Dang, this is some nice weather we're having. So nice to be riding in light weight clothes in nearly December. I just wish that it would be warm and light after 6pm so that I can go take some pictures at the neat old junkyard that I just found.

Got to the corner of my block this morning and saw queerpunk ride by. So I turned the corner and rode after him and finally caught up 5 blocks later. That kid's quick and he wasn't even trying. We rode together while talking, dodging traffic and peds and contorting our torsos to avoid the sideview mirrors on delivery trucks until I got to my turn-off which was packed w/ so much un-moving traffic that I had to get off and walk a 1/2 block to my bldg.

FOGGY.......but temp was nice. First long ride with the new Beaverblade fenders on the bike (which I had to put on after last Wednesday's downpour. That was NASTY). They rattle a bit against the rack, so I'll be putting some sort of rubber bumper between them to cut down on the noise.

Hey, fixed.rider was that you between Sunrise Valley drive and the hill before Hunter Mill road? I saw a black bike with an orange messenger bag, but couldn't tell if it was a fixie. I was on the blue Trek hybrid in a yellow jersey with a light kit.

I also picked up with another rider going in towards my office - we rode the last 5 miles together, which made it seem a bit faster. Very nice ride overall.....

No ride this morning (bussed it expecting to be drinking beer after work) but last night I had a nice ride home. Dead calm air, and raining, with some light fog. I realized how much noise my tires make when I stopped and the silence was deafening. I passed a couple of peds on a street near my house and the man said, "Oh my god." From his tone, it sounded like he felt sorry for me. :D :rolleyes:

Later last night, I was out in a cage and saw a guy on a MUP with an HID headlight. :eek: Boy that thing was bright. My wife doesn't think $400+ for a headlight is a good idea. She hates me!

Just tell her you can get it for less than $300.

I was coming up to a cross walk, and a ped had already pressed the button and was waiting to cross. The light turned green our way, and I said to him, "ready to go?" as I was riding up to cross. He must have been mesmerized by my HID light, since he just stood there and stared at me. He said, "That's a very bright light." :)

Frozen. It was 16F when I left this morning. The MUP was a crunchy mess of re-frozen footprints and tire tracks (and a snowmobile track at some places, and one set of x-c ski tracks.) My hands and arms felt like they were going to rattle out of the sockets.
I put a Conti Vapor 2.1" up front and some cheapo $12 Kenda mudder 1.95" that I studded with cut down roofing tacks in the back. No slip grippiness (is that a word?) and I wasn't really all too slow, considering the conditions. Usual morning ride takes me about 35 minutes; today it took me about 45, almost 50 minutes. For 6 miles on crunchy, chunky, icy MUP followed by 1.5 miles on a still icy slick city street (with a 3/4 mile uphill,) I think I did OK.

I also stopped 3/4 of the way up the hill to take a picture of an Acura NSX that was off in the ditch. The license plate: "PWN" I couldn't have photoshopped something funnier than that. I really hope it turns out since all I had was my camera phone with no flash, so I used my headlight to light the shot.

zomG!!! post the pic!!! There's a few thousand daily posters on a cager forum I help run that would die laughing at it.

Squeaky Headlamp
 

10 deg F this am. No wind with a great ride. One skier w/ dark clothes & no reflection tape yelled at me in the dark at about 10 feet in front of me. I had my head down climbing a hill so didn't pick him up even w/ my HID! We were both going pretty slow, so no problem.

The last 2 miles of a 15 mile ride I started getting a squeak from the top of my helmet. I'm not sure if it was the HID or the cable connection or what. Really strange and kind of echos in my helmet:( Anyone have that happen at cold temps? I've ridden at much colder temps w/o this happening.

I was discombobulated the whole ride.
Used the multi-gear Poprad for the first time commuting in a while vs. fixed gear.
Mirror was not aligned right and kept on moving and was dirty
The new Trail Tech HID light kept turning itself off after 30sec. of on (charged it last night)
Was slower than usual, but didn't detect any real headwind.
Lots of futzing while riding prevented me from getting in the groove.
Al

-25C again today, but the wind wasn't as bad as the last couple of days. Respite is coming: -15C is the forecast high, and -2C on Thursday. :D It's almost shorts weather! Friday I'm going snowboarding.

Commuted in to work for the first time today. :D Man, am I slow. 20.45 miles in 1 hour, 50 minutes. The first 3 1/2 miles are on dirt shoulders, though, which isn't exactly good for a bike newb like me to make good time on, and I walked a few construction zones later in the route since I wasn't familiar with them yet (I'd driven the entire route, and ridden the first half previously.) Here's the route for anyone who is interested: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...vd-and-the-101
Temp was high 30s to low 40s - I ended up throwing the windbreaker on over the sweatshirt and was comfy from then on out.
According to my heart monitor I burned over 1900 calories on the ride. Guess I'd better eat a big lunch. :p

Another morning of dressing in appropriately. I swear the Verizon weather man said it was 45 degrees, plus the fog was sitting thick, so I bundled up a bit. And was sweating like an overheated dog. All week I've been struggling with wardrobe.
Traffic seemed very aggressive this morning. I swear it was one dramatic dashing escape after another. Which makes me feel like such a man.

Legs a bit heavy after yesterday's long morning detour. The thing about riding the fixie is that there's no faking it on heavy-leg days. But, other than that, it was a pretty pleasant ride in. When I left the house, I waved to my across the street neighbor as he was getting in his car. He caught and passed me about a mile from the house but I did the same at the next light. We hopscotched each other for the rest of the way into downtown. I'm hoping it will turn on a lightbulb for him....

A little chilly here this morning in San Jose. When I left it was around 38 degrees but as I started on the Guadalupe River trail, the temp dropped a few degrees. Despite that, I was warm wearing my wool and my shoe covers. It was a good day to ride!:D

GREAT ride in today. It about 45F and raining for the first nine or ten miles. I left a little early, because I expected traffic to be weird in the rain, and I was right. I dawdled a bit on a couple of exploratory side routes that added about 2 miles to the commute, and even figured out what that drivetrain creak was that's been driving me batty for the last week or so. I got to work feeling totally invigorated, and everyone there thinks I'm totally nuts. Not a one of them had as much fun on the way to work as I did.

That was me. I will keep an eye out for you tomorrow.

Totally foggy this morning. I was dressed well, but it is always colder on that stretch from Hunter Mill to Vienna. My least favorite part of the ride. And I was very damp and my bike was soaked just from the fog once I arrived at the office.

Coldest day of the week, but least ice and very little snow. Weather supposed to get a lot wetter/sloppier tonight.

Warm and foggy morning today with temps in the upper 50's. Uneventful ride to work but I made good time even though I was trying to take it easy. Got kneed on my leg playing soccer Sunday and can still feel it after riding so I'm trying to take it easy. Gonna be a hot ride home with temps in the low 70s.

fixed.riderI'm only doing 1X a week, so it'll be next Wednesday. I commute 1X a week, work from home 1 and drive in 3, if I'm in the office. I might switch to 2X and do Tues/Thursdays, but I don't know if I'm hard core enough to do 4-5X (it's a 43 mile round trip between Herndon/Ballston). My bike was a little damp, but I was no wetter than when I'm just sweating normally. I had to take my shades off, though - they kept fogging up.

I found a neat trick for drying stuff out at the office. We have a stand-up fan in the locker room, so I'll slip my jersey over the fan like a wind-sock. When it's on high, it dries out in less than 5 minutes. Same thing goes for the shorts and tights. While I'm shaving, I'll slip each sock over the hair dryer (on cool), and I can dry both before I get done shaving and brushing my teeth.

It's me again...I'm back to commuting. Wifey had the baby, I sold my car so I'm back to dodging doors and aimless college students...joy :rolleyes:.

You don't sound so happy. Congradts on the baby. Hopefully, you are getting more than 1 hr of sleep a night.

Congrats! (Sounds like sleep deprivation.... Enjoy it. Us dads have all been there.)

Congrats pops! Don't ride when you're sleep deprived.

Didn't run into any other BF'ers on the way home. Ride home was the usual craziness which I think will get crazier as the holidays get closer. Lots of livery cabs and drivers just milling around, pulling out randomly and double parking wherever they felt like. Not to mention the doormen hailing cabs and cabs sweeping out of nowhere to pick up and drop off.

Snowed in yesterday. Drove in today...bike lanes have about 6" of snow and the roads are not plowed. Came home early...another storm on the way.

congratulations!:beer:

I'll watch for you on Comm Ave- I take it on days when I'm running late.

today I was running late and went in on Comm Ave and home via the bike path. Comm Ave is mostly memorable if I survive it intact weaving around the BU pedestrians and construction sites. Not a bad ride in today- I really needed to shake up this cold I've had that has settled in my lungs but it felt laborious occasionally gasping for air as I coughed and snotted my way down the road- I'm sure I'm a gross sight as hack along.

The ride home was great. Somehow the cold shifted and it felt like the clouds had parted in my head. a misty damp ride along the bike path with not a breath of wind.

The weather was once again beautiful here in the Bay Area! :D

I am enjoying the fact that it hasn't rained too much yet.

Update on the commute.....Even though it was foggy this AM in NoVA, I had a good ride in. Felt good climbing the hills, and kept a good pace (having a rider along with me helped).

On the way home, though-I felt like I was flying. I was a little warm because of the long-sleeve jersey and tights, but was able to push some bigger gears than normal on the ride home...and set a new PR for average speed.

When I did this the first time to work and back (21.5 miles each way) back in August, I averaged 13.4 MPH and really struggled to get that. Today, on the way home, I averaged 17.1. On a Trek 7300 hybrid. I can't wait to see what I can do on the road bike......

hideous. temperature 0 but dense freezing rain in a headwind over 20kph with gusts up to 35, and several inches of powdery snow/ice everywhere since it started snowing 8 hours before i left. my mars taillight went completely toes-up - fortunately before i mounted it and rode merrily off thinking it was still working. i have taken a scunner to blackburn the size of which would harrow your soul, if i had the strength to express one-tenth of it. i replaced the batteries and then replaced the blinkie, which involved removing one bracket and remounting a different one in the exposed bike cage before i set out. i got as far as the bridge, and then i gave up. i couldn't keep my eyes open against the rain, couldn't see anything when i did, and was getting direct eyeball hits even with them closed to mere slits. was getting a bit scared about myself whenever i thought of walking over the bridge, so i just went into a starbucks and had a hot chocolate, phoned my kid to reassure him i was alive, and (eventually) caught a series of buses over the bridge and up the hill. i rode about a kilometre home from there. with the wind at my back it was actually pretty pleasant. i am going to be so glad when it just goes back to raining all day.

the woman in the starbucks was so horrified she wouldn't take money for the hot chocolate. half of me thinks she was right, the other half is disappointed about that wind. it might have been a nice ride without it.

It was eerily, unnaturally warm this AM at 62F. The dew point was in the high 50's and water was condensing onto the cold pavement. Very weird! Other than that though it was a fine, uneventful ride. My seat bag was unzipped and my tire levers clattered onto the pavement. Luckily I heard them hit so turned around to pick them up. Supposed to be ~75F this afternoon which will be our last freakishly warm day for a while at least. Supposed to rain tomorrow so will drive to work.

35 degrees, rain, and very frickin windy. I put the studded tires on my bike last night since the weatherman is calling for snow tonight or tommorow...man am I looking forward to that:)

Note to self: Going through a deep (6 inch) puddle is alot of fun, but your toes start to freeze after a couple of miles...)