I modified an old cross bike into a single-speed with flat bars. It works great, and there are braze-ons for fenders [which I enjoy].

Started off dead calm, but the wind picked up about a km from my house. Warm, loads of traffic though...

Temp was in the low 40ºF range for the ride in this morning. Winds were SSW @ ~20MPH. I sure enjoyed the push. (my thanks to the Chinook Gods).

The forecast high today is 64ºF. Even better tomorrow! I may get to ride home without the long sleeve base layer and tights!

I commute on a Volpe (Bianchi's light touring/cyclocross bike).

Me.

Thanks, guys. I'm going to create a new thread to solicit some opinions.

YES!

Ride home was cold, but not as wet as this morning. Put the rain gear on anyway cuz the roads are wet. Mostly uneventful except for an overly aggressive van driver that I put behind me after playing leapfrog with and a Chrysler Pacifica driver who cut 3 lanes of traffic just to cut me off as I was riding down a wet hill. She pulled up to the stoplight so I did what any good HHCMF would do and stopped right in front of her. When the light turned green, I took my sweet time cruising through the interesection, turned left and took the lane she wanted. Heheh, too bad for her too cuz she had the light at the next intersection, or she would've if I wasn't in front of her.

yes! I rode to the east and then to the north... It was pretty bad and by the time I was up on the hill (OHSU) my legs were more tired than usual, but it sounds like it was worse for you.

no ride today, helped wife get her '06 toyota prius for routeen maint. also, forgot to mention, there was a rain factor as well. last nite it was pretty heavy, gore-tex was effective, but had a 'blinkie" loss.
rain continued today, my '93 honda civic cx got me to/from work (3.2mile, each way).
my rig is a '95 nashbar 6000t (fenders, 700x25 kevlar tires, panniers/flag) that i tour with as well. i do have a performance bike with simular rigs that i usually use as primary commuter but is down right now due to mechanical issues.
my road bike (cannondale 600sx) and mt bike (raleigh technium) are both used in their task-specific domains.
looks like a 1/3 commute this week thanks to holidays, Happy Thanksgiving!

It was cold and wet and icy ,But still a good commute .

this time of year, if one of us bike commuters happens to arrive at work while one of the other bike commuters is locking up their bike, we give each other grimacey little sideways clint-eastwood smiles and micromillimetre nods. we don't make eye contact or conversation. reason: we're all thinking privately 'oh god, let them fk off before the snot gets out.'

yesterday enviro can said visibility was 100m through much of the day. bet that was down to 20 or 30 today. it's still very neat, but breathing it isn't doing me a whole lot of good overall. had something that almost veered into a retching coughing fit by the first light on the way home. breathed more carefully after that and stopped trying to sing fairytale of new york until i was a bit more warmed up. no further problems, phew. somewhere between 5 and freezing again, probably.

knee/leg hurting again, a little bit. mcgyvered myself a pair of extra knee covers to go under the pants out of a chunk of old fleece that's been lying around this morning, and it really did help but it still gave me aggravation coming up the bridge. i think i have to stretch it all day, every day, from now on. it does seem to help, but only if i do it enough.

nothing interesting in the health club today, but one woman was holding forth to another woman in a way and a tone that made me really really really want to pad out of my cubicle to stand dripping water and giving her the Fascinated Stare small kids do so well. manners so bad you could almost admire them as a kind of art form. didn't do it because it was cold out there.

songs: fairytale of new york, the pogues; ax big mama, ry cooder; never going back again, fleetwood mac.

My commute weather:

Partly Cloudy

Temp: 32°F (0°C)

Humidity: 60 %
Wind Speed: W 12 G 17 MPH
Barometer: 29.68"
Dewpoint: 19°F (-7°C)
Wind Chill: 23°F (-5°C)
Visibility: 10.00 mi.

There were a few ice patches on the road, but the wind was more troublesome and in my face for most of the ride.

I was covered well and stayed warm, but I think I need to invest in neoprene booties for my shoes. The shoe covers aren't cutting it, even with WrightSocks as a base layer followed by a "WindStopper" sock over that.

You commute up Pill Hill? I'm impressed! I'm also jealous of your ride home. I've got a straight and mostly flat commute from Multnomah to Beaverton.

Do you know if they're going to let people take bikes on the tram?

SNOW! Yippee! First snow ride of the season. It started yesterday around 3PM and was a wet, sloppy ride home. A bad headwind made it uncomfortable. I made first tracks on the trail.

This morning it was flurrying and around 20F. Light coating of granular snow that crunched loudly under my tires. Some ice here and there but nothing dangerous. I haven't put the studded tires on yet. Just knobby MTB tires.

Last commute of the week due to the holiday. Don't eat too much, and if you do, go for a long ride on Friday!

Well, today marks the start of real ice in Bucks County, ~20 miles north of Philadelphia. The soccer socks I bought over the weekend do a pretty good job of subbing for leg warmers. Though I lust after some Merino wool ones, oooooooohhh Merino.
There was a point where it got a bit dicey trying to avoid the ice patches on the shoulder and the traffic on the backroads, but all in all it was satifying. Especially when I got to work and a coworker told me I was "a very brave man" for my commute. I don't think there's anything particularly brave about getting to work happy, envigorated and (just a little) smug in the thought that almost all of my coworkers *could* do it, but only I do do it. Ha, doo doo.

Oh, and anyone in the colder climes should check out
https://www.schampa.com/item.asp?iid=934
for a bandito/lycra face mask. Super comfy, super light and packable, and if you MUST have biker style flames, Schampa has them for you.

A note of introduction. I usually post on the Fixed Gear forum, but my interest in advocacy and bike-as-lifestyle topics has grown since I fininshed school in Philly and started working in an office environment in the suburbs. I feel there is WAY too much reliance on cars and trucks out here, starting in people's minds and manifesting itself in their flabby bodies. Not that there's a dearth of flabbiness in the city, but come on: driving .24 miles in your GMC Envoy for coffee? I'm serious about that one, I measured it.

Ugh! That is the only non 4 letter word I can express in relations to my commute home yesterday. 20 miles into it something odd happened. I lost all energy and my body felt like a limp noodle. I had to really push hard the remaining 15 miles. Plus, I detoured around a set of hills by my home. It was that bad. I knew it was something odd since I hardly became winded during that period.
I have concluded that it was a lack of energy caused by an inadequate amount of food for lunch. Especially, since I ate 2 large calazones, a peanut butter sandwich, and several cinnamon rolls after I got home. The heck with healthy foods. I was freakin' hungry!
On these long commutes I need to pack extra food for lunch.

No commute today. I need to get home early and hit the library.

Cloudless sky this morning. I passed a few people coming in, but then I miscalculated traffic and got stuck on the wrong side of 4th St. Duh. I'm thinking of saving up for a Surly Steamroller and getting a flip-flop hub in the back. I think I might be able to handle fixed after riding SS for a while.

I think the four-letter-word you're looking for is BONK! Maybe not a weave-all-over-the-road-until-you-fall-off-your-bike-and-can't-get-up bonk, but I'd say you definitely ran out of gas. You should bury a Lindt Sur Fin chocolate bar in the bottom of your bag. It's handy for when your body taps out but you're 20 miles from home.

OMG
That is such a simple solution. Thanks!
Sometimes I can't seem to see the forest through the trees.

Near the end of my 6 mile commute home last night, next to a grove of woods a deer bolted out across the road about 25 feet ahead of me. "Bambi" was really moving! I thought to myself, "Look at'm go!" I love seeing wildlife on my commute.

Then next thing I know, a big black lab comes screaming out of the same grove! I'm now within about 5 feet of him and closing fast! I grabbed all the brake I could and held my breath.

I'm here to tell you, the dog's paws were on fire after that deer. He didn't even notice me or the barbed wire fences he was ducking under.

I managed to avoid ruining the dog's grand chase. As I peddled away, they were last seen blasting through the woods on the other side of the road.

A happier dog I've never seen!

fingers froze on the hop in this morning
rocking fingerless gloves below 29 degrees...

My ride to work is on Beav. Hillsdale Hwy, Terwilliger and then up the hill to the VA hospital. And you're right that the view I get when riding home is impressive, particularly when it's not raining. The past few days I've been able to see clearly both Mt Hood and Mt Saint Helens.

I'm not sure about the tram. I know that it's taken longer to even start the project than it was supposed to... I'll probably leave before the whole thing is finished.

I had the race bike set up with blinkies and lights in preparation for a pre-work training ride with my buddy but he bailed out with the stomach flu. Rather than throw it all back on the daily bike, I rode the fast bike in. I didn't get the full workout on my own, but was able to get a few extra miles by riding south towards Freeport before turning around and heading back north to Downtown.

Maybe I can get a few extra on the way home tonight too. Anything to lessen the guilt of a second or third helping of pie tomorrow.

Telecommuted today since I'm leaving for the holiday. Everyone have a happy and safe Thanksgiving!