Nice ride home. Tailwind. Fairly warm in the 50s. I took some decent pictures. Have to post them later. I stopped at a stop sign and the cager without a stop sign stopped as well. We had the stare-down until he waved me to go. Whatever dude. I went.

Sample...

vtjim- nice fall pic. The colors this time of year are spectacular in New England. The light is also terrific because of the angle of the sun. Funny that it should be so colorful as we have less and less light each day this time of year.

I had a little shorter commute (8 mile each way) and I must say I was thankful for a less than 1/2 hour commute. I'm still a little sluggish these days so I appreciated the more moderate ride. Don't know why I'm so sluggish. Probably just need a day or two away from the bike but it's my main means of transport- I suppose I could use the car once in a while but certainly not for my commute. A colleague from work drives in from about a 1/4 mile from my house and goes the way I would go in were I to drive. I asked him:

• How long it takes him- 30 mins - 1 hour+ By bike it takes me from 28 minutes to 45 minutes door to door.
  
• Where he parks and what it costs per month?: Our parking is subsidized by our employer- (I wish my bike ride was!) but it still costs him $175/month- our employer pays another $175.!
  
• He takes the Mass pike, a toll road, it is $2/each way.

Parking and tolls alone equals almost $2500 for the year and my employer is out another $2100 on top of that! That's $4600 not including gas, wear and tear on the car, insurance etc., for one person to drive their car. Wow. It never quite hit home until I asked him. I should video us leaving the same building, intercut with him in his car and me on the bike. I'd probably get home before him and I could have a running tally, like the national debt clock, clicking away under each of us. It's amazing.

All that and I get the beautiful fall colors and peace and quiet of the Charles River and he gets stuck in traffic on the Mass Pike.

Fun wet ride home from DC on the WO&D. Usually don't ride in the rain, but I thought I would try it now that I have fenders. They worked great, but still got soaked from the rain. Went from East Falls Church Metro to Vienna, then back roads home. (I cheated, took the Metro from DC to East Falls Church).

Found out raincoat leaks, stayed warm most of the ride, but was starting to chill around 8 miles.

-- John

Nice ride both ways, until I got 2 blocks from home. Had an oncoming police officer flash his headlights at me, and then whoop his siren at me to pull over. I think the officer driving behind him recognized me and that's why he moved on. Go ahead, give me a ticket for being visible, rookie. Arrrgh.

ride in today was wet- but I was relatively dry. I still need a new rain jacket, though.

did some errands on the way home and rode into a blustery headwind. Then I went to the bike shop and bought $200+ worth of stuff for my bike and my wife's bike. Didn't buy a rain jacket.

Thought I'd stock up on inner tubes while I was there and came home and my rear bike tire went flat as soon as I brought it in.

Was out this morning at 9am. 41f sunny. Wore jeans/leggings with shoe covers. Rainjacket/Shell, cotton gloves, thin balaclava. Was comfortable. Afternoon, 3pm, 55f sunny. Rainjacket,shorts,tights, weather was nice. Riding was nice.
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Chilly here this morning - 32F when I left the house. I wore usual MTB shorts with leg warmers, base layer, long sleeve jersey and reflective vest on top. After initial warm up did fine until I got my toes wet crossing creek. Made the last 6 miles of the commute with chilly feet but otherwise a good commute.

All in all not bad for my first cold weather commute.

PS: There are deer moving around EVERYWHERE along my route and I expect to hit one eventually. Hopefully it will not injure either of us.

My first negative temp commute (-1°C) Meh - not much different than the +1 last week. No ice encountered yet (good thing too). Next time I will wear some forehead and ear protection (I forgot this morning and didn't want to go back).

Nice ride again, got caught at a few too many lights.

Wife is pushing me to buy myself a car...................

Coldest commute of the season, and first sub-freezing. 27F/-3C. No frost though. Blue/pink sky from the sunrise and a light wind that kept switching from head to tail.

I had just started out this morning and there were 3 deer standing in my neighbor's driveway. I stopped pedaling to see what they'd do. I got surprisingly close before two trotted across the street, hooves clicking, in front of me and into the trees, and the third turned and went the other way down the driveway.

Here are the commute pictures I took on Friday.

Nice ride, 49 degrees F and hardly any wind. It's the coldest ride I've done so far (I know some of you are probably rolling your eyes but it's been in the 80s around here until yesterday). I wore shorts and a long sleeve technical shirt and I was fine.

Chilliest morning of the year so far in NC, but it felt great. Having the right clothes makes a huge difference. I was very comfortable wearing jersey with wicking t-shirt, vest, arm warmers and tights over my bib shorts. Hardly sweated a drop and wasn't cold either.

Today was my first bike commute since October 17, my longest stretch off the bike this year. Various events conspired to keep me from riding, including 3 straight days of heavy showers, the most rain we've had this year after months of drought. It felt great to be back on my bike and my legs were fresh.

This was also my first commute using my new Fenix L2D flashlight. They actually sent me the wrong light as I ordered the Premium model, but the regular version is brighter than the Cygolite I had been using. Fenix is supposed to be sending me a Premium model in the mail, but I'll continue using this light until it arrives. The Fenix weighs so little that I might actually order a second one for additional light. One thing I like about my Cygolite is that it has two bulbs so you always have a backup if one goes out. Carrying two Fenix lights would still be substantially lighter than my Cygolite and much brighter.

Had to dig out some winter stuff --- @28F when I started out this morning, up to a whopping 30F right now. And had the full lights on too. Wasn't bad at all, but I must say my nice warm bed was soooo hard to get out of this morning knowing it's still jet black outside and supposedly had a frost last night.

However, the 32 lb bulky backpack this morning wasn't fun. I'm doing a one man show on commuting today at an event for college. Several other vendors/groups there that has to do with health, recycling, etc. And me, as a rep from my bike club, for commuting and the darn good health of it all!

Of course I have lots of good literature, including some handy dandy handouts on NYS driving laws pertaining to bicyclists, oh and maybe an article I copied written by a bicyclists, entitled "Open Letter to Drivers" and other good bits of info referencing the health benefits of bicycling as well as the non pollution aspect, etc.

And I have my winter clothing, tools, etc as part of my presentation.

Sure will be glad to go home with a regular sized backpack!

Chilly morning - 29 F - I think the coldest so far this year. I am certainly not complaining as it is already late Oct and usually those temps come on much earlier. My list of "things I should get for winter" keeps growing - new light, hat for under the helmet, new pedals, new bell.

My first below freezing ride of the year, yay! I'm not riding the entire morning commute completly in the dark, which is kind of nice in a strange sort of way.

I need to get myself another Super flash, but Nashbar.com doesn't have them listed anymore
Planetbike says they're out of stock...they have a Blink 7 but I dont know how those compare :/

Edit: Nevermind, BikeTireDirect.com has the Superflashes

The ride in today was fine until my wife and I took the shortcut down the alley. There was a big truck with a forklift and half a dozen guys completely blocking the way. I said "We should head back", which my wife interpreted as "we should squeeze through", which she did. I ended up looping back around the block and sitting in traffic for at least two more light cycles.

I shoulda squeezed.

Cold, but nice. Probably low 40s.

First commute in after getting a new wheel set, a tune up and brake pads replaced. Wow...felt like a whole new bike.

First ride of more than 4 miles in a couple weeks. Thank Jeebus that my riding buddy was in recovery too.

It was 18F when I left.
I! Need! Better! Gloves!

It was a nice cool 64F on the way in. I expect high 90s on the way home, was 97F yesterday at 4pm

Al

Reading through these latest posts, I feel like a complete weather wimp. It was in the upper-40's but windy. I had on arm warmers, knee warmers, a base layer, a jersey, a vest and a reflective vest over that. Go ahead and laugh. It's probably shorts and t-shirt weather for some of you. Later on this winter when I get used to the "cold", that will be enough for temps in the 30's but right now I'm cold, especially with a brisk headwind!

4:30am 37f A taste of things to come! Fingers were cold with the cheap 99 cent cotton work gloves I use. And I think I've reached the limit on my thin balaclava, anything lower and I'll switch to my fleece balaclava. Other than that I felt comfortable. Afternoon, 56f nice and cool. Almost perfect riding weather. Took the Bikepath down to Whetstone Park and made my way back up North. No hurry to get home. Enjoyed the sunny weather. Everyone at work asked me how the ride in was. I replied "Good, I enjoy having 161 all to myself". They were wondering if I froze. And I said "other than my fingers getting cold I was alright". I'm waiting to get the gloves I ordered from Sierra Trading Post, that should solve that problem. I was at Performance on Saturday and they had a similar pair for $29. https://www.sierratradingpost.com/p/,57460_.html
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We just found out someone got shot in broad daylight in the street in front of my office building today... wish me luck on the ride home.

Yikes! Be careful!

One of possible drawbacks of a flexible schedule is that your sleeping habits can go completely crazy. I've been trying to make them more normal later, which meant I didn't have enough sleep last night and really slogged through the day... and through riding. It's kind of nice to slow down sometimes though, but feels weird when so many other cyclists are passing you. I did turn it up a couple of notches at the end of the ride home though, to keep up with auto traffic where it made good sense.

took the subway to and from...didn't feel like riding