wow, that sucked. Snow was deep, crashed 3 times, tweaked my knee. -26C, -40 with the windchill. My commute takes 35 minutes usually, I added an hour to that today.

Converted the bike over to winter mode last night. Installed the studded snow tires [Nikoian 700/35s] and put the panniers on. Needless to say, with the treaded studs and the weight on the bike, it felt pretty sluggish. Had to lower one more gear across the board on the uphills. Oh well, when the touring tires go back on in the spring it will feel like a rocket :)

The ride this am was a chilly 24f when I left the house. Wearing a jacket is much more efficient without having to use a backpack. Need to sort out glasses and goggles. It seems the biggest issue when it's cold out relates to fogging of the glasses. Maybe one of those neoprene balaclavas might work out. The windproof one I'm using [perfromance] seems to direct breath to under the glasses.

Someday, I will hit the prefect setup... it seems like a never ending quest though.

The cold (-25c with a -39c windchill) caused my freehub to act all wacky. Sometimes it just wouldn't catch, so I was left spinning my cranks until it did. Not so much fun in 20cm of fresh snow.

Back on the bike after a nice long weekend. Had a nice ride in even though it was fairly cold here, nothing compared to you guys in Canada though with your negative temps. Going to be around 70 this afternoon so I should have a nice ride home.

habernac and GGDub - Y'all got that much snow? All we got was about 4", and by the time we made it out to the main roads it was all perfectly packed down and grippy. The windchill was a bastage, though. I think the bridge of my nose got a little exposed, but other than that, the bike worked great and I didn't lose any appendages.

The trail heading down shaganappi golf course doesn't get plowed and there was a helluva a lot of wind drift. Any ideas on my freehub problem?

We had a fair amount of rain last night so the streets were wet and covered with leaves and debris. I was consciously working on looking far down the road and anticipating the moves of other road users (I'm in such a good mood right now I won't even call them cagers). I'm VERY pleased with my full fenders. The bike was mostly clean, and I only had a few tiny splatters on my shoes and tights. And now the sun has come out, so we I may have dry streets for the ride home.

Saw my twin on H Street this morning: another guy in roadie kit riding a converted fixie with fenders. It's the perfect wet season commuter, in my opinion. I'm apparently not the only one.

yeah, the paths don't get plowed all the way to Harvest Hills and the main road is way to busy to ride in this weather. After this morning, I think I might dice it out with the autos, worked way too hard in the deep stuff today. It's impossible to ride on the crap that is tracked by people walking on it. After 64th ave, I can ride on plowed pathway all the way downtown. I gotta spam my alderman some more to get them to plow it all the way up. I hope I didn't do any real damage to my knee today. #$%!!

NOTE: *Whenever you encounter a rude/bad/dangerous driver on the roads, beware:
- That nutty cager could be your neighbor/boss/client/co-worker.

I am so glad I didn't flip a bird or scream obscenities at the moron (a very important client of my wife's) who almost hit me with his ****ing minivan today.

14F when I left this morning with fog. Still recovering from a nasty cold (always get them on my long weekends... err!) so I took it slow. By the time I arrived at work my beard was covered with frost... got a laugh from a couple coworkers.

The ride home will be interesting if the weather keeps up like it is now. This morning there was just a dusting of snow on the ground. Right now it's hella snowing!

crazy here today. 8-10 inches of snow, -5c after a night below zero, and more snow falling. of my 9k ride, i rode for the flat 2.5k on the far side. the rest were either walking, or ride-2-feet-hit-clump-of-solider-slush-skid/wobble-step-off-walk-2-feet-try-again. or ride-10-feet-see-car-get-out-of-the-way-till-they-pass-try-again. or find-a-good-tire-rut-to-follow-ride-12-feet-and-be-led-into-the-kerb. and/or find another slush clump. a stronger rider than me might have managed a little better, but i just couldn't get up enough momentum to carry me consistently on such uneven ground. as for the cars, this was no day for assertiveness. i hadn't a clue what the drivers would try or what their cars could do, and not much more of a clue wrt myself and my bike. the first few k were just six inches deep in grainy slush with the texture of sand. the bridge was 8 inches of snow, made impossible by the potholes of people's feet. the main roads on my side were cleared to the slushy-sand-soup stage, but i had no interest in riding on them since the kerb lanes were full of the cleared snow. on the far side it was more of that slushy-soup stuff and i did ride, but even then i kept hitting divots of hidden solider ice and catching a swerve or a wobble. not worrying in itself, but it was pretty clear from the way drivers followed and passed that they just didn't know that the 'clear' road might hold hazards like that for cyclists. i took a lot of lane today :D i stopped to let one huge truck i'd been holding up on the 2-lane road get past me, and discovered that he'd been following 3 feet behind.

even so, i got to work with a wraparound grin. it was cold for here - about -5 - but it didn't feel like it to me. the road situation was so clearly extreme that i just didn't see the day as a regular working day. as it turned out, barely half the company made it to work, so i didn't feel at all bad about showering, changing, eating somethign, printing a few documents and turning right around to come home before it got really cold and the windchill picked up.

apparently my ride home was about -12 when you count the windchill, but it was easier. i took a different road, which had been driven over so much that most of it was full solid ice - the kind that shines with the streetlights on it. my schwalbes and i had a blast, and my only regret is that the drivers who were all so careful in the morning had reverted to type by the evening and are all acting too crazily for me to go to work at all tomorrow.

i saw one other cyclist - just playing around in the snow, by the looks of him. tracks of two or three other bikes over the bridge. passed someone waiting at a bus-stop who gave me a huge grin and called out 'you're tougher than me!' as i went by, so i guess another bike commuter. lots of waves and cheers and thumbs-ups from drivers as i went in; nothing at all on my way home. my favourite was the older dude who ran me off the bike path by starting down an ice-hill as i was on my way up, and gave me the lordly 'thanks for making room' wave. and a stern reprimand from a 4-year-old playing in his front yard: 'hey! you're Not Supposed to ride in the snow!'

last i heard, it was a region-wide travel advisory for the evening rush hour due to icy roads, and a windchill of -19 forecast for tomorrow, so i'm staying here. i hope jarery made it home safely.

Glad to be back on the bike after almost a week off. Warm this morning! (48F and into the 50F's; same for the rest of the week) Supposed to rain a little bit later today.

Nice ride; average times but felt very relaxed. I've been bike commuting for almost three months now. Looking forward to December.... ;)

GreenAnvil

A bit below the freezing point (of water) but the ground isn't frozen so there wasn't any ice from the rain last night. Just damp pavement. I passed another commuter heading in the opposite direction.

Still nursing a head cold. Better than yesterday. Riding seems to clear me up for a while. :)

This morning's commute was....annoying.
It was overcast, a little soggy (lots of rain last night, no snow yet), and dark.
And then one mile into my ride, the front part of my front fender broke. Easy repair when I get home, but dang, that's just downright annoying.

On a bright note!
I started commuting in May, I started keeping track of my mileage at the beginning of August. Today I'll hit 1000 recorded miles on my way home :D

First time I got beeped at on my morning commute (the morning car commuters are generally very respectful), but it turned out that I had dropped something and the car was trying to tell me I had dropped something at the intersection. Too cold for shorts, almost too warm for tights. Nice ride.

Warm this morning 7C, though it felt cool from damp and cool winds.
Great ride in, must've had a partial tailwind, felt fast and I felt really high up on the bike for the first few minutes - an odd feeling. I haven't commuted since last Wednesday, but rode on the weekend so I don't know where that came from.
Had a nice cager let me go through a stop (he was stopped anyway, I was approaching) in front of him, which was a thoughtful gesture, saved me from stopping/starting.
32mins, 14.8mph avg. - felt fast, was pretty quick - loved the ride today.

Edit: Noticed a lot more bike commuters today, I left a little earlier than normal though so it must be my timing.

A police car blocked 12th St. - my usual road. Distant blinking lights indicated some horrendous crash at the intersection a mile ahead. I considered going home and waiting it out, then diverted to US 77 one block over - a major arterial, two lanes in either direction, intermittent shoulders. My trepidation was premature. I staked out the right side of the right lane. Everyone passed with plenty of room. I regulated my speed so I'd arrive at intersections during lulls in the traffic. Visibility was good. Lights were sometimes confusing, but in a good way. Glare that looked like a bunch of cars often turned out to be loners - easy pass. I'd hate to take that route every day, but it's a viable alternate.

Weather was mild - upper 50's - and damp after last night's rain. Must enjoy it. Winter comes tomorrow.

Nice ride in this morning, but had some ice on the roads and MUP. A little disconcerting making turns, but no crashes. 27F but I was toasty warm.

I struggled with the temperature yesterday and this morning. Yesterday, I totally overdressed, and so was pretty warm when I got to work, but I was positively sickly riding home from wearing too much clothes. It was just in that in-between, mid-50s temperature zone and I couldn't figure out how to dress, so I sweated. This morning it was the same deal, so I wore less, and froze my patootie off. I just wish it would drop into the 30s once and for all. At least then there won't be any mystery about what to wear.

Slow ride in this morning due to traffic congestion. Still passed a ton of cars on the way in so even at 10 mph, I still moved faster than traffic.

Holy blinking goodness! 28+ km/h average! It never was over 26 in the city before, and usually closer to 19-22. But then of course the practically intersectionless Rosedale Valley Road and Bayview Extension are more like country roads. Why didn't I realize before that this fluid, smooth route takes me exactly where I want to go********** I'll be riding it some more... *grin*

The way back was fast too. More direct than my usual route (I like turns). Not bad time/average for all-uphill-after-hours-of-physical-exertion-and-not-enough-sleep-food-and-water. :D Blew right past traffic. A streetcar tried to slow me down by passing me, coming to a stop and opening doors to let passengers in/out (it's illegal to pass open streetcar doors and I usually don't) - but I passed it and totally dropped it at some point. Okay, okay, a streetcar isn't exactly a speed demon, but still, I could be a little proud of it, no? :)

Believe it or not, but it was colder today than it was yesterday. The windchill got below -40C on the way in, and I was headed straight into it. The forecast high for tomorrow is -13C, so I'm pretty stoked about that. Oh, and my computer died last night. :(

Nice speed! I've only ever ridden UP the Bayview extension - I imagine heading down would kickass. Nice route, you'll have to send it sometime ;)

And.. I'd say the streetcar is fair game - there are times where the buses get the better of me, it comes and goes for me.

Apparently it will be getting cooler here, which means I'll need to break out the long tights.
Yesterday was 44F, coldest this year (still shorts weather, although I wore long sleeve under alert shirt and annoyingly overheated). Today was 50F. But tomorrow I expect 35F, so I need to dig thru closet and find tights, thicker wool socks, etc.

(for reference, one morning last winter I recorded 28F, but its rare for sub-freezing temps)

Al