rack area.