First time I've posted in this thread! Today in the UK was a little wet (last night was torrential) and this morning I found it hard to get up so I decided for the first time I'd do the first 12 miles by car then cycle the 14 miles left. I just hope where I parked my car is ok; in a tiny lane next to some large houses, should be OK.

The ride back to my car is gonna be wet though, FUN! And i didnt even bring anything to protect my seats in the car from the wet bike dam it!

Sam

Yesterday I spent about an hour cleaning my drive train. I had the chain soaking in mineral spirits for 3 days, then I cleaned it up with a cloth, and soaked it in prolink. Also did the derailleurs and cleaned up the cassette.

This morning it was raining. :mad: :rolleyes: The prolink should hold okay though.

Mid 30sF. Bit of a tailwind. I do like riding in the rain. With the tailwind I had no wind noise so it was just the gentle whir of the tires and the sound of raindrops hitting my jacket.

5 miles of empty MUP. Not a single other person. Just the occasional squirrel.

i managed to get out and ride saturday and sunday which is unusual...saturday night i was heading to my friends house to hang out and drink some wine so i grabbed the poncho and headed out and it was wonderful and slightly scary due to wet leaves and not really being able to see all of the little cracks and holes in the road...sunday i did a 20 mile ride and checked out some of the headlights in south portland and also stopped at willard beach...i had a good time riding in this morning, it was about 43 when i left the house and i saw a few other commuters

One of my easiest commutes ever. My legs were well rested so no fatigue problems, the weather was cool enough that I was able to pump pretty hard without breaking a sweat, and traffic posed no major obstacles. Effortless.

Meh. I caged it.

I was kind of on the fence regarding the weather- predictions of thunderstorms, maybe even hail. Still I probably would have ridden this morning and played the afternoon by ear; we rarely get sustained t-storms and could have probably waited out a storm at work. But then I was planning the rest of my day.... Let's see, after work I gotta go to Costco and pick up some flooring.... well, since Costco is like 1/4 mile from my office, it hardly makes sense to ride to work, ride home, probably in the rain, then drive back to the place I rode from.

I have this Friday off; I'll make sure a ride an extra 15 miles to make up for it. I promise!

Mid 30s this morning. No rain. Nice ride. I was overdressed a bit (other than my feet, which got cold)

I was on the recumbent took a slightly longer route (17.5 miles vs 16.5), averaged only 13.4 mph. Oh, and I was festive.

Chilly ride in.

Silly gate guard stopped me at the very last possible second which caused me to lose my balance and drop the bike. No damage other than my already-malfunctioning Sigma DTS 1106 mount broke.

Other than that, it was just another ride in.

On the commute home last night i wiped out. I was going through a construction zone and there was this 2' drop, i went into it at about a jogging pace. The ground was too soft at the bottom and my 23c cut into it like a pizza cutter into a deep dish with extra cheeze. I nearly endo'd but threw my weight back and then went over sideways instead.

Today marks day #8 of straight commuting... it could also be my last commute of the year.

^hope you're okay. Cold as hell this morning, deployed the fleece vest & tights...probably could go down to 20F w/ that setup. Dusting of snow. Saw one other commuter, two other diehards on the rack @ work.

Nice avy there, PC! I'm originally from E-town.. whatta game on Saturday eh? Go Esks Go!!

Anyways, hope you didn't get too bruised/cut up from your crash there.

As for my commute this morning, it was f***ing cold. 1 celsius plus a bit of cross wind. Fingers and ears freezing up. Gotta break out the ear warmer and better gloves next time.

Holy cow, I've seen bad stuff in construction zones, but they normally put barricades up for a two-foot drop.

wow, that's a doozey, that would freak me out...no barricade?!

Coldest ride of the season for me. When I left the house it was 24F but the sun was out and not much wind so it wasn't all that bad. Rest of the week should be a bit warmer than today. The chill seemed to keep my speed down a bit. I usually average around 15.8 - 16.0 but today was only at a 15.4. Didn't see any other riders and only saw a handful of joggers this morning. People at the office thought I was nuts. Whatever!!

Snowy and chilly (28F when I left). Received about an inch of snow overnight. Was a tad bit icy this morning on the way in. Rode in the lane as the bike lane was a mess. Otherwise not a problem, even with 700cx32 CX tires. May be pushing forward the plan to buy a pair of studded tires though...

trying to decide if i should go with cross tires or studded...i think i will be riding on more soft snow than ice so i keep leaning towards the cross tires...700x32 seems like the perfect size too

2-foot drop?!?!?!? I don't think I would have held that together at all. Jeez... :(

'Twas -4C when I left the house. Traffic was pretty light compared to most mornings.

First day for the new Ortlieb Office pannier. Better than my homemade unit and doesn't look like it's about to catastrophically fail. My DIY pannier never failed, but it didn't handle rain well and winter's coming up.

Snow on and off all weekend, so the studded tires went on. I've switched from Nokians to Marathon Winters. They seem like they'll be good tires. Roads were bare but I need to run the studs in anyway.

My HID bulb is dying after 3 years. The Cree Q5 flashlight I got from Deal Extreme is junk (switch is flaky). Time to remount my old Halogen 20W. I might buy a Dinotte or a B&M Ixon IQ, if the low runtime on the halogen starts to get to me.

Don't worry, if my experience is any guide, this will pass. Pretty soon they'll be sure.

True...but it takes a while and a few mad weather days.

A couple of weeks ago along my daily stretch of a particular road, in the dark (6am) I had my head down and was pumping along when for some reason I raised my head and looked ahead and there was a car parked where there is NEVER a car parked. I swerved and just missed it. If I'd hit it, it would have really hurt and wrecked everything. It's been there every morning since.

Lorcán.

Ok, thats ****ed up, I was writing this post as the page was loading, it lagged, and displayed the text completely backwards, from right to left, letters backwards, and letter orders backwards. weeeeird.

Anyway, last week had some beautiful rides in the 70 degree november weather. Was very pleasant. Except for one day with a stiff headwind when I was really tired, but at least the weather was nice.

This morning was the first snowfall for me this season. Not much in the way of snow or ice, but still, there was a semi-rollover accident because of ice, and people slip-sliding around. I was toasty warm the whole way, except that I forgot my hat at work, and my face/head was cooooold. Also my lungs were not liking the cold air, but thats just life.

Being that the snow is here, I have two major tasks at hand. First, I need to look at the maps and find a route that, while longer, does not spend as much time on the main roads. Drivers are crazy stupid in the winter, or well, enough of them are to justify a 'safer' route.

Secondly, I need to finish my Winter bike. I got some progress done on it this weekend. I pulled the freewheel off and replaced it with a 16 tooth BMX cog, I finished overhauling the rear hub, there is still a smidge of binding, but not much. I overhauled the front hub as well, but I must have ****ed it up because it stopped turning. Whoops, I'll be looking at that this week.

So The remainder of the things to do are:
-Re-overhaul the front hub, or at least see if I can get it turning well.
-Take the wheels in to be trued.
-Replace the break cables,
-Buy the proper chain-ring bolts, as I am taking one of them off.
-put the cranks and the chainwheel back on
-Put a new chain on.
-put the wheels on
-Ride!

None today. Unlike most government agencies, mine is taking the 10th rather than the 11th for Veterans' Day.

Instead, I get to shuttle the Wonder Twins to ballet (9:30), gymnastics (12:30), and swimming (5:30). I think my wife may be overscheduling the kids....

I forgot to update about yesterday's ride home. I waved at three ambulances (my coworkers) and got three waves back. I guess that means I'm visible enough.

The ride in today was...nothing but mellow!
I left on time. Yeah, I'm surprised too. So I was able to go at an easy pace, look up at the stars (nice treat! forecast said rain/snow!), and I even got to work early enough to make coffee AND put on my makeup.

The morning's commute was surprisingly good. Surprising because yesterday my wife and I biked the local MUP (6 miles each way) so I could play ultimate frisbee. This meant I was pulling The Kid, and because we left late I pushed the pace getting there. Then I played for about 90 minutes and we biked home.

As an added bonus, The Kid wanted to play during the night last night. After she got us up 3 times in 3 hours I finally went upstairs to (try to) sleep on the floor in her room. I think I got a total of about 4-5 hours sleep, and then had to do the longer/hillier route because I had to drop off a blanket at day care.

The legs held up well this morning, but I fear by Thursday and Friday I'll have legs o' jello.

Better clear some stuff up. Yeah there were barricades, i had to weave around em :p And i knew about the drop, i've done it before which probably led to a false sense of security. Also it's not a shear drop, there was an angle to is... althought it's very steep. If you attack it with the right angle, you can roll down it. I only suffered a slight bruise to my right leg and a slightly bigger bruise on my ego. Luckily no one was around to witness it on a Sunday. :innocent: