Well, I made it!!! It was slow, it was slippery, and my wife was glad I made it.

Interpret as you will.

For one particular hill climb, I was losing traction like crazy so I had to scoot onto the sidewalk... only to realize they hadn't shoveled the 20 cm deep snow! I ended up having to carry my 40 lb recumbent trike up a hill for about 30 meters before reaching the next section, which was clear. Hopefully the roads will be a little better on the way home tonight.

I opted for the all main road route this morning after feeling the wind and seeing the relatively bad condition of the main road I tkae to get to my backroad route. It was bad enough trying to stay in a tire track with the wind gusts; making first tracks through a few inches of snow plus an inch or two of sleet would have been godawful. I know the hundred yards or so that I rode through to get off my street in the neighborhood was terrible. The ~8 mile ride took me 45 minutes which isn't bad considering on a clear day it takes me 35 minutes to ride the backroads with my studded tires, and it's a mile shorter on the backroads.

made it...woohoooo ....man it's snowy....

I tried leaving early to beat the approaching rain but the rain caught up to me about halfway to work. Didn't get soaked but did get a little wet. My clothes should dry out by the time I head home this afternoon though.

After shoveling my and some neighbor's driveways, decided to drive in today instead of dealing with the freezing rain/sleet/slush/Boston driver's. Of course if we get the 8" or so 'they' are saying my car will be bottoming out anyways. Not being on the bike became my v-day gift, now I don't have to take the wife to dinner right?

Naturally they hadn't plowed my street, so walked the bike to Massachusetts Avenue and took off in earnest, slipping and sliding all over the place. By the time I reached Union Station, I said "HANG THIS", locked up and got on the metro. And sat there idly for 20 minutes. Oh well.

The overnight low was -27C, and that meant all the salty gushy snow that has been making me miserable since last week froze solid. My commute time was almost the same as it is when its dry out. A guy in a truck cut me off a few blocks from work, so I gave his hood a little tap as I went by to let him know there are other people on the road.

Woke up to 25F and snow/slush/ice covered streets. An icy snow was falling so I decided to work from home. Went to login to the VPN host and the host wasn't responding. :eek: Tried several times again, called the IT guy and left a message, tried some more, then decided to go to the office where I might have better luck. I have to VPN in at the office too, but somehow it made sense in my uncaffeinated state.

Got dressed, grabbed the mtb and took off. Slipped and slid all the way to work with cars all around me. The snow/slush/ice put up a lot of resistance and I never got out of 2nd gear. Got to the office, almost slipped a few times walking into the building because of the ice and tried logging into the VPN from my desk. Still no go. Looks like I'll be on the phone w/ IT trying to get this straightened out the rest of the day. :crash:

I beat the cold wave this morning. It was 38°F on the way in. It'll be down in the 20s for the ride home, but I'll have a stiff wind at my back. Thanks to all you midwesterners for sending another cold blast down here...:mad:

It's getting warm. Feels like spring after a week of rain.

So on the way home last night I felt like I was dragging a cinder block. I stopped multiple times to find the problem. Tire was not flat. Fenders were not rubbing against the tire. Brakes were adjust correctly. It wasn't until I was messing with my bike this morning that I have some major wheel wobble and the wheel would hit the brake every rotation.. Between getting the kids and myself ready didn't have time to fix this so I drove in even though I really wanted to go play in the snow.

Tonight I will try to true the wheel. I have never done this before (only got into the cycling this past summer). I don't have a stand but have found several sources online that say you don't really need one... to just turn the bike upside down. Hopefully this will turn out right. I'm a little concerned because things were fine in the morning. This was an issue as soon as I left work. I worry that it is a broken spoke and not just a truing issue. Anyway guess I'll hop over to the mechanics forum if there are issues.

Hopefully I'm up and running tomorrow.

Great! A much thinner mist than yesterday am (I wasn't soaked this morning).

Huge headwind going home last night, plus I had a bunch more stuff jammed into my panniers (big increase in surface area as well as weight), so was more work getting home last night than I've had for a while.

Didn't ride. :( My wife (who's pregnant and was due 2/9) said she "felt weird" this morning so I drove her up to work.

I was considering coming home and riding in, but 1) the forecast is for 30-mph sustained winds and 40-mph gusts this afternoon, 2) I can't turn my head to the left (stress and sleeping wrong) and 3) I had to go out during lunch to get my wife a V-Day card (she IS bearing my child, after all...)

I am no longer a purist...

Temp this morning was -3F, windchill -20 to -30, northwest wind (That's a headwind for me all the way to work). I used chemical toe warmers this morning for the first time this winter, and boy was it nice to not have icy toes when I got to work. 10 miles of beautifully plowed MUP, and then the last 2 miles of unplowed MUP with drifts, just to make it a better workout. Toe warmers are awesome!!!

cold (25f) and windy out of the NW this am. slight snow flurries, but it won't stick around. water on the ground was frozen.
I cut through UNT campus on my way in, and was nearly run over by a late teens/early 20's dude in a 1-ton Didge school truck, whipping around campus picking up garbage bags outside dorms. I pulled up at his next stop and asked him (yelled actually, over the hip-hop blaring from the poor factory speakers at full volume at 6:15am outside a dorm!) to slow it down. He said ok and turned away all embarrased.

Yeeee!! Haaaaaaa!

Made it to the GO train stations...had to sidewalk surf up a hill. Main roads plowed but still dicy due to car tracks moving the slippery stuff around.

Hopefully better on the way back this evening. Only a month and a half to spring, think we can make it??

Of course!

The ride home was worse than the ride to work. More crap had accumulated although traffic managed to turn some of the mushy stuff into slush. Rode in the slush where possible, but some places the streets were all mush. Found out I hate climbing hills, even short ones when I'm in low gear and have to stay seated while getting all squirrely cuz of the mush. But it was still fun.

didn't manage to make the ride today. The slushy icy mix was worse than I thought. Streets were not plowed near the house, which meant that the bike path would definitely not be plowed. Took the bus and experienced life as a pedestrian as well. I think I might have been safer on the bike. Though tonight had to run a short errand and took the car to do it and was shocked at how bad the visibility was- I was glad to get home safe and sound.

First fixed gear commute today. I had to think about starting and stopping a lot more. Working on the no foot commute. Today was a two foot commute. Nice ride both ways, 38F going in and 60F coming home. I work with another cyclist from my local club, he thinks I'm nuts to ride fixed. He only rides his fixed gear on rollers. What a waste of a bike.

Hello from the Pacific N/W!!!! I've made 8 of the 10 Feb. work days and our weather is getting warmer
as the week progresses. All of the snow is gone off my commute route and I rode the Flyte for the 3rd
day instead of the beater MTB. Hoping Spring is here, will try to send better weather east to you folks.

Heres some pics of my commute

http://craig*****.info/thumbnails.php?album=13

enjoy

Best of luck to you and your wife that the baby comes soon! Oh, and good call on the V-Day card, especially this year.

I made my coldest bike commute ever this morning. 16°F/-9°C with a 20 mph wind. My toes got a bit chilly (2 pairs socks + tennis shoes) but other than that I was dressed appropriately. YEAH!!

25f, windy, and snow flurries this am!
great commute though. averaged 16mph. kinda tired from staying up late for Valentine's, then having the dam alarm go off at 6am

I got distracted by the beautiful sunrise and forgot to bring some work in with me. So I swung around and went home to get the proper folder and doubled my commuting distance for the morning. Then I was worried that my boss got here early, but she had just left her car here when her husband picked her up yesterday. So all-in-all, a double commute with a beautiful sunrise and still enough time to drink some coffee and check BF before anyone else gets here.

Cold and windy this morning, temps in the low 20s. Lots of traffic out but overall not a bad commute.

Where are all the midwest/northeast commuters this AM? I heard there was a bit of winter weather up there yesterday...

I wore shorts today. In February. Don't f*** with me mother nature!!!

I got honked. Driver got the bird.

Very nerve-racking moment this morning.

Never had problems with my lights - front or back - with people seeing me. This morning (and man, I'm telling you, I'm still shaking) I hear the squal of tires behind me and jerk my head around to see a car's front bumper a few inches from my back wheel.

I was on a main road where tons of shops and eating places are. It's a 6 lane divided hwy with traffic lights on both sides plus lights from all the businesses and such. Usually only a handfull of cars pass me because it's so darn early. So I've had no problem with cars buzzing me or honking or yelling or anything.

But this morning, SCREEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't panic. I kept my line and headed for the traffic light which was red. When I pulled up the car that almost creamed me pulled beside me. "Get some brighter clothes!!!"

"Did you not see my lights?"

He mumbled something and rode off.

So now I have to by brighter clothes. Well, anything to spend money on safety.

17 degrees this morning in our nation's capital. After the aborted commute yesterday, I was really committed to making it in today. Which I did, and it was mostly fine. Only ***** was that all of the streets had slush/snow banks, so I had to stay in the middle of the lanes. Not a big deal, but definitely solicited my share of honks. Had a couple near-slips but managed to stay on the bike and never had to take my feet out of the clips.

Scottmorrison, good luck adjusting to commuting on a fixed gear. I just started a couple weeks ago and am still adjusting to it. I'm fine on the fixed when I go riding at night, but when I'm commuting through downtown rush hour traffic, I'm kind of on "auto-pilot" in a way, so I often revert back to my gear mindset. And that's when I'll try to coast (usually when going over an pothole or cruising through an intersection) and will be jerked back to reality. It's really jarring!

The maneuver for the day today was the attempted right-hook.

My commute has several RTOLs that split off from straight-thru lanes. This morning at least a half-dozen drivers accelerated to pass me on the left so they could then bear to the right to get in the RTOL.

I could understand the first one who did it, as I was still just approaching the RTOL; he may have saved himself 0.1 seconds with this move. But the other ones all did it at points where they should already have been in the RTOL. I can only think they all saw the first guy do it and thought, "Oh, that must be the correct way to get to the right of a cyclist."

Frigging sheep.