Another pleasant ride in today in bright sunshine and frosty air. Only my third ride in and I'm 10 minutes faster over the 30km. It was good to arrive in town at the same time as the train I would have taken. With a riding time of 66 minutes it looks as though I'll be setting 1 hour as my benchmark time once I am back up to my normal speed.

I had my first major bicycle crash today on my way to work....I let my attention slip for a second and went a little too fast around a curve that I've been around a hundred times. My front tire hit some road salt (around here folks salt like crazy if it even sprinkles in February) or some gravel as I tried to recover and down I went at around 15 - 20 MPH. The curve is on a little down grade and I'm usually going close to 30 MPH when I get to the bottom. I've got a sweet set of road rash down my left side and my helmet was cracked completely through in not one but two places, but other than that I'm pretty much ok. I went down on the non drive side and the bike (Trek 4300 with slicks) is absolutely fine as best I can tell. My backpack containing my clothes and laptop was in a milk crate zip tied to my rear rack. The milkcrate got completely ripped off the rack and the backpack came out of the crate, but amazingly, I'm typing this post on the laptop. It booted right up just fine when I got to work. After the crash I remounted and rode the final mile to work and cleaned my wounds, then got a lift to my LBS at lunch to get a new helmet. The commute home was pleasant...nice and slow.

I'm sure I'm going to be sore tomorrow, but if I hadn't been wearing a helmet I would be in the hospital right now. I know I'm preaching to choir here but ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET!

P.S. And YES there was a group of people exercising in the field next to the road, so I had an audience. I'm sure they had a good laugh when they realized I wasn't dead.

39 Degrees this morning with a 7 MPH headwind, made for a slow trip to work. Coming home it was 2 degrees warmer and only a 6MPH headwind. Why is the wind always against me this week? I usually have a tailwind at least one way. I stopped for a cyclist I saw taking off his wheel, thinking he flatted, but he was just taking the wheel off to put it in his car. I guess he's a lunchtime rider. My clipless pedals and shoes arrived today. I'm giving up the toeclips and joining the 20th century 6 years after it ended. I keep my toeclip straps tight and loosen them by rotating my foot, so it seemed natural when I tried out the clipless pedals tonight. I can't wait for tomorrow's commute. Even though they predict a headwind...sigh.

Warm out today,It had to be 40f. It was a great ride to work & home. I hope That I can make five days of commuting this week . Have a good nite .

My ride home was a bit colder than expected since I left a lot later than expected. Oh well, it wasn't too bad, though having my head and ear covering would have been nice tonight. Aside from the slightly chilly conditions (for what clothing I had), a nice, brisk ride home and a chance to destress and unwind.

Mid 20Fs this morning and a light tailwind to give me a couple of extra MPH. I was approaching a trail/road intersection and an "older" couple (retirees) were walking on the sidewalk. I was preparing to stop for them at my stop sign and the woman said, "It's clear, you can go through." Ha. Old folks telling me to blow through stop signs. Amusing. I thanked her, but slowed up anyway and verified her statement before continuing.

Springtime conditions yesterday and today. Not tomorrow though! Supposed to drop rapidly into the single digits (F), and this alert popped up on my screen this morning:

ON FRIDAY...SOUTHWEST TO WEST WINDS WILL INCREASE TO 25 TO 40 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 60 MPH BY MIDDAY AND CONTINUE INTO THE EARLY EVENING HOURS BEFORE GRADUALLY DIMINISHING.

That's a tailwind for my ride home!

We got a few inches of snow over night, which has packed nicely on the roads; many icy sections, and several where the packed snow slid around on the layer of ice on the road surface. The snow did lots of steering for me. Not much traffic, and it was very slow, but so was I! On top of all that, the university I work at is actually closed for the day due to dangerous weather conditions (too bad the radio station I listen to in the morning didn't mention that...).

Probably shouldn't have picked the ride, but I would have had to clean the snow off two cars and shuffle them around.

I was hoping that the roads would be slushy at worst by the time I went home for lunch, but I guess I'll be back out there in a few minutes.

Safe riding for everyone else who's having the same fun that I am riding today!

Second commute of the week after last weekends snow storm and things were much better. Yesterdays big melt really helped, but I decided to give my normal commute one more day to thaw. Today I rode along the Charles River which is a semi-off road experience with tree roots growing beneath the concrete slabs which make the path.

Reality Check: This New England weather has been a real guessing game when it comes to clothing. 39°F this morning, can you say....."OVERDRESSED"

Nice and cool, 44°F, broken clouds and nice red sun at my back. Made good time in, and it should be about 68°F for the ride home. Bicycling Mag. may say we are in the worst city for cycling, but I'll argue that we do have some fine weather sometimes.

Had a nice ride in this morning, not as cold, lower 40s and I was very warm by the time I got to work. Last night on my ride home I got told to keep off the private golf course while people are playing. I was riding through and some guys were getting ready to tee off on a hole and I just rode through, didn't see what the big deal was. I was gone and out of sight in less than 30 seconds. Oh well

The Big melt continues in NYC as well, its basically brown soup with road salt crutons. Fenders are a must. Otherwise its mid 40s, ideal commuting temps and sunny.

Brrrrr.. 11F this am before you add on the 15mph headwind. Was a bit chilly, but actually I was pretty much fine. Even with the neoprene booties my toes got a bit chilled. I can feel them again now so all is well. It had snowed 4-6 inches last night so that added to the fun. Riding downhill in the untracked snow is somewhat like skiing a powder day at Vail. Ruts are another story...Ugh. But in the end, the studded snow tires worked great! My only real bobble was when I turned too sharply into the parking lot. That required a dab to keep off of the asphalt

Last night was really windy and cold, so ditched the helmet into the pannier and pulled up the jacket hood. After reading about Pearce's head banging adventure above, I decided that was a bad idea.

Thanks Pearce for saving me from myself !

-28c (-18f) with a -38(-36f) windchill this morning. Just Giv'r.

VERY glad to hear that you pulled through OK!!! Hope that road rash heals quickly...

I feel for all of you riding cold weather these days. It's been unseasonably warm here in N Texas this winter, but this is getting ridiculous - mid-50's at the start of the ride yesterday morning, 80 on the way home, and windy. Today, it was 69 when I left the house at 6:00 a.m. The ride in was good - a bit more wind than yesterday, naturally in my face most of the way, but a good ride anyway. This is the first time I've ridding the full distance (15 mi. each way) back-to-back, and I feel good so far - legs are telling me they've been worked a bit, but in a good way...

Nice afternoon ride home yesterday, temps in the high 50's if not low 60's. Left my jacket in the backpack and rode in my cotton long sleeve shirt and fleece vest. While approaching a wooden foot bridge on the MVT, a roadie coming towards me hit his brakes on the slick surface and did a header right in front of me. Luckily I kind of anticipated this and was able to stop in time. He was fine, just in a little bit of shock I think. I mentioned that slick 23's is not really a good idea this time of year, the bridges are super slick and are often the only surface that freezes. That's why I'll stick with my 35's year round. This morning's ride was a little bit of a struggle as I got caught up in the Olympics last night, had a Jack and Coke, and completely forgot about dinner, so, needless to say, I was running on empty.

It was nice this morning, cool (SoCal cool, that is) but bright and sunny with no wind. It took about ten minutes to get to the office.

Tonight I am leaving for a short vacation to Hong Kong and Thailand, so no more commutes this week. For the week I was 4 commutes out of 4. For the year I am now 29 for 29. Which is good for bike commuting, but boy it sure hasn't rained much this year, just on weekends.

It was lightly raining today on my way through the university campus, but the bike lane was heavily traveled by clueless pedestrians. Even when they could see me coming straight at them, they didn't even budge. So I gave the group a little tap of the airzound (which I've never tried on a pedestrian) and they jumped and moved out of the way. I'm suprised also at the nonchalance that pedestrians take to crossing the street without even looking...

I know it's winter and all, and there's not too many cyclists about, but at least they could look before crossing my path. Good thing I have disc brakes!

Temps near 70° F and I popped a spoke on my lunch ride, dammit.

Brrr It was in the low teens with a wind chill and I needed to take along a big roll of plastic to work. I'm a teacher and needed it for a class project. I got a lot of interesting looks with a four foot long box duct taped and bungi chorded to my 12 inch long Blackburn MTN rack!. I was amazed that I made it all the way to work. I'm glad I threw on the bungis because , as I feared, the duct tape failed due to the cold temperatures. My wife didn't think I could make it and offered me a ride but I am committed to commuting. My students and colleagues got a kick out of the sight of me and my blinkies blazin' with this reeeeaally long box!

great day today! high of 58 degrees and a very light wind

kept a good pace coming in although there was a lot of traffic at Metzerott and University as usual. some lady in a lexus tried to squeeze around me to the left at an intersection... which would have been a very illegal and dangerous move at that intersection, but I sped up a little bit and moved left, and she backed off. other than that, it was the usual commute in.

since the weather was so nice, I added an approximately 8 mile loop around CP and up to the neighboring University Park to the commute back, and then did my usual 3-mile detour up and down the Paint Branch. that was fun... both that and my ride back were fast and problem-free, aside from a car cutting me off doing a u-turn at an intersection at one point.

Dare I say spring-like. 71F and blue skies.

repacked bb last nite, rides were the usual greatness. from bcsj, just read that of the 3.6 % here who bike or walk to work in NJ, 3.1 % walk! i feel Special at the 0.6 percentile range!! get out and represent!!

I'm back on the bike in Boston!

Been out of town riding stationary bikes in fancy hotels (not at my expense, fortunately) often with virtual bike rides on screens- what a laugh they are, very strange.

But the best out of town bike ride of my trip was in San Francisco where I had my only day off and rode from Fourth St, where I rented a pretty decent road bike at Pacific Bike and did a 50 miler over to Sausalito, Tiburon and beyond led by a roadie named Ray from UPS and had the best fish taco ever at a small place in Sausalito. Then came back and rode all over the Presidio and downtown San Fran- phenomenol weather, great bike facilities and super friendly local riders- thanks again, Ray!

Now into the slushy snow and unseasonable warmth of Boston. Almost time to wean off the bike path as the joggers and slower recreational cyclists return and make it too crowded for comfort and safety at commuting speeds. Too bad, for all it's flaws the bike path is way better than the alternatives but only when it's relatively empty of pedestrians, joggers and meandering bike riders. Forgive my occasional rants about headphones. I can't help but feel territorial on the bike path when I've ridden practically every day through the winter sharing it primarily with geese and ducks and an occasional other cyclist or runner and now I'm forced off of it.

It was 29 degrees going in this morning, a new low commuting temp for this fragile Californian . Slight headwind. First day with clipless pedals went well. The ride home was 41 degrees with a 12 MPH headwind. It felt like I was pedaling uphill all the way home. Tomorrow I'm off, so it's time to go ride in the mud since it is going to rain. I just hope it warms up a bit. I felt like I had a responsibility to myself to ride to work today. At the stoplight I cross the Highway at I pulled up next to a couple of coworkers bundled up in their car. I had to laugh out loud when they yelled through the car window that it was freezing. They wouldn't roll down the window because it was too cold. After I changed for work I stood outside and talked with some of my coworkers. They kept asking where my jacket was. I said "home" . I don't need a jacket when I keep myself moving. I'm burning fat for heat .