MyPC8MyBrain

Been off the bike for a week due to excessive ice and sub zero temps. Converted the bike to winter mode over the weekend. Installed the new studded nokoians [700c Hakkapeliitta W106 35mm ] from https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/studdedtires.asp and also hung on my panniers.

Wow, those tires are impressive even at the 60psi I rode them with today. There were numerous slick ice patches along the way where the snow had melted and the water had refrozen. I couldn't even spin the back tire while geared down. I don't think it would be wise to rip 25 mph corners, but I feel 100% comfortable on the ice now.

Hanging on the panniers instead of using a backpack made the bike feel much heavier and more sluggish. But then again, I was hauling a laptop and bag that I normally don't haul. The tradeoff was a much more comfortable ride without the pack on my back. That made it a lot easier to adjust clothing for riding conditions. I believe panniers are the way to go now...makes the ride much more enjoyable.

I forgot how cold it gets going fast down the hill. My ears were freezing off and I couldn't figure out why. I was wishing that I had a hat for those first couple of miles... then i remembered that I use the hood of my sweatshirt. DOH!

See what happens when you take a few days off... ya get out of the grove.

Temp this am....18F

pinkrobe

Easy ride in today. I was going to ride the skinny tires, but was too lazy to switch my pedals over. It's supposed to snow tomorrow, so I guess my sloth is justified.

Both shoulders are sore from snowboarding on the weekend. Fernie had a lot of windslab action going on in the open bowls, but if you stayed in the trees and steeper aspects, it was all good. 4 crown floats on Saturday night kept my knees from being sore.

noisebeam

Shorts this morning, a warm 45F!

Al

jyossarian

You guys just got a whole different language up there, don't you?

caloso

My buddy and I have reinstituted our pre-work training rides. We used to do these 4 days a week: M/W intervals and T/Th tempo rides. Now we just do tempo twice a week (we've both got toddlers and we're trying to be good 21st C. dads).

Anyway, good ride today. Cool (47F) and moist (100%RH, patchy fog). We did a steady 19-20mph tempo out and back. Conversation was 20% local bike scene, 20% pro bike scene, 10% politics, and 50% about what the kids are getting for Xmas. Let's just say that Thomas the Tank Engine gets discussed more than Lance Armstrong.

Wulfheir

First time on the bike in a week. Felt it in the thighs. I'm never taking a week off again. The chinook over the weekend melted all the snow and ice along the shoulders, but left copious amounts of sand. I'm going to try to get a studded tire with rim tonight so I'm prepared for our next dump.

jyossarian

Traffic was a nightmare. Had to zig-zag around cars, buses, people for 15 blocks. Saw a nice set of legs attached to a nice looking woman and managed not to crash. Wore the techwick beanie under my helmet and it kept my hair nice and neat. I'll be wearing it more often.

CommuterRun

Nice commute. Got a very late start. Cloudy and cool all afternoon. Had some errands to do this morning that required using the car. Got home, hopped on the bike and began my commute around 11:00. Took the Allez Elite w/Burley Solo Trailer. Today was the last day of the three day general gun quota hunt on the Wakulla Unit of the refuge. I didn't hunt it, didn't apply. I'll wait for the upcoming, 2 week, non-quota small game hunt. I have other places to hunt, anyway. Riding through the refuge in the middle of the day, saw a nice doe feeding on the side of the highway. A little over a mile down the road, stopped and chatted with three hunters that just walked out of the woods. They hadn't bagged anything in the entire three day hunt. The way this quota hunt is set up, a hunter has to kill an antlerless deer to be given an antlered deer tag. In other words, gotta' kill a doe to get a buck tag. Good system for thinning the herd. One of the guys I talked to was the p/u driver that yelled at me while passing last Friday complimenting me on my rig, Townie3 towing a canoe trailer. They said they hadn't got anything which tells me the wild hogs that I've had my eye on for the small game hunt are safe, for now. They're in the same area where these guys were.

Nice, uneventful ride home. The only close call was a cardinal that flew between my nose and the stem, then landed in a yaupon bush on the side of the road.

Get home to find out #1 (13 yr old son) took his bike and went to a friend's house after school today. While they were inside another neighborhood kid took #1's bike. #1 came out and found his bike gone, hunted the other kid down and opened a can. Kicked the other kid's butt.

I've started rethinking this clipless pedal thing. The pedals on the hybrid have clips. Those with sneakers seem to fit my commuting better than road shoes and clipless.

o-dog

last commute with the MTB today... I get my road bike (Jamis Coda Sport) tomorrow

pretty cold coming in... and I was a bit rusty from not riding for a few days so I was kinda slow coming in and had to stop to catch my breath a few times... other than that it was alright

the ride back was even colder, had to break out the balaclava for the first time, but other than that it was a great ride... I had a lot more energy than I did on the ride in

AD-SLE

Seems like there are some new posters which always makes for interesting reading. Last post I was happy to make it home after a broken spoke. Perfect timing as I had business travel the remainder of the week and temps went to the teens in Memphis. Over the weekend trued up the trusty rear wheel. Jumped on this am about 38F. I was slow as molasses and my odometer failed to work. Low energy and after 7 days off I was a limp slug! Wheel twanged a bit with a full load w/ laptop et al. Post 10 miles, all was well.

Coming home I had a first. 4 way stop...3 bikes all heading into the intersection! WOW! In Memphis no less. Seems to be recreational riders with iPod and glam clothing. I powered through first as it looked like they were trying to figure out what to do. Nice to see so many two wheeled friends. Much more punch on way home less laptop!

Lesson learned, rotate those tires! When truing my rear over the weekend I noticed I nearly threaded my rear tire and contrary to Sheldon's advice I put it up front. Had I done that 500 miles ago I could have squeezed more life out of them. Guess I will buy some new rubber for 2006.

tomg

cool, sunny, low volume traffic, and lite wind going to and from work today. went like clock-work. it's somewhat exiting to be riding with traffic, they speed up to the next stop lite, you catch up. there are no timed lites like in Philly, where you could drive 30 mph and not stop for 20 blocks. anyone have problems not being "noticed" at left-hand-turn-only signal sensors?

tokolosh

boomtown rats. i was thinking about it last night cause i don't like them either. how was the commute today? disgusting, that's how, glad you asked. managed the mornng ride without too much trouble, but now the night one is over i feel equipped to look back and say man, that was all struggle right from the git, wasn't it? yeah. it was. better be careful this week.

nice morning going in, nice night coming out, with a semi-clear sky and a small bright moon riding very fast through the clouds. a container truck went by me on the flat on my way in and long after they'd passed it occurred to me they must have left me four inches clearance when they did it. pretty close, really.

eight commuting days till christmas.

songs: ye're welcome willie stewart, robert burns; let x=x, laurie anderson.

vtjim

5 degrees (F) and lake effect snow this morning. Ski goggles today. Nice ride. Blue skies and super-fluffy snow. I heard the woodpecker again in the same section of woods as yesterday.

Last night I was riding home (just after sundown but before dark) on the trail and I spotted a headlight in my rear-view. 15 degrees, snowing, almost dark. Another crazy person! He was overtaking but not very quickly, so I slowed up and waited for him. He greeted me with, "Nice day for a ride!" Then we chatted for a bit and I let him take the lead. He was riding a full suspension MTB as opposed to my bone-jarring ancient beater MTB. (Riding on pedestrian-pockmarked packed snow...)

Time to write some letters to encourage the city to plow the #@($ path...

mjw16

Cold and slow this morning. My studded snow tires are really killing my commuting time. They're great in the snow/ice but slow and clumsy the rest of the time, plus the bike handles like a tank. I'll probably leave them on into March then go back to my slicks. I also stopped to help another rider replace a tube. He had gotten 3 tacks in his front tire and was p!$$ed. DC riders who've been using the Mount Vernon Trail recently have suffered similar fates (I've picked up 2 myself), fortunately the Park Service has been responsive in helping clean the trail. Temps were in the 20's and I on no less than 4 layers in addition to my gloves and balaclava, I had to stop and put on my skull cap as well since the balaclava was surprisingly drafty, otherwise the ride was fine and I saw 3 or 4 other riders (an unusual event at 5:40 am).

fordfasterr

I finally did it.. Today was my first commute to one of the two offices that I work @.

Rode 5.25 miles to work .lol

Avg spd was 12.2 mph and it took 25 minutes

This is on my caugh.. huffy.. caugh.....

here is a pic of it setup for commuting (daytime only)...

DataJunkie

No commute today.
Going to hunt down a new rim during lunch.

Last nights commute ended oddly. When I cross over the main street by my house there is a short MUP (2000 feet maybe) that leads directly to my street. I came around the curve and low and behold two sets of tweens (or teens) standing in the middle of the MUP making out. They blankly stared at me bearing down at them (fully loaded panniers, somewhat large guy, etc) and refused to move. I actually had to yell at them to move "MOVE!" and they still didn't bother. I barely missed them.
Then was called an ahole. Poor little me.
Anyways, this goes without saying: teens + hormones = the intelligence of a lobotomized rat

James55Thompson

Left the office yesterday and was greeted by a howling wind with intermittent showers. By the time I was within a mile of the house, the rain turned in a downpour, which lucky for me, didn't last long. This morning's ride was a nice easy ride in with extremely cold, for this area, weather. But weather or no, I feel bad when I don't ride in.

Wulfheir

Yesterday, the snow had melted. Today, the city had cleared about 2km of sand/salt from the shoulder. Everything is turnin' up milhouse!

jyossarian

Thanks tokolosh, I knew you'd know.

It was 18F when I left this morning all decked out in layers w/ my beanie and ear wrap under my winter helmet. 12-15 mins later I was at work sweating like a sweaty man who wore too many layers. Felt like I had too much on and it affected my low speed maneuvering ability. And I needed that maneuverability because traffic was a jam-packed nightmare! Barely any clearance to get by and a few spots where I had to use the sidewalk to get around the cars. Needless to say, this played havoc w/ my commuting time.

On a day like today, you expect to see the nuts out and I did. On my block approaching me was an older gentleman jogging and on Lexington I saw two women of a certain age riding single speed or 3-speed cruisers with front baskets and rear panniers dressed in winter jackets, dress pants and boots w/ 2-3 inch heels. Of course, I didn't see any roadies out, but I expect they're out there somewhere.

squeakywheel

I stole my wife's bike today. Hopefully she won't notice. Mine is under repair. I had a little bit of rear wheel slippage going up hills in the snow. It isn't too deep. It takes me longer in the winter because I go slow to avoid finding ice patches at high speed. I brake going down the big hills. No problem with fogged up glasses this morning. They were stowed in my bag.

pinkrobe

Almost got tagged by two vehicles turning directly in front of me. I can't wait to get my HID light. It's gonna sharks with frickin' laser beams, man... frickin' laser beams...

FraAngelico

commute was not good today. had to take the subway. front hub is wacked.

caloso

The fog was kickin' like a KISS video. Tomorrow I'm wearing my Peter Criss makeup.

jschen

It's Tuesday, so this morning, I rode in for week 2 of commuting. Another beautiful San Diego morning. Wasn't so beautiful at sunrise (yes, we San Diegans are wimps), and got to sleep really late last night thanks to work, so I didn't ride before breakfast. Did I mention that I love commuting? How else would I get to ride on the days I don't ride before breakfast?

peregrine

I felt good this morning. I think it must've been that I got full 6 hours of sleep for once. Woke up refreshed, was dancing to some tacky country song while getting ready, installed another rear light (my 4th one) and inflated my tires before I left. There was freezing fog today, random patches of ice on the road but my tires held their own surprisingly well (knock on wood). I felt really strong... made it to work in record time and even managed to keep up with this guy on a fancy road bike I'm going to try my best to go to bed on time today... the stupid annoying insomnia can go to hell