caloso

Wet, windy, and warm. The weatherguys call it the Pineapple Express.

roughrider504

Temp-73, wind speed-calm. it was a nice commute home. It felt so good outside at recess, I literally ran out of the classroom when the leaving bell rang, I wanted to bike so bad

peregrine

This morning was my very first ride while it's snowing -->
It was very windy again -->

Of course temps were 32-35F and all the snow immediately melted upon hitting the ground, but it was snow nonetheless... ...I'm buying brighter lights t.o.d.a.y.

jyossarian

Ride home was a blast. As in, I blasted up the middle of 5 lanes of traffic trying to outrun a bus b/c traffic was just that stupid. My legs were sore and I was breathing heavily and w/ my cold, I wasn't enjoying it, but I had to do it to get out in front of traffic to a safer lane if any of that makes sense. Or I could've slowed down, but that ain't gonna happen. BTW, I outran the bus, was about to change lanes when I noticed traffic was all messed up on the right side so I stayed in the middle and kept going a few more blocks before traffic sorted itself out.

CommuterRun

Unusual day. Saw no notable wildlife, just a few songbirds.

Had two unusual occurances with motor vehicles. Both on the way home on the same stretch of highway.

The first: A car followed by a large dump truck coming up behind me. SUV coming the other way. I keep trucking along in the right half of the right lane. I figure no big deal. The car and truck slow, SUV passes, then car and truck pass me, right? Wrong. Fool cager in SUV decides she needs to stop, on the road, to let the car and dump truck behind me pass. What kind of stupid logic is this? All it did was slow everything down because now we all have to get past her to have room for car, truck and now pick-up to pass me.

The second: Approaching a + intersection from the S, but still far enough out I haven't taken the lane yet. The E/W is a through street highway. The N/S has the stop. Both roads are two lane all the way through the intersection. The N/S lanes are too narrow to share. Fool cager in pick-up towing a bay boat decides he needs to pass right now. With three cars oncoming. Lucky for him the oncoming cars completely stopped giving him enough room to get in ahead of me without him causing a head-on collision.

This sort of thing is extremely rare around these parts. Always makes me wonder WTF Cracker Jack Box did this idiot pull a Driver's License out of?

Other than that a very nice commute. High in the mid-sixties, crystal clear, azure sky, with a little bit of cross-wind.

gew0419

Another month has gone by and I have only riden a few times. This cold weather and my health have made me a real wimp. I really miss it.

mechBgon

We had a Winter Storm Warning today. I rode to work on smooshy "used snow," if you know what I'm talking about, with the rippled lumpy Stupid Ice™ that sticks to the street like malevolent limpets here and there. About noon, it started snowing and everyone at work was freaking out because we were supposed to get 2-4 inches / 50-100mm of snow by closing time.

So I took the "you-say-I'm-crazy" highway route home, with a three-mile extension added onto it, and found that the snowplow crews had been there first. 22 miles, 1-2 inches of snow. I wore my new self-illuminating vest and belt, woooo, fun new toys This time I remembered wool sweaters and plastic sandwich baggies to go over the toes of my shoes (under my booties).

Oh, and about 1/4 of the way home, I found a cager trying to tighten his tire chains in a center turn lane on the highway (!) so I stopped to provide light and watch his back. Super-blinkie powars, ACTIVATE!!!

buzzman

Boston, MA

Felt more like a warm morning in March today than a chilly December day. An occasional light breeze from the east put some ripples on the Charles River. I'm always inspired by the rowers either in their single shells or 8 person crew pulling hard into the wind. A few more cyclists on the MDC path this morning. Finished up downtown around 4pm and headed over to a rehearsal in another part of town and then rode home around 11pm choosing the streets over the bike path.

Like the previous poster I use a reflective vest with battery operated lights sewn in- mine is from Forestry Suppliers Inc.. They have a product catalog that rivals the old Sears Catalogs of my youth. I could thumb through it's pages for hours looking at everything from handtools to portable lumber mills.

tokolosh

went outside this morning and said 'now this feels like below zero'. pleased with myself because when i got to the noticeably-warmer other side of the river, sho nuff. the led display said, and i quote: "+0C". hah. felt pretty darned warm to me. in fact i'd suspect that led if it weren't for envirocan backing it up.

heading across the non-road between parking lot and shower/health club i side-stepped to investigate a half-frozen puddle and almost wiped out on the edges of it. that would have been irony - ride six miles just to take off your helmet and bash in your occiput while approaching a puddle in pedestrian mode to poke at its centre and try to assess how bad it would be on a bike. taught me something new about black ice and kept me kind of fretting all day, but it crept above zero and stayed there all day so the ride home was no problem at all in spite of steady, very light, very powdery snow all the way.

had a nice conversation with one of the other guys in my cube about snow and ice and tires for it, not at all hampered by the fact that he was talking car and i was talking bike. and a not-so-nice exchange with one of the other cyclists in the lunchroom, whose spandex appears to have off-gassed enough to impair the ego-control parts of his brain. bleh. tell the truth, so far the only 3d cyclists i've met who i liked better than yer average driver were either women or new canadians. the drivers have less problem with me than some of the cyclists seem to have.

songs: i think the answer's yes, the beautiful south; frida kahlo's visit to the tay bridge bar, michael marra.

MyPC8MyBrain

Was a bit warmer on the way in this am... 24F when i passed the clock/thermometer going up the hill. Left a few minutes late and was in uber-slack mode.

Usually I ride in like it's some sort of race. Today I shifted down a couple gears and just poked along. Slowed down and smelled the diesel fumes, if you know what I mean. It was all fine until a girl passed me like I was standing still while cruising up the hill. Oh well, she snagged a piece of ego on the way past and put another notch in her water bottle.

I smiled and said good morning anyways :-)

Only 19 more days till the days start getting longer !

Wulfheir

-18c I think it's the first sub-zero Fahrenheit morning in calgary this season.

I decided to sidewalk surf for part of my commute this morning (and last night) because i actually felt as though it were safer. The roads are slick and the shoulders are covered with fresh snow hiding what lies underneath.

jyossarian

For some reason, when I read this, my heart skipped a beat and my brain said, "Yahoo!".

Uhhh...so I'm thinking about not wearing my helmet on my commute. I started wearing it when it rained and got cold, mostly to keep my head warm and sorta dry. But I've also noticed the way I ride has changed. Whereas before, helmetless, I zigzagged around traffic, split lanes and ran reds, I now continue to do so, but more aggressively. I think the helmet is giving me a false sense of security that I can take MORE risks. However, I'm still not any faster than I was.

As for my commute to work today, please see above.

EDIT: After buzzman started the thread w/ part of my post above, I'd like to add that I just recently started wearing my brain bucket on my commute. I still don't wear it on some recreational rides. I'm an adult and it's my choice and my head, not yours. Please protect yours in the way you see fit and I will do the same with mine. And yes, my organ donor info on the back of my DL is filled out.

pinkrobe

-18C at the house, -29C with windchill. That was okay, though, as I wore a shell jacket over my regular riding jacket. The bad part was all the snow. I was fine getting away from the house and through the residential neighborhoods. The roads were evenly coated with light, fluffy stuff, and I just cruised on through without a problem. As soon as I got to the main streets, it all went to hell. The combination of fresh snow, salt and sand made the sides of the road pretty much unridable. It's like wet sand, but with none of the resilience. My front wheel was just going everywhere. I was doing okay at first, but the sludge got deeper and I had to get off the road and onto the sidewalk. Shameful, I know, but I had no choice. Thankfully, there weren't many people out due to the cold.

[rant]Calgary has a policy for snow removal that basically means that primary roads get plowed first. Side roads are left to Ma Nature and Chinooks to clear. Yet, all citizens have 24 hours to clear their sidewalks of snow and ice or be subject to a $200 fine. This does not apply to the city itself, of course. You can always tell which buildings are city-operated, as they are the last ones to clear their sidewalks.[/rant]

Anyway, I'm not looking forward to the ride home. If the streets haven't been plowed, I'll have to take the sidewalks. I hate riding on sidewalks, it makes me feel like a bad person. Then again, riding the roads like they are today will make me feel like I have crashed my bike every 10m, mostly because I will have.

GGDub

Consider yourself lucky man. Getting the wisdom teeth pulled this aft so I haven't eaten since last night. Decided I'd better drive in since no food + commute in deep snow + -18c temps = major bonk. Including warming up the car and brushing the snow my drive in took 1:15. That's 1:15 I'll never get back.

tulip

Very interesting commute today. I explored another route, which brought me smack in front of the Surpreme Court! Watch for Falling Rocks!

billh

Back in winter mode. One of the challenges of the winter commute is just keeping track of all the extra gear. One of my treasured pieces of gear is my little neoprene face mask. Boy do I like that thing. Protects the face from the wind. Anyway, it seems when I whip off my helmet to park, and head in, I have a handful of face mask, gloves, and balaclava. The little face mask tends to get dropped. Last night after class, I couldn't find the face mask. Looked in the classroom, walked all around campus. Looked in the bathroom. Nowhere. Curses. I was NOT looking forward to the eight miles home in the cold, dark and damp without that mask. I trudged out to the bike rack. There it was! Sitting on the sidewalk a few meters from the bike. I must have dropped in my rush to class. And it sat there for 3 hours, amazing. Argh. I will not let that mask out of sight again!

ahpook

Slow, slow slow. Slow and painful. Painfully slow. I checked my tire pressure when I got to work, hoping i was running way low as that would explain the slowness. But no, they were fine. It's just me.

caloso

Chilly. I couldn't find my amber glasses this morning so my eyes were bright red from the cold air.

o-dog

I'll include Wednesday's commute in this post also since I didn't post about it then

WEDNESDAY:
took the flat route in in the morning and made pretty good time... the ride back was a different story... there was a basketball game that night so I got stuck in gameday traffic. was really tempted to filter but decided to wait instead.

TODAY:
really windy... decent ride in in the morning but on the ride back I had the headwind from hell in my face almost the entire way back... it slowed me up so much, worst headwind ever

mtessmer

Good commute, a little chilly, 9F/-13C and a little "brown sugar" snow on the roads so it was a little slower, but fun non the less.

jyossarian

38F and windy on the way home. Ride home was uneventful. Saw a mother and her 5-6 yo jogging on the FDR MUP. And the child was jogging, not in a stroller while the mother jogged.

Good things: Brought gloves, weather is cold, but no snow. 5/5 for commutes w/ a cold. Also, it's Friday!
Bad things: Forgot to apply lip balm, forgot ear muffs, runny nose, not cold enough to freeze snot.

CommuterRun

Outstanding day.

Took the Townie3 with utility trailer and some fishing tackle, two casting rods, planning on knocking off work early and see if I could catch some speckled trout or a redfish on the way home.

Crystal clear, blue skies, little breeze at my back for the ride this morning. Found a brand new looking bandana on the side of the road. It'll go well with the good stocking cap I found beside the road last Tuesday. Started making a Townie3 rap song.

The client came down to the cottage. Got the go-ahead on some other projects for him. Got paid for the first time in two months (since I finished the projects for my last client). Then he left. Took a break from work in the middle of the day, on the rising tide, and caught 14 mullet in my castnet just about filling the 25 qt. cooler I carry on the utility trailer for my lunch and drinks. So much for fishing on the way home, nowhere to put anything else. New problem, no ice and I'm hours from leaving. Does this client have an automatic ice maker in the freezer? Pay dirt, and he has an over-sized bin, perfect. Good thing they're not using the cottage this weekend.

Shadows were getting long by the time I started home. Glad I had a sweatshirt. Not cool enough for gloves. Very nearly all the cars behaved well. Had a couple that passed with oncoming traffic a little close, but it came out okay, most didn't.

Get home and the wife has taken care of the bills. Got me two cartons of smokes and has not one, but two steaks for my dinner.

She doesn't even know I got paid for the first time in two months.

Top THAT.

buzzman

Boston was cold today. Didn't have to be to my rehearsal until 2pm and left with 25 minutes to do what is normally a 25 minute commute if I take the bike path. I chose the streets- shorter, faster but Boston drivers- man. But despite that it was a fine commute into town because the wind was negligible and/or at my back so I could move right out with the traffic most of time.

The ride home, in the dark, with a cold Northwest wind felt a little forboding. I can feel a big snow will come soon and it's tough to fight the depression that comes with giving up the best part of my day- my bike rides. I always want to keep riding despite the snow, slush and ice but usually one scary incident and I'm taking the bus till March.

Had two drivers wave me through intersections and show great respect for the fact that I was out there in the cold and dark and riding. Then had two drivers completely dis me. Both pulling out of parking lots both getting the full glare of my bike light on their faces and clearly seeing me coming- with bright yellow jacket, yellow helmet, and reflective vest- and they still pulled right out in front of me.

Fortunately, it's so par for the course at this point I would have had only myself to blame had I crashed into them.

Got home, dropped off my gear and headed out to the supermarket with the bike- love my milk crate. No other bikes in the disintegrating bike rack at the market. Saw an opposum on the ride home- that was strange. And no, it wasn't a big rat it was, indeed, an opposum.

tomg

commuted weds 33 miles (included med/wellness home visits for work), tough with wind and traffic. the next day (thursday) was a day off to recoupe. todays rides in/out were COLD. going in, the sun was coming out and wind with me. i had to work later tonite, came home against the wind, in the dark, and with friday/holiday drivers, the ride was taxing. a 4/5 commuted week!

spidercyclist

It was about 21F,windy & cold. I a cross a bunch of punks
,that gave me a hard time. So I gave them ahard time right back . I turn around and the punks were gone .
You would think at nite and has cold as it was out the punks would stay home. But still a good ride .