Didn't commute today, but wanted to mention my ride on Friday.

I have a brand new electric motor on my bike, which is what has gotten me switching over from car commuting to bike commuting despite the colder weather. 34 miles of riding each day wasn't working out for me, but with electric power it's not a problem. I can cruise up some very substantial hills at about 20mph with pedaling and ride the whole round trip and then some on a single charge. I let my co-workers ride the bike on friday and they thought it was a blast. A couple of them want electric bikes of their own, and I think part of the appeal is the opportunity for some fun outdoor exercise without having to walk a bike up the steep hills-- after all, exercise is not just for people who're already in shape. This has gotten me excited enough about the thing to try to show it to more people who will possibly take up e-biking as a fun way to exercise and/or to replace automobile trips.

What a day! After my great ride in, I set off this afternoon to go across town to my meeting. A few kms in it starts getting very dark, and then the first few raindrops come down. Oh well, I think, I'm going to get wet.

Then it starts getting harder, and then I realise this rain hurts. And then I realise it's a hailstorm! And it's supposed to be summer! So I had to seek shelter for a few minutes while it passed over.

But then all was good; got to my meeting on time, then had a great ride home taking about an hour, ending up at home earlier than I usually am. I think I need to find more excuses to have to go over to the other offices!

Warm (43F) in the DC area this morning - small amount of fog/mist in the air and wet pavement to ride on. Very light traffic as usual on Monday mornings; of course it helps to leave the house at 04:45!

Last of the warm days for this week ... forecast shows my commute temps in the low 20s the rest of the week.

Got rained out again for the second Monday in a rain. I really shouldn't blame the rain, however, because it had stopped by the time I got up. But the roads were very wet and I didn't feel like getting all sloppy wet riding to work today. Plus I haven't driven in a while and it was time to restock supplies and bring home the dirty laundry from my office.

This morning was a balmy 46, wet (from last night's rain), with a nice tailwind. Looks like that same tailwind will turn into a 45 to 60 mph, gusting headwind on the way home-not looking forward to that.

Also, for the first time in a while the ride in today was a real joy. Ever since moving to our new place last March, riding has been a bit of a challange. First I had odd mechanical problems (multiple flats upon inflating tires-stems breaking, nails, replaced tubes popping after installation, tire sidewalls ripping, seat rail breaking, etc), adjusting to my new "system" of taking the bike up/down the basement stairs, negotiating a small utility room, misplacing helmet and other accessories, not to mention a couple of severe colds, sleep issues, confrontations with aggressive drivers (one of which I filed a complaint w/ the police), and the recent emotional difficulty of losing one of our three cats. There's more but my rant will end here, my hope is that the bulk of these issues are behind me now and things will return to a normal rhythm.

So, finally, it seems that maybe I'll be back on track this week, enjoying the ride and getting to work on time. I'm looking forward to riding through the winter (contemplating my snow tire purchase and accessories) and keeping my training on track for next summer's riding season.

Windy and in the 50sF this morning. Rained last night so I had to take it slow around a lot of corners, wet leaves everywhere.

Heavy rain the Pac NW. Lots of flooding causing huge backups. My normal route in was a parking lot. I must have passed 600 hundred cars on the way into downtown Seattle. Many small lakes in the rodway. Some over two feet. Oh what fun and dam Showers Pass is good stuff.

A bit warmer this morning (49F) than last week when it was down into the mid-30s. I have a 3pm DDS appointment so I'm hoping to not have to return to work afterwards. The dentist is right around the corner from my favorite LBS, so I have to restrain myself for not doing a little Xmas shopping for myself.

I woke up to a 20 mph headwind this morning. I was looking forward to a nice tailwind all day long.

Snow came into town starting Friday night, I wussed out of bringing my daughter back in the trailer and left my MTB at the ex's while I took the subway. Rode the bike back last night and almost dumped it right before getting to my driveway, hehe. I was intentionally pushing it through some patches trying to slide/slip around a bit but had to put my foot down on this one... riding platforms is a lot more re-assuring to me in that situation so far.

Rode it in again today but the roads are melting and it's still cold so the ice-pack maybe forming now, which is my only real concern.

I love fenders, I had so much fun riding through all the gunk - the MTB feels so sure-footed compared to my roadie, I feel as though I've years of reaction time whereas the roadie is so fast/responsive I guess...

Rode in at my normal time, 4:30am. Had to fight a brutal 15-25mph headwind out of the west. Temp 31f (19f windchill)Altho it didn't feel like it to me. But the wind was something else. I left 10 mins early anticipating the strong winds. Whenever I rode south on my route the wind was knocking me sideways. I think I felt a couple of those 35mph gusts. Thank goodness I have Aero-bars, they helped alot. Came upon a driver on the service road off of 161 who actually stopped to see what the hell was coming toward him. I have two battery headlights, one is blinking. And this guy couldn't figure out what the hell he was looking at as I approached him. He had this incredulous/scared look on his face as I came up on him. I laughed to myself. I get that alot at that time of the morning. I've had cops slow down to see what it was they were looking at. Anyway, this aftn I rode the bikepath to Whitney Av. making my way thru Worthington, north to Worthington-Galena Rd over to Westerville via Main St. My recomendation for winter pants are the SportHill 3SP pants. Those things are awesome. They're not cheap, but are worth every penny. They are totally windproof and I don't feel any of the cold. No need to layer, maybe down in the single digits, so I've read. But they rock. I got mine at Sierra Trading Post at 50% off. All sold out now. SportHill is definetly the stuff to have in cold weather.
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a blizzard started halfway through the afternoon here, so the boss sent the entire company home 45 minutes early. All of my co-workers were very concerned about their drive home, dreading it. And a couple different people even asked if wanted a ride home in their cars, and I laughed and said, "no way! How dare you insult me like that! I don't need no stinkin car ride!" And they just looked at me like I was crazy. At least the one other guy in the office who rides bikes to work understood.

The ride home was without a doubt the most fun ride home from work I have ever had. Traffic was backed up way down the main road out of downtown to my neighborhood, so I just blew by blocks and blocks of non-moving cars, laughing the entire way. What a site I must have been! I slipped around a little bit on the turns, but even that was fun! In fact as I got closer to my house I started swerving around trying to fishtail as much as possible. Then I got to my house and decided I hadn't had enough yet and continued on past my house and kept going down the road past more and more cars stuck in traffic, with drivers looking very cranky to be driving in such weather. I can remember a time a couple years ago when that was me. But now I am wiser, and understand that a bike ride in the snow is infinitely more fun than a car ride in the snow. Bring it on, winter!

My first fixed-gear commute. Wow!
I need a bigger chainring, currently riding 65.2 gear inches, or 4.8 gain ratio (see Sheldon Browns pages for calculators): 39/16 (I'm not ready for 53/16, even in mostly flat N.Orlando)
Will probably try to mount the carradice bag as the messenger bag chafes after a while
This changes everything.

Good commute today. It was cold at 18°F this morning, 25°F in the afternoon. It was pretty windy both ways, but I never felt it ;) Not like some of you in the pacific northwest....hurricane force winds! YIKES

ice, snow, sleet this morning. threw on my studs and headed out the door. Was thinking I shouldn't have taken off the slicks till I get a few blocks from the house and realized conditions were really great for the studded tires.

Bike path was plowed in portions and other parts were a slushy frozen mess. took me an hour to get into Boston (usually takes about 40 mins max). Took the Comm Ave route home and was glad to have the sutdded tires for the black ice spots.

The studded tires are a workout though. Always takes me a bit to get used to this kind of riding.

Oh today was interesting. I pulled a low speed fall in some slush, went over my bars trying to stop in time to pick up my light which had come loose from said fall, and managed to break my rear derailleur clean off at the bracket.

Luckily I suffered only a sprained wrist and a sore knee. Even if I could afford to fix my bike up right now, which I doubt I can, I think I'm done until spring time.

The intersection at the entrance to the MUP was a little bit under water this afternoon. (Hopefully I'll get a better pic tomorrow when I have my good camera, not just a phone where 2 drops of rain blur out the lens!)
http://images.tribe.net/tribe/upload...5-45559a2d363a

Seriously nasty cross/headwind tonight. Had to lean into it a couple times and felt like I was riding @ 45 degrees. Otherwise, a pleasant 32F with seemingly no one else out; at least no one (else) with a smile.

Bad luck, Jabba - that sucks. Glad you're basically OK. And that looks like a little bit of water, Clifton. Did you actually ride through it?

Interesting comment on the FG, Kilted. I'm going to get a singlespeed / fixie. I'm currently doing my commute without changing gear, keeping it at 39/17 which seems to work OK. Assuming I get a flip-flop, I'm debating whether to go 39/17 (or equivalent) on the fixie and 39/16 on the freewheel or whether I should drop it all up or down one. I've read conflicting advice; the better drivetrain efficiently points to going up a gear, whilst the idea that I might use thie bike on routes with bigger hills than my commute indicates a lower gear. Ho hum.

My commute was lovely, BTW.

Brutal commute home tonight - 25 MPH headwinds with high gusts. Made for a good workout!

Chilly ride in this morning, but nothing like you guys up North. Cold mornings are still in the 30s here, although it might dip down into the upper 20s later this week. I left about my usual time today, but traffic was heavier for some reason. It took me several minutes just to pull out of my neighborhood, and I got stopped at every long traffic light on my route. The wind was still whipping this morning, even at 6 a.m. I thought it would be straight out of the N or NW, but was out of the W. So some stretches where I thought I would have a nice tailwind turned out to be a strong crosswind instead. All in all, that made for a slow commute this morning.

*mental note...don't complain the next time it rains...

Fantastic! Still snowing hard and in the 20s, and still so much fun to go plowing through it on my heavy-as-hell mountain bike. I got to work in just a few more minutes than it usually takes, and all anyone here in the office is talking about is how long it took them to get home last night and back in this morning. Everyone hates driving in the snow! I love riding my bike!

38F and dry (as usual). Rode in alongside someone I've encountered on the trail before.
Very little trail traffic; 38 minutes, which I really hope to be able to reduce someday.

It's been EXTREMELY windy here for the past two days. Last night on the way home the wind was so strong it blew my extremely heavy self + bicycle into a parked car. I rode the three miles to my fiancee's house and had him drive me home later. This morning I drove the 6 miles to my bike and rode in. The wind is still fierce so I'm glad I only have three miles to go after work too. It's also in the 30s. Brr.