bikedaddy

Started out the ride home with a stomach ache from eating too many carrots. Pedaling home actually made me feel better. Saw my fox run across a major street right in front on me. I really hope I don't find him hit one day...

ragboy

I hear you on the tailwind -- I'm in Lincoln, and I kicked a$$ on the way home!

ragboy

I'm getting the feeling you're going to be seeing your fox friend kissing pavement one of these days.

tokolosh

if there's a free darwin award going around, i claim the one for this week. sitting on the edge of my (low))bed with a large mug of coffee this morning, i had an utter brain-fade and set it down on my knees, which were higher than some of the rest of me. instant and absolute spill, inwards. how is this related to bikes? if i weren't a bike commuter, i wouldn't have been wearing new, utterly-waterproof rainpants for the event. with a zipper i forgot that they have so it was wide open. probably the fastest but not the best way to wake yourself up.

other than that, the day went quite well. forgot to mention that on my way home yesterday in the dark i rode right through a cluster of twigs that had never been there before. i kind of went huh?, was glad i wear glasses, and rode on. today i remembered in time to watch out a little better, and found out what it was: the snow pushed over a sapling on the other side of the ditch, and it's just tall enough to overhang the shoulder at face height to a cyclist. lots of those little leftover hazards around, but almost no snow anymore.

nice conversation with the guy in the test lab on the other side of my bench. turns out he gets up every morning and bikes around for an hour before coming to work - just for fun. was too tactful to ask, but i totally fail to get it. with all that mileage every day, he could be riding to work. i suspect he's probably scared to bike where cars go. he talks a looooooot about the dangers of what i do.

and conversation with the jovial little older security guard who's our usual patrol dude in the evenings. sometime after i started there he got his son's mountain bike out of storage and has been riding it around for a few months. completely the wrong fit for him in every way, but today he had a snazzy fancy super-uber pale-gold norco something-or-other that he said the company provided for him. it had his own headlight masking-taped to the handlebars but 'you need a rear blinkie' i said sternly, and he said 'can't do that. not in our line of work. how can we sneak up on someone if we have lights?' i agreed politely, meanwhile trying to figure out how a rear blinkie would let the bad guys see you coming, but a headlight wouldn't. i just reminded him that if he wasn't legal, and he did get hit by some car, provincial auto insurance would probably screw him over.

pretty bossy, convivial day, for me.

jeff-o

Well, the cold and the snow weren't the worst parts, unfortunately. Both my rear derailleur AND my right-side brake decided to sieze up, meaning that I basically single-speeded it to work - on a RECUMBENT. This is not a chore I would recommend to anyone, especially if you live in an area with large hills (like I do). My legs hurt.

So, what caused them to seize up? WD-40. That's the only thing I changed. I put some in the lines in the hope that it would keep the water out, no such luck. I don't know if they are frozen or if the WD-40 just loosened grit that was already there, but whatever the cause I'm going to have to fix it before I go home.

Did I mention my legs hurt?

bikedaddy

Maybe I'm totally wrong here but it seems that I see plenty of foxes around here but very few roadkilled foxes. Maybe they are a little better at dodging traffic than some wildlife.

vtjim

When I left work yesterday, the weather station in the middle of Lake Champlain was recording almost 50MPH gusts. I had a fast ride home, to say the least.

This morning the winds had calmed somewhat but I still had a headwind to deal with. Nothing bad like yesterday morning though.

Relaxer

Standard issue morning. 43 degrees in our nation's capital. The weather had said today would be a substantial drop, but it didn't come. Probably tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it -- it's a lot easier dressing for temperatures below 40 than temperatures above it.

luckysnafu

Much warmer ride in this morning that the past two days. Temps almost at 50 when I left home. Was sweating pretty good by the time I got to work. Cold front comes through tonight so it should be colder tomorrow morning. Determined last night on my way home that my rear hub is making noises and that it will probably need replaced

jyossarian

Warm ride in, 47F and humid so I was sweaty when I got to work. Traffic was the usual mess and had one brain surgeon pull along my right side when I was in the right lane, but shaded to the left to get around right turning traffic. I ended up passing him 2 seconds later. Guess he didn't notice that there was a line up of cars waiting to turn right when he decided he had to pass me.

ax0n

I cheated and drove in today. It was 12*F which in and of itself isn't too bad. The problem was that I had my commuter gear and slicks on my Outlook from yesterday's fair-weather commute, but didn't have time to swap the gear or the wheelsets between the bikes and still make it to the bus on time. There was tons of standing water yesterday, and that would have been a solid sheet of ice. Not doing that on slicks.

Two Buck Chuck

I went over a big bump last night in front of Union Station and my pannier went flying into the middle lane of traffic. Most of the cars avoided hitting it, but one manged to clip it with its rear wheel. No damage done, though. The scary part was trying to run out in the road to retrieve it.

pinkrobe

After a very good night's sleep, I awoke to +7C temps this morning. Unfortunately, this will do little to melt the slush on the first km of my route to work.

Twebs46

22 degrees today with gusting head wind up to about 15 mph. I'm still new to commuting (about 8 weeks) so really wanted to try this out to see how it went. Other than my water bottle spout freezing it was all good.

Tom

gizem310

Don't feed wildlife. It's bad for them.

caloso

Gorgeous day. I rode the Caldaro rather than the fixie. I'm hoping to sneak out early this afternoon and get a few miles in.

Flimflam

I had to work late last night, so rode home a slightly different route (the late work was at an event place, not our office) - which was great. I came outside to head home from the event location and it was raining, nothing like being prepared with my goretex though. Took Mortimer instead of Cosburn again for fun, loved the ride home - fairly quiet roads at 10:30pm where I was riding. 36 mins.

Didn't ride in today, seems my schedule and weather tied in nicely as I had to take my daughter in for a doctors appointment and it's been snowing and damn cold today, -16C with windchill I think I saw. Semi-rest day, I'm joining a few colleagues for after hours skating at a local open air rink.

jyossarian

Haha...I did that at lunch today. Rode my bike to the rink w/ the skates in my backpack. Be careful out there, I hear there's been a rash of peds getting run over lately in T.O.

fillthecup

12F this morning, with 20-30mph winds. Wind chill of -2F. My personal cold record this season. The ride was alright, except I should have had an extra layer for my legs, and maybe feet. Still, if I feel cold getting to work, why am I all sweaty when I take all the gear off?

Goggles are great!

upside-down

Best commute yet. I just got a road bike last night, so now the broke-down mountain bike i've been riding (and i mean like everything that can be messed up - gears, wheels, size too small for me, etc, is messed) is permanently relegated to the back yard.

commuting is fun again...

chephy

And not just for them. Also the humans whom they annoy, scare or even threaten after "human" and "food" get linked in their mind.

vrkelley

Foggy and 39F...nice ride in.

chephy

Anyway, the ride today was pretty darn cool. I was afraid there might be some ice on the roads, but encountered none. Fingers were a bit chilly at first but not for long. Strange - usually fingers get colder the longer I ride...

Weird stuff with routes today. I decided on one (I have several favourites) and then had some much fun passing a traffic jam on Davenport that I missed my turn-off. Shoot! Ok, I figured, I'll ride to Yonge, take Yonge to Bloor and just bike straight along Bloor to the Bloor Viaduct and over, and from there take the route I meant to take. So I was riding along Yonge and suddenly see the sign "Wellesley". I missed Bloor! Torontonians will understand.

Coming back, I decided to take the Millwood Bridge for variety but as I approached it, I saw a police car blocking the entrance to the bridge. So all the motorists had to curse and take a detour through some other bridge (which, of course, created a bunch of jams in the vicinity) but the cops just waved me through. Awesome! A superwide empty bridge all to myself! Too bad I was riding so slowly 'cause of the headwind. After crossing the bridge I saw more police cruisers (three or four I think!), a bunch of yellow tape at an intersection and two badly mangled autos. The police directed me to a quick parking lot detour to bypass the intersection and I was on my way. Very little traffic for a couple of km after the bridge as well because most of the usual traffic there comes from the bridge. Heh heh, gotta love riding dat bike!

chephy

Are the rinks open already? Gee, I miss everything. Gotta put those rollerblades away and pull the ice skates out!

You missed some great biking weather! The roads were clear and the few die-hard bike commuters very sociable (there is an increased sense of comradeship, I guess). But when your kids gotta go to a doctor, you gotta take 'em to a doctor.

bikedaddy

Dangit! I knew I shouldn't of given that mountain lion all those steaks. Now he just keeps following me around licking his lips!