My first ride in the rain today and headwinds up to 15mph. Temperature started off pretty nice, though, about 57° at around 8:00am, but it's suppose to go down today. Should be in the mid-to upper 40s by 7:00pm for my ride home. Rather enjoyed the ride. Got a sprint in to make a green light; amazing how much energy you can summon up when you don't feel like waiting and getting wet.

NOOOO!!



It was icey so I didn't even drive in today.

A beautiful day in St Petersburg as usual!! My commute is 16 miles each way - flat, like the rest of Florida and I am able to cycle in 2-4 days when I am in town for the whole week. Funny, I remember when my legs were rubber if I rode 2 days in a row. Anyway, it's been a frustrating week 3 days of riding in and 3 flats with my Gatorskin Ultra's. On Monday evening, a ped and his dog stepped off the curb right in front of me - it was all I could do to not hit him and then the guy want's to get into it with me. Good lord.

Commute to work was a bit chilly. Ice on cars this morning, but not on the roads. About half way to work, temperature was 34 degrees. Good thing I had my ski gloves! Made the 7.5 mile ride in 40 minutes on my Townie. That's about the best that I can do. Warmed up to 64 for the ride home, which took me 45 minutes. There are so many lights and stop signs to contend with around town.

Commuting is just a regular trip, not just to work, right? Like to the grocery store? In that case, here are some crappy cell phone pics of me and my DL-1 at Albertson's, picking up some groceries.







Yeah, that's ice on the sidewalk.

About 12" of unplowed snow/ice, tire ruts, and the occasional passing car thrown in for fun - I drove.

can't find my lights, so i commute like a ninja. backroads and all.

29F/-1C or so. Riding home yesterday, it was 35F with light rain. Riding along dealing with semi-melted, refrozen snow/ice in lots of places, I couldn't help but think what last night's forecast low of 22F was going to do to everything when the rain I was riding through hard froze overnight on top of everything else.

Turned out that by 5:00AM this morning, though, it had only dipped just below freezing for a couple of hours. The rain had stopped just before sundown and had quite a few hours to if not dry, at least to not freeze so much.

This morning's ride still required careful attention, but really ended up being quite nice.

Rode in today but it turned out to be a bad choice. While the streets were fine the MV Trail was a mess, particularly between the airport and the 14th Street Bridge. The bridges were a mess, with rutted, glazed ice and the paved portions were completely un-treated and un-plowed and similarly tough. I tried to ride in the grass once I got to the rugby fields, however, that proved nearly impossible-a lot of wheel spin and sliding. So, I mostly walked from the airport to midway across the 14th. Street Bridge where the pedestrian lane became rideable. It was smooth sailing from there on. I have to assume the Park Service won't treat or plow and have to make a determination whether or not to ride home today. They're calling for a high of 42 and partly sunny, not sure if that will be enough to melt the remaining ice. In addition, the run off from the rugby fields will be substantial, it will drain right onto the trail, probably preventing any improvement of the trail surface. I have to figure out what my "go, no go" temperature would be in order to make it home in a reasonable amount of time, it would probably have to be in the upper 40's to near 50. I'm leaning toward taking the Metro home today.

I had my first slip and fall on ice this morning. It's very icy out there today; it snowed then rained yesterday, and last night it all froze up. Normally this wouldn't be too much of a problem for me since the roads I ride on are usually salted to hell and well traveled by cars, so they're ice-free. Not so this morning.

I almost made it all the way into work without incident, just trying to avoid sudden accelerations, decelerations, and turns, and trying to avoid the ice whenever possible. (The fall happened on Comm Ave between Clarendon and Berkley St.) Luckily when I fell I was only going about 12 mph, and the traffic was starting to slow down for the red light up ahead. One woman called out from her car to ask her if I was all right. I said I was and got myself and the bike onto the sidewalk to regroup.

I have some bumps and bruises, but no blood. I'm pretty sure the ice will melt during the day today, but even still, I'm going to try to leave work today while it's still light out.

After yesterday's 8-12" it is still too dangerous for my commute into the city with rush hour traffic - maybe tomorrow .....

25 MPH headwind w/ 45 MPH gusts. The upside is it was 61 degrees when I left the house at 6:30 this morning.

Lots of walking. There are sheets of ice all over the greenway. It took me 1:45 to get to work (usually more like 1:10).

Still beats the subway.

apricissimus - It's melting alright - now we have running water OVER the ice! Just got back from my lunchtime drive to gym to run 2 miles in a climate controlled gym and on a shock absorbing treadmill, except I almost fell and cracked my head walking back from my car! But, I didn't.

Why is it not February yet? What I wouldn't do for 61 degrees!

First commute in a few months with my old bike. I just set it up with a rear rack and a pannier. I was excited to give it a try, as I've always used a messenger bag to haul around my work clothes and lunch. 1/2-way between the office and train station I had an epic failure which could have been really bad. The nut came loose from the bolt which attached the rack's left stay to the braze-on near the hub. the rack stay came loose, and my pannier got sucked in between the seat-stay and the spokes!! Fortunately, it didn't seize up and the friction just burned a hole right through the bag. The rack-stay was a few cm's away from diving into my spokes which would have shredded the whole back-end. A few of my spokes loosened up but no major damage. I bungeed the bag and right stay to the top of the rack and proceeded to the office.

Finding a nut at the office which will fit the bolt I still have will be a fun lunch project. Maybe a zip-tie will provide a temporary fix?

Those nuts do come loose - you gotta use a lock washer.

Maybe 2 zip ties. Too bad about the bag.

I found an almost new set of bushwackers bags on craigslist for $12 so not a big loss. And, I can salvage it with Duct tape.

I will put a lockwasher on when I get home, thanks!!

I'd go a step further and use a lock nut w/ nylon insert.

There ya go and that might save some bolt length.

Just could not get my legs to wind out this morning. My heart and lungs are good, but my legs felt like logs.

from -5 F the previous commute to 30 today, I thought I was in the tropics.

ouch!

that was my route in this morning as well. Fortunately, I'm riding 1.9 studs so the ice is more manageable but it has been a mess lately in Boston. My concern is a car sliding into me on that kind of ice and there isn't a lot of room to maneuver with all cars parked 3' or so further into the streets.

My 1.5 mile commute felt like about 15 today. The sections of packed snow were fine, but the 3-4 inches of half-packed, slushy, chunky stuff made going in a straight line impossible. Eventually my rear axle slipped slightly under power, causing the studs to start scraping the frame. I bummed a ride home.

Coming in this am was ~39F like 1F colder than yesterday but it just felt a *lot* colder. Verified that w/ other people. Not really windy, just blustery. I did wear sunglasses today so there was that amount of ambient light at least.

Rode in for the first time this week and it felt good. Dark as always and cold. The weather report said about 20 degrees. Nothing exciting to report.
Ernest