In southern California we have these winds that are called 'Santa Ana's', maybe you have the same winds where ever you are, I don't know. So these Santa Ana winds come from the east, rather than from the normal west direction. And in this part of the VC, they blow hard, and they are real dry.

So today we have the Santa Ana's going on. My ride to work is mostly into them and they are blowing 30-50 mph. And they pick up all sorts of crap and throw it in my eyes. It sucked. I made it to the office in around 12 minutes.

I almost got blown off my bike today. The chinook winds are a-howlin', and they kept trying to push me in front of cars. Homicidal air - what will they think of next?

I know what you mean, it was crazy. I was wobbling like a house of cards, on top of a hat, worn by an epileptic, riding a bike after 10 beer and he's havin' a seizure. That's how much I was wobbling, almost got smoked twice.

rain, misty, = wet on AM in, traffic 'good', breeze on my back. PM = wet roads (no rain), drivers showed some regression, temp cooler, but the bike's carried me a-b again!

Had a rare (for me) inter-modal commute today: bike to Portland (Maine) bus station, bus to Boston, then back again. No precipitation on the morning bike ride, snowstorm developed during the day. Fortunately it stayed snow in Portland, so the ride home was only partially wet.

Funny thing, though. I almost never get road rage around here. Maybe it was the non-standard route, but I had not one but two cases of angry drivers for no apparent reason. The first time, I was just riding along on my side of the road, and this driver coming the other way, on his side of the road, just rolled down his window and starts yelling at me. Couldn't hear what he said, but I can't think what I could have done to make him mad. I was on a straightaway, so it couldn't have been anything I did wrong in an intersection. Maybe he thought I was someone else?

Then at the next intersection, after I turned right, legally, someone passed me and honked aggressively. I don't think he was the one immediately behind me, but maybe he was a few cars back and thought I was holding people up making my turn. So that one at least I can form a theory about.

Oh well, do I care?

Commuted to the Saturn dealership to pick up my wife's car after it was serviced.

A sobering ride home. There was a motorcyclist lying in the intersection of 11th and S Streets. His motorcycle had a pushed in fork and the engine was leaking coolant. People were yelling to call 911 and a passing motorist had put a blanket over him and was telling him not to move. The driver who must have hit him was sitting in her car looking stunned.

I offered to help but there wasn't anything to do and I didn't want to cause any more distraction.

Let's be careful out there, folks.

bravo, congrats, welcome!

as for me it took me 1/2 an hour to suit up today to try to brave a winter snow storm. Got out the front door, studded snow tires and all and the snow was a good 4-6" of thick wet glop the consistency of semi-frozen mashed potatoes. Needless to say it was slow going. I got a 1/2 mile into my 11 mile ride and turned around, rode home, put the bike away, changed clothes and took the bus. The weather beat me today I am ashamed to say.

Good ride to work and home. Nice day to ride .
Have a good nite .

Ride in was 55 degrees with a wonderful 15MPH tailwind. Ride home was a 2 parter, from my regular job to my volunteer job at the Sheriff's Dept., then off to home. Eveyone at the Sheriff's Dept. thought I was crazy to be riding. They don't understand I'd probably go crazy if I couldn't ride. 49 degrees and a slight crosswind coming home, cool enough to really get moving without getting drenched in sweat.

Yeah, I rode up into the parking lot at a Sherriff's station a couple of weeks ago to ask a deputy something (he was loading stuff into his trunk). It was about 6AM, snowing lightly, a bit icy, and 28 degrees. He acted kind of nervous; maybe he thought I was REALLY crazy.

Rides here seem to have been all the same lately; 22 to 28 in the morning, sometimes breezy (random head/tail wind), 35 to 40 in the afternoon. Wish it would get cold and snow, I want to get SOME sledding in before spring.

Rained yesterday, but the bike was at the LBS to fix a clicking noise in the BB. It was ready by 6:30pm, so I picked it up.

This morning's commute to work was a test ride, also, to see if my LBS had truly fixed the BB noise. Success!

But, nevertheless, I 'stressed' over the commute, because it was just above freezing and my 700x23s slipped here and there due to ice. I didn't fall this time (like last Friday), but came close.

.

You call yourself a cyclist?! Seriously though, that's a lot of snow to ride through even if it was powder. Mashed potato snow would be almost impossible. I draw the line around 4 inches. It's a bicycle, not a snow plow.

Anyway, we got an inch or two yesterday. There are a couple of sections of trail where the snow is covering rock-hard ice. I saw evidence of at least five spills. One might have been another cyclist. Even with studs it was a little hairy because the ice is not smooth and if you get up on a "hill", the front tire can slip right off. Had to put my foot down once, but I was going very slowly.

First post of 2006. So far only two car days for January. One due to snow in Memphis. I could have done it but the drivers....not! It was panic in the streets!! Second, client in town and had to go to dinner. 32F this morning. Dropped my daughter off at school with unicycle, dropped other daughter and parked car at school. Rode the rest (8.5 miles) to work vs 10. Bummer getting the ice off the car. Much easier to get on bike and ride!! Co workers think I'm nuts to ride in 32F weather....I know many here think that is a summer day.

Awesome ride this morning !

I almost got clobbered by an suv that ran a red light !

I started off just as the light on their side turned red... as I went through the intersection, this guy was doing at least 70 mph in a 35/40 ... and he just looked at me, I looked at him and I realized he was NOT going to slow down... so I backed off a bit, and he flew right past me, ran the red ... I pushed as hard as I could and I caught up to him at the next red light !!

Lucky for me, by the time I got there, the cars that were behind me caught up to him and this lady was yelling at him " you almost killed that guy on the bicycle because you ran the red light ! "...

so, I didnt make a point of it by banging on his mercedez benz suv or to scare his big wife.. lol

=)

So thats that... still alive, still there.



So far, 100% car free in 2006.

30F at sunrise, some frost but no black ice. Different story on the boardwalks closer to work, though. I had to walk one of them. There was evidence of previous commuters crashing (blinkie parts, skid marks).

Another day of heavier than normal traffic, plus I have to ride home at lunch and switch to the motorcycle in order to meet my wife across town this afternoon.

Took a different route, slightly longer route to work today cuz I was running late and knew traffic was gonna suck on my usual route. Although the distance increased about 10%, I ended up getting to work faster than usual, beating my average time by about 30 seconds. I've been debating making this route my usual route so I may try it out for the rest of the week.

Yeah, there were some nice little frost pellets/icy patches on the wooden bridges along the Mount Vernon Trail this morning. Very slippery! Otherwise, it wasn't a bad ride in...

Had a typical ride in; temps in the high 40s, no wind, clear overcast day, light traffic and no close encounters of the SUV kind.

Oh wow, such an easy ride in today. I switched back to the skinny-tire bike and was just flying. I totally notice the shorter cranks. If I ever put new ones on that bike I'm going to 175 or 180mm. Great sunrise too.

The wind was up again this morning, maybe slightly less than yesterday, 25-30 mph. I used the sidewalk for a couple long blocks to avoid being blown into traffic. It took about 11 minutes to get into the office.

Took a different route to work today, a more hilly one. Took me longer to get to work and I was very tired when I arrived. I don't know if it was the route though, I had an indoor soccer game last night at 10pm and I had to play almost the whole game due to lack of subs. So I didn't get much sleep and was tired before I even got on the bike. Definitely taking the easy way home after work.

No commute today. Got home too late last night to care to prep for commuting, and preferred to sleep in this morning than to prep. Oh well, maybe tomorrow. Or maybe it will just be a week away from commuting since after tomorrow, I'll start prepping my other bike for Saturday's ride (including stealing the light setup from my commuter) and resting my legs.

Horrible.

9 miles in (nice tailwind too) I got a flat. No big deal. I pull out my trusty 15mm wrench and take the back wheel off, and get the tube out. I pull out my spare tube and put it in the wheel only to discover that with my new wheels, the valve stem isn't long enough. OK, I'll use just patch the old tube and be on my way. The wind noise makes it very difficult to find the puncture. I finally find it and patch it. My fingers are getting numb since it's about freezing. I put some air in the tube. Nothing. There is another puncture. I patch it. Rinse and repeat. Same thing. There is another puncture. I patch the third puncture. I lose the glue. I revert to my backup patch kit. (today I was carrying 2 patch kits) Feeling better, I put the tube into the tire and seat it back on the rim. I'm having a hard time getting the last bit of tire bead over the rim, so I use a lever. You guessed it. SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.... Another puncture. At this point, I give up and walk 2 miles to work.