Drizzly and mid-thirties on the ride in this morning. It could have been worse, I suppose, as I woke up to a torrential downpour.

My "avoid-the-main-thoroughfares-at-all-costs" route has been decimated by pot-holes this winter. :(

Usually I don't commute Mondays and tuesdays as the wife works, today is an exception, I got home for lunch and it was 70 degrees in FEBRUARY!!! So I ate quick and road my new road bike in, took 23 minutes to go 7.5 miles, fastest ever for me, nearly 20mph avg!! So as maryland weather is ever changing, it was 45, windy and raining on the way home, took 27 minutes, not bad considering on my winter commuter I take 28 mintes on the best of days.

Raining here, all the ice is gone. Probably should have pumped some more air into the tires. I'm still commuting on the mtb with studs, both because you never know what happens during the day, the ride home might be on ice and because it's my only bike with fenders. During the weekend I did however inflate the tires on one of the road fixies (700x23c). Man what a difference hard narrow tires make. I think I'll get some poser fenders for that thing and use it for a good weather commuter in summer.
The mtb got a speedometer and power grips over the weekend. The speedometer is there mostly to whip me on, if it's there I'll become obsessed with keeping the avg speed up. Today with the studs I made the trip in 22 minutes, avg speed of 19,5km/h (hilly terrain). That's almost up to last summers avg speed, but with studded tires. I think the hard trips during winter have paid off in better shape. Now I'm excited to put the slicks on and see what I can do on them. Better wait another month though, weather is bound to turn. The Power grips seemed nice on the first trip. I could feel that I was pulling the pedals up and I didn't feel trapped in them.
I realize what 19,5km/h does not seem like much, but it's what I'm doing these days. In my defence, the commute does include a fair bit of climbing and downhills where I can't really build up much speed. I do a bit better on the road bike, but without significant flats or fast downhills it's not a whole lot of difference. Now it sounds like I'm obsessed about this :D

I had a 20+ mph tailwind on the way home from work. That was a fun ride.

34 degrees hot hot hot hot hot hot

Great ride in this morning, this on a dinner of bbq pork rinds and a bloody mary (I had a terrible craving for this, what can I say?). I woke up with terrible heartburn, a stomach ache, and a little dehydrated--go figure.

Just below freezing, but almost no wind. The Historian accompanied me on the ride to my carpool before he headed back home.

Back to seasonable here--just above freezing with a stout little headwind.

Was treated to a beautiful "moonset" this morning, though. Nearly full, I caught a couple of glimpses of the whole thing. Mostly, though, it was backlighting some long, low clouds. Would have stopped to marvel longer but I, insect that I am, had to be on about my own business.

WIndy. I witnessed two accidents on the way home yesterday. Sigh, why can't people learn to drive.

The weather is getting nicer week by week. Yesterday the high reached the mid-70s, but I didn't ride because it was raining when I got up and forecasters said it would continue all day. They were wrong. Big surprise. The sun was out my late morning and it was a gorgeous day, although windy. I did ride this morning and it was a great ride in. The mornings are getting much brighter and pretty soon I won't need my headlight to see at all. I'm looking forward to the day when I can wear something other than one of my yellow or neon jerseys. My red jerseys are very visible in daylight, but not when it's dark or dim outside.

The hard part about dressing now is wearing clothes that are warm enough for the morning commute, but not too hot for the afternoons. Somedays my seatbag is more full riding home than going to work because of all the layers I've had to shed for the afternoon ride.

Annoying ride this morning.

Pulled up to a light today and the guy in the truck behind me rolled down (I'm assuming, since it was fairly cool out) his window to yell something about the sidewalk. Unfortunately, I lost it.

[I'm first at the light, not taking the lane. He's behind me with room to pull up beside if he chose.]

me: You're a big man in the cage M.F.
him: stunned look
me: shakes head
him: mumbles to himself
me: turns back around
him: puts truck in park
me: does a casual check to make sure he's still in the car
me: "P*ssy"
me: notices the suit in the car beside me... oddly, not really watching the interaction.
him: stunned look
me: turns back around
him: opens the door, gets one leg out and postures like he's going to do something
me: shakes head... "P*ssy"
him: gets back in the car

light turns green, I ride away and he squeals his tires as he makes a right turn behind me.


--------

I wish I'd either ignored him, or thrown the bike down and walked over as soon as he cracked the door.

He seemed to be annoyed that I was blocking his right-turn. The ironic thing is I would have moved further right and motioned him by if he'd kept his mouth shut. I frequently do this if I'm first in line...

It was a warm, sunny weekend, and the snow is off the roads! Mostly. Regardless, the switch to slicks was worth it. That was an easy ride in! Taking almost 3 pounds of rotating weight off of the bike makes such a difference when trying to sprint through traffic.

Neil F. prepared a route for me back to his place and my car after I rode with him to his carpool. The route was very good, aside from the large patches of ice along Plainfield Avenue. I came closer than I like to a New Jersey Transit bus while climbing the hill to the intersection of Plainfield and Central Avenue. Filtering was decidedly a bad decision in that case - I should have dismounted and walked.

Longer than has been typical lately, took both kids to their respective destinations for the 1st time since fall. 32F, slippery on the back deck, but no ice on the road. Lotta fog though. After dropping Thing 2 at her downtown daycare, I was going to take the main drag out of town to work, but decided w/ the fog to double back and take MUP, less likely to be randomly collided by cagers. Success, no collision.

I was wondering whether slicks would work this week... I'm thinking I need to get back out there! (Hey, I'm a west-coaster, you've gotta give me a few winters to get used to this stuff).

Anyway, was wondering which bike to bring out - it is something of an adventure to get into the shed and then back across the thawing-dog-poo minefield of the yard with a bike, and I don't really want to do it more than once!

Choices are: random mountain bike with knobbies (there's 3, I'll grab whichever is on the outside; none have rack or fenders), road bike with slicks (also sans rack & fenders, but I have some that will fit it), or old trusty Raleigh (with medium grippy tires, but steel rims - already set up with rack & fenders though). Thoughts?

Bus commuting sucks, by the way. You know you're a bike commuter when you spot someone out there in -50C windchill and think "hmmm.... wonder what he's using for a base layer... and how he's stopping his cables from freezing..." rather than "oh my god, that man is dangerously insane." :D And when you calculate how far you could have ridden in the time you have been waiting for the bus, taking the headwind into account, and realize you'd be there already... :mad:

you do know this is just a tease, right? Mother nature will kick us in the collective cajones with something brutal in the months to come.

Buglady, I'm still riding knobbies just because I hate switching back and forth. This week a bike with slicks will do just fine. I like my fenders, rack et al so I am prepared for anything.

Gotta love it when it's this warm in Feb.

I ride more or less a hybrid part slick part off road no knobbies. Town and Country are great tyres.

Absolutly perfect on the way in. That nice chill in the air, no breeze, that awesome sound of nature just before dawn.

...the way home. sucked. Cold. rainy. miserable. So i hopped on light rail, only for it to go one stop, then the conductor tells everyoen to get off, their having trouble, another tain will be by in half an hour to an hour. So i had to get back out in the rain and force myself home.

*I now have an emergency poncho on my bike

3 weeks into my trial 4 weeks as a bike commuter - and I'm getting faster! This morning I got to the bus stop in 45 min (vs. 55 min my first week). (OK, so today I hit all the lights, but still!) And home in 60, uphill the whole way.

Chilly in the morning with a fog set in. It is too warm usually for a balaclava, but I wore it into town knowing that fog is deceiving--my cheeks were glad I did. Fog burned off in the afternoon so riding around town was pleasant during my lunch break. Traffic treated my kindly. The ride home was dark and warm, and wearing jeans did not hamper my natural heating/cooling system, so the ride was comfortable. the hills really didn't faze me much tonight, and I am happy for that because my back has been acting up lately. Pulling a muscle swing dancing will keep me wincing for another week...

None today. I took a personal holiday for the Tour of California. Coincidentally, Stage 2 finished right in front of my building.

A absolute beautiful day here. Sunny clear day with snow in the surrounding hills. Much too nice not to ride. Too bad I had to work. The drunks must have been out in force over the long weekend, glass everywhere. Thank goodness for kevlar tires.

Riding in company with the moon again this morning, though it was mostly obscured by clouds (and for you Pink Floyd afficionados, I was actually think/playing an old Beatles song to myself, Mr. Moonlight).

A bit colder (mid-20s F) and calm. Forecast has a snow advisory up for this afternoon. Rain/snow mix, and probably for the rest of the week. And due to UPS's monolithic, faceless, corporate inefficiency, my long-awaited Nokians have been driving around without me for the past week or so. I should actually have them in my hands later today, so they may well get right to work.

<sigh> I wish I was still humming along quietly in the moonlight...

Another nice day in NC -- chilly this morning (low 30s F) but warming this afternoon (low 60s). The wind is the big factor. Yesterday we had sustained winds in the 20s and gusts over 30 mph, which made for a pleasant ride home. It was calm this morning but the wind is supposed to pick up again later today. It was so much brighter this morning that I didn't need my light to see by, so I put it on a lower setting to conserve batteries. I also wore a red jersey for the first time in a while, as I try to wear yellow or neon jerseys when riding in the dim light and it's been dark every morning for quite some time.

I just did my first commute of my life this morning. It is 12 miles to the University of Tennessee campus from my house. It felt really good!

Hey srober19, welcome aboard!

The ride in today was nice. It was calm, just below freezing and quick. I'm remembering how to spin again! LOL

Great ride this morning - clean bike and dry roads for a change.

Brrr... a tad cold (-11C), or i was a tad underdressed. Heavy fog too, very patchy.

Industrial sized staple + rear tire= Flat.

That and my backup pump is almost garbage. Time to replace my defunct road morph.

Very nice. No jacket. Did stop for full-finger gloves though. Fog but no ice.