scottmorrison99

Felt fast both ways. No problems, good start to 2007.

buzzman

a nice ride to the post office and where I discovered it was closed. Figured I'd ride downtown while I was out and pick up the ukulele case I'd ordered. Cell phone battery was dead so couldn't call ahead, where I would have found out that the case wouldn't come in until tomorrow now- due to postponed deliveries.

Ended up doing a little more than 20 miles and rode home bathed in the light of a really beautiful almost full moon.

tokolosh

heh. and here comes the legendary rainy weather like what i've been wondering where it's got to. i know it rained a lot of WATER this winter, but it didn't rain nearly as many hours. there was a rainfall warning on the way in, more or less justified, with wind. i'm thinking of this winter as the Winter Of The Prevailing Headwind. seems like it's been at least a month since i went to work without one.

things didn't look too bad from my back door so i decided i couldn't be arsed with the booties, and i paid for it. the mysterious thing is my tights got wet from the knees on down, and i can't figure out why unless it was some kind of capillary-action thing with the rainpant cuffs picking it up off the edge of my shoes and passing it upwards and in. the ride itself wasn't the unpleasant part, it was the peeling-off of all that wet stuff with wet, stiff fingers once i got there . . . yuck. i think i really underestimate how much extra time bike commuting takes me in winter, just for the dressing and undressing part. riding home was clear and calm and just the right temperature.

it is now january second. there are roughly 80 calendar days to go to the spring equinox. that's um, lemme see . . . 11.5 weeks at 5 workdays per week, which comes to . . . light at the end of the tunnel on its way here.

craigdurkee

HOt HOt HOT 34 degrees today good commute though

vtjim

Same here. Started out annoying, and got worse as I went along.

High 20Fs, and a beautiful full moon over the Adirondacks. My ride home last night had the same moon, but it was coming up in the east in a darkening blue sky. I stopped to admire the scenery. Nobody else on the MUP. Just the wind whispering through the trees. One of those times when I was extra happy to be a bicycle commuter.

luckysnafu

2nd Commute this year for me this morning. A bit colder than yesterday, low 30s but I expect it to be the coldest ride for awhile since temps are warming up rapidly this week. Have to buy a new taillight since I lost mine last week when it fell off and I couldn't find it on my way home.

idcruiserman

20MPH headwind with gusts to 29 this morning At least it was very warm (45F). On the small ring the entire way. Supposed to rain on the way home to complete the picture.

ModoVincere

Very pleasant ride in this morining. Mid 30's and clear skies. All the cagers were polite, and I did not feel rushed to get to work like yesterday morning.

I love days like today.

kokomo61

It wasn't bad starting out - a bit colder than I liked (28), but no wind, and it's supposed to be 60 this afternoon, so I didn't wear a wind shell. My mistake. My upper body was cold the whole way in. I've also got to get better gloves. I'm wearing Pearl Izumi windproof gloves with separate liners, but my fingers were so cold they hurt. Feet were cold, but OK.

The bike was the main problem today. Since it was good weather, I took my main road bike, which I was excited to ride for the first time after getting it properly fitted on Sunday. Well, here's what went wrong:

Sensor for cyclocomputer wasn't set up right - couldn't tell speed.
Batteries on GPS went out about 5 miles in - lost my data for the route.
Seat post clamp must not have been tightened properly during the fit session. It bottomed out (gradually - I didn't notice it at first), but by the time I did, I was 8 miles or so from home, and didn't bring my tool kit with me to adjust it.
Front derailleur has too much play on upshift - I knocked the chain off 3 times during the ride (was able to shift it back on easily, but that needs to be fixed).
I slipped on my pedals 3 times trying to clip in - once when crossing a street.

I'll fix the seat post and cyclocomputer here @ work, and get new batteries, but I might be taking the bike right back to the LBS after I get home.....and after I buy a new pair of gloves.

JohnnyOTS

The ride home yesterday was wonderful - 70 degrees when I left work in the afternoon and enough extra sunlight that I got home before dusk. I wore shorts and a T-Shirt and kept saying to myself, "Man! This is nice!" You can all laugh at me in summer when its 115 out. Anyway, I was pootling along in the bike lane near a retirement community when I saw something ahead of me in the bike lane. It was a golf cart. As I got closer, I realized it was going against traffic. Towards me. Taking up the entire bike lane. The four-lane road was packed with high-speed traffic and I didn't see any breaks in traffic coming up. So I sighed, unclipped, braked to a halt and dragged my bike over the square curb into the deep gravel shoulder. The two elderly ladies puttered up and said "Thank you very much!" as they passed. "You are very welcome" I replied and headed out again. I don't think lecturing them would have really gained much.

substructure

Cold. 30 degrees for a southern boy is cold.
But I bundled up nicely and rode in. My beautiful wife bought me a Camel Back for Christmas and I really liked it. I thought I might have problems and wind up hating the thing, but I didn't.

I increased my average this morning slightly as well. 43 miles at 17.5 mph. I still beat everyone in and was practically washed, dressed, and working by the time everyone showed up.

idcruiserman

I picked up a pair of gloves at Costco over Christmas break. They are working out very well. Waterproof outers with light fleece inners. You might give them a try.

pinkrobe

How was the ride? Well, pretty much all the snow we got on the 26th and 27th melted yesterday afternoon, so I was able to switch back to the skinny-tire bike. Also, it was above freezing, so I didn't need a headband or balaclava, and I had a 30-60 km/h tailwind. On the down side, traffic volume has just about doubled from yesterday. It should be like this the rest of the week, and then things will notch up again on Monday.

I think I need a bigger gear on my conversion. I think I'm riding a 42x16, but it's worth confirming. My old gear was a 39x14, but I've gotten significantly stronger since last summer.

bikebuddha 

Uneventful. But I finally figured out what the construction crews have been doing down the street, they're building part of the silver comet trail connector.

HardyWeinberg

Happy New Year, the log blocking the trail was sawed up! New schedule now, ran into a ton of peds (3 on foot, one on roller-ski thingies in the 1st mile, which was likely to be their all last mile). The ones on foot were all dressed either in goth/asphalt black, or Kurt Cobain/Al Gore - earthy plaids. Invisible. The skiier dude was reflective head to toe and w/ halogen on his head, pretty visible. If only he'd had his poles reflective, I would have actually known what the heck he was quite a bit sooner...

caloso

Mellow ride in today. Cool and hazy, it can't really decide to be clear or foggy.

xequar

Mine was a cold and slippery ride today... The frost was heavy enough to hear under my tires.

scottmorrison99

Ride in was nice, 34F. Ride home was warmer and rainy. Rode the road bike home because I left the rain bike at home. Road bike didn't melt.

buzzman

Hadn't done my usual ritual of riding the temperature on New Year's Day. So I did it today instead.

It was 51F today- amazing for this time of year in Boston. I did a 30 mile road ride and then later I did my usual downtown commute (to get my ukulele case) adding on another 21 miles.

It sure felt good.

tokolosh

really nice. no rain that i can recall, and no wind that you'd count. there was even some actual sunshine for part of my ride in, which is also weird at this time of year. and sure enough, it threw people. not one, but two different drivers ran the same me-controlled red light at the bottom of the bike path. they did it with that headless-chicken body language that says 'eek! i see the red light, but eek i've forgotten what it's for' that happens here when the sun first comes out. i forgive it more cheerfully than the standard vibe of 'i know exactly what it means, and please feel free to bite me.' i saw the first one, so the second one didn't surprise me any.

i love this immediate-post-christmas bit. when everyone comes back to the office, and they're all suddenly wearing clothes you've never seen them in before.

Patriot

Today, my commute stank 'til high heaven. We finally got some nice enough weather for me to ride to work and actually enjoy the ride. When, lo' and behold, I got a spasm in my back so bad I can hardly breathe. Every time my breathing picks up, it feels like someone is stabbing me in the back. So, I turned around after only 5mi into my commute. Suffering seemed like an understatement at the time. Ah well, nothing a little rest and a few whiskey sours can't take care of.

marqueemoon

Kind of foggy and misting this morning. Prettier than the usual drip I guess. I took a different route home from band practice tonight. It was pretty fast.

bikebuddha 

Warm commute this morning 11C. Otherwise uneventful.

ax0n

Turned my 3 mile morning commute into an 11.2 mile ride this morning. I had to ride to the next town over to drop off a parking pass that my current employer is paying for which I never use

Nice ride this morning, and I ended up on a different bus route. Waking up at 4:30 to be at work by 7:30 kind of sucks, though.

vtjim

There was a bit of a Burma Shave thing happening on the bike path this morning. (A lot of you younger people will be scratching your heads. I'm 40 and Burma Shave is even before my time.)

Anyway, written in chalk on the MUP were the following things...

CUTE DOGS = CUTE GUYS!
(a few hundred feet later)
NOT TO GENERALIZE
(a few hundred feet later)
OR CHEAPEN THE SENTIMENT

Mid 30Fs. A bit cloudy, with a light headwind. Not too bad. Plus the chalk scribblings brightened my morning.

I tried taking a couple of pictures with my lousy cell phone camera. Unfortunately they didn't turn out too well. One is of the moon in the west, and the other was an attempt to capture the sunrise, but the phone didn't get any color. Blah.