Windy!!

OMG, I'm such a wuss . I scrapped my ride today, not because of Rain, Snow or Cold, but Wind. Forecast calls for gusts up to 60mph which tells me I can expect at least 20mph sustained head winds for the ride home. Something about pedaling my brains out and going nowhere seems un-fun .

d@mn windy here too! Gusts up to 55!

Windy but not like Beantown. 35F below zero windchill! I admit that I declined a ride just for the braggin' rights. It's all about the gear and mine performed well. I kinda like all of the funny looks from the people sitting still in traffic as I zip by. Their faces seem to say "damn, I didn't even want to go to work in my car and this fool is out here on his bike in a head wind!"

Ride home last night was great - today was a no-ride day (offsite meetings) and I didn't need my laptop last night, so I left EVERYTHING in the office and went without the backpack for the first time. Felt very free!

Also experienced an interesting thing on the ride home... started out with the wind (from the southwest) in my face at about 15 mph. Not so fun on the uphills, but not to bad otherwise. And hot for Feb - about 80 F. Half way through, the cold front we'll enjoy for the weekend arrived. I felt the temp drop about 5 degrees instantly, and felt the wind swing around and start moving in from the north. Something I would have never noticed in my car, and it was great to have 20 mph winds blowing WITH me on the last couple (admittedly small) hills on the way home. With help from the wind and no backpack, I had the fastest ride home yet... about 56 minutes for the 15 mile trip.

easy fun ride today.

Only got the chance to do 1 trackstand @ a red light.. lol i'm such a geek !

=)

Good call. Head wind is annoying, but cross wind is downright dangerous, especially with that kind of gust.

Warm and drizzly this morning. Wore a t-shirt and jeans and strapped my jacket to the rack along w/ a big box of fruit & nut bars. Wore my new bike shoes w/ the SPD cleats that look like regular shoes/sneakers and don't make a clicking noise when I walk. They're calling for gusts up to 60 mph this afternoon. I hope they're all tailwinds.

Surprisingly good commute this morning. I heard rumors of rain but there was only a drizzle that quit after about 10 minutes. And the temperatures were very comfortable. Unfortunately I've got to run up to midtown during my lunch break so hopefully the rain stays away for a few more hours.

Yep, I'm another one of those fools here in Minneapolis, I had a nice ride in, I'll do a lunch run too and my ride home but I don't thing I'll add on any extra miles today. Even though it's this cold it's nice to have the clear skies and sunshine, it helps the psyche.

Some seriously schizophrenic weather here. On Sunday it was in the high 70s; today they're talking about the possibility of snow flurries!

Still, it's all about the clothes and I was glad to have a toasty polypro beanie under my helmet and toe warmers on my shoes. A little cold makes me feel alive and connected to my environment.

But you guys knew that.

You guys are either amazing, or nuts! I can't work out which.



Still, I feel a bit sad... I'm not sure I can ever complain of being cold ever again! Temperature has been between 6°C to 11°C (43°F to 52°F) all week; mostly dry with variable winds - but gusts no more than c. 30 mph. So where has this stereotype that the weather in Britain is bad come from, I wonder...?!



Have a good weekend folks (ah, it's 6pm in the UK, and I'm off home!)

Matt

Warm and muggy ride in this morning. 50s and 85% humidity or so. I wore too much clothing and was sweating like crazy by the time I got to work. The ride home last night was great, 70 degrees with a little wind. Ended up adding a couple of miles on to the ride since it was so enjoyable. Today is looking almost as good, it's already 67 here but there is more wind today and I will be riding into it later on.

carbon copy of yesterday -28c with a -38c windchill. No exposed skin and a helluva lot of ice build up on the balaclava near my mouth. The bike handles and accelerates like a tank right now since the grease in all the rotating parts (hubs, bb, headset) has the viscosity of frozen toffee. Course it doesn't help that its much harder to move under the gazillion layers I have on. No music for me on the ride in these days. The boyz at apple have yet to figure out how to make a battery last longer than 2 minutes in cold temps. The most amazing thing, I'm still running into a lot of riders out there.

File this under: I have no business driving anything
So I got hit by a bus today. It sounds worse than it is. I got sideswiped by a bus on the elbow while the both of us were pulling away at a green light. I got the bus no. so I could report the driver, but I didn't get any witnesses, nor did I confront the driver to get his name. I later saw the same driver pull out right in front of a truck that had to brake hard to avoid him.

File this under: Driving in the city scares me and I have no business driving anything
Later in the evening, I saw a woman turn off Houston St. and head south down Lafayette St. Lucky for her cuz she just beat the light on Houston. Unluckily, Lafayette is a one way street going north and traffic was understandably annoyed at someone heading the wrong way towards them. I passed by her and left her to the angry drivers behind me.

today was a good commute, minus two things. First on the commute to school I hit a dead bird. I was looking foward, had just made a turn, then I heard THUNK THUNK. I stoped, thinking what the? I saw it, I thought it was pretty funny. . poor bird though. And coming back, I weaved around the bird, but my rack was coming loose [clankdy clank] Well, I had to taake it off anyway because I am going light trail running tommorw. I would look weird with a rack.

No commute today for me. No, it's not because a storm is moving in and it's a bit cold by San Diego standards. I have no qualms about riding in 40 degree weather. After all, some of you would kill for such nice weather. It's a scheduling issue today, where I had to give up either my pre-breakfast ride (15 miles along a route of my choice) or my commute (6 miles round trip). Commuting is fun, but my pre-breakfast rides are even more fun. Well, there goes the commute for the day.

What a day!

[QUOTE=caloso]Some seriously schizophrenic weather here. On Sunday it was in the high 70s; today they're talking about the possibility of snow flurries!

this weather appears out of balance, i agree. i question your diagnosis though. clearly a bi-polar (manic/depressive) dis-order (d/o) is more fitting!! :-)

i finished the commute week 5/5 (100% for 2006, so far). flat rear tire 2 city blocks from work this AM slowed progress (walked it in), but also got to talk to one regular city worker i usually fly past in route. it's all good!!

I almost got hit tonight. I was coming down a road and this lady was coming to a stop sign and she tried to roll through. The worst thing was we made eye contact. After she realized that she almost hit me, she mouthed, "Sorry". I'm just glad she didn't hit me. I did ride 6 days this week, 5 commuting and 1 just out riding. Have a good night.

30F Clear and Cold (rare for Seattle area).The return ride revealed purple and pink mountains. Very scenic.

39 degrees and a 9 MPH tailwind. Fastest commute ever by 2 minutes. Hit every light on green and the clipless really help my speed. Tailwind didn't hurt either. The ride home was 41 degrees with a headwind. I was working on my usual day off, so of course someone asked me if I lost my license. I asked if he thought I would still be volunteering with the Sheriff if I had lost my license. Doofus. Can't a guy just commute by bike for his health? Wonder why he didn't ask this all the other times I've worked on their shift.

Cold (by local standards, this year anyway) ride this morning. 30F when I left the house. I'm clearly not equipped for sub-freezing (even by a little bit) temps - my bald head was miserable for the first 4 miles (funny - that helmet has not nearly enough venting on an 80 deg day like last thursday and then my feet went numb at about mile 8. A bit of a slow ride as I was really careful on the bridges, and dodging black ice from sprinkler systems that run year round in this part of the world... Oh, and I almost got hit by a guy turning left across traffic. I was 2nd in line at a stoplight, basically in the middle of the straight through lane, and he tried to jump into the small hole between the guy in front of me and the guy behind me... until he saw that it wasn't a hole after all. Wish I had a picture of the look on his face when he saw me...

Cold out. I made good time cuz there's less traffic today. I need coffee.

Good ride this morning. Lite traffic, lite drizzle, and reasonable temps. Nothing to complain about, except being inside for the rest of the day.