The ride to work was lovely, I made some adjustments to my 3-speed hub and it shifted great, no slipping out of gear, no clumsy shifts. Until the really hard hill to the parking lot of work, then something slipped and the little chain pulled out of the hub. I spent some time at work trying to fix it, but with no real tools it was essentially a no go. So I rode home in the highest gear imaginable. If I ever want to grow huge thighs/balls I will ride in that gear all the time.

A couple degrees below freezing, jacket opened slightly.... lovely ride in. The slop is mostly picked up/disintegrated.

Yeah, I've moved temporarily to Bloor/Ossington area, so my ride in is very short. I'm actually moving a little more west on Roncesvalles - so once settled in there, I'll be able to make use of High Park in part of my rides.

Spadina Av. is a pretty big artery, so most of the snow/slush/ice was only on the sides of the road, the road surface was basically clear, so it was plain sailing.

I ride a Dyno Victory (XMart cheap MTB) with what I would guess is pretty standard 21-speed MTB gearing (I think my 7th cog is a 12, no idea on my FD size sorry). The sprint I did at that speed wasn't for long, maybe a mile at most (Spadina/Harbord -> Spadina/Richmond).

Last night I had just started out from work and cranked it up on Adelaide toward Spadina (to head back north) and lept it into 7th, the chain jumped and got jammed between the cassette and frame, joy. Easy enough to fix, but got me worried for a second it was more serious.

Good ride upto my class last night, only my U-lock (OnGuard) fell out of it's mount and half the bottom plastic casing broke off, which I collected from the road along with the lock. I'll have to ask them re: warranty on that one. The lock fell off AGAIN this morning on Harbord, which leads me to think that the locking mechanism that holds it in the mount is broken. Not a big deal to keep it in the backpack, but still, not ideal.

I learned that knobbies don't cut through the snow/crap on the ground any better than my road tyres do, as I was getting some drifting/tracking going on, though I'm sure they grip much better generally. I'm not swapping back to test that, though

I raced an artic (semi) this morning from College/Spadina south to at least Dundas or Queen, he was in the centre-most lane, I was behind some right turning cars on the right. Realizing there was a lot of traffic both behind the truck and behind me, I let it rip to allow them to skip around the slower accelerating truck. Managed to hit 24mph (38km/h I think) for sure (didn't see a 25, but it might've got there), which beat me up pretty good (sprints were never my thing ) for a casual coast into work from Richmond/Spadina down to Camden, across to Brant and south to King.

At least I beat the semi..

Seems around 13 minutes is my current commute, so I'm in that weird "just getting warmed up and into it" stage by the time I get to work, so the sprints I try to do just for the work. I like to ride as fast as I can in order to keep up with traffic, as I believe it's way less of a danger with the lower speed differential. My schedule right now doesn't allow for much alternation of that short trip (2.5 mi or so), but tonight I get to do a bit more - I'm going back upto where I used to live - that might suck on knobbies, going up Sherbourne

knobbies aren't designed to cut through anything.... shovel, grip at, and generally push against...yes
In traffic carry your lock either on hip(messer style), or in your bag , having it bounce under you can be dangerous. No streets in Toronto suck with knobbies....maintain your air pressure. Let a little out if it's storming snow and you'll be riding ON the snow with more knobbie contact to prevent slipping..

No new snow overnight, but things were considerably colder. I got to work okay, but there was a woman in the vacant office across from me! I've been using that office as a change room for the last month or so, but I had to go change in the bathroom instead. Oh well...

Stall changing is an art form...
pinkrobe I think you have too many bikes, as a public service...you know the rest..

an '06 Fabian? Is that what I think it is?

Boring this week. Same weather every day. 10F in the morning and 25 to 30F on the way home. Took the road bike today for a change. It's about 16lbs lighter, but strangely enough I didn't arrive any faster.

The air is more dense when cold, requiring more effort to ride.

Whew, slush mostly gone, back to benign mist/fog. Flat going home last night (rear), flat coming in this morning (front). At least this morning's was at home, so I took the opportunity to change the rim tape (11mm to 17mm, though it's true the 11mm was still rock-solid; I wonder why my rear rim takes in so much water and the matching front does not?)

Chilly but clear and calm. No feet down on the way to work, including a nice rocking trackstand at Alhambra and T Street.

You rode in? All three blocks? Wow!
The rain jacket and new gloves work good, but the rain drops on the visogogs and glasses were getting old.

I was also thinking about snow bikebuddha--this 31.5°F and rain doesn't do much for me. I want snow!

That sounds pretty cool. On days when MUPs are not snowed in, you could do a couple of warm-up loops of High Park and then ride on Martin Goodman trail.

I think the general consensus is that those plastic attachments are just too flimsy and will fall apart unless you only ride smooth MUPs at 10 km/h.

What I do with my U-lock is bungee-cord it to the rack. I know bungees do break eventually, but even if that happens, given the way I put it in, the U-lock is unlikely to fall out, it'll just start rattling like crazy (don't ask me how I know ).

Cool! I notice I usually go faster when there is traffic around, especially when I'm taking the lane. Everything just goes more smoothly when speed differential is smaller. Also I think maybe the prey instict kicks in (where I'm the prey, I mean ). And I'm guess I'm concentrating on the traffic dynamics and not noticing the pain as much... Sometimes in those situations I find myself doing things I didn't know I was capable of (like going at 32 km/h up the Yonge hill toward St. Clair... I thought my bike computer's gone cuckoo...)

Ride home included some light wintry mix stuff (not quite snow, not quite rain). Good thing I put the fenders on the fixie. Was still clean when I got home. Tomorrow's supposed to be more of the same so it's a good thing I work from home Fridays.

Mine was VERY wet and windy today. Most of you in London will know what i'm talking about!

Covered about 30 miles today altogether, and the funny thing is that even though I am completely soaked through and knackered, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride today (minus hairy moments when sudden gusts nearly knocked me down in central London traffic

An added bonus was whizzing past guys on roadies through london on my knackered raleigh mtb! Ok, i know it's not a race, but it's annoying how some assume that since i'm on a mtb i must be slow and proceed to cut me up while i'm waiting at a light. Those nice road bikes are wasted on amateur riders!

8MPH up the big hill in the morning and 34MPH down the big hill tonight. Sweet.

about 17F this am but warmed up to around 30F for the ride home. A mix of snow and rain.

tonight 2 rats ran across the path in front of me. My response never fails to crack me up. I see them, feel my face involuntarily grimace into disgust , they run off, I shiver and go, "yecch!!" and shake my head like I can't believe their audacity.

I prefer the suicidal rabbits I encounter a little closer to home

Other than that a pleasant, albeit damp, ride.

I couldn't commute today and the day just IS NOT complete without it as you all know. Just had to be said.

Didn't have to go in until 11AM today. I expected to have problems with agressive drivers in the heavier traffic on my route to work at that time of day, but I was not close passed once. Almost every driver gave me the whole lane. It was like I rode into an alternate reality. Back to O' dark thirty tomorrow. Ride home was at the usual time with no problems, except the bike developed a sort of "headshake" when I was riding without my hands on the bars. Gotta figure out whats causing that.

MY first real snow commute today. Still got a thick layer of ice on the back roads I ride to work. I bought some Nokian 120 Extremes and they seemed to work pretty good. Ah, but the way home-dark, windy, snowing-I was all over the place. The tires felt kinda loose on the new snow. Good for me there was not too much traffic. The bike path I use is a maze of frozen footprints. Had to find an alternate route. What an adventure!



:^)

here, have ours . . . no really, i'm done with it

i get a little savage and bitter the days i slog through four inches of snow to get to work, then find most of the people i'm working with live in The Flat Place Where The Airplanes Go where no snow has fallen. seems unfair somehow, especially when they have no idea [wrist to brow] what i've been through [/wrist to brow] just to get there and spend the day installing every progressive patch since 2004. no respect, is all i'm saying.

this morning's snow was the other kind, that we haven't had yet: the super-wet, super-slithery kind. i guess it snowed those four inches, then rained on top of it for a couple of hours, and then it was doing a very faint mix of the two by the time i set out. the roads on my side of town were a mess. my kid set out for school (twice) and waited a few hours for buses that never came, then came home both times. my morning ride was actually pretty fun, in spite of the slithering. it wasn't that cold, wasn't raining/snowing too hard, and by the time i got to the bridge i was in the clear spot again anyway. however, my gears were slipping like crazy all the way in, and even the granny gear on bare road felt like work, so either i'm sick or my bike is. i took the part-bus option again coming home; partly because of that and partly also because my shoes were still soaked from the morning and my toes aren't taking it well.

balmy 36f and a tailwind. pushed the studded tires at an average of 16mph for the 6 mile ride in. awesome!

I was watching my 3 year old at home yesterday so no commute. I did manage to teach him how to use a mouse and found a few toddler oriented game sites on the web. Boy does he love coloring online.

Anyhow, this morning was nice and cool as usual, 6F. My heavy weight poly long john top and merion wool cycling jersey combo is turning out to be a tad warm for me. I still find it bizarre that after a 15 mile ride to the light rail station I have to strip down out of my top layers in almost 0 degree weather to keep from overheating. After 5 minutes I have to put my clothes back on to avoid getting too cold. I wonder if anyone else have this problem?

data...at 6 degrees you are wearing waaaaay too much clothing. I wear poly jersey, thinish poly long sleeve (sometimes even a cotton tee material long sleeve) and my shell. Long johns and wool don't need to be out til well below zero, no wonder your overheating I'd be drippin'. I'd be opening the pitzips as well.

Sub 10F and my legs freeze in just tights. As for the torso, this is the first week using wool. I am used to regular jerseys and layer appropriately. Next time I will try without the long john top.

Wool is freaking awesome! I need more.
I take a month off and forget how to layer. Go figure....

danka

Also, I overheat in 60F with just a jersey and shorts. I think there may be more to my overheating than the clothing I am wearing.

Hold on wait a minute.....degrees F.... opps..nevermind...let me do a conversion and get back to ya.
*makes the international symbol for I'm-a-loser on my forehead*

ok 10F= -12C Instead of the tee material long sleeve I'll have a none winterized zipup over the poly. My shell kicks butt and no air gets in unless i want it to.