Today's 27 mile RT commute capped off five days in a row of near perfect conditions for January, off to a good start for the year. I left work today early enough to catch the sun setting over the hilltops, and even spotted a very large coyote crossing a major road in our suburbs, only a mile or so from the vast undeveloped mountain areas to the east. Need to do some maintenance work this week. Time for a new chain and maybe cassette, and clean up rest of the drivetrain.

Things thawed enough to where I was able to park the MTB and break out the fixed gear.
My goodness the speed difference was amazing.

I was intent on riding 50 miles today but an incident scared the heck out of me and I did not bother to ride a little further to pick up the remaining 3 miles.
I was passing a couple walking on the path and yelled out on your left. As I passed them to my horror I discovered a small lapdog off to my right. NO LEASH! It turned directly into my path and I yelled. Fortunately, the little dog turned around to the other direction. The owners got the finger and "use your f'ing leash!'. I love dogs but many owners are just freaking idiots. I would have crushed that dog, possibly killed it, and hurt myself because of their stupidity. Morons.
I wish this path had a road alternative. Either that or I should slow down to 5mph when passing peds.

yesterday was my last day of the commute downtown and my last day at my current job before I move out to CT in a couple weeks. Then I got to leave early too, and I was so amped up at the prospect of leaving the job, on my last day, that I was flying home, racing down E Main faster than I had ever rode home from work before, adrenaline pumping. Then, I got to my street, and tried to turn, and was just going way too fast. I missed the turn, ended up crossing into the oncoming lane and heading straight for the curb. I was like, "ok, I have to jump this curb now..." I made the front wheel but the back wheel didn't clear, I landed on the sidewalk at a dead stop. The back wheel was bent, spokes messed up. I felt like such an idiot as I lifted the bike onto my shoulder and started the walk of shame the rest of the way home. But then my good friend, who I got to replace myself at my job this past week, was coming down my street on the way to his place and turned around to pick me and the bike up. What a way to go out on my last commute in Rochester. I'll be reporting from the Bristol, CT area soon. Ride safe kids! :)

Heck, what's wrong with leaving underwear at home? I've done it several times and it's hardly worth an eyeblink. Just go commando.

Hello! Flew back from Melbourne early this morning, and rather than just staying on the train and going up to work, I got off in the city and caught a bus back home just so I could ride back into the city again. Heh heh. And we wonder why they think we're mad.

It's been threatening rain all day, but it held off. Nice commute. Woke me up after an early start.

Sorry to hear about your stack, savethekudzu. Hope all is well. And good luck to all those starting new commutes, finishing old commutes and generally battling with winter!

Nice commute this morning - 28F and light fog - 18 miles went by in record time. I got to satisfy my commuting jones since I had not ridden in since Wed!

High 20Fs and overcast. Every weather source I checked said it would be snowing this morning, so I threw on the studded Hakkas last night. Woke up this morning: No snow. At all. :rolleyes: I did most of my commute on the dirt shoulder of the MUP to keep the studs off dry pavement. There are still some sections of ice and hard-packed snow, so the studs help there.

I was going to say it might snow later, but I just looked out the window and it is snowing. :)

Nice ride in this morning to start the work week, with temps in the low 30s. There was a very heavy frost and my glasses kept fogging, much worse than usual. I must have caught every single red light today but I was in no hurry as my legs were tired from long rides over the weekend. I skipped riding on Friday because the forecasters were calling for high winds and thunderstorms, neither of which materialized. After a week of abnormally warm temperatures in NC, it is supposed to return to winter weather this week with lows in the 20s and highs in the 40s. They say we might even get snow or sleet on Thursday, but I'll believe that when I see it. Snow is very rare around here, and it's been at least 5 years since we've had a significant snowfall. However, my birthday is quickly approaching (1/19) and we often seem to get some sort of frozen precip right around my b-day, if it happens at all.

Woot! Really warm today, but I could feel an unpleasant drop in blood sugar about 3 blocks from the house. On the plus side, I carved through traffic like a hot knife through buttah... :D

This stinks. I spent all of yesterday in the little boys room due to a severely upset stomach.
I still have no idea what caused it. It could either be the sushi I tried for the first time, the fact I forgot to take lactaid at a birthday party, or a combo of the two.
It is nice and warm today but my stomach is still queasy and I am weak as a newborn. Took the bus in. :(
Hopefully, tomorrow I can get a ride in. It is a work from home day so I may ride my local training ride if I have enough time.
Wed is prep work for a crown so no riding. Yay me.

good ride today...a bit nippy in the 30's. Like you tarwheel I had bad fogging on my glasses as well - lights were OK for me though, only hit a couple. Saw another commuter going the opposite direction - only I saw him at the last second because he had no lights or reflective clothing at all from what I could tell, so I didn't even get to say hello!

That wasn't me ;)

Uneventful ride again today. A little chilly--I lent my neck gaiter to someone yesterday and forgot to get it back. Neck was a little cold for the entire ride.

Cold this morning. It was 5°F when I left home and 1°F when I got to work.

I was comfortable though.

The roads were relatively clear. I haven't ridden in for three weeks since I was off for Christmas break. It was nice to ride again. The holiday weight gain sucks though!! :D

brisk - high 30sF. Steady headwind all the way in, that is atypical, usually it's all the way home... Also, grabbed my wife's headlight, found the battery basically dead. Whoops...

Cold and foggy. Legs were heavy but it was nice to be on the bike.

Chilly a bit and windy. Temp was 23°F with wind stout at 10-15mph. I was running a tad late today, so I didn't take a long route, so I might dally at little bit on my way home to get some mileage in since I cannot ride tomorrow.

Riding here in Columbus today. 29f with a brisk westerly wind to push me home. We had a nice snowfall during my ride which made for some relaxing riding. Of course folks look at me as if I'm nuts to be riding in this weather

Today's 28 mile RT commute was fantastic. An almost warm morning breeze at sunrise with the temperature near 60F. Clear blue skies, no smog. Visibility from the hilltops was at least 50 miles, snow capped mountains in the distance. I was wearing just two thin shirt layers this morning, and the same on the way home. The sunset over the Pacific this evening was bright orange and the hills were turning all sorts of colors. On days like today I enjoy riding this time of year much more than during the summer.

Just rode home from work (6:30am) an inch or two of freshly fallen snow on the side streets. Heavy commuter traffic, normally I ride in at 0530 but I picked up an OT shift. The main drags were brine/slushy.. I'm going to have to spray the bike down some when I get back to work at 2pm for another OT shift.

We hired a construction crew to tear up an old office that we are going to renovate. As one of the workers held the door open for me to leave he said, "Boy, you're going to need studs for your tires!" I proudly replied, "Already there!" as I lifted up my front wheel to demonstrate. He was stunned and could only comment "Man, I was only kidding.. what the.. "

I've been waiting 3 years for somebody to give me the opportunity to slip that one in!

Clear and cold this morning with temperature about 25F but no wind. My toes got cold for some reason, even though I was wearing shoe covers. Not sure what that was about. Tried toothpaste on glasses this morning to reduce fogging, and it helped but didn't totally prevent the problem. Somewhere at home I have a bottle of glasses cleaner/defogger that I bought at the State Fair years ago. Need to find that stuff. Coffee sure tastes good this morning.

Nice ride this morning. Temps down around 10F, and no wind. We got about an inch of really light fluffy snow yesterday, and the studded Hakkas make a cool sort of whirring sound as they dig through it. :) I saw 2 other bike tracks that came through after my ride home yesterday. Definitely more winter riders out there this year.

I stopped on my ride home yesterday in the woods near Lake Champlain and it was just dead quiet in the snow. I thought it would be nice if I could just bottle up that atmosphere and open it again on a 90 degree August day. :o

Finally got to ride in today. I've been training in the mornings because of my schedule. But man, cold or not, it's fun to be back commuting. The dark, quiet mornings are so pleasant. Love it.

25F

good gravy!
While on my way home at 6am another commuter hopped on ahead of me on the MUP. He looked waaay more serious than I do! I'm not sure if he was trying to leave me behind or not but I sure got a bit of a workout keeping up with him. I couldn't pass him but he didn't leave me behind either! Kind of nice to have company after going 6 weeks or more just catching glimpses of other people...
I don't think he was too happy having a clyde on a squeaky MTB behind him but I sure appreciated having a reason to push myself.

So! To the fella on the Pink/Red MTB I followed this morning. THANK YOU!!:) Hopefully I'll see you more often and one day pass you...

a clyde can dream....

54km/hr headwinds gusting to 78km.

I was riding along at what I thought was a pretty decent pace when I hear a zz zzzz zzZZ ZZZZZZ from behind and left and look over and see another cyclist passing me. He says good morning, and pedals off. So I got dropped by a guy riding studded tires. At least it looked like a CX bike, not a MTB.