you MAY ride without a jacket?

jeez, at 50 degrees i would explode with spontaneous combustion if i tried to wear a jacket in that kind of heat.

Back to summer cycling wear for me today. Even so I had to sit up and catch some wind, cooling off, on the way home. I left earlier than usual to have some daylight left and was able to enjoy a fast ride.

This is the way winter in Georgia is supposed to be!

I rode to work all five days this week. It was a dark and cloudy week all week long until this afternoon. Monday and Tuesday were pretty chilly, but the south wind returned Tuesday afternoon, and it warmed up. That's also when the rain showed up. I rode in the rain that afternoon, and both ways on Wednesday and Thursday. Fortunately, it was only a light rain for all those rides. I managed to get home before the storms hit on Wednesday.

2011 days ridden to work: 213
2011 commuting mileage: 5207.6

34 degrees riding in this morning before sunrise, it was awesome. Today I chose to ride main streets instead of my usual side streets, and had a lot of fun - got some interesting looks from people. The ride home was about 45 degrees into a small headwind, not too uncomfortable. Today was one of those days when everything fell together, when it felt just right. People watched me ride by today, and I felt like the looks were saying "I wish I could do that too . . ."

Open a IGH after spend a good time in flood 2 months ago




As you can see, water mud and rust left inside with no grease at all.So i gotta do a first time IGH oil bath.



.beLesson came in with high price to pay, i will never underestimate flood again.(Optimistically, now i can do oil bath as many times as i want.)

Nice Sunday ride today, -4C with a tailwind. It started snowing after I arrived at the university so I'll have something to quiet the studs on the ride home. One path that was in pretty good shape went bad on Friday. It had been packed and smooth, then the city dumped a bunch of sand on it, so now its loose and squirmy. The leadup to this winter is feeling the winter we had back in 1998. That year there was next to nothing for snow most of the winter and well above normal temperatures. I'm down for that.

I found a new favourite locker in the change room for my panniers. When you unlock it, the quarter falls out instead of going into the coin bin.

I got a few new pieces of winter clothing.

My mom finished knitting me a pair of wool pants. They are HUGE at the waist and the legs are long, but they should still do very nicely. An elastic band helps with the waist, and the extra material can be bunched near my ankles. She said next year she'll knit me a pair that fits better, since you can't really alter knitting.

She also got some insulation material from a fabric store and sewed it into a pair of rain covers to go over my boots. I just need to wait for a cold day to try them out.

Nice ride in at 25f (-3C). Saw the other rider who started this year riding sometimes either ahead of me or behind me from the intersection where he comes out. I saw his light behind me coming up, but there were lots of cars making the same left where I make my left, so I signaled to everyone, and
merged ok into the left turning traffic. That is where we part in the dark as he continues further down the road. Always nice to have company in the dark. I also saw a new runner, on top of my two walkers who walk in all weather. Hopefully, the new runner keeps it up, as they sometimes do it a couple times, then never to be seen again.

I had just packed my clothes, lunch, etc. in my paniers and was ready to leave when the sky opened up. It wasn't supposed to rain until an hour later. I unpacked the clothes, put them in a large zip lock bag, back in the panier, put on my helmet and shoe covers, and was ready to put on my rain cape when it stopped raining.

I put the helmet cover and rain cape back in the panier and had a wonderful ride to work. Temp was about 45° with a very slight tail wind. Streets were wet but the shoe covers ket my shoes dry. Ther ride home tonight may be less pleasant with rain/snow in the forecast. May have to break out the winter bike for tomorrows commute.

Nice pictures. Now I know what the inside of my Alfine looks like.

23F/-6C for my morning commute, along with a strong tailwind.

Eagerly awaiting next week's vacation!

Tough ride in this morning. Mondays are usually hard for me because I do a long ride with my friends on Sundays and my legs are tired. I had that to deal with this morning as well as very cold temps (20s) and a bunch of extra weight on my bike. We are having our Christmas feast at work today and I carried 13 homemade pecan tarts in my Carradice Pendle bag along with my usual clothes and gear. On top of that, I had to strap a package to the front rack on my Casseroll. The afternoon commute should be much easier as I will lose most of that weight and the afternoon high is supposed to reach the mid-50s.

Beautiful ride this morning. Temperature was in the lower 20s when I left the house around 530 am. An hour later, the water bottle was frozen. It's time to find my insulated bottle.

Super ride this morning. Temps about 33 degrees, wife tried to talked me into taking the truck, and I would have none of that. Left the house about 6:15 am..Pitch dark, lights front and rear, and I am getting use to moving out into fast moving traffic. I have developed a system of getting into traffic, and holding my place on the road, and lettting the cars know that I am there.. Very, very important..

Back to the ride, I am packing 3 strong layers of long johns down the bottom, if you count the bike shorts, and my regular underwear, you could say 5 layers down the bottom. Also, 5 layers up top, along with a face mask and ski gloves.. After the 8 mile ride to the subway, I exited the subway about 3 stops before my stop. Why? So, I could ride and extra 15 miles... Oh boy!! It was downtown riding around the area where I use to live.. Finally after a half hour to 45 minutes joy riding, I eased off to eat my breakfast then to work.

Great Morning!!!

That is one of the most enchanting things about the commutes - encountering other cyclists. I never actually meet them, but we see each other daily and we feel a kinship, a kindred spirit, although never met

Below freezing for my 4 miles in this am but I felt toasty with my full setup including balaclava (just that nose exposure). Double layered sock liner + wool from REI, ski gloves and two layers up top. And my OTG goggles.

The only addition I can bring into the mix is leg liners...but it's not that cold yet.

Second last commute of the year. I'll probably ride out the university several more times as its a convenient place to warm up, but they won't count toward my commute total. -15C for this morning's ride. Coming up to the shortest day of the year the sun is setting early and it was nearly dark by the time I got home yesterday. Today sunrise is 8:55 and sunset 4:56.

On Friday I noticed that I'd been riding with the wrong size spare tubes for almost two weeks. I keep forgeting to switch spare tubes when changing between the touring bike and mountain bike.

17F - cold!

Unseasonably warm ride this morning, lower 40's, a nice surprise. I still haven't mounted the snow tires yet, so had an few interesting moments when I came upon some frozen patches on the bike path.

Temps are forecast to drop all day, with winter returning tomorrow.

I couldn't ask for better this time of year. 40 degrees, high clouds but no fog at all. I don't really have clothes for coolish dry weather but I remembered a really light weight polar fleece top in the closet, and wore an athletic t shirt under that. Too much, I was pretty sweaty by the time I topped the ridge. I think I would have been fine in just one of my long sleeve T shirts.

I just made a light bar for the rear of my Fargo. I bolted it to my rear rack, and to each end I installed a Radbot flashing tail light. It's 18" wide, almost as wide as my panniers when they are full. I already have a steady on light in the middle, powered by the generator hub.

Iknowiknow, need pictures. I'll get a digital camera some day. Or any camera.

A warm morning this morning around 50f (10C). Still lots of traffic out early, and I rode past a cyclist with no lights, and dressed in dark clothes. He was on the opposite side of the street, and I never saw him again after that.

Topped 8,000 total miles for the year during my morning commute and I earned every mile of it with a stiff headwind the whole way. The temperature was about 15 degrees warmer than yesterday but it felt colder due to the wind and wearing less clothes. We are supposed to have rain for the next 5 days but the weather forecasters around here tend to exaggerate. Hopefully it will just be spotty showers so I can get in at least one more commute this year, as I am taking off work the last week in December.

A toasty -3C this morning. My legs were sore because I couldn't resist racing a bus for a bit on the way home yesterday.

I'm at 7700km total riding for the year. I hope to get in another 346km in the next 11 days so I can be past 8000km and up to 5000 miles. Thats more than twice what I rode last year. Next year I'm aiming for 10,000+ km.

The headwind was obnoxious, and I had to dodge some ice, but not bad. 26F/-3C. It might be studded tire ratbike weather tomorrow and/or Thursday.

I noticed that traffic today as well, seemed very heavy and I got stopped at more lights than usual.

Warm compared to yesterday!

Any Southwesterners here, braving the blizzards? It's still pleasantly warm here, with just a little drizzle at the end.

I think the normal holiday tension is starting to influence people's driving. I got honked at last night for the first time in months, no particular reason of course. For me it's a good reminder that this time of year is always dangerous on the road.

added: I just learned from a coworker that I'm "bat-shot crazy" for riding in this weather

16 F today - quite cold again, but I'm glad I braved it. A few other commuters out there - but not many.