caloso

39F and 100% RH. Chilly and damp. Somehow managed to hit every single red light.

Doohickie

Luckily it was warmish (45) and calm on the way home because.... I had to change a flat.

chipcom 

My gloves and fingers indicate that the temps got colder than forecast as the day wore on. I was fine this morning at 25F, light snow, into the wind...but my fingers told me that we'd reached the lower limit for my windstopper gloves on the way home this evening...which is about 20F. Guess I gotta start wearing the warmer gloves already...which means wearing the warmer gloves AND liners AND balaclava AND additional layer AND goggles AND winter boots isn't far off. I hate when that happens.

dygituljunky

I cheated on Tuesday evening on the way in and Wednesday morning on the way home. I only rode the first and last mile and the rest was by bus.

Rode all the way in tonight, 9.1 miles. Even with a headwind, I made much better time than on Monday evening (at 6 miles, I had already improved by 7 minutes).

buzzman

lots of commuting miles today- 10 in and 10 home and then back in again so 10 more and then 10 more home so a 40 mile commuting day. This was a great week for bike commuting weather was pretty good for this time of year.

Interesting ride into Boston on the bike path tonight at around 5:30-6 pm. Saw far more commuters than I see on my ride in the morning. I passed about 6 cyclists on the way in and saw probably a dozen riding in the opposite direction. All of them well equipped for night riding in the cold- impressive.

One weird thing was just before Mass Ave there is a temporary bike bridge where some road work is being done and as I roll onto the bridge I see a bicycle lying on it's side across the bridge and a cyclist hunched over on his hands and knees obviously in some kind of distress. Naturally, I stop to assist but he's had the wind knocked out of him and, I think, was a little ticked off at himself for whatever caused the solo crash so he wasn't in the best of moods. Since I couldn't tell if his surly mood was due to a whack on the head or something else quite serious I didn't want to just leave him there but he was pretty insistent he needed no help. Another cyclist came along and we offered to call for help, walk him to a cab, whatever but he wanted none of it.

The funny thing was right as we pull away from him the other cyclist who stopped, who looked like a pretty competent cyclist, suddenly catches his handlebar in the wire mesh along the side of the bridge and does an endo over the handlebars and onto the deck. Fortunately, he sprawled onto the ground without injuring anything other than his pride. But man, that bridge was jinxed tonight.

floriderron

Beautiful morning with temps in low 50's. Cops had a speed trap set up on my trip in and he said with a smile as I passed that I had better slow down. I stopped and we had a nice, fun talk for a while, very friendly feller.

One thing about commuting, you don't have to worry about speeding tickets.

buzzman

great commuting week for early December in New England. Managed to do 6 days of commuting and a total of 140 miles. It's so nice to get that kind of riding in at this time of the year. Getting a bit colder now and touches of ice. I have a feeling studs are going on this week.

UberIM

Nice.....

I commuted for 10 years from Lexington to Cambridge and never used studded tires.......not sure why though only had one ice related incident........

Maybe as I age I feel more vulnerable........

buzzman

I've commuted in New England since the early 70's and it wasn't until 2005 that I finally succumbed to the whole studded tire thing- and I have BF's to thank for it!

Never had a super serious fall on ice but pretty much a tumble or two every year. Maybe it's age or just that, "Oh, 'sheet'! here we go again!" feeling when the bike slips out from under me that I'm tired of at this point in my life.

And I've tended in the past to claim to "ride all winter" but the reality was that there would be more days that I'd take the bus when I was riding non-studded tires in the winter than I do now that I've got them. I'm a little bolder with them than without.

scoatw

I left this morning it was 20f. I wore my regular Winter outfit and I didn't overheat. Felt comfortable. After watching last nights weather news. They were talking 1" with slick roads starting around noon. So I decided to switch to the Snow studs just to be on the safe side. Good thing. The snow started falling about 10:30am and progressively got worse. It didn't take long for the roads to get slick and icy. When I got off of work at 2pm traffic was backed up on 161. So I rode alongside of it on the berm. The Nokian 294's gripped the road real good. While on some side streets I was doing some zig-zagging, trying to get the tires to slip out from under me. They just kept maintaining their grip. Outstanding. Last year I put a Mount&Ground 160 on the front and I thought that they did well. The 294's have still yet to be tested on ice. We have plenty of time for that. So I rode down the path from Antrim to Bethel Rd and turned around and rode across the Broadmeadows bridge and made my way up to High St. I saw another set of bike tracks on the path. By now the snow was coming down pretty good. It felt good riding in the snowfall. A few people were amazed to see me riding a bike in it. After getting used to riding on the 294's, I didn't even worry about slowing down to corner or anything like that. As far as rolling resistance. They were about what I expected coming from a snow stud. They only add about an extra 5 min to my normal commute

metalchef87

When I left this morning it was 19 degrees F. It was cold and dry, I was warm but my lungs hurt...they aren't used to the cold yet. My body on the other hand is becoming more and more used to it...so I am really enjoying cold weather riding. It is very peaceful.

On the ride home it was 22 and snowing, plus there was a chrismas parade finishing up, so traffic was horrible. Wore a pair of thermal pants under my jeans and a wool sweater over my base layer with a windbreaker on over that. Sitting in the cold and not moving was completely warm. Felt nice, especially when a lady stopped to ask me what I was doing, when I told her I was riding home she replied "well that is good honey, at least someone in this town cares about their health and the well being of others, all year round." Advocacy anyone?

dygituljunky

The ride home this morning:
By mile 5, the windchill started cutting through me. By mile 6, I could no longer feel some of my toes. By mile 8, I could no longer tell that I couldn't feel my toes. The post-ride hot tea was quite nice, indeed. The sunrise was nice, too.

The ride back to work this evening:
I pushed myself because I was runnning about 15 minutes late (compared to my performance earlier in the week). I made up 10 minutes by mile 6 and was ahead of schedule by mile 9 where I arrived almost exactly 50 minutes after leaving my house.

I was passed twice by the same guy who was no poser. Dude eased past me the first time; I think he had about 3-4 mph on me. I coasted down a long fast hill and was spinning my way up the other side at maybe 2-3 mph when dude passes me again, this time with 8-10 mph on me; fast enough to make me jump, anyway. After he passed he was shaking his head as if he was thinking, "those slow Freds..." Of course, I was moving between 100-130 lb more than he was up a pretty decent hill... I may be a Fred but at least I'm not (usually) a cager.

pueblonative

If they ever get you on a speed trap you'd better have that ticket mounted and framed ;-)

Ricekilla

Commuted for the first time to my 2nd job. Had to be there at 5am, woke up at 4am and left the house by 4:35am, got there at 5am on the dot. It's about 6.5 miles or so, never really checked.

Way there was nice, saw maybe 3 cars, the roads were dead. On the way back about 1.5 miles from home I got a flat, was taking a turn, and there was loose gravel I was sure I was about to go down, but somehow I managed to keep myself up. Felt the front slide out and wobble, corrected it and was still up, and surprised. Then, 4 seconds later heard a big hiss, from the front tire, changing it wasnt too bad.

Weather was crisp and perfect.

Forgot to mention, saw an Orange Porsche GT3 RS on the way home, the driver noticed I ***** his car with my eyes, so he opened it up..music to my ears. Such a sexy car, the only Porsche I'd ever buy.

Not a bad commute at all.

FredOak

Friday was my first time riding home after 5:00PM...never again. The traffic was insane, all I did was try not to get run off the road.

When I got to the turn that leads to the short MUPS I can take I hopped the curd and rode MYB style through the park until I hit the MUPS.

My ride with fully loaded panniers, MTB with studded tires and wearing my winter gear usually takes 40 -45 minutes, I did it in 35, just because I was hammering it to keep up with traffic or get nailed.

GodsBassist

First time biking to a new church today. I commute all week by myself, and today I pulled my 2 year old in his trailer the 7 miles to church. A couple hills were tall enough I was standing up in my smallest gear, but coming back home was a blast.

Definitely getting colder.

dygituljunky

The ride home this morning was most certainly chilly. Almost nobody was on the road. I had a one-block ride-along with another commuter before we went different ways.

I've run out of steam for the week, though so I got a lift on the sag wagon into work tonight.

I think I broke a tooth or two off of my center chainring during the last 36 miles because my chain is now skipping.

jostan1

Had to leave the bike at work last night. I still have my hard case tires on, and it snowed a couple of inches. I rode it home this afternoon, and suffered with a freezing face and head. I need a balacalava.

orlandogotay

It rained last night, so I was on double duty with all the grates I encounter along the way. Saw one helmetless and lightless cyclist in the opposite direction. Temperature in San Juan at 6 this morning: 72F.

The cleaning lady at the lobby sort of gave me a dirty look as I rolled my bike toward the elevators. It wasn't *that* wet!! Still, I made a note to carry more of those microfiber cloths to dry up the bike before coming in, next time. Gotta keep the "opinion makers" content!

orlandogotay

There was just such a discussion in another thread a few weeks ago, centering on whether a ticket issues to a cyclist for speeding. In Virginia, it does, and it may be so in your state.

If I got one, I'd frame it too. I may even make a t-shirt out of it.

MIKEnDC

20F/-6 or so C with a 6 or 7 mph headwind (for me anyway). The usual cold fingers.

The downhill residential run that starts my ride had a radar thing set up which tells you how fast you're going. I was surprised to see it hit 40mph--must've had something to do with the a-hole zooming by me in a car. I was only doing 20.

ascend

20C or so, sunny with a light tail wind. Left work late and so managed to avoid the traffic, got a decent run of green lights, and wound up doing my 12km ride 10 mins quicker than usual.

Supposed to rain tomorrow.

vtjim

Crisp! My bicycle computer said -9F / -23C. The airport says 0F / -18C. First snow-ride of the season. Only an inch or so, and it was nice and fluffy. Lots of ice, too. Glad I left my studs on.

I went with my usual cold-weather outfit, and I overheated just a little bit due to a tailwind. Balaclava, ski goggles, thermal long johns under fleece on the legs, fleece under nylon jacket up top. fleece socks, and gloves, of course.

My co-worker just offered to pay for a psychiatric evaluation.

FredOak

AWFUL!!!

It wasn't the temp (15), it was this F***ING city I have to commute through that won't plow a GDamn street if it's life depended on it.

So I have no space to ride, I'm hugging the little tire track on the right I can find and some Ahole in a pick-up and plow runs me off the road while laying on his horn. Then I get brushed, not by one but two mirrors.

Screw this, I love the ride in the cold, but it isn't going to do me any good dead!

So unless I can find another route in (which I doubt, thanks Buffalo Streets Dept), I'll stick to errands and week-end rides this winter...and I'm PO'd about it....I want to ride!

SouthFLpix

I rode all weekend, so my legs were somewhat tired, but I rode at a slower pace and the commute went fine.