34F this morning - warmest it has been here (Maine) for a while. It made for a splashy, slushy, salty commute however. +1 for nanotech fiber pants - I just wiped the grime away when I got to work, and you would never know I commuted in them.

in the fitties today in central CT. i seized the opportunity to ride my newly-finished touring bike to work as tomorrow we are forecasted for snow. yay.

12 Dec 6:53 am37F,32F dewpoint,82% RH, WNW5

Not particularly cold or damp but it certainly felt that way. I guess I just need to harden up.

I finally put a rear fender on my bike, so now my ass is dry. I should probably put something on the front wheel as well...

Last night was wet, I went straight home and stayed there heh :)

This morning was warm again, cold gusts when the wind picked up, but I was too hot again.

Welcome to the HHCMF (Happy, Healthy, Commuting MuthaF*ckers) club! We're a happy bunch of donut eating fools looked upon with equal parts jealousy and lust by people stuck in traffic watching their expensive gas burn away as you fly by in traffic. OK, they don't lust after us, but people that dig our muscular legs and butts do. And commuting on a fixed gear rules!

So my commute included seeing two other bike commuters that I lost after the first hill and hitting two side view mirrors w/ my open jacket as I went zipping past. Stopped by Rockefeller Center and took pics of Christmas stuff.

Hello to the people on their first commutes! It's a great feeling.

Ordinary ride today, although I was passed on the Harbour Bridge by a dude on a MTB kitted out with a petrol engine. At first I thought it was a motorbike on the cycleway.

It kind of annoyed me, for some reason that I can't quite put my finger on. I turned that anger into energy, and caught up with him at the steps!!

Today's ride home brought crap-tastic to a whole new level... it was the kind of weather where studded tires offer little help.

It was +1 C and this melted the accumulated snow and then we got fresh snow so it was like mud bogging and there was also a nice headwind to add some icing to the cake.

Oh yeah... I also pulled my rear wheel out of place so had to stop and make some adjustments on the road.

Still... it beats driving any day.

Nice commute today; pleasant 39 degrees on the way in. A mostly uneventful (save for almost getting right-hooked by a bus) ride in. The forecast for morning calls for temps dropping by 10 degrees and "ice pellets", so it should be an interesting ride.

I finally got my problem with the wheels solved by picking up a nice, old set of old-school 8 speed Dura-Ace hubs laced to some Mavic OpenSUPs from a dude I ride with. They're a bit heavy, but feel buttery in comparison to the old, horrendous Shimano r500s.

It's also that time of the quarter when I get tired of riding a tank, throw off the panniers and don the o'le messenger bag until I get sick of having a sweaty back and put the panniers back on (usually takes a few days).

Oh, and an unrelated side-story. I've been starting to use the bike to ride into the city when going out, basically meeting friends at our destination instead of driving or catching a ride. It gets some looks from the more "conservative" of the bunch, but it's generally looked upon with a bit of amusement and interest. Gotta love it when moving between establishments. "Maybe you should get a head start," they say, "so that we're not eating without you," which gets a chuckle from me as I find myself scarfing down a couple of beers while waiting for them an extra 20 - 30 minutes while they navigate through Saturday night traffic and find parking in the Village. Those rides home are much more enjoyable as well.

Warmed a little here too, it was about minus 6 C just nice. I am still having issues with head/ear covers. What do the rest of you folks wear on your head when its cold????

The ride in this afternoon was warm enough to pocket the hat, the ride home later this night, hat back on! Nothing unusual there I guess. Our snow has all melted away and the studs are making quite a cacophony on the dry pavement.

My prefered hat is a Smartwool Headliner. It's super-thin, not too tight but plenty warm. The price isn't bad at $15-ish.. It's my sole headgear besides the helmet until the temps start dipping into the teens.

Yesterday I rode about 2 blocks before turning right around and heading home to get the car. I simply don't have the gear to rain ride yet - today's freezing rain isn't working either. My Redline 925 should be here today - Planet Bike fenders (the used 925 I bought had them removed) and a good headlight will be coming for Christmas, and I'll pick up some rain gear over the next couple weeks and I should be in a little better shape. The will is there - the gear just isn't quite in place yet.

It was just fine until a driver decided to drift into my lane around a turn, then drift some more... and a little more. WTF? I kicked his door, which got his attention. Fargin' ******bag! I was so mad that I ended up doing some aggressive filtering and... well, two wrongs don't make a right.

It really does rain in the desert southwest. A lot recently actually. The yearly total before the start of Dec. was 2.6" In the first two weeks of December over 4" have been added.

Here are two videos of my commute home on Tuesday. Heavy rain and 47F. This same storm produce hail in not far from where I was riding. Quite some fun!

Arterial Road:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSOHb0lc69s

Starts on same arterial, then turn right into residential school zone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCkyCUaY0Eg

Al

I can't believe that it was colder here than in Canada and New York, but apparently so: 30F/-1C. And 94% RH, so that cold just seeps right into you. My legs felt like cement and I just could not get it going. I shoulda stayed in bed.

noisebeam: Good video quality - what are you using for a camera? It seems to fare pretty well in the rain.

It's the older Oregon Scientific ATC-1000 $80 when I got it on sale a few years ago - there is a newer mk2 model with higher frame rate and resolution too I think.

This video was sized down to 1/2 original frame size and heavily compressed before uploading to YouTube, which then expanded size 2x (back to original size) and applied a YouTube's compression, so the quality is not representative of the ATC-1000. That said the ATC-1000 relative to other video cameras today, especially those costing more, is quite poor, notably in low light.

As to the rain, because it is older and didn't cost so much, I don't care if one day it gets ruined by the weather. It is mainly luck as to the view. Sometime raindrops obscure the lens, then wind blows it away. It actually does better in this heavy rain that it does in a light misting rain which fully and permanently hazes the view.

Al

Beautiful day for riding this morning. Blue sky, sunshine, about 18C, nice gentle cooling breeze. Shoudl have been a fabulous ride.

But I felt a bit flat. I think I was a bit tired, and my legs felt stiff. Oh well. Hopefully the nice weather will continue for the ride home!

But the other exciting news is that I have ordered my Christmas present - a Salsa Casseroll single speed / fixie. Can't wait. Unfotunately I won't get it until Jan - no stock available until then, it seems. Ah well. Best things come to those who wait.

Awesome fast ride in. Hopefully the weather will hold for the return ride.

beautiful weather on the way home this morning. just had a heck of a head wind/cross wind the whole way home. i averaged 10 mph, whereas my usual is around 15. no commute to work tonight - my partner called in so no carpool and i don't have the time to make the whole 8 miles. this am i had a wonderful gentleman yell something out of his car window as he passed me (on a blind curve). it sounded like "get off the road!" but i can never be sure. maybe he said "way to pedal hard!" *shrug*

I just purchased a new wheels and had my new Noikians 106's mounted at my LBS (Marty's Reliable in Morristown, NJ) yesterday in preparation for today's predicted snow storm. It was dry in the morning but started snowing and sleeting pretty hard throughout the whole day and I knew ths afternoons commute would be my initial studded snow commute. By 4:45 when I got out of work, it was ice pelleting pretty hard but the roads were nicely plowed and pretty empty. I was riding through tire tracks and slush the whole way home. It was tiring and a bit uneasy, but I made it and never really slipped. My commute is only 4.5 miles. The combo of darkness, sleet, eye glasses made it as difficult as the road conditions did. I made it and psyched I prepared for winter. Everyone at work thinks I'm nuts, they hid my bike during the day in the office encouraging me to take a ride home from some one. I wasn't gonna have any of that. Those new Nokians were waiting for me. In the end, my office mates are right. I am nuts.

Tomorrow, I do it all again. I can't wait. I can't wait for a nice snow to ride in instead of the miserable hell I was in tonight.

Cold 30f both directions today, 15mph wind, and foggy this morning. Was way overdressed so arrived at office soaking wet. Between the knobby tires,, the wind, and conditions it took about an 1.5 hours to commute, rather then the normal hour.

First commute of the season with the nashbar studs. About 1 1/2 milles on the crushed limestone path was plowed by the town and had a nice smotth coating of ice. The tires worked well. Another 2 miles completely unplowed was impassable and I had to walk about 1/10 between road and plowed part.

Wore ski helmet and goggles. Helped a lot with the headlights, but they fogged quite easily.

Needless to say I received quite a bit of ribbing at the office.

If you'd listened to yesterday's weather reports around here, you would have thought that the storm of the decade was about to hit. A predicted THREE to FIVE INCHES OF SNOW!

Anyway, it was a pleasant 32 degree ride in with all the roads clear, if slightly wet. The only obstacle was the fact the the wooden section of the Brooklyn Bridge is completely covered in ice and slush. Quite a pain in the ass to navigate in 23mm slicks. Aside from taking the section at about 5 - 7 mph, everything else was just dandy.


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2274/...e9497194_m.jpghttp://farm3.static.flickr.com/2333/...84d0d31d_m.jpg

Morning edit:

Felt something weird, doing a trackstand on the way home. After a couple more blocks, I felt some clicking in the front wheel and noticed that my front wheel quick release was opened. Something like that does not happen by accident. Pissed off about it, but what to do, really?

Otherwise, the commute was great. Decided to try a new route and took the Manhattan Bridge back into Brooklyn for the first time. It too was covered in an icy slush which was quite perilous and slippery. On the other hand, the other cyclists on the bridge seemed much happier and more courteous then the overly-agitated BB bunch. I think I may go this way more often from now on.

They let us out from work around 3, and the carpool hurriedly left at 3:05. The ride home from there... there was snow and ice, but it was turning into just cold rain. It was nice to get home before sunset, though.

Not bad today. I did my 2.5-mile hike to the bus Wednesday and yesterday, and decided I'd ride today even though it snowed last night. Temps in the low 20Fs. 2 or 3 inches of very light fluffy powder on top of hard-packed pockmarked MUP snow. First bicycle tracks, Colchester to Burlington! :p

I ran into another winter bike commuter. He was about to get on the MUP but his back brake was locked up tight. I gave him my water bottle to pour on it to maybe loosen it up, but it didn't work. He said he'd just walk it back home. Oh well.

Also said hi to a cross country skier, and a lady out walking her dogs.

With this nor'easter heading up the coast, I might be done for a while. :mad: (mumbling something about plowing the MUP...)