Good ride this morning. I was on the road before 6 and that cuts the traffic volumes way down. You can really start to tell that it is getting light earlier. Getting some sunlight by the time I get to the office.
Stopped by Performance Bike last night to get a CatEye TL-LD1000 blinkie. Their web site said they were on sale [$29 instead of $39] . Didn't see one on the shelf and the staff just hovered question marks over their heads when I asked them. Went home and bought it off eBay new for $27 including shipping. I love eBay...I'm sure the LBS hates 'em. Since I can never get out of the LBS without spending at least $50 I picked up a pair of LG lobster claw gloves and a fleece hat. They both worked very well this am. Was nice to shed the windproof balaclava. 22F and breezy on the way in.
Don

Not very cold this morning, maybe -3. The sunrise wasn't that good today, despite the fact that I was lazy and didn't leave the house until 8:10 or something. I was thinking about when I get my new fixed/free rear wheel, and how cool it will be to build my own frame from scratch. I just need a downtube and lugs... oh, and mad skillz...

Pushed it through 3 or 4 inches of fluffy powder this morning. Low 20Fs. I made first bicycle tracks in the snow all the way in. :)

Finally - 2 weeks of lurking, and I can finally post to this thread! First time in on the bike today. Drove halfway, parked the truck, and road the last 7+ miles. It was beautiful! Low 40s, no wind, no issues with drivers. To top it off, a beautiful sunrise as I was pulling into the security gate at the office. Why in the world didn't I start this sooner**********

A good commute this morning. I hit the stop light pretty much perfectly and made it to the office in about 10 minutes.

I am planning to call in sick tomorrow. If I do that will make anothe perfect week for bike commuting, 4 for 4, and for the year I am now at 16 for 16.

Congrats on your first bike commute and welcome to the forum.

Commute in this morn was uneventful. I've got a hill I always just downshift and spin up slowly, today I left it in gear and got out of my saddle and did it. It's over a mile into my commute so my legs have warmed up, I think I'll make it standard practice barring any ice or snow.

I just got back from riding home for lunch and I want to say thank you Cobb County PD. They were running traffic enforcement on one of my favorite roads. The speed limit is 35 but people often do twice that and I was glad to see the police out there trying to slow things down.

I'm impressed. That's tough going.

By contrast, I rode in on dry ground today. It was a glorious 26F sunny morning.

I would love to do that myself, but my weapon of choice (road bike) doesn't permit that. Besides, it's a big enough challenge to dodge the potholes, cagers, cabbys, buses, trains/tracks and the "head down, walking right at you" foot traffic. The evironment is a major determinate in which conditions we choose to ride.

I was half-dreading my commute this morning, because it was pretty cold (20s F) and there were pretty strong winds with some big gusts. But then I got outside and had a tailwind for most of my ride, so it wound up being a pretty good ride in! :)

2 things I've learned from this thread... Close up the messenger to avoid cat hurl delays in the morning and periodically run the car :rolleyes:

Lovely day here in SE FL. decided to do a little diff route... MISTAKE! lots of angry traffic had me a lil :eek:
Made it in one piece though, whew. Think I'll try the ride N up the beach, A1A, homeward :)

Ride in this morning was nice, 42 with a 5-10MPH crosswind. Ride home this afternoon was awesome, 59 degrees and a 5-10 MPH tailwind. It was nice to ride home in the daylight for a change. I took it easy both ways because of a back strain, but at least I'm released by the Dr.to ride.

first commute of the new semester, and first real commute with the new bike

I didn't get much sleep last night so I was tired this morning but not so tired I couldn't ride in... a powerbar and some energy vitamin water put me in good shape to ride in

the ride in was good... it was fairly chilly (around 38 degrees) and windy... there was an unusual amount of traffic on one of the main roads I ride on for some reason... was tempted to filter but didn't

on the way back I had a brutal headwind (weather.com said it was 25MPH) in my face for pretty much the entire ride home. that sucked.

Good ride this morning. 37 F Sunrise as I was getting to work.

I was able to get back to the office and ride for lunch.

Now for the ride home it is 63.

Fast ride home today I shaved maybe 8-10% of my time by pushing myself the whole way.

Two incidents of note:
1. Cars, if I'm going the speed limit or above don't feel like you have to pass me. I'm doing an indicated 28 in a 20 zone and this truck has two squeeze around me.
2. Real pucker incident, going down a big hill the truck that just passed me 2 minutes before slams on it's breaks hard. My rear tire locks up and slides me sideways before I back off the brake and correct.

ride in this morning was cold, still slow but pleasant enough.

An environmental success story: When I first started riding the MDC bike path along the Charles in 1980 the river had a pretty bad smell to it, I would see very little bird life along the Charles, no one fishing, and the river really had a kind of "dead" look to it. I have watched the effect of national and regional environmental legislation as this river has slowly come back to life over the past 25 years. Due to the plethora of creatures along the river now (and the reduction of pesticides like DDT) red tailed hawks have returned in abundance and some of them are just massive from the volumes of squirrels, rats and pigeons they consume. Sometimes I'll be startled to see one sitting at eye level on a post or in a low tree branch. Today I heard the call of a hawk and slowed enough to look around and see one of these big ones gliding low in the air pursued by a coven of crows that must have numbered two dozen. I wondered who the hawk would have been calling to, or why?. Maybe the crows were actually making the call in their attempt to announce the presence of this hulking predator, hmmm, don't know.

the ride home was really windy, right in my face, really windy. I was going very slow, again.

-49F (-45C) ride this morning (late night actually) with lots of ice fog. That extra
layer on my legs sure helped.

A little under 20 miles round trip. I have 3 layers under my coat, 3 layers for my legs, 4 pairs of
socks with reflective foil in between 2 of the layers, bunny boots, face mask, head band, and helmet.

brrrrr. I amend all my previous posts please replace the word "cold" with "toasty".

Learned some things on my first homeward commute this evening. First, it's definitely more uphill than the way in (funny how I never noticed that in my car...) Second, I am definitely more like a sail than a wing with winds coming at me! The MTB and fat backpack certainly don't help there - no practical way to get down low without the pack swinging to one side or the other. But wonderful to be riding nonetheless, and I'm doing this in great part for the exercise, so no complaints!

You can just leave off the F's and C's when it's that cold. :eek:

Had a fairly strong headwind on the way home. Not the usual direction of the prevailing winds. Can't complain, though because it was warm. Have not seen those dogs in a while. They must be spending more time indoors.

maybe they read BikeForums and figured they'd give you a break.

I picked up a nail on the way back from lunch. Walked the bike about 1/2 mile to the office. I didn't have time to fix the flat at work, so I had to have SWMBO pick me up.

Cold and foggy going to work. Needed my lights to ward off cars for half the trip. The drizzle on the way home was bearable thanks to the fenders.