Sloppy.

That is the word which best describes the ride in. 9 days of snow with no melting followed by a sudden surge up to positive temps meant that my front wheel decided to follow its own path today. It's supposed to be warm and sunny all day, which means that it will get better in some spots, but much worse in others. I may roll up my shants for the ride home and show off my mighty calves to passersby.

Thanks cooper! It was a false alarm; looks like we'll be going to Duke tomorrow night to be induced.

re: cold feet. I used to have terrible problems with my toes even on my 5-mile commute. Then I bought these:

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?c...26%20Women%27s

Happy to report I've done my commute in 15F temps (my personal best) and had no problems at all. One warning: I have size 11 feet and bought the XL size (the largest available). The first time I put them on I barely got my feet into them. Fortunately they've stretched some, but if you have feet bigger than, say, 11.5, you're probably SOL with these.

Late. Spent half the day yesterday shovelling. Come out this morning, there is a wall of snow at the end of the driveway. Damn snowplow must have come through in the wee hours of the morning. Took me an hour to shovel it away. :(

WET. It was sprinkly yesterday am and picked up steadily since, roughly linear w/ time. Very wet going home last night, wetter yet coming in this morning (but warmer, actually; this could be one of those pineapple express things). Nontrivial headwinds too. It really was stellar the last few wks, not just 'nice', 'fine', etc... good to be reminded of that...

Interesting commute this morning - had a camaro revving it's engine behind me while I was riding through a construction zone. Once I got to a point where the bike lane started up again I moved over and off he blasted. I guess he really needed that 30 seconds. At least he didn't throw a beer bottle at me. Then near the end of my commute I was flying along (by my pokey standards) in a bike lane, and look! A construction sign that's been laid down across the bike lane. It was laid flat so it was really hard to see, even with a 20w headlight (this was well before dawn.) I swerved around it - had to leave the bike lane a bit to do so and probably gave the driver of the fire engine in that lane a heart-attack. Got back in the bike lane, stopped, walked back and moved the sign out of the bike lane. Looked up the lane, and sure enough, there was another one. And another. And another. Picked 'em all up and put them in the shoulder. Crikey.

Ride in to work this morning: Headwind, -3F, -19F windchills. High today is forecast to be 8F. Looking forward to the tailwind going home tonight :). Forecast is for upper 30s and lower 40s for highs next week. We've been in the deep freeze here in the midwest for about 3 weeks straight so I am looking forward to the warmup.

Weather is just amazing these days. About 30F in the morning and 50F in the afternoon. You would hardly know it's winter in Idaho. Morning ride was nice today. Took a different route just for grins and found a better way. Wider streets, bike lane on much of it, and very little traffic.

Yesterday's ride home OTOH was interesting. Got buzzed very close by an 18 wheeler. That was scary. Also got no right of way by a JAM in a Cherokee. He was turning left across my path.

The riding for me in the southern most part of texas has been wet, misty and cold. I had one day this week of warm weather. The winds are coming out of the north at 15 mph every morning and I can cruise to work in high gear, dodging the cars. But.....the ride home is a slow go. Over dresssing is good on the ride at the start, but a mile into the ride the lack of air is causing me to sweat. I know most of us experiances that too. My hats off to all of you for your devotion to bike riding.

I go into a lot more depth with my rides and show you pictures in my blogs that I write on my web site, so I would like to invite you to visit them when you can.

Yesterday I had a o'possum problem on the ride and I commented on that subject a little bit.

It is supposed to be 32 degrees in the morning and I will be out in it, waiting on the afternoon ride home.
We are going to be getting temps in the 70's soon, so I am needing that, for sure.

To the riders up north............Hang in there! Warm weather is coming for you. Be tough. Take Care

Deluge on Wet Coast !
 

Puddles were over my bootie top on my hour-long commute this morning. Soaked through my mec jacket, shorted out my vistalite blinker, and my activa gloves are still wet 8hrs later ! Madness I tell you.

Pulled the trigger on the Showers Pass Elite 2.0 ....let's hope it's a match for the next big rainstorm.

My commute consisted of a guy pulling up beside me at a red light in his pick up. Now remember, I live in the deep south. This guy rolls down his window and starts singing a David Allan Coe song, "If That Ain't Country." He looked at me again and said, I'll race ya. Then he spun his tires and off he went. I met up again at the next light and he rolled down his window again and said that I was too slow. Oh well. It was funny. I love the south. So many characters.

Good ride today. Dry and 40's, I'll take it. I'm getting the hang of this fixed gear. I'm remembering to position my pedals when I stop so I don't have to shuffle start. caloso, I'm trying to get one of your no foot commutes. 1 foot commute today. If only I didn't have to cross a highway I think I could get that no foot commute.

Was not out as a biker today but as a pedestrians. Cagers downtown seemed especially jack-assed today. I saw an impatient right-turner nearly take out a pedestrian who just started crossing as the signal turned to "walk" for him. And a few minutes after that I would've been taken out by a right-turner myself had I not been vigilant. This behaviour is always dumb, but with the slippery sidewalks and crosswalks it's especially idiotic. I did slip and fall today. It would've been easy to slip and fall in front of a car, and if the driver is a JAM, the results could be very unfortunate.

Did see a few bikers out though. Hurray for them. It might've been easier to be a biker than a ped today since the roads are mostly clear (unlike sidewalks), although quite narrow due to the snowbanks on the sides.

(And I'm going skiing tomorrow, yay! Should be nice with this batch of snow. :))

OMG! I just did something I have never done before.... I aborted a commute after 1 mile. Forecast is for 50F with 20-30 mph winds with 50 mph gusts. I hit one of those gusts as a crosswind and was pushed from one lane to the other in the midst of a newly formed snow drift. This is on a 5 lane heavily traveled arterial that was empty... thank goodness.
After getting the crap scared out of me I turned around and headed home. I must be turning into a wimp. :p
ugh
I was hoping for a 50 mph tailwind. :p These weather conditions are barely tolerable with clear roads.

I know you hated not riding when it's that warm. The big thaw is on along the Front Range?

It was a degree colder that yesterday's personal coldest ride. 15°F this morning. Toes cold again, all else toasty. I got a Pearl Izumi jacket (in "screaming yellow") a couple of weeks ago. It's basically just a thin shell, but man does it keep in the heat I generate, and keep out the wind!

Pretty darn cold this morning, 13°F w/ windchill. And a strong headwind the last half of the commute. Put I made it and got called a freak for riding in. At least the sun is out.

Well today will be day 3 of no commuting. I still have a broken spoke I haven't dealt with. Pretty simple to fix but I have been working OT and have been to lazy to work on this once I get home from a long day. I will go to the LBS today to get some spokes. Have a long weekend so I might get a couple rec rides in to make up for the missed miles.

As DataJunkie said today is super windy with blowing snow. The past couple days have been a little snowy and icy so not the worst days to miss. It looks like we might actually be in for a long term thaw. And my work is moving across town in 2 weeks so I'll have a new route. Exciting.

New PR for coldest temps I've ridden in. Actual temp was about 20F, windchills brought it down around 10F. My new balaclava performed very nicely, my new gloves did a pretty decent job, but dang my toes were COLD! I should get some winter cycling shoes cause wool socks aren't enough in that kind of temps.
I think a lot of motorists were freaked by seeing someone on a bike this morning. People around here just don't see that very often this time of year.

Cold, slow and slippery, but I had to get back on the bike after 2 days riding subway during rush hour (forgot how bad it is). Side streets still hard to navigate. Time to invest in a set of studded tires.

ARGH! I left for the bus and it was only breezy. This weather is driving me insane! Albeit not a very far drive. :p
However, once I walked to work from the light rail station and passed in between the three buildings in our complex, on the east side the winds picked up to around 50 mph. WTF? No wind on the east side but on the west side? ack
Okay, I'm done complaining.

Today's commute went from sloppy to merely wet. My wife was hungover [wine festival] and managed to steer into a snowbank and go down in a heap. As usual, she bounced up and jumped on the bike again. I'm going to tear down my bike this weekend and true the wheels, put a new cable on the front, replace all the pads, rotate the tires and... I think that's all.

A beautiful morning. I hope the weather holds for the ToC next week. It would be great to show the Capitol to its full advantage against a crisp blue sky.

Left the house at 6:40, swung by the office to drop off my backpack, and then headed out on the American River Bike Trail to ride for an hour before work. It's interesting how the temperature drops and the humidity rises as you leave the city and follow the misty river bottom. I was very comfortable in a longsleeve jersey and bibs with kneewarmers. My blood must be thicker or maybe I'm just a sweaty guy, but I'm amazed at how many other riders I see who look like they're dressed for Admiral Byrd's expeditiion.

Very nice this am, w/o the rain of my last 3 commute legs. I may have done a no-foot-down this morning for the 1st time (can't remember if I caught the very 1st light, 2 blocks from home). No matter, if it did happen, it won't again, I'm sure.

HardyW Good work!

Even in the steady drizzle home, saw all time record for commuters on return trip 13! Most had reasonable visability and adequate rain gear i.e., sensible riders not doing weird stuff. Rain pants and winter racing boots were caked with sand - still a comfortable ride!

variable for the past week or two. taking the bus half the way home, most days, till i get better.

but!!! more good things than bad. i notified my recruiter i won't renew this contract (should they happen to ask), so i'm just perkier at the prospect of change. and the new meds seem to be working. and the lbs straightened my derailleur again.

Nice ride in this morning. Traffic was much lighter than normal and most were acting like sane individuals. There were a few that I think may have thought they were down in Daytona, FL on the track or something, but they still gave me plenty of room.