At the risk of sounding like a wuss compared to our northern members, after a few days of morning temperatures in the 50's this morning's 40 degrees felt darn cold.

Yep! Those Northern Commuters are brave souls! Pretty awesome! Kudos! :D
Lovely morning ride here :) 70* Egrets, Heron and Moorhens led the way... except for the fox I saw...
um... it'll certainly be there on the way home too... and tomorrow...
and the next day.. :(

Chilly, as predicted, but what was kinda interesting this morning was that I saw another human out on a bike.

I saw the blinkie on the backpack, but no headlight, so I decided to say, "hi" on my way by (rider was on a mtb). As I passed, I noticed the rider was a girl, so instead of chatting, I said, "G'morning" and kept on going.

I thought it might come off creepy if a a strange guy was telling a girl that she ought to have a headlight, in such a dark, quiet neighborhood.

She did smile, though, so at least I know I didn't scare her.

gmap is awesome ! I just used it and confirmed a few things about my ride ! awesome !


... oh.. back on topic... my commute was easy and boring today.... hardly any wind, no crazy drivers/trucks/busses or pedestrians...

=)

Woke up to an "ice alert" on the radio, schools late but my work was report as usual. Before I left home it started snowing but did not stick. I encountered no ice. good ride considering the early repots.

OOOOO SPIFFY! :D

Couldn't sleep last night and couldn't wake up this morning. Ran late, took my new route which took 2 mins. longer than it did yesterday and my legs felt like lead. Oh well, hopefully some of this tiredness will remain when it's time to go to bed tonight.

Didn't want to get out of bed this morning and almost drove in...but I took the bike and had a great ride in. Mid 40s with the sun rising and me taking it easy. Was a bit windy but nothing too bad.

Great sunrise today. A little chilly, but not bad...

Nice commute this morning. I think we are getting by pretty lucky this month with no below 0 F temps, very unusual for Minneapolis for January. It came fairly close day before yesterday when it was 5 F/-15 C on my ride in to work. It's been a good January, my mileage is up. Now let's see what February brings us (I'm not holding my breath).

Got up a bit late so I hit the 8am school traffic. No incidents and great weather, though. I'm going to try to fit in a longer ride during lunch to soak up some sunshine.

38F and 100% RH, chilly and damp. Typical January weather in Sacto. I brought my overcoat but folded it over my messenger bag. I was freezing when I left the house but I knew that if I wore it, I'd break a sweat halfway to work. Passed another commuter on 21st Street and I thought about yelling at him to take the lane and get out of the doorzone, but I didn't feel like having a VC discussion at the time.

Light dusting of snow overnight. About 30F. Saw some bicycle tracks as I got closer to downtown Burlington.

Saw two people out walking a cute puppy. That was about it.

Ride in was nice; however the weather folk didn't mention the wind chill, which made it feel like 30 instead of the advertised 42 degrees. Other than that, the ride was a nice relaxing start to the day.

I've had to scrap my ride for the last few days because I've been uncertain of conditions :( . I ride in full road trim and didn't want to start out riding only to find I should have taken the bus. I've also been concerned about black ice and frozen slush on the way home, and I know what you mean about those bridges. I figure if my ride in is gonna take longer than the bus, then I'll just bus it :mad:.

Freaking weird day. I should have stayed home. ;)

I woke up with a pain in my ankle, somewhat akin to a sprain and a cramp (probably my 60lb dog sleeping on me is what did it) - but I decided to ride to work anyway. Only effectively pedalling with one foot, the commute was tricky, but I managed. I figured the pain would go away.

Well, the pain remained, so I decided to go home after lunch. Only my ride home was worse than the ride in because of some incredible wind gusts. I seriously had a hard time keeping the bike steady, and pushing with one good foot made it no easier. Now I look outside and it's perfectly calm.... and my ankle still effing hurts. grumble :mad:

It wasn't windy to, it was nice. Record time was posted, as I saw an oppertunity to get through the stop light without waiting, but I had to go faster than normal (slow). I made it to the office in around 10 minutes.

-40 today. Added another layer to my legs. Made the ride much better than last night.

How far do you ride? What do you wear? I thought -10 was cold.

my commute today was miserable! I hate my new route, and I think I am going to drop it. Temperature was NICE, But!!!! I had a 17mph headwind. DAMN this slowed me down so bad.

18miles in 1:45

First thing that annoyed me (this route takes me through a serious GHETTO! its even scary!) was a bunch of what looked to me like drug dealers were staring me down. I was thinking, damn, they are going to jump me, take my bike, my money, kick me, and leave me for dead. Luckily nothing happened.

Next block up, another person, one of those gangster looking kids asked me if I were a COP!

Next block up, another person riding along with the wind, TOLD ME TO PEDAL FASTER! What an asswipe! Its easy when riding the wind, and when you are only doing a couple of yards. I will tell you to pedal faster after 8 miles going into the wind and we'll see who is pedaling faster.

I am not digging my new route too much because its makes me turn too many corners, and just too many cars. I prefer sidewalks, and this route has zero sidewalks for around 9 miles.

My other route is much more relax, sidewalks almost the entire way, and since it is a backroad, it is not as crowded.

Ride home was blazingly fast. At least it felt like it. Except for the part w/ the headwind almost pushing me to a complete stop while going uphill. Took about 9 mins. and change to go 2 miles which ain't bad for me. I think my new fenders added 1-2 mph to my speed. :D

Thought I'd post in here tonight about how commuting does nothing to improve speed. I felt like a slug all the way home tonight could barely pick the bike up to carry it down the stairs. When I hoisted it onto my shoulder the rear wheel stopped like I'd just slammed on the brakes. Sure enough the rear brakes were rubbing hard on the left side. Got the bike downstairs and fixed that then spun the wheel- it stops again! I look and the rear fender has come out of it's stay and it's rubbing on the tire. Hopefully, it will be a better ride tomorrow.

ouch ! Ghetto !! Man this sux... I wonder if you can gmap your route and then try to find alternate routes that take up about the same distance but with a more direct path ...

And about the sidewalks... I think thats worse than the ghetto ... really... how can you pick up any speed in the sidewalk ?

sidewalks are :

1. bumpy.
2. full of people.
3. full of bus benches.
4. full of power pole support beams (hard to see when you are trying to go fast).
5. almost never have properly aligned ramp ways...
6. are full of driveways ... (cars almost always pull out fully into the sidewalk when they are looking to get onto the main roadway).


.... thats just my rant...



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my commute was a little cooler than usual today... as in temperature wise.. it was like 5x F outside today...

=) easy ride.

Good ride in this morning. Got off to another late start but beat most of the traffic. Had a several drivers try to push me around, but I held my own. I'm sure they're grumbling to their coworkers about me.

First commute in three days...Yay for me! (Snow & Slush Lately)

It felt good and slightly awkward to be back on the road (I've been riding the trainer) amongst all the madness. Decent commute today not too cold at 33°F but it's fairly gusty, I even had to drop down to the small chainring at one point. Roads/Bridges are in pretty good shape as I've had to do very little dodging of ice and snow.