39F at 6AM: we had a few showers last night & today, just enough to keep the roads wet & get lots of grit & dirt on our bikes. I managed to make it in to work & back without getting rained on but got caught in a downpour on a donut run at 9AM. My co-workers are putting on "The Twelve (working) Days" of Christmas with different groups bringing food items in daily. I know i've managed to gain a few pounds since Summer & one of the other bike commuters was discussing this with me today. We think the only solution is to lay out a longer route to work & ride it for a while until we manage to burn off a few pounds. Hope it works.

Snow on the commute home tonite and some ice on the rode.
Rode the ss tonite.I think the ss & the full suspension will be my winter bikes . The old rail bed I have been taking will soon be unridable . So I will have to find a new way home or just ride the old way home .
Have a good nite .

20*F this morning, snow and ice overnight.

New equipment today: Visorgogs (thanks to this forum and icebike for the suggestion, they're good), Nashbar 5-in-1 tube-o-polypro head cover thing, worn today as a balaclava. Bike Peddler mirror moved from glasses to helmet for the first time.

Stopped after about 2 miles to put on the balaclava. About 3/4 mile later, realized my mirror was off my helmet. Went back and found it lying in the snow. Not impressed with the mirror mount, at least not in the cold. The mount is still on the helmet but the mirror fell off it.

Not too bad speed, considering; I had a 13.9 MPH average, including a couple of minutes in a line of cars going 2 MPH at a bridge (I sometimes dodge this line but I have to merge back in to get under the very narrow bridge so on squirrelly days I just stay in line).

Lots of fun. Feels like I'm alive today.

Rode the rail trail with about an inch of fresh powder. Very nice. My studded tires arrived yesterday, so I think I'll mount them tonight.

My first ride on fresh snow. My existing (and ancient) MTB tires (26x2.02) are very knobby and gave me no trouble. The studded tires should give me more confidence on the icy parts.

If anyone is thinking about riding in the snow, I'd recommend it, especially if you don't have to deal with cagers! :) I was a little nervous at first, but once I got going, and played with braking and pushing the pedals, I realized I had plenty of grip.

39 degrees foggy and damp here in Copenhagen. they're calling for rain for the remainder of the week. i'm getting my gear together.

-10C and sunny. Very refreshing. My feet got a little cold by the end-have to get some shoe covers, but other than that, it was great. I passed a bus packed with miserable looking people-I got a couple of "what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you-it's-freezing-out-there-looks", but I wouldn't have traded places with them.

Clear and cold (31°F), with enough wind to feel it. Everything stayed fairly warm except for the toes. Going to try the chemical foot warmers tomorrow morning (should be in the mid 20s). Keep the faith!

Cold and a dusting of snow this morning. Tempature was around 22°F. I did not see any ice on the road so that was good. I think the high today is supposed to be around 25-29°F. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Good commute today. -9C with a little wind. Earlier this winter I bought a lead acid battery/dual headlight combo from the LBS. It has been browning out after 1 hour of run time and I finally got to the LBS yesterday; they gave me a replacement battery so we'll see how that goes. It was good and bright this morning.


Only a few more days and the nights start getting shorter. Woohoo!

the stone railroad bridge at dexter! i can just picture it.

yeah, 20 °C and a fresh flurry. i wore ski helmet and goggles and was as warm as toast. put some knobbies on the bike - couldn't find studded 27" tires, if anybody has, thanks for letting me know. the streets around my house were treacherous, everywhere else just messy. it was a beautiful ride, though, especially with the kind of orange color from the goggles.

My first fixed/headwind commute. Ugh. There's an 18 tooth cog in a brown semi somewhere in the midwest, making its way towards Arizona. I kept my legs churning in time with the mantra, "Two more teeth, two more teeth."

A balmy 60F and the aforementioned headwinds. Saw a strangely beautiful silvery banner slow-motion waving over the canal, a long streamer of translucent garbage bags caught in an olive tree.

Beautiful, bright and clear this morning. It was -5 C with a north wind of 28 km/h, so it felt colder. A few icy patches here and there.

Temp around 28 F today but clear and very little wind. Nice ride in, especially since I got to see some actual sun light. Only two gallons of gas in the old van and my weekend road buddies are trash talking me (they're scared and afraid I am going to tear their legs off next season) -- I'm motivated!!!

You guys who ride in the cold are awe inspiring!

This morning it was 47 F when I left the house, so I can't complain (but sometimes I stil do!). Had a little tailwind part of the way, and a beautiful yellow sunrise.

Tom

Foggy and (dare I say it?) a little too warm for my taste. I wore a longsleeve jersey and was uncomfortably warm by the time I got to the office. Probably could have gotten away with armwarmers and a S/S jersey.

:o It's really not bad. 15F degrees, silk & fleece on the legs, silk, fleece, and a windbreaker on top, plus gloves, balaclava, and ski goggles. I got hot!

No commute this morning, had to cage to a doctor's office for a routine visit. But last night's commute was kind of an adventure.

I hadn't planned on riding home - had some shopping to do - but when I got outside it was cold but beautiful, around 25F I think, not terribly windy, so I figured I'd go for it.

Out on the bike path everything went great until I got down to the lake proper. Waves were coming up over the path now and then, but nothing too bad and they looked pretty easy to outrun. Would have been, too, if the nice dry concrete between me and the end of the breaking wave pattern hadn't been nice dry concrete covered by a 30-yard sheet of invisible ice.

So, I swerve a bit to avoid a rock and my bike goes out from under me. Got a foot down, but that was absolutely no help - utterly frictionless surface. Took most of the gravity on my hip, with the bike on top of me, which was better than the other way around - I was more concerned about what damage I might do to the bike than vice versa.

I had time to think, "Hey, my first fall!" And then "well, that wasn't so bad!" and finally, "Huh. Why am I still moving?" And then about 10 feet from the actual lake I stopped. A jogger (nutbar!) stopped and asked if I was okay, and I was, so I edged to the far side of the path, planning to walk the bike around the big curve to the end of the ice sheet, then stop and check the bike over for damage.

That was when the lake leapt up out of its bed and crashed over the path. I got soaked to the knees, barely kept my feet. Walked as fast as I could manage to avoid another wetting, but the damage was already done. When I got to dry ground I stripped off my boots, socks, and outer layer of pants, then put the boots back on over bare feet and stuffed everything else into my pannier.

The bike looked okay; seat was flipped around to the side, but I adjusted it and it held. Hopped on and rode and it seemed okay, all was in order. Then I realized the brakes weren't working. The front were, sorta, but the back, almost not at all. I rode anyway, as by this time brakes were a liability anyway and I was six miles from home and did I mention it was <i>cold</i> out?

My feet were like blocks of ice, but I figured that as long as I could move my toes I was fine, and kept going. About three miles from home my gears stopped shifting, so I was pretty much stuck on a big ring for most of the rest of the commute - things loosened up and I could shift again by the time I got home.

I think everything was just frozen. I spent the evening doing Merry-maintenance, involving a hot shower that lasted almost an hour and then bundling up and sitting for a long time in front of my Vornado, so the bike-maintenance will happen tonight. The bike lives inside at night, in my living room, so everything should be nice and toasty and ready for me when I get home tonight.

Looks like I'm going to spend some time getting to know my brakes and my chain. =)

The good news is, I was fine until I got wet - nice and toasty. If I'd taken the streets instead of the bike path, I wouldn't have had any problems. Instead, I was stupid, and my best friend has spent the better part of today saying "Merry drove her bike into Lake Michigan!" to anybody who'll listen. :)

Wow, Merry. I'm staying out of the jaws of the Potomac! Good thinking to take your socks off.

35F this morning. Cold, but not too cold. Dressed mostly appropriately. Wool socks over coolmax socks worked until about 10 minutes from the office, and then my toes got cold. AmFib gloves kept my hands toasty. I could have used one more arm layer because of the wind. The skullcap underneath the helmet was a really good idea. All in all, a darn good job of dressing myself!

I hit one patch of black ice, but I did not go down. Still really like my new folding bike. I'll take it on the Metro tonight to go home.

Thanks!

And isn't it great how as grown-ups we're now learning to dress ourselves all over again? I was really impressed with myself last night until I was taught how totally not water proof my boots were. :)

Actually, the coolest thing about all the drama last night was that every single person who passed me while I was stripping down and re-suiting, and there were about six of them, stopped and asked me if I were okay, and if I needed a hand, or to call someone.

You don't get to see the kindness of strangers like that on a bus, I can promise you. It was a really, really good feeling.

Cool, re: the folding bike, too! I've been looking at some, and I'm kind of working up my nerve.

Mine doesn't really look like a folding bike, but rather a funky mountain bike. It's a Dahon Matrix. See Folding Bike discussion under 26" wheel folding bike topic for some pictures (not mine, but of someone else's)

50F at 6AM today, I rode in between showers & managed to dress lightly enough to keep from getting overheated. Had a very busy, high stress day at work so I really appreciated the restorative effects of the bicycle commute .

29 degrees this evening, feels like 19. This morning it was 28, feeling like 18. The first really cold ("cold" if you're from up north) day we've had. With the 2 ls poly shirts and nylon running jacket with gloves and a headband, I was fine even with the mountain bike style shorts I wear. Beautiful clear weather.

Rode to work and home. But onthe way home hit some ice and fell . I am ok ,but tore my riding pants . I am thing about puting on my studded tires . I just hope this is will fix it . I just do not like the feel of the studded tires on the rode . have a good nite .

Mild and fast, on the fixie, playing posenger with a bag full of backup tapes between our sites. Fun. Bike felt ever so sketchy though - turns out the tyres were half-soft. D'oh!

Good ride home last night. Cold with tempature around 29F and a windchill making it feel like it is the low 20s. Traffic was light and courtious.

Ride in this morning was cold, tempature around 20F and windchill making it feel like its 13F. Nice and toasty under all my layers of clothes!