24 degrees in our nation's capital this morning, but nice and sunny so it was an enjoyable ride. Dressed perfectly, and I kept being pleased about that. Wind was heavy so I was putt-putting a bit, but that's okay.

First commute report (3rd day for this cycling n00b) :-)

Left to work last night with 22 degrees out and a 30mph headwind. Went past a local grocery store on Coney Island Ave that looked like it had just gotten robbed, with about 8 cop cars flying in from all directions.

Realized rather quickly that I overdressed and decided to pull over by prospect park to take off a layer. Got the most insane looks from people sitting in a car looking at me like I'm batshiat crazy. Rest of the ride was much better although I felt like I was wearing a parachute.

Ride home in the morning was awesome (23 degrees, sunny, windy); probably my favorite so far. Went past a bunch of really, really cold looking people with a big grin on my face and caught a tailwind over the Brooklyn bridge and almost all the way home to Midwood.

I'm already beginning to really despise pedestrians that walk out a quarter of the way into the road while waiting for a walk light. Cars on the other hand seemed quite courtious today, except for the lady that drove into the blocked off bike path on the Brooklyn side of the Brookyln bridge just as i was pulling into it.

I'm kind of wishing the weather would stay like this instead of climbing back into the 50's as it's supposed to within a day or two. I really need to get a proper jacket; Kenneth Cole just doesn't quite cut it.

I wish I could have ridden, but have a nasty head cold. I ended up taking Metro in today (crowded!) and timed it to compare with my bike commute. I hit every connection perfectly--walked from my house to an arriving train, made the transfer without waiting, didn't have to wait to cross the street.

Total Metro time: 35 minutes (normally 40+ minutes, sometimes up to an hour when there are problems)

Average bike commute time this week (my garage to parking parking garage): 41 minutes (14 ~ 15 mph pace)

Most days my bike commute is faster, not to mention infinitely more enjoyable than being jammed in a rail car with hundreds of my closest friends.

Yeah, but dang I bet you look good. :)

Welcome to the Happy Healthy Commuting MuthaF*ckers (HHCMF) club Mazaev! Treat yourself to a slice at DiFara's and take comfort in the fact that you are now a superior specimen of human being and thus more sought after by the opposite sex simply because you are hardy and brave enough to ride your bike and in better shape than those who drive around like zombies.

Thanks. Unfortunately, the "bridge and tunnel" crowd has effectively taken away my beloved Difara (even though I'm 2 short blocks away). Especially with the new TimeOutNY rating, it's pretty much inaccessible most of the time due to the wait times (though every once in a while he'll sneak one in to me ahead of the line). But I guess I can complain about that on chowhound.

On a more on-topic note, 3 days in and I don't find myself missing the half hour search for parking (and then re-parking due to street cleaning / meters) one bit. And the 10 mile ride home from work takes the same 45 minutes as it does in the car (although the Prospect Parkway detour is partly to blame for that). Also feel much better and actually have more time in the day as I'm not spending two hours riding around aimlessly after driving home and getting a bit of rest. Lessee how long I can keep it up.

Same here! (Probably same storm, although it didn't start here until overnight.) I just had to log in and say how much evil fun it is listening to all my co-workers complain about how long their commute was this morning. (I don't want to admit it around them!) Mine was only a little longer than normal and included some nice intentional skidding in the empty and snow-drifted mall parking lot just before my office. My only delay was that I rode a little slower than normal, for safety, and since I was in the right tire track to avoid the the unplowed shoulder, I was nice and pulled over a few times to let cars pass. For their part, the cars were all very nice too; I had no discernable instances of impatience or close passing. :)

A hundred times better than yesterday, now that I've cleaned out my brake and derailleur lines, and filled them with WD-40. They work better than ever!

High 40s for this morning's ride. Swapped out the fleece jacket for the windbreaker around the 10 mile-mark because things warmed up considerably once I left the farm fields behind and got into the city. It's nice commuting into a city that doesn't get snow, but I'm wondering what it's going to be like trying to bike home when it's 116 out this summer. Made it almost 7 miles into the commute before my body said, "Hey, what are you doing? This is _work_!" so that's progress. Felt good after completing the ride, too. Definitey progress. I think I'll throw the Brooks B-17 back on my bike this weekend now that the hinter regions seem to be getting used to this whole bicycling thing and see if I can't start breaking that sucker in rather than having it break me.

Cooooold! Yeah, only 21F and that's nothing for you folks up north, but cold for me! Fingertips were numb when I arrived and hurt like hades in the shower. I also learned (the hard way, natch) that the tights aren't quite enough below 25F (I probably knew that last year and forgot).

Trouble breathing through the balaclava. Once the fabric in front of my mouth gets wet it's difficult to get air through it. Anyone else have this problem? Got a solution?

+6C on the ride in today - a little sweaty, but still better than -30C! My legs are getting bigger from sprinting with the snow bike in traffic. I put on some jeans yesterday that I haven't worn in a while, and they actually bunched up above my quads, seemingly defying gravity. My wife thought it was neat. It thought it was weird.

Grow a beard (assuming you can). "Feels like" 7f here in Atlanta this morning, my fingers were killing me but my face was toasty.

Excellent ride this morning in 30 degree F weather. It's warmed up 30 degrees in the last week or so! Hard packed snowy trails made for a wonderful 15 mile trip this morning. For some reason even the lone driver honked softly at me as I was working my way over to the trail system from my house. I still need a shower at the office though! Spit baths are the pits.

I've always wanted to compare the two, but since I shower at work, it involves comparing too many factors (since I eat breakfast at home if I don't commute, but at work if I do). But I live on the Hill and work downtown, so driving to work takes 2x-3x as long, and it costs me $15 to park. Even the metro isn't convenient because I'd still have to walk a mile to get to Union Station, and then 6 blocks from Farragut North. It's quite fortuitous how biking to work is the best possible option.

I've been lucky so far re: illness. I had a bad cold last week, and called in sick, but ended up biking to the office anyway to pick up my laptop. It was good. I went slow, and the cold air kinda cleaned me out (thanks to many, many farmer blows). But it wasn't nearly as cold last week as this week, so not sure what I would've done in your position. Glad to hear the stars aligned on your way to work!

Saw three other bikers out doing Haines Point last night from 10-12. As I passed one of them, I cheerfully yelled out, You So Kwazy! He yelled back, Look Who's Talkin'!

Good times.

Had a classic cager moment this morning. An older woman in a white Taurus POS was apparently quite incensed that I would have the temerity to ride a bicycle on a public street. The street in question is one-way with three, count'em, three traffic lanes. I was in the center of the right lane, out of the doorzone and traveling approx. 22mph, or 88% of the posted speed limit. But apparently that was not quite fast enough for Mrs. Taurus, so she gunned it around me, not taking the clear middle lane, but just straddling the line and then snapping back right in front of me. And as she went by she was looking at me crossly and saying something which I couldn't hear through her closed window. I don't think it was "Good morning!"

But the light at 11th had turned red and she had to hit the brakes hard to avoid rear-ending the car ahead of her. I had my schadenfreude sensors dialed up to 400W, but she just narrowly avoided the bumper. I sailed by, gave her a big smile and thumbs up, and turned into my parking garage.

God bless her. It must hard to go through life so stupid.

Similar experience to caloso's this morning. I'm in the center of the left-turn lane coasting to a red light and signalling my left turn. Car guns it to pass me on the right and then cuts in front of me into the LTL. I wave (all 5 fingers) to let him know I didn't appreciate it.

Eventually the light changes and he pulls slowly forward (I'm one of those cyclists who doesn't usually filter to the front at lights) to delay me. "Frack that" I said to myself, passed him on the right, and left him at the light (I snuck through just as it turned red).

If he had two neurons to rub together I'd say, "Maybe NEXT time he'll realize that cyclists get through lights just as quickly as cars; it isn't necessary to cut them off." But as caloso said, It must hard to go through life so stupid.

I left 2hrs. later than usual as I had a Dr. appt. So it was a nice 55F and sunny! T-shirt, shorts and sandals.

I was headed down the one way freeway access road, a car was coming off of freeway ramp and driver pulled a u-turn right into me (turning wrong way into one way road)! She did this so she could get to a business driveway that was 30yrds up the access road. I swerved far left to avoid her heading at me.
I bet she does this every day so she can use the freeway for that extra 1mi, instead of exiting one block sooner.

Al

Nice ride in this am. First back/forth day of the week. I am going to try and squeeze in a lunchtime ride too. 700 miles over 15 hrs in a car this week! Too much.

Nice view of Rainier this morning, the rising sun was still low enough to shine on the mtn under the cloud cover.

Funny thing, drove company car to Seattle yesterday for a conference w/ a bunch of academic types. BOATLOADS of bike commuters in Seattle in general and around the U in particular, I was feeling pretty left ouf o the fun.

But! I got a spectacular parking spot right in front of hte door to the meeting hall. So at least there was that compensation.

Cold, very cold. Thankfully I made some equipment upgrades last night -- heavy duty gloves and a balaclava. My hands were actually warm when I got into work (normally they're cold, numb, and in pain) and the balaclava did the job quite nicely (although one of the lenses on my glasses fogged up a bit when I was going slow).

I proved to myself this morning that I can handle pretty much any kind of cold that this area can throw at me. Unfortunately, there was a 25 mph headwind for a good part of the way, made me work hard on those flats. Unless it changes in the next 1.5 hours -- that'll be a tailwind back home though :)

Uneventful, just like I like it.

Dude, I love your attitude!

It always pisses the cagers off when you take whatever it is they are saying to you as solid encouragement. Just give 'em a big smile and thumbs up, perhaps a bit of a laugh as you go on your merry way. Absolutely drives them insane. Much better than losing your cool.

We are going through a warm spell up here. 10C above normal. I love it. Had a tail wind this morning and got to work early enough to enjoy a LARGE coffee. Since the snow has fallen I have not been honked at once. I take the same route every day and it's been over 10 years. Even coworkers are starting to ask what it will take to keep me from riding. Maybe people are finally used to me. I sure hope so. It's been a great week! Can't wait till next week.

having some problem w/ distance, used to be 3.2 miles each way for 6 years now is 12 miles eachway. not too much to some, i assume, but a conflict to overcome myself. it seemed to become easier as the week went on, but the past 2 days were car driven (1993 honda cx). i felt COMFORTABLE getting home in 15 minutes by car (50 mins by bike).
missed my 2 hours of work-out (2), but was truly so much easier to be a CAGER !
i did use about 1/16 tank of gasoline (40 miles or so).
-both sides of the fence...
with the 20lbs i've lost this year and c/v health i assume gained, there is a "no-brainer" to why not bicycle commute. i have not seen any other commuter on my route = 1 crazy biker/2000 "Normal" car/track drivers. i felt deflating.....a "misfit"!
just trying to spin side to side with anarchy!
t
ps: will try 4/5 day bicycle commutes next week, see what unfolds!

didn't have to be in today until later (around 1pm) so I had a nice river ride. This evening it was sure chilly and windy. crystal clear skies. I was slooooooow today riding.

it's a fine line between feeling cool and feeling dorky/weird/crazy, ime. the deciding factor seems to be how easy or not-easy you're finding it. which is ironic because when it's hardest is probably when you deserve the most credit for doing it. if you hang in and get more accustomed to the distance you might find your inner needle starting to creep over from 'misfit' to 'superhero'.

i dunno; just extrapolating from me. for me the hardest part of commuting by bike was the first part, when not only was i doing something 'weird', i also didn't feel like i was doing it well. zero cred from both sides, basically. hang in, and maybe it would help to mix up your rest days more evenly with the commutes throughout the week.

some days you get up, and it's just heavy gravity. things that weighed x yesterday suddenly, mysteriously weigh x*5 the next day even though nothing has visibly changed. i figured i was in a bit of trouble when picking up my messenger bag almost rocked me off balance, so i just took both rides easy today.

i'm being a bit careful/vigilant because of christmas coming, but so far there doesn't seem to be too much extra traffic craziness going on. probably worthwhile to keep an eye on that factor all the way through into january though. it would suck rocks to be hit by a crazed mall-bound shopper in the height of the festive season.

This is Sunday, so I haven't commuted for two days. And I haven't been on the forum since Halloween. Here's why. I've been working 12-13 hours a day for the past two months, while my wife was in Germany on business. On the night before Halloween, I had what I hope will remain the most exciting bike ride of my life. Riding home from work at 7:30 p.m., I was attacked by two pit bulls who live next to the trail. One danced in front of me, slowing me down, while the other ran beside me taking bites out of my left leg with every turn of the pedal. Between the two of them, they finally slowed me down enough that I fell over. I then did what I should have done in the first place: picked up the bike and kept it between me and them as a shield. My left pant leg was shredded, blood was pooling in my left shoe, and the "owners," who claimed to be "neighbors," came out and began shouting at the dog doing the biting, "Cujo, Cujo!" I started for home (still 13 miles away) where I thought I would shower and assess the damage, but then realized I was in no fit mental condition to make a proper assessment, so turned north toward the nearest hospital 4 miles away. Fortunately no serious damage was done--no tendon or muscle injury, and the six deep puncture wounds are healing nicely. The day after the attack, I learned that I was the third victim of Cujo's tender mercies, and that he was in the custody of Animal Control. I now own a spray can of pepper spray, and am less tolerant of barking dogs along the trail, but very grateful I was no more harmed than I was. Ironically, my grown son in Hawaii owns two pitbulls, whose gentleness and friendliness he swears by.

Damn Eutychus, glad you survived the attack. Have you pressed charges against the owners?

I find that in nice weather, my co-workers think it's cool. The dorky/weird/crazy looks start coming when the temperature falls below 40F and the snow flies. I think it has something to do with the assumption that all us cyclists are just having fun with our hobby and we'll go back to being normal once the season is over with. Then when I keep doing it, they don't know how to square that fact with those assumptions. ;)