My lovingly concerned wife is afraid that I am putting myself at risk by biking in the extreme cold. There is some validity to her concerns as I don’t have a refuge from the weather between point A and B, nor do I have the ability to catch a bus or call a cab. I made a deal with her that I won’t ride if it’s 10F or colder. That being said, I wasn’t able to ride yesterday and today I have an appointment for my car to get some work done so I drove in. (Before people jump on the “cars are evil” bandwagon… I have 230,000 miles on that car. It has cost me around $0.10 per mile including purchase price, tax, license, insurance, repairs and gas… I can’t say that for my bike and commuting gear… yet!) According to accuweather.com I probably won’t be riding this week. :mad:

Beautiful morning, gorgeous day! Going to have a high of 74F today...
Took the long way to work... yee haw!!!

First commute of the New Year. God, have I fallen this far out of shape in just two weeks?

It was 56 F / 13 C, so I was a bit warmer than I would have liked. So far, I have yet to wear my coat this week, and, if I do, it will likely be as a result of rain. I grew up in New England and find it hard to deal with mild winters. Too cold for the beach -- too warm for the ski slopes-- this weather is good for nothing. Other than that, a nice ride in.

Paul

I decided to leave my cruiser at home and try the 20 minute commute on my new Stiletto chopper. Due to the sitting position, I found a bit of a strain on my lungs and it required a little more effort, but I managed the commute in exactly the same amount of time as I usual do. It was about 0c and I was still sweating buckets. The only disappointment was finding ice/snow sludge and sometimes large mounds still clogging the curb lane and forcing me out into the middle of the lane. Sitting as low as I do on the chopper, it was a little disconcerting at times, considering I was riding a busy route during rush hour. While I tried a nearby parallel street that has a bike-lane in the morning, snow made it unusuable. The reason that was disappointing was that we haven't had snow for two weeks and enjoyed warm temperatures that should have melted what we had or at least made it easier for city crews to remove the offending clumps of ice, but they obviously haven't even attempted to remove it. I made a call to the city but doubt they'll act as there is now a winter storm warning in effect. They sure didn't sound anxious to, in any event. Sheesh, what were they waiting for, spring? Guess my councillor will have to hear from me.

Warm warm warm, but I ain't complaining. Rode to work in shorts and a poly top. Wore the wind vest on the way home. Can't beat that for Jan 5. With hunting season over I can ride my single track and cut 3 miles off of my commute.

23F & clear 6AM: due to the cold temp & reports of ice, I overdressed with wool sweater, down jacket, insulated booties & a wool cap under my helmet, then I got pretty damp under all that during my short 4 mile commute. Rode my mountain bike & despite the frost & ice, didn't experience any slip or slide situations. This bike is really slow compared to my road bikes but it sure handles slippery conditions. The few cars I encountered were driving very slow & carefully. We all got along today! Don

Nice ride today . But the weatherman said bad weather for wednesday . So I hope I can ride wednesday .
Have a good nite .

My morning commute today was transcendent. :love:

20F degrees. It was snowing and the trail was covered with a layer of dry powder. Enough to cover the pavement but not enough to have to push through. I left just after sunrise and made first tracks. Very, very quiet and relaxing. I stopped once just to listen to the silence and look out over Champlain.

I ran into (not literally) a woman walking her dog. She told me I was brave. :rolleyes: I told her I have studded tires. That seemed to subdue her fears. (Not that studs do anything on fresh powder, but The Uninitiated don't know that.)

-31C / -44 windchill
3 degrees warmer than yesterday, but felt worse... had a hard time the last 3km - felt exhausted.
I might wimp out & take the bus if it's -30 tomorrow. Just feels like my body needs a break.

The toughest part is we got a fair bit of snow recently & the city hasn't cleared it so much of my ride is over frozen bumpy ruts... it's quite a workout. It's not as bad in the mornings as there's almost no traffic & I just stay in the tire tracks. In the afternoon I end up riding on the rough shoulder (frozen bumps, often covered with soft snow).

What an awesome ride! Freezing rain, sleet, and snow on top! I put my studded snows on this morning and headed out. Thanks to the weather stations who pleaded people to stay home, traffic was light. Temps: 27F w/wind chill at 17F. Not really too bad.

The cool things about the ride:
Listening to tree branches break under the weight of the ice,
My new Power Grips,
My newly rewired dual headlights,
My environmental chamber/dehumidifyer. I can put my wet gloves in it and dry them out!
The look on everyone's face who saw me pull in!

The not so cool things:
The idiot drivers who can't drive while talking on the phone when the weather is dry! They still can't drive!!
The ice pellets hitting my face,

It was absolutely worth it. I like this weather.

kinda messy out there. minimal mashed potatoes on the road, no drivers spinning out, no snowplows at inconvenient times. i hope things don't freeze up too seriously. more snow is certainly on its way, but it's unclear when it will arrive. anyway, it was good to be back on the bike after a too-lengthy lull.

Messy. It's still snowing. There was about 4 inches on the ground when I woke up; we're expected to get that much more today. I just put on studded tires last night. It might be a bit slippery going home.

Caca happens. about 1/2 mile out of the gate, I brake and feel them slip. Great. It's pouring cats and dogs and I need my brakes. I have 7.5 miles to go. I'd been fooling with the front brakes a couple days ago so I check them and the pads have spread apart. So I get out my trusty allen wrench. What, it's not there! Argh, it dropped in the muddy grass while I was fumbling with the zipper on my pack. I loosen the screw on my Avid Shorty 4's and . . . the screw totally sheers off!!! Damn!!! I'm screwed!!! What to do??? My wife already left for work. OK, find another screw. Water bottle screw too big. My eyes scan the bike for extra screws. Ah, the tagalong hitch. I frantically unscrew one of the screws, already late for work. It fits!!! YES! I'm back in business.

I am wimping out right now and riding rollers instead of riding outside. Someone slap me and knock me back into reality!!!

Great, been on hols for two weeks off the bike resting up and getting plenty of walking.

Ditto...major ice on our hills here. After last year's fall(s), Dr. said no more ice.

We in DC area are slowly returning to winter 44F and rain. Kinda sucked Charlie

The commuting has been fantastic all week. Morning temperatures in the high 40s to 50F (~8 to 10C). Today I had to stop about half way to work and strip down to shorts, shirt and no gloves. The lightweight windbreaker over my shirt and lightweight full finger gloves were too much. :D
Coming home I had shorts, shirt, and half-finger gloves. I was soaked when I walked in the house.


I feel sorry for all you folks up north. :( The weather-guessers say these temperatures are supposed to continue through the middle of next week. :D Is this the beginning of global warming? :eek:

Expected rain this morning but it was dry. That's a nice bonus. I'll be staying a bit late tonight at work so hopefully I'll miss the bulk of the commute. Perhaps I can swing a bit of a detour down by the river rather than riding straight home....

Brrrrrr 19F at 6AM today. Yesterday's sunshine & breeze left local roads dry, so I rode my Grand Jubile & only had to dodge a few frozen puddles. By lunchtime it was a balmy 31F & on my ride home for lunch, a pitbull ran at me from across the street. I sped up & he passed behind then wheeled around & fell in next to my rear wheel, fixated on my rapidly churning right foot. I yelled "No, bad dog!" & that got him to look up at me & hesitate. Then his owner yelled from his porch & the dog gave it up & trotted back across the street. A passing truck blew his horn & scared the dog back into his yard. I pass this house daily & never saw this dog before. Hope he was just a visitor. Don

The weather is bringing out the crazy bikers down here (65 on the way home today). I saw one guy riding against traffic on the left side of the street, sort of weaving along, staring at the trees. A couple of blocks later, here comes another guy towards me tooling down the sidewalk. These clueless commuters make me nervous.........

-3C. Nice ride in, pretty uneventful. I asked my GF to drive me because I woke up late and thought it was still -27C. Glad I biked, and still got to work with 15mins to spare.

Interesting. With all the rain the last few days, I just left my bike on the back porch last night, only to hop on it this morning and find that my rear der had frozen solid, one of the rear cantis was stuck, and my chain was lumpy. I applied liberal doses of WD40 and chain lube and was able to get the chain and brakes working. However, I was stuck in my 27 cog on the back. At least my front der was working so I had a nice long 2-gear spinning ride to work! Fortunately, the bike gets to sit in a nice toasty indoor garage all day so hope it will be thawed out and dried by tonight.

DC 44F rain, again It's getting old but still beats the car. I want to see the sun. Charlie