Ride in was cold for me, 30 degrees. I gave an extra pair of goretex, insulated gloves I had to a homeless person I passed. She could use them more than me. Now I'm looking at warm jackets I don't wear to give away to the many homeless on my route.. Isn't that what the season is about? Ride home was only a couple of hours later, so it was ok, low 40's. Meetings scheduled for my day off, oh well. Bike felt faster today, might just be the chill driving me to get someplace warm.;)

Traffic right in front of the office was nuts. Had to walk the bike on the sidewalk, it was that bad. Found out traffic through the Helmsley bldg was closed both ways so traffic on Park Ave. was light.

Cold & slow .

Had a nice commute today. Great weather, had a nice chat with another rider at a stoplight which is always nice.

bikedaddy: I've been thanked for stopping at crosswalks for the guards, too - I was confused thinking "what else was I going to do?" but like you say, maybe others just blow by... another fine example to teach children.

Temp on my OSX weather widget told me it was -3C, much warmer than this morning - so I left the fleece and extra hat off and rode. Didn't see many other cyclists - though I left a little later than the normal rush.
Ride home was great, got ahead of myself going up Sherbourne with wind blowing in my mouth it meant I had to take a block or two slow to get my breath back. I had to ride by the hospital to pickup/meet my wife and daughter, so I took Mortimer to East General, then by the drug store and home (road parallel by one block south to the one I take, only without a bikelane). Total riding time 36 mins, less than my normal commutes which are directly home... I need to figure that one out :)

I ride thru school zones at 15mph and always stop where required and when requested by guard.

My commute used to take me thru a school zone and I 'knew' all the guards and was quite friendly with one ;)
One day there was a substitute and I was going my usual 15mph in center of lane and the kids were still coming toward the x-walk along the sidewalk, no one was yet waiting to cross. No cars were behind me. Suddenly the guard jumped out and held up stop sign. I could barely stop in time. Then I waited what felt like forever (probably 15sec) for the kids to assemble and begin to cross. Pissed me off the power trip the guard gave me, she stood in front of me holding stop sign to my face the entire time, not even watching kids and didn't let it down until the kids had long crossed both sides of the road.

Al

Awesome fall weather! Great ride both ways...temps still seem colder than usual.

getting a bit colder these days.

nice ride in. the ride home was like a 5th grade math problem:

Buzzman takes roughly 40 minutes to ride his bike the 11.2 miles to work every day. His wife, Buzzwoman, takes the same path but gets off to work at 7.8 miles and she takes roughly 40 minutes to do her ride. If Buzzman and Buzzwoman leave work at the same time how much faster than his average will Buzzman have to ride to catch Buzzwoman before she gets home?

I caught her with two miles left to go and man, was I beat chasing her down on studded snow tires with about 20 lbs of junk in my milk crate. She says she slowed down so I'd have a chance of catching her- and I sure forgot how cold it was.

My first ride in since the big snow in Denver. I've been a fair-weather commuter (~5 mi each way) since early September, and I figured enough of the snow was melted on some of my route alternatives that I could make it OK on my bike (a late-70's(?) Motobecane Super Mirage road bike w/ slicks).

The snow is continuing to melt, and fenders just moved waayyy up on my Christmas list. Nasty, mud-spattered backpack.

Plus I had my first tire blowout ever today. Guess I'd better put that Road Morph pump on the list as well, and start carrying an extra tube. Luckily, it was close enough to home that I could walk the bike there.

someone yelled something out of a car window at me on my way home today. no idea what; all i heard was the word 'bicycle'. shrug.

snow slo-o-o-w-l-y going away. actually looked at the back yard today where it's lain untouched all this time, and had a thought along the lines of 'holy crud! that stuff is still at least 4 inches deep!' morning is not my profoundest part of the day.

most of the roads and bike paths now clear, but there are still several blocks where you can't see blacktop at all and you can still get yourself completely bogged down or stopped dead by a sudden island of ice under the slush. i'm getting fascinated by the way it just hangs in and hangs in at those locations. far side of the bridge almost clear, but still just a little spooky coming home in the dark since the ice clumps that are left are completely camouflaged with sand and gravel and stuff. and they're pretty steep and solid.

studded tires making me very tired. i let a lot of the air out of both of them sometime last week thinking that it might help when the whole city was deep under snow, and i'm pretty sure i didn't get more than half of it back in with my hand pump. don't see the point of taking them off yet since the traditional time of year for us to get snow hasn't even arrived. i'm enjoying the whole ticky-tacky rice krispies noise that they make anyway.

+1 for the studded tires making me tired. We are supposed to have snow by now and well into March some years. There was a bout in October, which made me put them on in the first place, but since then it's been eerily warm and slushy.

Me ----> :fight: <---- Headwind

:rolleyes:

35-40MPH howling off Lake Champlain this morning. Quite possibly the worst wind I've ever endured. Sssssssssslllllloooooooowwwwwwwwww. Took me about 50% longer to get to work. The good news is, it's supposed to be just as strong for my ride home! ;)

3 to 5 foot waves rolling in to shore, too. Big by lake standards. Pretty to look at.

Last night some deer crossed the MUP ahead of me.

Got boxed in by two buses when another cyclist pulled even w/ me. Turned out to be queerpunk so we rode the rest of the way down Lex til I turned onto the street where my office is. Took a slow pace today (and still passed traffic) and talked the whole way down.

Better than monday and tuesday. I finally got my face mask positioned, so that it doesn't fog up my glasses. How nice it is, to be able to see the road! Unfortunately, my lights decided to permanently kick the bucket (rusted out connector) so I had to scramble to get a temporary headlight hooked up. The 9-LED headlight isn't nearly as bright as my dual 3W Luxeon setup, but it was better than nothing...

I'm back! Yes, I know it was only one day off. However, yesterday I was cranky all day.
Anyhow, it was a nice 23F ride down to the light rail station. I was a tad late leaving due to the fact that I had not put the new rack trunk on my bike. My wedge pack needed to be removed to fit it. Of course, the train took off right when I showed up. Spent 20 minutes pacing trying to stay warm. If I had my wits about me I would have sat in union station to stay warm. duh
My new 700X28 tires improved my speed a bit. As did the rack trunk. However, wind and remaining ice flows from last week's storm all conspired to slow me down. :p

Temp was in the high 30s the whole trip in. Each commute gets a little more pleasant as I gradually get used to riding the distance and get smarter about coasting up to lights, handling intersections where the bike lane vanishes, etc. I find myself saying things in my head like, "Take the lane!" and "I'm a vehicle." Didn't see another bicycle for the entire 20 mile ride which really makes me wonder in a city where it virtually never snows and only rains a few days every year.

Good ride today -- in the mid 20s. While crossing a street on the MUP, instead of pushing the crossing button and making every vechicle stop for me, I opted to cross in front of a Cadillac Escalade (going about 10 mph over the speed limit, of course). Was probably 50 yards away when I went in front of him, but he laid the horn on me :mad: so I gave him a mitten bird :p

have a good day all!

Seems that every summer I forget how to dress when the winter temps get cold. Today it was ~33F (1C) and I finally figured it out and wasn't cold. But I'd really like to find some gloves that keep my finger tips warm. You know, when you get "old" (I hate that word), the circulation isn't what it was when you were 50, so my fingers get cold first. Today I wore my Gore-tex gloves with glove liners and my finger tips got cold at about the 6 mile point in my commute. Maybe I should have worn my PI ski gloves. :eek:

I only saw one other commuter. I see him almost every morning. He rides east and I ride west. We always nod or wave.

The high today is supposed to be ~60F (~16C) and I brought slacks to wear at work. I should have brought shorts. :(

As I was riding down Jefferson Drive on the National Mall (in front of the Smithsonian Museums), I saw a car driving down the street with a cup on the roof. When the driver stopped at light, I tried to grab the Grande Starbucks cup to give it to the driver only to realize it was taped to the roof! I fell for the oldest trick in the book, so I thought. The driver rolled down the window and handed me a $5 Starbucks Gift Card! A very clever marketing strategy, don't you think?

I watched in amusement as a forklift driver working at one of the museums started honking at her and pointing to the cup. He also was rewarded for his attempted good deed. I gave a fellow bike commuter the heads up, and he also scored a gift card. Keep your eye out for the Starbucks lady on you commute!

Damn, I wish I would've seen that. It would've compensated for my woefully poor dressing job this morning.

Can we say WINDY? Whew, as soon as I turned the corner to head west the wind was right up in my face, I knew it was going to be a slow ride in. Had a few "whoa" moments with crosswinds and traffic, but was great - traffic was respectful despite that I was a lot slower generally (I find I get a little 'edgy' in traffic the greater the speed difference is).

2C on the TV this morning told me I didn't need an extra hat or fleece, but packed my goretex with rumours of rain today.

Despite the head and crosswinds for most of the south/west journey (Wind was apparently a SSW, no idea on speed) I had a good ride in, was noticeably more tired when I got in, no surprise there though.

Made it in in 35 mins (35:59 - 36 mins technically ;)) which I'm happy with considering.

Last night the noaa website said it was 47 when I was leaving so I dressed pretty light. I believe that they were way off. Had to stop and dig some layers and better gloves out of the panniers. Then I was nice and toasty the rest of the way.

This morning was 26f , clear and calm. Made for a nice ride. Cold, but nice.

Point of note... Only 15 more days until the days start to get longer again :)

Even better news--the sunsets aren't getting any earlier and will start getting later in about 10 days, depending on your latitude (check out www.sunrisesunset.com)! I recently realized the shortest day of the year (Dec 21/22) does not have the earliest sunset (google this for the rather complicated explanation or check out Earth & Sky's website).

Yah - Actually, yesterday was the earliest sunset here in Burlington, VT. It starts setting later now through summer!

SunRISE is another question. Later and later, until next month. I keep printed calenders from sunrisesunset.com at work. :)

Riding uphill through slop is making me stronger. I swear my legs are getting bigger - or it might just be fat. :lol: