Jean Beetham Smith 

Monday I had a late schedule, that wouldn't have me leaving work until after 9PM and they were suggesting that it might be snowing heavily then. Sooo, I took a 2 hour ride in the morning before I left for work. I even rode Flora, for a nice quiet ride (no studded tires on her). She is so light and quick compared to my MTB. Today was back to the usual commute. 8F/-13C this morning, but it was up to 22F/-6C this evening, my warmest ride in almost 2 weeks. My nose ran more tonight since I didn't have my face completely covered.

ollo_ollo

It was a really nice commute today. No rain, sunny at Noon & not a lot of traffic. There were some pieces of wood laying in an X pattern in the bike lane this morning. I rode around them. Later at work, my commuter buddy who starts 1/2 hour later mentioned he stopped & cleared them out of the way. Why didn't I do that? Just thoughtless I guess. Don

Chris L

Just rode through a beautiful storm. Would have liked the lightning to be a little more over the Pacific, but who cares? The downpour over the last few km was just beautiful. I am at peace.

Ed Holland

Hey Chris - I'm glad you got your beloved rain at last

Well the cold hit us last night, although there is no snow here. Cold and icy enough to persuade me to change from my lovely road bike and 23mm tires onto my wife's folding mountain bike. Did I say heavy? Also the riding position is not quite right yet, so the ride was hard and slow compared to my usual pace. It was really cold too (for the UK) and my gloves were not quite up to the job.

Cheers,


ED

willic

BUS!!!!!. This morning, a rare event for me. Reckon I can count on one hand the number of times I have given in to the weather comditions in over 30 years, but it was a total "White out" when I was preparing to leave for work I just could not cycle in that it would have been complete madness, even the Bus struggled taking 30+ minutes to travel 5 miles....

pinerider

More snow yesterday, the ride home was interesting. A shortcut through a cul-de-sac was through about 8" of powder, woulda been more fun without the panniers and fenders. I managed to pass a vehicle too, a garden tractor equipped with snow thrower. The ride was a little slower than it shoulda been, my rack/fender brace holder onner bolt found some other place to be, I had to listen to the friction song being sung by my back fender and tire all the way home.

More light snow for this morning's ride, thei weather network forecast said I was finally getting a tail wind for a change, but the wind had swung around a little more to be a cross/head wind. The healthy (?) dose of salt given the roads overnight left me feeling like a saltine by the time my ride was over. A mostly bare/wet/ pavement ride, I don't think my studded tires were needed today, but you never know when you leave the house.
Fender/rack braces were wired together for now, no friction songs today!

cyclezealot

Rode my 26 miles home yesterday morning. much more comfortable..Early morinings can be near 40 degrees. Full winter gloves, bakalava, shoe covers, under tee, skins under tights..I was ok..Much prefer however, breathing 70 degree air, as we expect in So Cal.

mtessmer

Oh man, rub it in!!! Although, I lucked out this morning, I had a tail wind (10-20mph making for windchills down to -30F/-34C). The temp this morning was -10F/-23C. They plowed the roads nicely after our storm so I had a great ride in, I was dressed perfectly, not to hot not to cold. We'll see what the lunch ride and the ride home brings.

ET_SoCal

Hey everyone, haven't posted for a week or two...

This morning was 46 deg. light rain last night made a wonderful ride in to work.
Yesterday morning was 36, Monday was 34... (Am I complaining? You studded tire people are nut-cases!) So seems the thing to do is to see who has the lowest temp or adverse condition to ride in - Crazy's...

Ed: Good to hear your doing better, keep on riding!

Ollo: Thanks for reminding me for one of the best reasons for commuting on a bike - the views.

Rusty: That's a bummer, so far for me (knock on steel) 6 years commuting and no crashes, only a few "close-call's".

Kodama; you gotta a "cold" comming on?

- Siging off & Lurking for another week -

Kodama

Grey day today with a hint of drizzle in the air. Strong head wind for the whole ride, really felt like work coming in. First morning taking the old rail trail route in 3 weeks and due to that wind it almost took me as long! Temps were pretty comfortable, in fact I was rather warm at the end with all that extra work.

ET_SoCal: yeah I've had a cold for the last week or so, part of the reason I took some days off from commuting. Also been working long hours trying to get this product out the door. So I guess my exhaustion wasn't so strange after all. Just feels strange...

Ed Holland

Hee hee hee Was the ride home today a blast or what.

I was only bemoaning the fact that the snow forecast had not appeared when a glance out of the office window revealed a blizzard in full swing. That was about 4pm, by 5:30 there was a good covering and there was still a good snowstorm. It certainly paid off to take the MTB. The motorists were not doing so well, and I was able to pass lines and lines of them . The conditions were so cold that slush thrown up at the bike froze on contact into the chainrings and cassette - this forced the chain to jump in certain gears and was worrying for a while.

I have never ridden in conditions like this before, and it was amazing. . Even more astounding is that some of you folks deal with this all winter. Hats off to you all .

Frost tonight, so the icy stuff could be fun...

Cheers,

Ed

caloso

Left early and took the long way in this morning. Fast, smooth, and uneventful: just the way I like it.

ollo_ollo

It was very windy with heavy rain this morning & I had to make a meeting after work so I drove again. After dealing with a car repair 160 miles from home, shopping for & buying a replacement vehicle etc, I only have 8 commute days this month, otoh I found time to wash the grime off my rain bike & lube it up again. I pledge to ride more in February. Don

ollo_ollo

Steady rain today but it let up right before my afternoon commute home. only saw a few other bicycle commuters.

Ed Holland

Another journey today on the MTB folder. The snow here is gradually melting away, so my spell of serious winter biking is drawing to a close. It has been a blast though.

Have a good weekend folks,

Cheers,

Ed

caloso

Misty when I left the house, spitting when I hit Midtown, and definitely raining as I pulled into work. Walked in the lobby with a coworker who asked me (without irony), "It's a nice day to ride to work, isn't it?"

I smiled and said, "It's never a bad day to ride!"

Portis

Holy Cow! If it would hit 40 degrees here I would probably strip down to only a pair of shorts.

Kodama

Man was it windy this morning. It had stormed with buckets of rain and strong wind all day and night yesterday but today it was partially cloudy. Tons of water everywhere, the Sammamish River is as high as I have ever seen it and there is standing water in all the fields. This golf course I bike past had a number of additional water traps, but there were people out there playing. I fought bravely against the headwind and made it in about my normal winter time.

Chris L

Rode home just after the storm last night, watching it clear up. Friday night seemed to bring out all the idiots, although the traffic was surprisingly low. Saw a couple of good lightning strikes out to sea, too.

Jean Beetham Smith 

I think I have to re-do my helmet light. I had 2 cars roll through intersections I was at. Maybe it was just because it was Friday, both of them were driving too fast. Glad I made the decision to put disc brakes on my winter bike, rim brakes wouldn't have worked quick enough in the brown snow.

Chris L

Hi Jean. I've never really been a fan of helmet lights myself. I just perceive it as being too easy to turn your head away for a distraction at the crucial moment people need to see you. I think it's better on the handlebars - although Friday does tend to bring out a lot of morons for some reason. How much of a difference do disc brakes make?

Jean Beetham Smith 

Chris, the reason I like the helmet light is it lets me look around cornors on downhills, and also by looking right & left as I approach an intersection I can make the light move in a wider arc than my handlebar light, hopefully alerting traffic on the cross streets that I'm there. I use both bar lights and the helmet for that reason.

I find the disc brakes really very helpful in the winter. When you ride through brown snow that has been whipped by auto tires it sticks to your rims too much to trust your rim brakes to be working when you need them. I can feel a lot more confident on the downhills in 3 to 6 inches of snow. Previous years I rode with rim brakes all winter, but after the last 2 winters with discs on the rear, never again in snow. If you go through mud the same would apply.

Chris L

Good point! When my finances recover from my recent jaunt, I might consider that option.

Gus Riley

I was wondering what difference it would make if you were turning your head anyway, you wouldn't be looking where you were going so what's the impact? You might impact something, but if you weren't looking at it, it wouldn't make a difference if your light was on it, would it???

Gus Riley

I just wanted to be able to post on one of the 1,000 numbers! 4,000th post in this thread! Cool! So far this year I have around 400 miles, all on a trainer!
That sux!