Great commute today. Morning was in the 50's and dark but traffic was light. I was able to get off early so I went to Santa Monica for lunch then took the bike path to Venice Pier, turned around and up the coast to Topanga Canyon blvd. Climb up was tough but the weather was great. 70's on the coast and 80's inland. Once I got the the summit there was contruction and a pilot truck, spent about 10 minutes waiting but the pilot truck driver let me go ahead. This is a curvy downhill section where a bicycle is usually faster that the cars. I had the whole road to myself for the entire way down. It was great, taking the curves marked 20 a tick under 40. Lots of fun! No hostile drivers and a fair number of polite ones. 53 miles total today.

Felt cool tonight, might've been the slightly damp shoes (which I forgot about, and didn't make any effort to dry!). Did a couple of stop-offs at two local-to-work BSs (Bikes on Wheels & Urbane Cyclist for locals) then looped back down to Adelaide (where the traffic was nuts) to continue my regular route. Pretty much a 10 mile run home, loved every minute of it and had a really enjoyable, relaxing ride. 47 minutes riding time in total with a 12.5 avg.

one word.

COLD

I got a new set of wheels yesterday and tested them out today. All I have to say is I love my Mavic Open Pros! My bike rides like a Cadillac but is still super light (thank you CF). The ride was great minus the jug of ice thrown at me. I took the long way home so I could get in some hills. All in all, great ride and I can't wait to do it again.

nice commute today. over to Dorchester for an early morning show. buzzed home at around two. had to return for a later show but made the mistake of catching a ride with someone else. Ended up subwaying home and eventually catching a cab for the last part home. cost a total of $24!

found a tiny snapping turtle crossing the bike path today. (I almost ran him over) Picked him up and put him on the edge of the river.

i don't work with any cows . . . suddenly feel like i'm missing out :D

this morning's ride was a long time ago. i don't remember it too clearly now. it was probably raining - oh yeah, it was because i wore my taiga bootees and discovered they're not lying when they say rain can get into them anyway. also it's pretty clear that my rain pants need to be retired-slash-replaced.

other than that, it was nice. one of those days when the whole world seems to be full of water. i've been trying for weeks to put my finger on this and haven't managed it, but somehow something about biking to work always feels exactly like being on vacation. every time, at least once in every ride. no matter what the rest of the day or the week is going to be like. it must be some distant association i haven't tracked down, but i enjoy it even if i can't figure it out. it's this little escape hatch i get every day.

part of it, i realised today, was the direction i go in. i start fairly high and head south most of the way, towards what i think of as 'inland'. the cool thing about it is that i'm riding with mountains at my back and heading towards much flatter ground, so if there's any light in the sky or any clear spots collecting between the clouds, i get to look at it all the way in. it's a very neat feeling; makes it seem like there are infinite possibilities, even while the rest of me knows it's a perfectly mundane trip to spend another mundane day in the trenches. and this time of year absolutely everything you look at can look like a painting, if you look at it right.

nothing much happened today. i got reacquainted with a security guard i used to see a lot of when i worked for the other company at the other end of the business park last year. first words from him were 'you're not still biking out here, are you?' i love saying 'yup' to questions like that :D

it rained hard all the way home. i stopped to pick up doughnuts.

yesterday (friday) was my last commute for the week. came back from a 2 day conference in north nj, ride home was at nite (+/-9pm) so lighting sets were in force. at one point, a truck (+/- 1975chevy/gmc? w/2 passengers) passed me to follow through attempt right-hook as they rushed to auto parts store. i again ADVOCATE "airZound" technology. this truck STOPPED at the zounds and i had to proceed to follow through w/passing on drivers side, narrowly missing the vehicle. if he had followed through w/turn and i was going slower, or unaware, impact would have been unavoidable.
rest or ride went well, even had a driver signal (w/flashes) that one of my headlights were dimming (?)
another good week! job site is moving to 13.0 mile dst each way tuesday, 11/21/6 (was 3.2 mile distance) each way. another challange!!

I really didn't want to ride today. I was dead tired, and just wanted to sleep. Alas, I dragged myself out of bed, and rode in anyway. I pulled the opening shift today, and streets were nice and empty. I figured they would be; Sunday morning and all. I made the ride in in about 30 minutes. By the time I got off, I was so tired I didn't care how long it took to get home. I fought a head wind for eight miles, but only took ten minutes more to get home than usual, so I guess I really wasn't going as slow as I thought.

28F when I left, snowing all the way. Never felt cold or anything. Hakkas worked as expected, IOW, I didn't noticed any slipping of the tires (which I had experienced a few times on wet roads with the slicks). Visibility was a slight problem as sometimes snow was falling hard and the Night Explorer's light beam would light up all the snow flakes and I could barely see the road ahead of me.

Ran into another commuter and followed him close during the last mile of my commute. I don't think he noticed me; then I pulled out by my work place and he kept going; wonder where he works.

GreenAnvil

Today was one of those sub 30 days where it's really clear, so everything is bitterly cold. Other then that, it was fine. I was running very late, so I really pumped the pedals today....got in almost on time :)

High 20Fs this morning. Coldest of the season so far. I stayed comfortable. Actually my legs got a little warm but not too bad. Didn't see any other cyclists. :(

A woman was MUP-training her adorable puppy. That's where the human makes the canine sit while the bike goes by, then gives the puppy a cookie for behaving. I see it a lot. What's nice is watching the dog "grow up" over time.

Well, it's getting chilly. Not as windy as yesterday when I had to pedal downhill, but still pretty breezy.

Cold this mrning! Nice clear day. Nice ride in.

The county has thoroughly trashed one of the interesections I go through. The earth moving equipement has turned the paved shoulders into asphalt crap. They have barrier signs overhanging into the traffic lane, with broken pieces on the road where they've been hit by traffic. And the remaining open areas, are littered with large clumps of dirt just waiting to send a night cyclist flying. No choice but to take the center of the lane. This is the same intersection I pleaded for them to keep open to cyclists during the "improvment" project at a county road gripe session last spring. It is the crossing of the only two rds that are marginally useful for commuting in the western part of the county. Sigh.

On a lighter note, while waiting at a light, a driver rolled his window down and commented on the brightness of my tail light. The is particulary noteworthy as it was bright sun light at the time and he was looking into the sun. Gotta love the Whelen TIR3!

Yay me! Our new light rail came online this weekend.
My old bus line is no more.
Anyhow, I ride the full commute on the way back in the afternoon when the morning temps are below freezing.
Old am sub freezing commute:
-ride 4 miles to the bus
-strip clothing off to avoid overheating
-load the bike on the bus after stripping off the extra gear such as lighting
-get off the bus
-reload the bike
-ride 10 miles to work
I had to heat up two times

New am sub freezing commute:
-ride 14 miles to the light rail
-carry the bike in to the rail car.
-get off the rail car and ride my bike 1000 feet to work.

Me likey!

Pretty balmy today - no complaints about that. I need new batteries for the blinkie, and I should charge my headlight tonight. The forecast calls for snow on Wednesday...

It was getting really cold this morning, so I wore some long flannel pants under jeans, and tossed a hoodie on between my base layer (old t-shirt) and outer layer (a lined maintenance jacket like you'd see appliance installers wearing)

Kept plenty warm, it was a little overkill, actually.

Made it to the bus in record time, but still not "fast" by any stretch of the imagination. 12 MPH average on a 3 mile ride that's got plenty of uphill and downhill. I've never calculated how much climbing I do either way. That's next, I suppose.

I've decided that my backup bike really is the better commuter. The handlebars are flatter, it's a larger frame (some would say it's a bit big for me, it's a 18" frame, I'm 5'8" but it feels good and I can still straddle the top bar flat-footed). The Sorrento with knobbies on it is just tons of fun in the dirt, which I get to ride through (parking lot and road construction) if I want to take shortcuts to anywhere I'd normally go on bike. I don't trust the Outlook's thinner, lighter, and rigid frame going over the large limestone rocks and huge tractor ruts that I come across out there. Since it's lighter and rigid, it technically makes a more practical commuter bike for me. I think I'll leave the slicks on it, at least until it starts to get snowy and slippery. then I'll probably switch back to the Sorrento.

Anyhow, nice ride in, I'm not getting as winded, and I really feel like I'm making some good progress on my endurance and strength as well as weight loss. Combined with all the "Intangible" benefits of riding in, the thought of driving to work (or even to the bus stop) seems pointless.

A cold-ish morning in our nation's capital today, with temperatures in the high 30s at 7:00 am. It's weird -- I did 40 miles Friday night and never really felt that chilly or achy. But this morning, it was several degrees warmer, plus I was wearing one more (small) layer, but I could never warm up and I felt stiff the whole way. Probably because I got out of bed and left w/in 15 minutes, instead of the normal routine of getting up, getting my son up, and chasing him around the house for an hour (and drinking coffee) before leaving for work. That must be it.

Brrrrr.. a brisk 26f when I left the house. That works out to 8f when you factor in a 25-30 mph wind chill. wind chill chart

There was an American flag laying in the gutter on the way up the hill. The gutter is no place for the flag so I stopped and picked it up.

Coldest day for me so far (I think) - was -1/0C when I left, almost stopped to dress up/ turned back to home when I felt the cold wind cut through me and saw a few flakes of snow. After a couple of minutes, I was plenty warm and glad I hadn't stopped to bother with the fleece.

Had some pretty cool winds, and was still cool when I got to the office, was a nice ride in. A lot faster than I had imagined, as I was consciously not pushing to avoid getting 'cold sweat-back' when stopping, everything seemed to work out nicely though - 32 mins 14.7mph avg. Saw a grand total of four bikes, one on Broadview/Bloor area, who I had a brief chat to - nice chap, asked me if I rode through the winter "First time this year" I replied, and asked him - he said days when it didn't snow he rode. One other guy looked like a commuter of sorts and the other two must've been couriers on an earlier start.

It did feel much colder this morning than on Friday--probably because of the dampness (50% humidity).

This weekend I bought neoprene covers for my shoes to try to keep my toes from freezing. They kept my toes warmer today, but we'll see how they feel later in the week when the mornings are even chillier.

I need some new roads in the neighbourhoods. I rode all "reasonable" cycling routes already and I'm tired of them all! Maybe I should try an unreasonable route next time. :)

I don't know the city THAT well in terms of roads, but.. where do you need/want to switch it up?

Move! At least that would be an amusing reason to move :p

Left this morning around 5:15 am. ~33 deg and snowing. I read the forcast for today and it said 30% chance of snow. It snowed all the way - 15 miles to work. I was warm enough but the snow makes it hard to see w/glasses. It was getting slippery in the end with snow accumulation on the roads (I ride a road bike w/narrow and slick tires). My coldest commute of the year.

If it is cold and clear I don't mind; but I can't get motivated to cycle in the rain and in the snow. Loved the ride home. It like a training ride; I like to crank it up to get home as fast as I can.

Ride home felt good, slow-ish going up the Sherbourne hill and I overdid it a little going across Bloor (see below) so got a tad out of breath for the residential short-cut from Danforth to Cosburn though that's an ideal 'rest' time anyway. 37 mins, 13.1mph avg.

I came upon around 8 other cyclists once I got to Bloor, most of the time was spent moving, so no real chat time but was a definite spur for me to dig in a little more and try and fly.. Only, one guy came up behind me (I was doing about 23mph/~36kmh) and this guy was flying - out of the saddle, really giving it some - he surprised me so much when I glanced back that I did a slight speed wobble - he wasn't there one minute, then was passing me the next - was awesome, never got chance to say Hi, but admirable speed! His bike looked like a commuter (hybrid I think), not a roadie too.