Lost my temper on a driver this morning. I take the lane for part of my commute (2 lanes-each-way-plus-a-center-turn for this stretch with a gutter pan, hard kerb, and 45 mph speed limit; I don't trust drivers to share the lane with me on this piece of road). Approaching a line of cars stopped at a light, 2 cars in the lane to my left managed to fit themselves into the space in front of me as I closed the gap. The 3rd driver--the one I got angry at--tried to do it too and cut me off. If I hadn't seen her about to make the move I could have easily gone over her hood. I smacked her passenger side window, glared at her, and yelled, "What the hell are you doing?" She mouthed something at me thru the windshield but I couldn't read her lips.

I was moving slow this morning and left for work about 10 minutes later than usual. The upside was that it was almost totally light outside, which was nice for a change. I only needed my light so drivers would be sure to notice me, and also wore a red jersey for a change rather than yellow. It's supposed to get very windy during the day, but wasn't bad this morning. The next few days are supposed to be very cold with lows in the 20s, but perhaps this will be winter's last hurrah in NC.

After working remotely for a month, I commuted to work today. Had a near miss w/ a couple peds and almost got doored in front of my building by a taxi passenger exiting on the driver's side in stopped traffic. What a welcome.

Warm! +7C on the way in today, and the temperature is still rising!

hello,

i am new to this bike forum. i am a daily bike commuter. 18 miles each way. Friday will mark two complete years without missing(knock on wood). My two year mileage total in that time is about 24,000 miles, just using goodle earth and averages, etc.

Anyway, this seemeed like a good thread area for me. I have lots of experience commuting in bad and cold wheather as i live in vermont, so hopefully i can be a resource to some of you.

Today's commute to work was slow, we got 6-8 inches of snow last night. the first 6 miles i did today were before the plow came through so my legs really got a workout. The ride home will be easy by comparision becuase all the backroads will be cleared.

peace,
dave

Welcome, shamen71!

Here, the weather is warming to the point where I'll soon be ditching the vest and skullcap. And I really don't need the lights if I'm working my normal hours (although I'll probably keep them on the bike for a couple more weeks just to be safe).

Got out the door in time for the early bus this AM, only to find I had a FLAT (grrr). Fixed it in the driveway, and headed out. Nice morning - warmer than it's been, and dry. Stopped along the way to help a guy fixing his own flat - his CO2 cartridge wasn't working so I lent him my pump. And even with the pause I managed to catch the not quite so early bus.

This is my 2nd flat in a month - if it keeps up I may just spring for the Armadillos to save myself some aggravation. Dinged up my fingernails too.

good looking out with your fellow commuter SDBluefish. :)

-14 C (~7 F) out there today. As I stopped at a traffic light, wiping sweat from my brow, a woman standing at a bus stop exclaimed: "Aren't you cold?!" She looked rather uncomfortable herself, standing there waiting for that bus to come, in that 20 mph cold wind ... brr... And she thought I was cold? Too funny.

Overcast and warm today; had a nice ride in. Met up with a work colleague half-way in; chatted for a while as we cruised along. Makes a nice change from my normal head-down take-no-prisoners sprint!

Since I arrived at work the rain has returned, so it could be a wet ride home again.

And my bell broke - I dinged it at some peds, and the little dinger thing flew off. Also yet another of my blinkies has succumbed to the wet weather, and the mounting for my cycling computer came apart, I think also because of the rain.

Anyone have any recommendations for a truly waterproof light? I'm cycling through well-lit streets, so don't need a huge headlight-style thing. I just want a small set of blinkies that will withstand Sydney rainstorms. The 'water resistant' models I have tried just don't cut the mustard.

Traffic was nuts today! Not just a lot of cars, but huge numbers of mopeds, scooters, and not a few bikes. I barely got up any speed at all, and hit pretty much every red light along the way. Kind of disappointing... I might have to do a longer ride home tonight :)

Tonight while riding I found a Ryobi cordless drill in the bikelane among other debris that seemingly feel off a truck. I was tempted to keep it because it looked fairly new, but it didn't have a battery and I didn't want to carry it home. Moved it to the edge of the sidewalk so someone else can take it. No more than a mile away, I saw an old guy in a Chysler Concorde rearend some other guy in a Cavalier at an intersection I was approaching. The Cavalier had been stopped, and the old guy either wasn't paying attention/totally misjudged his stopping distance. A good reminder to be viligilant, I guess; if they can't see a stationary car, they're not gonna see a bike.

Great!
 

Los Angeles, Westwood to Hollywood... Incredible warm, clear and bright day after the lousy weekend weather. Perfect commute-by-bike day. After 6:30, of course completely dark by then, seemed like less traffic and I was home before I knew it. Even overshot one intersection because it came up so quickly. I could use more cycle commuting days like this one. Bike is running great.

3Bikes.

One of the coldest days of the winter here in NC, with morning low of 22F. I was very comfortable riding in to work at those temperatures as I wore all of my cold weather gear that's been idle the past few weeks. Those PI Amfib tights really keep you warm, and my legs actually sweated a little. Wore my Under Armor thermal base under my Gavia jacket, and wasn't the slightest bit cold on top.

The ride home yesterday afternoon actually felt colder, even though the temperature was about 40F. There was a brutal NW wind and about 80% of my commute was nearly directly into the headwind. It was the toughest ride home that I've had in a while. Felt like I was pedaling uphill the whole way. The most frustrating thing was approaching a very long traffic signal but not being able to pedal fast enough to make it though on the green light. Normally I would have easily made the light but pedaling uphill into a 20 mph headwind was too much.

A little further north, but about the same temp (21F/-6C). My ride in is essentially all due west, and I had 10-15mph headwinds this AM. Made me feel like a slug.

I'm pretty happy with my tights, too: Vermarc Roubaix Thermaflex (and probably 4 or 5 other adjectives, too :D ). I've had 'em down to about 13F with 20-30mph winds with no worries ('course I thought my fingers would fall off!)

22F and I overdressed. It's as bad as riding in 100F weather. That's what I get for wanting to "test" some new stuff. Ride itself was fine. I just split the middle lanes all the way down Lex.

first commute ever
 

Today was my first bike commute (as an adult). I only live about 5 miles from where I work so I figured now that it is starting to warm up I should start biking. It's good for me and good for the environment so it's a win win. Or at least that is how I felt until my legs started to burn on the uphill. Living over a mile above sea level adds a whole other dimension to biking. I know I'll get used to it and get in better shape but man that wiped me out for a minute.

On the upside it was sunny, breezy, and 46 degrees out.

N.

http://badhuman.wordpress.com

Welcome bad human!

It gets easier after a little bit.

My legs were tired this morning, as I rode hard on the way home late last night. Nice morning though. Beautiful sunrise.

Oh, what a difference a day makes. Yesterday I rode to work on dry streets, a warm breeze blowing up my shorts. Thanks to several cm of snow overnight, the city is once again white and wet. I decided to push my luck and NOT switch to the studded tires, relying on 25C slicks and my superhuman bike-handling abilities to get me to work on time.

I made it the first couple of blocks from the house okay, watching my wife ride away from me with confidence on her studded tires. I found that riding in the un-trampled snow gave the most traction, so I stayed in the "door zone" down the first hill. Sphincter puckered, I used sheer will to stay upright. Halfway up the next hill, my wife stops in the middle of the road and says that she has to go back home. I yelled words of encouragement over my shoulder and kept going. [She left her tooth at home. Long story.]

The longer, faster downhill was not clear of snow as I had hoped. Instead, I had to navigate a 6" wide track of partially frozen slush at 40 km/h around the S-bend. A city bus was also following me. Nice. Actually, ice. After that, I stayed on the heavily-salted main streets for the rest of the trip. I made it to work with a few minutes to spare, and for 9 hours I will keep waiting for the snow to stop and the sun to come out...

Yeah, similar to a recent experience of mine - I said "what's really crazy are the people who walk around in this weather" and I got "spoken like a true cyclist" as the reply :)

This morning was WAY out of my personal comfort zone, and honestly not something I'd want to repeat without some clothing switch-ups. -18C + windchill (-27C not factoring in headwinds) which I think is 0F + windchill.

Certainly a chilly one, and I rode from the east end this morning after dropping my daughter off at pre-school (though she did get an in-arms ride on my fixed conversion :D)

It's supposed to be 0/1C tomorrow, so another ~15 celsius temperature change in for us, this time to the positive though. No wonder I have had a bit of a head cold this week.

Welcome Bad Human, congrats on your first commute! It definitely gets easier, and by the sounds of your route - your legs will build real quick - just feed/rest them.

pinkrobe, sounds like it has been here in Toronto, only lesser here - kudos for 40km/h in those conditions, my sphincter definitely puckers up on my road bike - both my brakes tend to stop working, as well as intermittent grip issues - I love my FG conversion for this stuff, though (plus, it's a whole load of fun to skid up to an intersection, trackstand, then take off again :D)

Great morning here in San Diego about 65 degrees at 8:30am on my 10mi. commute. It was good untill the end when I wanted to get from the bike lane to the left turning lane and I was going down hill to a red light going about 30mph to avoid the traffic when some jerk thought it would be funny to catch up and keep speed with me while 50 yrds away from the red light. He finally slowed down enough for me to pass him. The ride home should be better

I thought 50 degrees without wind chill was bad:)

-Spoken like a true San Diegan!

Fast and smooth. Just the way I like it.