Second commute of January this morning. Temps in the high teens (F) with an annoying 15MPH headwind. I stuck mostly to the road this morning because the MUP snow isn't packed enough to support a bicycle. :mad: I had to walk about a quarter mile between roads, but hey, I made bicycle tracks in the snow. I'm the man. :p

Made use of the Cateye LD1100 I got for Christmas. Seatpost-mount. A painfully bright blinkie with 2 independently-controlled banks of lights. I kept them both on random blink. Looks kind of official and police-like, I think.

http://www.nashbar.com/nashbar_photo...-NCL-ANGLE.jpg

My 2nd commute of the year - I don't normally venture to ride in sub-40 weather (29 when I woke & 31 when I left for office) but it's going to be almost 60 this afternoon, so I couldn't pass up the chance. Beside I'm going to LBS at lunch to buy a new frame for a new bike project, so why not do it on my bike, right? :)

Light traffic, mostly sunny, a few cars, but not tons & well-behaved if not overly cautious on a few occasions. Looking forward to the ride home (and to LBS at lunch).

Cold but still, temps in the low 20's. Decent energy but my slow @$$ tires are still frustrating. DC is still in the process of cleaning up from the inauguration, jersey barriers, fences, scaffolds, port a potties are shifting and being removed making for a slightly different maze of barriers every morning. Should feel tropical with afternoon temps in the mid 40's. Even warmer tomorrow. Good.

Routine commute, temps in the high 30s, mild tailwind that will be a moderate headwind this afternoon, but temps will be in the solid 70s by then. My only mistake is I forgot to pack some shorts for the ride home.

Oh, and it was the first ride with my new handlebar stem. I didn't like the stem that came with the bike because it put the handlebars too far forward and not high enough. When I moved them up a bit (and less than minimum insertion on the stem) the front end creaked like crazy. With the new stem, things feel much more secure and make much less noise.

45 (absurd here in Miami) this morning. Teary-eyed and cold-handed the whole 7 miles to school. An elderly pedestrian gave me the thumbs up and cheered while I mashed into the headwind.

A fellow in front of me riding a fixed gear with slick tires and no brakes skidded on a layer of slush and snow to slow down just before he made a right turn.

I don't know all the mechanics of skidding on a FG, but that just seems really unsafe to me.

Or maybe since in any skid you've already lost traction in the rear wheel, it doesn't matter that the road surface is more slick? Maybe it'll just take longer to slow down? I dunno. I don't think I'll ever understand though why someone wouldn't use a front brake at least.

I think the last time I skidded on purpose was when I was about 11 years old.

Been seriously slacking on my commutes since my little aerobatic display back in November. Ah, well, may be tomorrow, most definitely this weekend.

Same today. No other bikers in sight though (other than my 7 yr old)

I wonder if the snowtire season is over. I hope so but I won't have time to switch until this weekend.

My co-workers really liked the Meteor. They joked that it looked like a grandpa bike but did appreciate the chrome fenders.

The ride home was great! Stopped to enjoy an ice cream from an cream vendor. I did pass another commuter on a mtb but he didn't even acknowledge me. Probably jealous 'cause the Meteor looked better than his bike.:D . Now for afew minor adjustments and we'll be cooking with gas!
Ernest

I'm using a new route that goes down a couple of rural roads instead of up the main drag. Since the bike path on the main drag is impassable, the new route is a lot less stressful. The alternative is sharing the road with a batch of speeding idiots going 50-60 on a road with curbs and narrow outer lanes. I did see someone doing that yesterday, it's doable but my blood pressure is too high anyway. Haven't used the new route at night yet, not sure I'll do it tomorrow either given the likelihood of drunk drivers around here.

Tonight in town in a residential area with 25mph speed limits, a motorist ran a stop sign as I was approaching with the right of way. It wasn't so close that I had to slow down, but it was pretty annoying. He did slow down to 25mph through the intersection.

Yesterday, a guy passed me at a high rate of speed going down a hill with a stop sign at the bottom. Plenty of passing distance, but I thought it was pointless to pass since we were going to get to the stop sign at about the same time anyway. I was wrong, he braked a little but blasted through the stop sign at speed.

Didn't ride today :cry: It was 19F this AM, and I have found that, with the gear I have, 22F is about the coldest I enjoy commuting in. I did a sub-20-degree commute home the other night, and my feet were like blocks of ice when I got home. That's with two pair of socks on. Here's hoping for warmer weather tomorrow!

Catching up from yesterday -

Coldest day I rode in (~18 F), but found I had enough layers to keep me warm, with the exception of the tips of my fingers and toes. Went for a drink after 40 mins, water bottle was half frozen!

Ride home was really nice too, only two bikers, one a guy commuting home with a kid in a Burley d'Lite. Probably the nicest round trip I had commuting in a while, which surprised me due to the weather.

George

22F/-5.5C (or thereabouts). Light wind, smooth ride. Short week left me with strong-feeling legs, and a short week is about to get a little shorter as I blow my butt out of here about noon-ish to enjoy a ride in today's forecast high of 50F/10C. :D

First commute to work in two months. Weather was pleasant, clear skies, 52°, 89% humidity and little to no wind. Legs felt strong at the start but started to slack after the second half of the trip. It feels great to be riding again. :)

Clear skies, 31 degrees and bright sunshine. Very little wind topped off a great commute this morning.

I was rushing home yesterday to make a scheduled conference call. As I hit the flat 6 mile home stretch, I saw a biker in red about a half-mile ahead. I said"Great, a target to keep my pace up!" I decided I'd reel him in. He was making good time - I had to get up around 25mph to close on him. Much faster than my usual 18-20. After about 4 miles we hit some small rolling hills and I really started to close. He kept reaching in his jersey pocket so I'm thinking, "AHA he's tuckered out reaching for the gel!" We start up the biggest of the rollers and I'm 10-yards back now and feeling proud. Then he hangs up his cell phone and dusts me! I will forever remember that as the Cellphone Cmackdown!

A balmy 17*F this morning so I was able to lose a lot of the layers I've been wearing lately; I just wore baggy swim trunks and a long sleeve poly T shirt under my lined running pants and windbreaker. It felt nice to not have a ton of layers on. And I actually had clear shoulders for a reasonable amount of distance! I've totally gotten over feeling guilty about taking the lane on heavily trafficed 55 MPH roads when it's necessary to stay on pavement, but at the same time I'd just as soon move out of the way. In all it was nice and smooth.

It's now up to TWENTY NINE DEGREES! Inconceivable! And I get to ride home at mid-day today after a dental checkup!

Also, got my first yell in a long time - a left-turner at a light I was going through rolled down the passenger window and yelled "AWESOME LIGHT!" - I have a Dinotte 140L taillight.

Had a very close call yesterday on my way home, just one block from my house. I was traveling eastbound on the street. There were cars parked on the north side, none on the right. It's a fairly wide street, plenty of room for both a bike and car. I was to the right when a car made its way around the traffic circle at the next intersection.

As soon as it came around the circle, it veered, and then seemed to aim straight for me head-on. Then it sped up. I didn't have any time to react, thank goodness I didn't panic and move to my left, instead full on stopping. The car passed within 6" of me, and me yelling the whole time (the window was cracked open but I didn't get a look at the driver, nor the license plate they passed so fast and it was getting dark). After the car passed me, it slowed almost to a stop (me still yelling) tooted it's horn and sped off again. It was clear to me it was a game.

The neighbors witnessed this incident and were clearly concerned. They had seen the whole thing.
This was way too dangerous. I did report it to the police, just in case, even though I didn't have a good description.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. - Inigo Montoya :roflmao2: Sorry, just had to say it.

Cold today but tropical relative to recent temps. I lucked out today; I hit a mound of ice on the sidewalk, as I was riding under Route 1. It was roughly 4 inches high and triangle shaped, I had been looking down and didn't notice it until it was too late. When I hit it both the front and rear tires jumped up and kicked to the right by 4 and roughly 8 inches (for the rear). I didn't have time to do anything but hang on. I could have easily dumped it and, possibly, hit the steel handrail from which I was only inches. The rest of the ride was uneventfull but, at least, I kept my crash-less commuting streak alive at approx. 6 years. Also, saw a guy yesterday riding with a prosthetic right leg. Much respect. Should be close to 50 for the ride home. Have a great weekend.

31F as the last few days but the cloud ceiling was up at least as high as 30' so pretty good visibility.

First commute this week. Monday was a holiday (although I rode 32 miles from home). Tuesday we had a snowstorm, so I stayed home. Wednesday the roads were too icy to ride. Thursday I had to go out of town on business. Today I finally got to ride, and it's a beautiful sunny and warm day for January, with high expected around 60 F.

First ride of the year for me. Been extremely cold and snowy here recently and I don't have a mountain bike right now. Roads are clear and it was above 20 this morning, had a nice ride in. Looking forward to the upper 30s on the way home.

Started the commute at around 20 F, (-6 C), with the promise of a warm afternoon, and it did
reach 45 F ( 7 C). I felt like riding nude. I was able to not use my hood, gloves and shoe covers.
It's amazing how much faster we pedal in the sun and warmth. Other than that there was nothing
interesting that happened. I am fighting a cold, and hopefully all the work will get the immune system
moving along.

Rain Feels Good ... !!!!
 

Commute for today was very wet, and road construction (and sidewalk construction) meant I had to ride in the lane. Some big trucks passed me and when I got home my backpack was all muddy! I don't really mind the rain, and since I've caught some terrible flu bug, the rain and wind actually feels good!

I'm home now, and tempted to go out for another ride in the rain ... !!!

I rode the full commute on Tuesday and Wednesday. Cold, slow, and tiring, blah.

I wasn't planning on riding today, but I did ride part of the commute due to the wonderful weather. It was in the 40s this morning, and 50s on the way home. Saw four other bike commuters. A really great ride.

Best ride in two months. When I went in in the morning it was 28 degrees out and felt more like 45 because it has been in the teens for the past week. My legs felt strong and I made the commute in one of my best times. On the way home I was feeling really good and it was around 43. Again I made one of my best times and was able to pass a lot of cars.

It was an interesting change since yesterday it was around 20 degrees going in and I felt weak. It was the first time that I had to take multiple walk breaks since a couple of months ago. So it went from one of my worst commutes to one of my best.

Got hit going through an intersection about 1/3 of the way to work. Was going around a traffic circle, guy about 1/2 block away, get halfway around traffic circle, realize guy isn't slowing down, get on the brakes and hug the circle as tight as possible, guy's front driver-side fender/wheel hits my right foot/pedal/rear wheel.

Guy rolls down window and says "oh, are you okay?"
I say "you've got to be ****ing kidding me!"
He says "oh, there was black ice, I couldn't slow down!" even though he didn't skid at all, didn't scrub any noticeable amount of speed, and the street he was on was in the sun, while the one I was on was in the shade and was ice-free.
I'm all adrenaline-ed up and stupidly say I think I'm fine and start checking for damage and he promptly drives off. Didn't manage to get his license plate number. I get going, and about a block later get calmed down and realize my rear wheel is toast and my ankle is starting to hurt. The ankle is fine now, and I'll get the new rim for cheap and had been meaning to build up a wheel anyway, but the jerk wrecked the rear wheel I'd had ever since it came on my first serious mountain bike about 12 years ago. Slowly pedaled the rest of the way in to work with the rear brake unhooked, but now I need to find some bus fare to get home, I guess.

Dang sorry that sucks. Hopefully your ankle is nothing too serious.

Todays commute to school was great. It was 33-40 degrees and raining moderately all day long. No work today so I turned my typical 20 mile round trip into 50 miles today...I dont know why but riding in the rain is fun (as long as you have plastic bags on hand :thumb: ). It was also very cool to run into another commuter near school today...asked him how the ride was, to which he replied, "The BEST."

Also tried out my new Ortlieb Back roller panniers today...WOW. I had so much room to spare it was ridiculous. Water was not an issue and I am very pleased and now feel justified for spending so much on them.

It's been nice here in San Diego: we had two weeks of nearly 80's temps. Finally rained this friday.