So, what with having a new baby and being two working parents and not being able to afford as many days of childcare as would be ideal, we have this set-up where, two days a week, I go in at 7:00, skip lunch, leave at 2:00, and come home to the baby, and my wife can work from 3:00 until whenever in the evening she gets hungry (9:00-ish). Notwithstanding the fact that I now have to get up at about 5:00 a.m., this arrangement has two good things going for it: (1) I get more quality time with my baby; and (2) I cross the bridge right around sunrise and get to see the Boston skyline in all its morning glory (sorry, pic taken with phone):

40F degrees this morning. A heat wave in Vermont!

First bike-commute in 2 weeks. The trail is still mostly covered with snow, but it's relatively smooth for the majority of the ride. I saw other bike tracks. One poor person was using skinny tires and dug trenches through the snow. Must have been tough-going!

Cool and partly cloudy, 45°F. Should be in the low 60s for the ride home! I am trying to get rid of this head cold: virus don't like exercise. Happy trails!

I'd have to title todays commute "Open Waters II", jinxed. You know how some days things just aren't clicking? Today's Monday so I put some air in my tires. 100 feet out of the driveway . . . BAM!!!-Pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffff. Flat. Bad Omen. Not a good way to start the week. Hobbled back home and fixed the flat. Back on the road.

Last night I watched Open Waters, the movie about the couple on vacation who go scuba diving and get left in the middle of the ocean with hungry sharks. Before the dive, the dive instructor briefed the divers on the "Universal Signal for Distress", ie "HHHHEEEEEEEEELP", waving hands frantically over head. Today, I felt like I was in . . . Open Waters with hungry sharks nipping at my legs, in the form of moms in mini-vans rushing their kids to school. At one intersection, 4 lanes, stop light green, I had the right lane, traffic to my left. 90 degrees to my right, another 4 lanes. There is a car stopped in the right lane, one car impatiently whips around the stopped car to make a right on red in front of me. The next vehicle starts moving. They are close enough for me to see the mom and kids. She looks to her left, past me. I'm 45 degrees from her hood. She looks straight and guns it into my lane. I have very little room to move so with my left hand on the bars, I wave frantically with my right hand, the universal sign of distress. She sees me and brakes at the last instant. Whewwww.

I was jittery the rest of the commute. It seemed like every car door was opening in front of me, every car hesitating, threatening to cut across my path, resulting in instant death. But somehow I survived the sharks today on the . . . Open Streets.

Lovely commute again -1C, no winds, fully infated studded tires. Got to work pumped and fast. I love it.

Good commute this morning although just a little chilly.....-28C with a slight wind. Could easily have been much worse as in Saskatoon (2 hours north) they received 20cm of snow. How was the commute Clevernamehere? Anything over 5 cm and the risk is too great for me to accept. We only got a skiff of snow so the roads are in very good shape in my opinion.

Nice 16 mile commute this morning in foggy Portland/Vancouver. This was my first commute after a bike.vs.car two weeks ago, so a bit tense at times. Nonetheless, 36 oF and not a lot of traffic = good times! 8-D

A little sprinkly but a nice temperature. About 3 blocks from work, I noticed a funny, periodic sound coming from the front tire. I hoped it was a leaf but no! It was my tire going flat. Fortunately, I was close enough and the leak was slow enough to continue to the office. I'll deal with it tonight. Blah.

Well, we are back to reality, weather wise, back here in Minnesota, it was a little bit nippy this morning on my commute in (10F/-12C). It's lunch time as I write this and it hasn't warmed up a bit. Hmmmmm... the ride home afer work will be into the wind... oh goodie.

Had a scare on my ride home from work tonight. It was raining and I had my head down a bit trying to let the peak of my helmet shield my eyes from the rain. I see a black s.u.v. coming dowm the driveway of a factory so I hurry to get past and he drove right across my path. I skid sideways and hit him broadside.I bounce off the truck and land on my back in water. He stops about 15 feet away jumps out and runs back white as a ghost he gives me a hand up and and I see hes just a kid and he kept asking me if I was ok and if I wanted to go to hospital. I said I was ok . We looked my bike over and no problem there so we went on our ways. All I have is a skined elbow.

glad to hear you're ok. watch yourself/bike for the next couple days just in case, take it easy.


...friggin crap ride home tonight, even tho the weather was great

1st - some a-hole decides to pull a U-turn right in front of me in chinatown
2nd - another a-hole in a boxtruck tries to squeeze me into a parked van
3rd - wiiiiiide turning a-hole almost nails me at an intersection
4th - hidden door attack from parked SUV (this person actually looked before performing their action)

...how the hell does anybody ever make it home around here??
some days it just gets to be too much...

At last, with the light traffic predicted (due to post-Super-Bowl calling in sick), today was a good day to try the roads again. The week-ends warm weather had cleared the roadways well, only 3 places that were still only a lane & a half wide. One is about a half mile long, but it is doable. This has been my longest weather related break in commuting in almost 5 years. It sure feels good to be back riding.

SaskCyclist,
yah, we really got dumped on with snow. It started Friday pm & snowed most of the weekend. I rode home Fiday, but decided I couldn't afford 1hr & 20min each way Today, so I drove. (I always feel like such a quitter when I don't ride ).

Actually, today would have been ok for riding (doh!), at least on the main roads I could have rode in the tire tracks. We still have ice under the snow in a lot of areas... with my worn out Innova tires, it just doesn't work very well to ride in deep snow over ice.

Still not sure If I'll ride tomorrow. I mentor a grade 4 student on Tuesdays - leave work for around an hour courtesy of my company. I don't want to take advantage of their generosity by taking extra time to ride in bad weather. I'm hoping the city will clear the bike paths by Wednesday - they seem to be keeping up with the trails alot better than the roads.

Good ride to work and home.It started to rain on the way home . But still a good ride . Have a good nite .

The commute was definately better than the commuter...most days the legs feel great but occasionally they don't.

I can't believe this weather. The trail has less and less snow. It's melting slowly enough that it isn't turning into heavy mashed potatoes. There are long clear sections, some sections of slush, and some sections of hard-packed snow and/or ice. Pretty easy going, but the snow/ice parts are very bumpy so I slow down for those.

Rain this morning. High 30Fs.

I left my overcoat and gloves on the rack today and rode in with just shirt, tie, pants, shoes/sox, and sport jacket. Felt great! Can't recall the last time I did that. After arriving, I found that it was 39 F / 4 C -- colder than I thought. The February thaw is fun, but I'm hoping for one decent storm before spring.

Paul

First AM ride in awhile that was above freezing, 36F. Like Paul, all the heavy clothes are in the basket, not on my body. Shorts and light tights today. Ride home should be great like yesterday, 50F.

Today was a good ride in. -25c with a -39c windchill. I dressed at little different today. Yesterday the back of my thighs were cold. Cold armour combined with Sporthill 3sp pants were not warm enough. So today I tried wool/polyester blend on my lower body with the 3sp pants. It was definitely better. I seem to need cold armour on my upper body to keep the moisture away and more insulating material on my legs. Anyway, happy to be on the bike and not in a cage or on the city limo.

Have a great day.

It was 40f and I dressed normally, which resulted in blue fingernails. I just wish there was a way to store the cool weather for later in the year ...

The damp really makes the cold feel colder. Cold and damp.

I don't think I've ever been cold in sporthill 3sp before. I'm thinking that -25C is around -10F, at least close. I don't know if I've ever biked in those temps. Don't tell me y'all are sending down another artic express. i was just getting use to 50F.

Today was my coldest commute of the year so far at 28F (-2C) and foggy. That sure doesn't seem so tough when you post it right after somebody reporting -25C. Good job up there.

had my first big wipeout going home last night. new to clipless i guess. i'm riding pretty hard up a hill in my highest gear and all of a sudden my right shoe came off, i jerked the wheel hard left and experienced a breif moment of flight followed by a strange hopping with my right leg with bike perpendicular to direction of travel. that didn't last long though, soon on the ground with legs in the air and bike on top of me. you know what though i rather enjoyed it. i got away with a minor scratch, bike not too bad either. isn't it amazing how reflexes take over to minimize damage? i was really lucky there were no cars around, plus about a mile later i realized in my haste to get to the dentist i had forgotten to wear my helmet. good for me my head and teeth were ok.
so the question is, what am i doing wrong that my shoe coming unclicked makes me immediately lose all control of my bike? normally not a complete ****.
and question 2 is, what do i do to stop the shoe from coming out? i know tightening the screws behind the spd but anything else, form-wise maybe?
thanks for any help.

Good ride to work and home . Alot of rain and mud today.
But still a good ride . Have a good nite .