It was a typical morning commute for me. 8 miles one way to the office. Almost ran over a gecko. They are stupid, but it'd kill me to run one over.

really cold ride in today... 35 degrees but wind chills made it feel like 25... definitely a three-layer day today. I took the "flat" route (the one with one less hill) in and the light I usually have to stop at was green for once so I made really good time going in... until I got to the uphill part of the route of course

everyone had gone home for the Thanksgiving holiday by the time I set out for the commute back, so campus was all but deserted, only a few other cars on the road... I made really good time going back as well

It was a little above freezing with damp roads again. Overcast. On the way to work a guy in a Subaru passed much too close... seemed to be in a very big hurry about something. I let it go.

On the way home I was going to do the long way again, out on the highway, but before I had reached the highway I noticed D'oh, I'm down to one green dot on the Flamethrower, I forgot to charge it two days in a row now! so I turned and took an in-city route and had a good ride home in the darkening dusk. And the light system IS on the charger now

Great ride up here in Edmonton, good weather, clear skies, nice people. Only downside is that my rear blinker vanished on the High Level bridge.

cold ride to work, contrary to my earlier listed plans. i had team building in philly at dave&busters, we left there 3pm, prior to holiday rush traffic.
ride home eventless, warmer, with apparent lull in traffic. 2/3 commute week!

Really cold and icy ride tonight. Not alot of traffic on the way home. It was still a pretty good ride.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"the next day is mean and cold and miserable from its inception, a perfectly useless day for anything except suicide by sleeping pills, a day that came out of the oven too soon" - peter s. beagle, i see by my outfit yeah. pretty much what he said.

i'm about done with fog, i know that much. more super-thick versions of it today, and it's just getting at me. i can't go fast when i want to go fast, i can't breathe like i'd prefer to breathe, i can't see where the cars are, and my joints just really hate it. i had to get off and rest a couple of times coming home, and sheesh. i haven't had to do that since week two. and really, given the location and the peculiarities of the job and all that, this thing isn't anywhere near long-term sustainable.

i want a normal commute. over normal territory through normal neighbourhoods past normal stores to work among normal people who wouldn't have to club together all their pop-can money for the whole year and mail off to outer mongolia in order to display a fragment of personality or at least some place where it's possible to eat more than chocolate bars if what you've brought with you isn't quite right.

the morning was pretty good, actually. got all the good lights and was there sooner than i expected to be. didn't look like it was going to stay foggy at all, because the sun came up and actually burned us some blue by the time i got there. but by the time i was ready to leave it was all over us all over again. couldn't see the next lamp as i came up the bridge. and obviously i'm also just having one of those bad-body days too. maudit, but i'll be glad to change to whatever's coming up next.

health-club conversation this morning was about someone's kid. suddenly it occurred to me that any of these people could be parents of kids my kid could be playing ball with next year. they have that sound. i better make sure i keep my lip zipped.

in no kind of mood to sing anything

My ride in was fine. My wife had a different story to tell:
from e-mail: "My bike broke! The derailer? Thing twisted off. Looks like a piece of tissue paper got wrapped up in the chain and the whole chain holder thing twisted off so that there's a metal nub and bound up chain. I had to walk from 10th Ave and 5th St. So Sad."

D'oh!

One of the best things about winter cycling is coming home with snowflakes swirling in the beam of the headlight. Last night was like that, even though the snow failed to amount to anything.

Paul

First real winter commute this morning. -5.5°C, wind, snow, ice, slush, very slow, bike messy, biker happy.

Need studded tires and bigger carpet for dripping bike.

slept too long for the bike today. it didn't make me any less late to drive, actually, since i got halfway there before it seeped in that my id tags were at home in the bike bag. i always appreciate the rest when i drive, since i don't usually drive unless i need to. yet i'm always kind of sad and disappointed as well. i hope tomorrow goes well.

Brilliant ride in today. I flew up the hill and there was very little traffic.

I examined my wife's rear derailleur last night. She actually snapped the thing in two! I'll post pictures tomorrow, but I have to say it's pretty impressive. She's totally pissed that she has to take the bus in. There was talk of cannibalizing one of my bikes for parts, but I shut that down in a hurry.

Good ridin' tonite. Coldest ride yet at -9°C but much easier than warmer days with 40-60km/h wind. Streets were pretty much free of snow but wet and icy. I applied too much front brake at a stop and went down knee first. Ouch! Well, nothing serious.

nice ride there, nice ride home.

Tough: first commute in snow this year, I am still getting the setup right for riding in winter conditions, still beats driving the truck though!

Wet and cool. My jacket kept me warm and dry and a slower pace kept my shoes from getting completely soaked. Everything should dry out just in time to get soaked on the ride home. I'm also going as carb-free as possible in order to lose weight so, we'll see how I feel later in the week. I'm hoping for an all ride week this week, we'll see.

Good to be back riding, after a week off for Thankgiving. I did manage to get a short ride in with my brother-in-law on one of his extra road bikes in Charlotte, NC on Thanksgiving day.

I can't imagine riding in weather as cold as some of you. It was 70 degF this morning when I rode in. It is supposed to cool into the 60s by the end of the week.

I took the car this morning and I'm not sure if it was the right choice. It was below freezing and there was a fine layer of ice in spots on the road. It wasn't everywhere and it varied in thickness from a few twinkling crystals to frozen puddles. I debated, I waffled, I questioned my own motivations. Finally I decided that since I had never ridden my bike in such conditions before I would play it safe and drive. My tests at the stop signs showed me the roads were slightly slippery, I could spin the tires but I had to try, and my stopping ability was just fine. I am still wondering what it would have been like on the bike.

Blah. I feel like crap. Got chills right now and had sweats when I left this morning. Rode down 2nd Ave. which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be except for that stupid hill near 42nd St. Still, I'm glad I rode cuz I'd feel horrible on the subway. I debated working from home, but figured the exercise would do me good. I think tonight'll be a fun night of alternating chills and sweats interspersed with coughing and hacking. I hate getting sick.

I refuse to believe weather forecasting is a science. The prediction was the high teens for a low this morning. More like the high 20s. I was over prepared for the original temp forecast and thus significantly over prepared for this temp. Stripped off a layer or two and was fine.

I need to invest in one of those fancy thingamagigs with mercury in them.

Otherwise, completely uneventful.

What, a fish?

It snowed over the weekend. The ground was quite warm, so the first bit of snow melted when it hit the ground. Then it cooled off and made a nice sheet of ice. Then more snow fell, but just enough to cover the ice and not stick to that layer. Then people drove on this combination and spun their tires at every opportunity, creating black ice on almost half of my commute. Last night I put the skinny tires away and brought out the Schwalbe 304 Ice Spikers. I would have commuted way more in past years if I would have had a set of these. Not a hint of slippage at any time, whether braking, climbing or cruising. Delightful. They also handle well in slush, not that there was very much. They don't exactly corner well on pavement, but that's to be expected.

I've been away on vacation for a while so haven't posted anything. Vacation was a bike trip also to Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, if you would like to read of that it is at www.mtl2.crazyguyonabike.com

I've been back for two weeks now, jet lag messed up my first week back, so I commuted by bike, only once. Lat week I managed 4 days out of a possible 4.

Today it was cold in Ventura County but the commute was good. I got the Atlanis running earlier in the morning and used it tooday. The ride was finished in just under 10 minutes as I was caught at a stop light.

Cold and wet. But I'm glad I rode. The shower room is in the office library and as I got off the elevator the librarian said "Surely you didn't ride in this rain!"

I said, "I did ride. And stop calling me Shirley." *ba-dump-bump*

Felt cold for the first time this year...mostly due to a 20+mph head wind. It was actually only in the high 30's. The wind should still be around this evening though for the ride home. Woohoo tailwind!