I actually got hit by passing car's mirror today. Brushed me on the hip. No harm. I got a partial plate number. Gave chase to get a complete number - or better still confront him - but lost him climbing a hill. And the crazy thing is I still had a good time. :)

Cool but uneventful ride this morning.

I almost got plowed by a Minivan pulling out of a Gas Station. But at least they were kind enough to wave after I hit the brakes and slid up next to them. I love friendly ignorant people.

Absolutely great!!! 31 degrees, wind to my back, smooth cadence, strong legs, big lungs, smile on my face the whole way in. Gotta love the good days.

18.2mph for 43 miles. My new hydration pack is working great. I love the things (Thank you wife).

I am back! It feels good to have found my stones again. :p
I set a new low temp record for myself of 5F. My goodness I was getting all kinds of odd looks on the train. I guess it did not help that I was dressed in less clothing than half of people on the train.
The new all street route went fairly well considering the interesting industrial areas it goes through. I miss my trail! It should be faster when I am not dealing with cold temps and all the clothing I need for it. Felt like I was riding into a brick wall this morning. Still, 15 miles in 45 minutes is not too bad being that I was going slower to avoid ice slicks. Hopefully, the street I had to walk down on my return trip is finally safe this time. 1 foot of compacted snow and ice and 1 foot of slush on top of that was annoying 2 weeks ago.

Got into a shouting match with a motorist today.
I won't go into the details 'cause I'm still seething w/ anger and I'll spare you the profanities.
:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

snowy and icy again this am; this is the 4th straight day of below-freezing temps for this area, which is a lot! the studded nashbar/kenda tires are well worth it.

Bah! 19F isn't as cold as it used to be. Wore l/s silk undershirt, merino wool t-shirt and merino wool l/s polo shirt and a ski jacket shell. All pretty light stuff and I was still sweaty when I got to work. Also wore a balaclava that was warm, but didn't wick off sweat as evidenced by my sweaty head and neck. However, LL Bean flannel lined pants, silk longjohns and smartwool socks are the bees knees. The ride in itself was the usual w/ an extra round the block trip thrown in b/c I forgot my backpack the first time.

It was 23F this morning with the 'Real Feel' of 10F, which made me think twice about riding. I decided that it wouldn't be that bad with the balaclava, wool socks, and ski gloves, and I was right! My toes and fingers were a bit chilly but warmed up after a warm shower.

Finally some cold weather and wind on yesterdays commute. Black ice on the bike path but the studded snows glide over it like Sonja Henie.

I was warm as toast from top to bottom. Barely a bike on the path. Nice to have it all to myself.

Looking forward to a chilly ride this a.m.

We got about 4" of fluffy snow overnight, which resulted in accidents all over the city. :rolleyes: As usual, riding in snow is fun and easy until you get to a place where cars have been. At that point the mounds of grey slop conspire to drag you down into the salty mush. More snow is forecast for the day, so it should be an interesting ride home.

21/14 ('real feel') this AM. Wore a base layer, shorts, tights, LS jersey and a wind proof shell. My core was warm enough, although it felt cool in the wind. Wore a balaclava for the first time - it's prety light weight, and could have been warmer, but my ears/chin were warm enough. I had it over my mouth to start, but that was too bothersome. I just put on more Chapstick and pushed on.

I don't have my Answer Kashmirs yet, so I wore SmartWool socks, sealskins under my MTB shoes and Gator neoprene shells on top. Feet were a little cool, but not uncomfortable.

I can't figure out the glove situation to save my life. The PI shells/polypro liners were too cold, so I got a pair of PI lobster gloves......and couldn't find one of them this morning. Damn! I needed to leave (or bail and drive), so I grabbed a pair of sealskinz gloves and put them in my PI shells....it was painful. I even had to stop at a gas station to warm my hands about 45 minutes into the ride. Since it'll be warmer on the ride home, I'll be OK, but I've GOT to fix the glove situation......

Ice everywhere this morning, but I'm 100% commute by bike so far this year.

Usually I have to run a gauntlet of middleschoolers on the trail I use. Usually they act like it's a huge inconvenience to move out of the way or occupy less than 150% of the width. Usually the skateboarders try one last trick before they allow bike passage.

Today there was a small group that watched me approach, I cautiously eyed them expecting a smartass remark or stupid move. They just smiled and one of them said "Have a nice day". I was flummoxed.

Then as I hopped the curb to continue on the street, a pair of girls shouted out "Good job riding your bike to work!" and "Thanks for sparing the air!".

What is WITH these kids today?

imagine kids being aware of environmental issues. My kids are pretty in tune with it too. Hope for the future? Now if only they knew what a belt was, or a sizing chart. :lol:

Thanks! :)

I didn't ride yesterday, only because I doubted my road tyres performance on the layers of snow, frozen snow, ice, frozen rain and hail. I went and collected my knobbies and switched them out ready for today, and rode in this morning.

Firstly, man what a difference I notice in the amount of work I had to do to maintain the same speeds. I was keeping a 22/23mph (maybe 35-37km/h?) pace nicely going south on Spadina but it sure felt like a LOT of work. Of course, I went and swapped my tyres around and the roads are mostly clear today - but I hear more snow is on it's way, so I'll stick with the knobbies (Kenda something or other, they came with the bike).

I ride up to my nightclass tonight, too, which I did a test run of on Monday night and seemed very easy going, had a driver beeping me going north on Spadina, I was taking the lane (favouring the cleaner road vs. the door/icepack zone) and I looked back a couple times, shrugged my shoulders and said "What do you want me to do? What?" and carried on. Nothing was ever said, but it made me wonder what the person was trying to achieve. In this case I was riding a LOT slower than the traffic due to the conditions, but hell, I feel I have as much right to be there as they do.

I was almost being backed into by one of those lovely HUGE BMWs who apparently doesn't know how to check their mirrors. I was getting my bike ready to roll having just been into a store and then onto the road surface, trying not to slip/fall, in between two parked cars and the BMW was idling outside of the store waiting for whoever inside. Once the girl coming back to the car had decided how to get into the car, they proceeded to back up toward me. I had to pick my bike up off the road (it was perpendicular to traffic, too - so wasn't like I was wasting space) and I yelled "WHOA holy efff what the hell?!" but to no avail. This all happened within a couple minutes, and it was like anything else - just brush it off.

Other than that, had a great ride home, played chase to a car on a small side street - gave me a chance to feel the bike out with higher speeds in the weather, the driver, who was dutifully slowing for the stop signs seemed to be getting irritated that I kept behind him, each subsequent stop sign would be more engine revving and aggressive starts, heh. I was behind him, just using him as a chase-goal :) Thanks, buddy! :)

Edit: New temp. commute is ~3 miles, this morning took 13 mins ride time. Easily a ~10 min. ride in more favourable conditions. I'm now starting to look at how to increase that to around a 10 mile trip.

I can only get warm hands if my body is not enough to sweat a little. So for me, cold hands = another body layer. But I agree with you. Cold hands can be downright painful. It's like "Get out of my way, I'll run over you before I squeeze a brake with these brittle and cold fingers."

No commute today. My turn to take the kids and wife downtown in the minivan.

Another commute lost due to another cold my 4 year old brought home from somewhere. The rest of the week is up in the air at this point.

Cool! I keep getting impressed by your numbers. And to ride at this speed on the streets we have now, you gotta be pretty brave! I am simply afraid to go over 25 km/h at any point, knowing that my brakes can freeze at any time or that I could hit a patch of black ice... Chicken, I know. :)

Wise move. I should take out my "winter bike" for a test spin (I bought it used, fixed it up and have only ridden about 5 km total on it - not enough to have confidence in its mechanical reliability). I'm just so lazy... I think I should take this bike down to a nearby gravel snowy bike path, and if it can be ridden there, it can handle the roads. :)

Morons. I wish I somehow could figure out a way not to get too mad about honks like that. Most people who issue them are probably not even bad people, just ignorant, but hell, they've no excuse to be ignorant, they've got a license, so they're supposed to know stuff about driving and rights of other road users. And given that in winter I wear those weird lobster-claw mitts, I can't even give them the bird! :D

Uh-oh. I was in a similar situation in a car - and it is scarier in a car. I was basically stuck between this backing truck on the driveway in front of me and a busy road behind me. Can't grab the car and duck onto the sidewalk they way you can with a bike... Fortunately a honk did attract the truck driver's attention. (Once again I recommend AirZound - except it doesn't work so well at low temps).

LOL, those are funny. It's even funnier when you're in front of them - as I was on Shaw St. one day (it has lots of speed bumps). The driver just couldn't believe that he could not pass a cyclist! He kept revving up his engine and accelerating - only to brake sharply before a speed bump - and I just kept going. Almost fell off the bike laughing. :D

Considering moving or finding an alternative route?

WOW. With knobbies, on snowy/slushy/icy roads, wearing winter gear???

What gears are you riding when you're doing that pace? What kind of bicycle and terrain?

Cold ride this morning..29 F but very smooth...effortless almost. Last night riding home almost hit by a deer. It ran half way onto the road, then spun on a dime and whizzed out of sight. Fast and agile but not smart. Temp at 36 F as I prepare for ride home.

Where did this occur?
I think it may be time to start complaining to authorities. The drivers in the Alpharetta area are getting worse every day.

Biked in w/ the 5 yr old today, lots of fun.

Coming home last night I made it half the way fine, but then had to stop every 1/4 mile or so to scrape slush out of cassette and derailers. Never really fully satisfactory solution. Was dreading 2" layer of ice this am, but by the time I got on the road, it was mostly back to slush again.

Not a post about riding, but finally I cleaned up my bike, washing off all the slush and salt it has been ridden through the last couple of days, relubing and applying generous amounts of WD-40 here and there. I do keep wondering though what is the point of going to all this trouble of cleaning if the bike will get as dirty almost as soon as I take it out again (relubing I understand, at least)... :D

Ride home was cooler and less sweaty than this morning despite it being slightly warmer (29F vs 19F). The difference was the balaclava. Got passed by a guy riding a white GT frame fixie w/ excellent taste in jackets (had the same jacket I have, but wasn't wearing mine).