Fresh apple pancakes on the bridge for bikers this morning. Yummy!

mcwow. and how about them cardinals, huh? how bout those mets and those tigers too, come to that? how bout game 4? or molina's home run? wow, that was fun. talk about a dream series for catcher-fans . . . oh yeah, bike commuting.

been nice fall weather all week. raininess, windiness, but mostly warm enough to be fun rather than miserable. haven't taken my rain pants off all week, basically. we've been practically living with our former-coach-former-teammate friends about a mile away, watching the series and the nl pennant race on their tv and providing the junk food. my kid walked there after school, i biked after work and parked the bike in their entrance space. then he'd walk home and i'd ride, with a pit-stop for groceries. their kid, mr urban-grunge-anarchist-highschool-dropout, took quite an interest in my commuting style.

and it's none of my business, but i gather the dad has had something cardiac enough to scare everyone going on recently. my kid used to call him 'our own personal earl weaver' back before he stopped being a hideous coach and became a wonderful friend, so i guess there's no cause for surprise. but still. I Did Not Preach Or Pry, but i'm awfully fond of the whole gang of them and i couldn't help hoping that it couldn't hurt to find out that i own a bike and ride it to work most of the time. you never know; he just might think, well, if she can do it with that stupid disease . . .

which has been kind of biting me recently. it's frustrating. i think i'm fine, then i'm feeble all over again just when i've forgotten all about it. then i spend a few weeks just thinking i suck until it dawns once again. i guess this year i hoped it wouldn't happen because i had all summer to build up strength and i have a much kinder, gentler bike, but the fact is, this colder weather isn't helping me much. i hope it's just an adjustment process.

First Snow Ride of the Season
 

Fixed a flat in preparation for my early morning ride. Mounted my new HID headlamp on my helmet and couldn't sleep all night because I was so excited to try it out. Got up at 4:30 to get ready to roll and wow it snowed! Had to regroup and change tires to my studs. Started riding a little after 5:00 am in windy snowing conditions. Just enough snow to make you pay attention to the road conditions.

The light worked great, however, I had to make a few adjustments on the angel to prevent the snowflakes from blinding me in the light. I decided to ride the short way in (15miles) since I had forgotten how much slower the riding is in the winter. Oh well, another cool ride! Can't wait to go again. :D

Dude, what happened with the men in blue? How fast were you going? And what do you mean splitting the lane (not a Limey expression sadly)

Had a good ride in today, the air was brisk and a light breeze at about 55 degrees this morning. Not a bad ride. I did notice that there is a lot of rattling coming from my rear fender though. I had actually considered taking them off but was thankful that I didnt when I ahd to ride through some runoff forma local business overwatering. All in all was a pretty decent ride. I get a few looks when I roll up in front of the building that I work in. I heard one lady ask "aren't you cold" I had to laugh baceause I am thinking about all the other commuters in Northern states that are having to combat colder weather than I do. In San Antonio a snowflake falls and the whole city shuts down. But My wife is actually meeting me at work and we are going to ride home together.

Speaking of cold, I'll mention a damn hilarious thing that happenned to me recently.

A few days ago I biked into a local charity where I volunteer regularly (so it's a commute!), after putting in quite a few miles first running errands. It was a somewhat chilly day (35-40-ish), but I was dripping with sweat, of course, even after having taken off my toque and unzipped my rather light jacket all the way.

As I am standing there, trying to cool off a bit, another volunteer walks in. He's wearing a helmet, so he definitely biked in as well. He looks enormously fat, but in fact I think he was only a little pudgy - the effect was produced by an extremely thick and puffy winter jacket he was wearing - and you can see there were tons of layers under the jacket too. He's also wearing ski pants, winter boots, mittens and a balaklava under his helmet. But the really funny part is that as he is walking through the door, he announces loudly: "God, I froze my ass out there!" :D And no, I don't think he was joking.

But hey - he rides, not drives, so more power to him! :)

Fast ride in, still trying to match caloso's no footed commute. Will try again tomorrow. It was 44 degrees this morning, but it felt much warmer than 44 degrees did last year, and I was 71 pounds heavier. What's up with that? On the ride home I played dodge with a suicidal kitty, managed to miss it despite it's efforts to jump under my wheel. Polite drivers and plenty of room today. I was followed by a local cop until someone passed me waytooclose, then the nice officer lit him up and pulled him over. Thank you, Officer. Actually saw a nighttime commuter headed for work on my way home. He had a helmet light on, and I could see his smile from across 4 lanes. Must have been on his way to work at Jelly Belly;)

Instant justice! Lovely!!! :)

Todays ride was... painful!!
Yesterday I fought a 25-30 mph headwind for 10 miles with gusts well above 40mph.
Today my legs felt like wet noodles but I still managed to make it to work, good thing the wind was only at 15mph with 25mph gusts.
It was a bit chilly with all the wind and my Trek anatomy gloves were almost useless.

However, I did meet up with a guy on a bike, wearing an old army jacket. He was on the sidewalk and I met up with him at the redlight. He told me he lost his license a while back from a DUI. I asked if he wanted to ride with me so we could talk and wot-not, just to make the time pass and his reply was priceless!!
He said he didn't like being in the road because it was too dangerous with all the drunk drivers and such. I held back, but he knew by the smirk on my face what I was thinking.

Good thing I have 4 days off work now, my legs need the rest. Hopefully I'll make it home in the morning alright.

I just took a random 15 mile ride today, gorgeous fall day. Hope my commute tomorrow is less exciting than this guy's in Oaxaca:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...co.xlarge1.jpg

Absolutely gorgeous! 40F and a beautiful sunrise! Installed the Hakkas on Saturday; today was my first ride breaking them in.

GreenAnvil

Very quick this morning. Today was the first ride on the singlespeed in about a month and I just flew in. Off to run some errands this evening.

Got a bunch of snow yesterday so I took off the slicks and put a knobby on the rear and studs on the front.
Temp -10C Windchill -20C

Nice ride in. A little warmer than I thought it would be...probably mid 40''s. All the cagers were well behaved, and the hills did not seem as big today. I like days like this.

Windy
 

Pretty windy most of the time here on the outskirts of Boston, but I found a route around a massive hill, so I'm happy :)

I had to attach both pannier for my work clothes and a backpack for my laptop so the ride was a bit slower than normal, but overall it was enjoyable.

It's supposed to be 60 after work, but this morning was frigid. Brrrrrrrrrrr. I needed hot chocolate once I got in here.

On the plus side, it's brighter with daylight savings, I'm a lot more visible :D

Nice ride. Cool then warm.
I overdressed today. I forgot that the sun comes up an hour earlier so the temperature started "climbing" before I was half way to work. Stopped about two miles from work to remove my gloves and unzip my windbreaker. Had to take it off a mile later.
Supposed to be ~75F (24C) later today. :beer: The ride home should be great, only a little closer to being "dark".

I think the cold weather is making it take longer for my knees to warm up. They felt stiff and achy at first, but after 5 mins, felt fine. At the first corner, I came about 1' away from hitting a ped who couldn't figure out which way to move so I pseudo-trackstanded until he figured it out. Found a line in traffic that had me in the middle of a 4 lane road passing traffic between the lanes.

3rd commute on the winter beater MTB this time I didn't forget anything and nothing exciting happened :) No snow yet, so I ran 26x1.25 slicks at 80psi front & rear, felt like a big improvement in handling. Distance: about 25 miles, time: about 2 hours which is down 40 minutes from Friday when I ran inverted tread 26x1.5 at 65psi. Weather was 30F when I started out, 40F by the time I arrived, so I was sweating even with everything unzipped--I'll drop the short sleeve jersey next time.

Another commute this morning without incident. I have to say it was pretty nice this morning, about 62 degrees and minimal wind. The sun is out and it helps to keep things warm without needing many layers. It is funny to see everyone bundled up in their cars cause it feels cold to them. Wee a much needed day off tomorrow so I dont know that I will be doing any riding but I think I will give the bike a once over to keep things in top shape.

Today's was the first commute after a 2-week vacation. Prague, Split, Dubrovnik, Dresden. Very pretty. I noticed many more full-suspension MTBs in Prague than a few months ago. I can't imagine riding non-suspension bikes on cobblestones, but they do it. Must be murder on wheelsets.

Anyway... 40F degrees and a stiff quartering tailwind helping me along this morning. I saw some loons swimming in the lake. The leaves are almost all gone! I don't feel ready for winter this year. :(

That's why bike shops sell knee warmers. ;)

As Wulfheir mentioned, it was pretty nipply today. The ground was still a little warm when it began snowing on Sunday morning. The first inch of snow melted on the ground and then froze as more snow fell. That means most side roads are very slick. I set up our winter commuters yesterday, but put too much air in my rear tire. The spikes do a great job on the ice, but only when they make contact. :rolleyes:

I'm not looking forward to the ride home, as I forgot to put on a bigger rear cog, resulting in a pedal-mashing 44x16 gear. I run 42x16 on my road SS, so this will be an interesting trip home. :(

In-laws in town so I am freed of am kid duty, got to hit the road at 7am. Frost! Low 30s, high 20s, what the heck! I broke out long pants and gloves w/ fingers, no jacket though. Ever the optimist, brought shorts and no-finger gloves for the ride home.

It was 42 degrees in downtown DC this morning, so wore what I was wearing last week (roughly the same temps, if not a little warmer) and was getting a half-step too warm. Love the time change, but it'll make the ride home a little depressing. Oh well, this morning felt great. I did a lot of riding over the weekend, so this felt like a nice recovery ride.

Another no-foot-down commute. (I really didn't think it was such a big deal, especially once you get the timing of the lights on your route.)

Anyway, today's weather was perfect: high 40s, calm, and clear. I wore chinos and a button down shirt and was perfectly comfortable. The only thing that bothers me once it gets below 50F is my hands (I just have the wimpiest cold tolerance in my extremities. Even my wife, who's an Original Valley Girl, has less trouble with the cold when we ski). But with a pair of $2 rag gloves from Rite-Aid, I was just fine.

Had the panniers fully loaded with a backpack full of gym clothes and a couple of binders of boring legal stuff. Once I got up to speed, I was going to be hard to stop. Luckily, I made nearly all the lights.

It finally dipped into the 30's this morning. I got flyers stuck in my chainring and spokes. Funny stuff. A crosswind at the right time and my bike had a little decoration.

Beautiful day out 14'C and sunny. Winds strong from the south (have to be to get 14'C this time of year). Expected low tonight 11'C no rain forecast till morn. Just bought a pair of Columbia snowboard pants (waterproof and breatheable) that I have been wearing for last week (lot of rain and 1-5'C) left at home today just wore fatigues over my shorts. Left long sleeve jersy at home just wore Loius Garneau jacket over Helly Hanson base layer. Put Sugoi booties in back pack. Switched back to LG long fingered gloves from Columbia snowboard gloves (again waterproof and breatheable). The new Columbia gear worked well in rain and just above freezing. Only a 3 mile ride home but was warm and snug all the way.

Smooth, no foot down commute on the way home. This included a hop onto the sidewalk when traffic got too tight to get through.

Great ride home! 50F with a slight breeze and gorgeous clear skies. First day with the Hakkas (which I found to be considerably slower than the Nimbus Armadillos).

GreenAnvil