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 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.

Cool, windy, light rain that was on the way in!

17mph headwind this evening. Yummy!....

Oh well, at least it wasn't too muggy or hot

brisk and windy this morning, no rain though.

Also, I just came back from a lunchtime run to Cabela's. They have no bike parking. I u-locked my bike to a raingutter downspout, that was the only thing they had on the outside of the front I could lock up to. Maybe the steering wheel on one of their ATVs or something...

My son had a stomach virus Saturday. Do I come down with it Sunday or even this morning? No!
I come down with it an hr after getting to work. Work is 30 miles from home.
My alternate is the train. Throwing up on the train is not an option I cared to experience. Instead I slowly rode the 23 miles to my van. This is positively the worst illness I have ridden during. Time to go hide.

First commute since time change (schedule, kids, etc... got in the way) - it was cold this morning, but I layered properly I think with synthetic base layer, light wool layer, then fleece up top - if it were colder or windier, I'd probably need something sort of windbreaker as well. Target base layer bottoms under nylon pants, with double wool on the feet. Found all layers to work well, except for the new gloves, that let way too much cold air in. It was weird to be commuting in the morning with the sun coming up, had been used to complete darkness, though I suppose I now trade that for a dark ride home, hooray for LED lights!

5:30 am...21 deg F ...so winter may be comming after all. Damn.

It's our Marine Corps birthday!! The Marines were officially formed on Nov 10th 1775.

I told my wife last night that I was planning on riding this morning. She said "You're insane!"
She has never said that to me before.
Anyway the ride was ok.

Cold! First time it has gotten down to below freezing here. But a few minutes in I was completely fine and it turned out to be a beautiful 45 degree day. Wife keeps telling me she wishes I would not ride so much, she thinks that I am going to get sick, or worse hit by a car. She will never understand.

I left work later than normal tonight. It was completely dark before I even set out. I had my Christmas lights on, and I probably had a dozen cars slow way down (on a 55 mph highway) to take a look. It was amusing.

Other than that, it was cold, dark, and my legs were weak. I'm driving tomorrow.

not a lot of rain in the morning, just spray from the water on the main surface streets, but once I got into neighborhoods, much dryer.

On the way home, it was beautifu, overcast and stormy, yet no rain and I encountered someone taking part of my unusual route home and commented on how it was a beautiful night to be riding. He agreed and then we went different directions.