W00+! SNOW! Finally, I have an excuse to be late for work. :D I put the studs on and had no problems on the snow and ice. I must admit, those tires are heavy. Going from 225 g road tires to 700+ g knobs with studs was a big adjustment. They are much harder to get up to speed. Regardless, I need to find some decent fenders to keep the spray off, so a trip to MEC after work is in order.

A bit of sleet this morning, but not that bad overall. I preferred it to the misty rain of last night. Low traffic again, but I'm anticipating more on the way home as people try to get out of town.

We had our first snowfall in the area yesterday afternoon, but it was gone by the end of the day.

I think my snow tires will actually weigh less than my big apples, not positive. Either way, it has just been consistently brisk (30sF) and foggy, cold enough to watch for ice, but not quite cold enough for there to be any. I love the western WA winter, but it is ...offkey... to the overall esthetic that most of my commute is through a city and so coastal vegetation pretty much replaced by ornamental (either put there or escaped) deciduous trees.

I feel your pain, it's tricky right now

Cold this morning 46°F, forgot to wear my winter gloves and tights, oh well 72°F this afternoon, time to enjoy the sunshine

Nervously checking weather.com for this evening's forecast. Snow and "wintry mix" expected. Lovely cold morning coming in, though. Maybe I'll luck out.

Gorgeous morning. 38F and clear except for the mist rising off the American River. Legs felt much better than yesterday. A great way to end the short commuting week.

It was warm this morning, something like 54F. Foggy, too. I had my first conversation with another person on a bike this morning. I never see anyone riding this early except one other commuter who goes REALLY fast the other way (we wave) and homeless guys on bikes. This guy didn't have a helmet and was riding along the sidewalk on a beach cruiser, looked about my age. He called out, "Best kind of exercise there is!" I said, "Yep!" He said "enjoy your ride" and I said "thanks!" That felt really good for some reason.

Also, I am hell on my bike apparently. In the past two days I've lost a $30 cateye blinky tail light and this morning my computer stopped working. I didn't have time to see if the sensor thing is just out of line or if part of it fell off. Ugh.

foggy, misty morning this morning.

Powered in - got really good lights, and also pushed hard. Was panting very hard as I got into the lift with my bike - got some very strange looks. Very good ride though. Feel very energised now, albeit with tired legs.

It's good when you connect with other cyclists, especially when there's not many others around.

Bikes vibrate, bolts loosen, it's worth going around the whole thing when you get a chance just randomly tightening things.

40km in the rain today, which thankfully was light most of the time. Got drenched both ways, but i still enjoyed it. Was 5 degrees C, but i didn't feel cold at all.

22 degrees snowing and beautiful. Had just the right layers on to be commuting on my monocog. Love the sound of knobbies on fresh snow. Thankful for the backpack clip on my tail blinky as the seatpost mount broke when I swapped it off my regular commuter bike.

Wet and miserable today. Except for the legs. My Goretex pants are working extremely well; I'm very, very pleased with them. Now I need waterproof toque, waterproof gloves, waterproof boots, and waterproof jacket - and I'll be all set. :D

Toes and fingers were the worst. They got so frozen that they did not feel cold any more - instead they felt warm, stiff and painfully tingly. The really bad part was that I didn't bike all 31 kms I did today in one stretch. It was on and off, with a few hour-long breaks after which I had to put soaked clothes on and head back out. There are few things more unpleasant than having to put on wet socks and gloves and head back out into the rain. Oh, and I didn't have fenders on the bike I was riding today which made the ride much dirtier and wetter... though by the end of the day it made absolutely no difference. :D

Tomorrow we're supposed to get 10-15 cm of snow, so it's going to be VERY interesting. If it's really bad I might even use the TTC because I don't even have a snow bike built up yet. However I'll be leaving the house later in the day tomorrow, so maybe the roads will have cleared up a bit by then and I could ride after all. Wish me luck. *gulp*

I was nearly defeated by the weather, but I prevailed! Yesterday it was raining and cold, so my bike got soaked. This morning I woke to see the ground covered in ice, with a nice layer of ice pellets on top. Thankfully, I had installed my winter tire and did some other tune ups the night before, so I wasn't too worried about traction. However, I did run into trouble just a few minutes into the ride: my brakes froze!

It would seem that the rain from yesterday had worked its way into the brake lines and froze soon after hitting the cold air. Luckily I was still on the side streets, but I had to use my feet to stop! I limped home and got to work restoring my brakes.

With a bit of a struggle, I managed to free the cables from the housings. I wiped the cables down with a dry cloth, then flushed the housings with WD-40. I then packed the ends of the housings with marine grade grease, which I'd been intending to use for a while, but never got around to it. With everything put together again, and more globs of grease anywhere water could get in, I set out again. The brakes worked perfectly, smooth as silk.

Mother Nature slowed me down this morning, but she didn't stop me. Boo-yah!

I went out for a short ride today to the grocery store. 40f NW12. Took a leisurely ride up the bikepath in Westerville and then rode back down thru town. I had the streets all to myself. Very relaxing. I wanted to try my winter gear. I just had on my SportHill jacket and 3SP pants which were very comfortable in these temps. I picked up a pair on Man***** Mittens at TJ Max, which were totally windproof. Those will be nice in the cold temps. I'm curious to see how the Snow Sneakers will do in the frigid stuff. They're rated down to -5f. With temps at 40f they were just the thing. Oh well, time to enjoy Thanksgiving, same to ya.
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A wee bit warmer than yesterday, but there's still snow on the ground in spots. I was lazy last night and didn't bother putting fenders on the bike. This morning I was spitting out salty sand and wiping my light off every couple of blocks. :(

Here's another thing that pisses me off - only 40% of my commute is actually snow-affected. 60% of it [ the fast, flat part] is dry. I could probably squeak by with slicks, but the bits with snow are on hills, and if a car/ped/bus/hobo rolls out into the many blind intersections, I would go down in a heap trying to avoid them.

Got wet feet last night after not putting bags on, so put them on for the ride home - otherwise was fine, need waterproof gloves and booties/shoes or something though.

Ride today was fun, ice pellets/snow with stuff already down (and on wet leaves in places) - was very wary/cautious first thing as I took my roadie but King was fairly clear all the way over so I came in at usual pace, just with more caution.

Last night and today I've been wearing my balaclava, big winter gloves and goretex jacket (last night only with a long-sleeve t-shirt and today with life-vest base layer and a wool turtle neck jumper under). I wore my rainpants yesterday but the crotch/ass seam is totally done now, so I'll have to replace them - didn't bother with them today as my exposure won't be more than 40 mins today (20 mins max each way).

Will have to get my MTB all ready as this is a good taste of what's to come and I'm not sure if I want to ride my roadie all through, with ice around it'll be scary methinks ;)

PS, I love riding in the extremes when all warm and cozy :D

Didn't bike today did you? :P It's pretty bad out there.

Discovered the downside to studded tires today. Coming off of a bridge on totally dry concrete, going slow, sharp left turn and bam - my first wipe out in at least a year. Ouch!

I did too! :) Actually, it wasn't bad at all. I spent most of my commute on Bathurst St, and it was basically just wet pavement. I did encounter some snow on smaller streets, but the aggressive knobbies on my winter bike dealt with it just fine. We definitely didn't get the predicted 15-20 cm of snow. More like 1-2, I'd say.

"Winter bike? What winter bike?" asks the reader who recalls my complaint of having nothing to ride in the snow. Yep, I did manage to put together a winter bike for this ride. :) I had this Miele chromoly bike that needed some work, but I fixed it up in a couple of hours (it needed less repair than I thought), and it worked for me... more or less. The shifters didn't perform so well in the cold and the chain fell off at one point (need to adjust the front derailleur), but it did get me there and back safely and on time. Gee, I forgot how much more energy is required to drag those soft knobbies along though!

The drivers were kind of bad today. I don't know if it's the weather or what, but I had three drivers nearly left-hook me (I mean, REALLY nearly)... and my light's pretty bright.

Great commute in the DC area this morning ... roads are deserted after the holiday!

:)

Cold and windy, leftovers from the cold front that passed through last night. Roads and trails were really quiet, didn't see another soul on the MV Trail. Hopefully it'll be a quiet day around here and I can jet a little early.

Well, my studded abilities are improving on a daily basis. I flew into work today, barely putting a foot down.

Rides yesterday and today were fine, I opted to ride directly home yesterday so I didn't spend much time out there.

Checked out my street this morning to umm and arr over the MTB/roadie choice. I decided the majors would be clear enough for my roadie (ice under the snow was my concern today) - so I walked my road bike out to the main street and went from there. No incidents, felt fine and mostly just wet pavement.

I ride east tonight too, so that'll be interesting. Was definitely very cold this morning, I'm sure we had -8C with feels like -14C when I set out. Other than wet (sweaty and not properly dried) fingertips getting cold, I was fine clothing/heat wise. Went with three layers for wind blockage (as I wasn't wearing my goretex) - lifavest base layer, long sleeved T middle and woollen turtle neck for top (and for the neck/balaclava seam). Two pairs of socks and brought my thermal leggings in case it got colder tonight but my fleece pants were just fine for the ride in.

todays ride was a short one from the shop but it was nice out and about 50 and sunny but i still bought some gloves cause i haven't ridden in a long time