dschwarz

First commute under 50F today... it was 41F. Prepared for it by buying a base layer this weekend, worked out fine. First mile was cool/cold but the rest was OK!

VolGirl

Chilly! Two wool layers on top worked great. Cotton pants, not so much. Cold quads.

Brian T

Nice cool morning. I forgot to change out my tires back to slicks for the commute. Damn it's tough commute with knobbies. Other than that, it is a great morning.

jpdesjar

chilly this morning, i had to pull out the balaclava for the first time and i am glad i did, i was pretty cozy for the most part but my toes were a bit cold when i arrived at work, some of the frosted over fields were really pretty and the steam rising up off the river was a nice sight also...so glad to be out enjoying the temperature changes loving the commute

mredison

rainy and cold. Auspicious single speed maiden voyage

Itsjustb

Repeating what tarwheel reported, first cold commute since spring. Not bad, and I judged the clothing correctly (3 years of experience helps!). My fingertips were cold, but that's normal. It's time for my annual search for warm gloves--I've been reading the "Warmest winter gloves" thread to get ideas.

Another commuter was in the locker room this morning too. He's as lean as I am (maybe even more so, which is rare). As he came out of the steaming shower he was still blowing on his hands. We chatted about cold commutes; it turns out he couldn't find his gloves this morning so he rode beare-handed. Ouch!

Finally, my closest friend (besides my wife) also commuted today. This is her first year commuting and she misjudged the temps. I plan to provide her with my clothing chart for different conditions (based on a chart I saw posted here on BF a while ago).

daredevil

32 and cozy. Felt fresh. Gotta love it!

pinkrobe

It was dark this morning - not too surprising given that the sun wasn't up. I am so glad that I have flagrantly bright lights on my bike. There was lots of traffic on the way down the big hill, and most of the streetlights were off for some reason. Once we got past that bit it was smooth sailing.

martybucs

Haven't been commuting very long, about 2 months. Wow, it was chilly! 38ºF, when I left and frost everywhere. I dressed warm enough, but boy, my eyes were watering something fierce. All in all, it was fun and for me, beats pedaling in the heat of Summer.

FredOak

Had picked up cheep pair of knit gloves for under my cycle ones and got my new fleece hoodie this week-end and that worked out perfect for this morning.

Had the new panniers for the first time too, loaded to the hilt with this weeks clothes and all the manuals from last weeks training. Didn't lose any time coming in even carrying the extra 20 lbs. Guess I'm not as old as I look

HardyWeinberg

wet wet WET. Pouring rain. I can't imagine my gloves or socks will be dry by the time I head out at the end of the day.

Fun ride though, and my new raincoat worked amazingly well. I was really dry underneath, give or take some sweat.

Ka_Jun

Effin' COLD. Should've deployed the balaclava, today. Saw a bunch of other commuters, though.

caloso

Cool, not cold, but dark! I didnt' turn off the headlight until after 7.

MIKEnDC

37F/2or3ishC. Finally set aside the shorts (for knickers ), but stubbornly stuck with fingerless gloves. Pretty cold on the digits, but what the heck: the overture has barely begun! (Of course, it'll be full fingers for some months now, I imagine--at least on my AM run).

Been a few months since I've posted here--been too busy at work to even lurk much. Hope everyone has been doing well...

clg

Saturday night while riding home after work I almost had a head on with a little rascal. I was riding on what passes for a bike lane and seemingly out of no where I see a small person on one of those electric carts holding what appeared to be a flashlight coming at me on a collision course. I just swerved at the last minute to avoid an accident. She/he must have just put the flashlight on before we would have collided or else I wouldn't have seen em. The most surprising thing in hindsight was the time; it was almost 2am.

orlandogotay

It was right between civil twilight and sunrise. I waved goodbye to the gate guard. everything was very silent. My tires would crunch small gravel near the edge of the street. On a mile long downhill stretch, a bus driver did not honk or tried to overtake me...he just held his station. I waved him on, he went on his way, probably relieved for not having to deal with another ciclyst. I made his morning a little better, and probably mine, too.

The tiny "ferocious" dog that usually awaits near the San Francisco metro stop (Mile 2.4) was not there...it was still probably asleep. Nearby, people milled about, awaiting medical offices to open.

I switched to the middle chainring and concentrated instead on my cadence while avoiding grate after grate, on streets behind Centro Medico. I arrived at Luis Munoz Marin park (mile 4), and hopped on the desolate MUP. It requires going over a little wooden bridge that spans a nearly dry river. Below, a white heron ignored me as I crossed to the other side. Far away, a lone jogger in a red suit huffed in another trail. At the other end, I criss-crossed Urbanizacion Roosevelt, where there were more signs of early life. There were a few dogs leashing their masters.

O' Neill street, behind the US Courthouse, belonged in the moon -but signalled that my commute was soon coming to an end. (mile 6). Two turns later, near the Roosevelt Metro stop, I switched off all the lights, hopped off, and rode up to my concrete and glass cage on the twelfth floor, where I can actually look at where I start and end each one of my rides. I smiled as I closed my office door and Clark Kented myself into a respectable city official, ready to take on the day.

girljen

The ride home was rainy and headwindy, and later than I usually leave work. The rain was just a happy little sprinkle, though, and I got to see firsthand how awesome my new fenders really are.

slloth

Headwind on the way to work. We start a half hour later in the Winter and Fall and today was the first day. I dealt with a lot more traffic. It's crazy how one half hour can make so much of a difference. I went from starting at 6:30 to 7:00. Best part is I saw four other bikers! Only one of them was a Ninja who was incidentally riding directly at me going the wrong way! Good thing I was paying attention. I also noticed my crank starting to make a sound every few rotations. Still havn't figured out what the problem is.

The ride home was way to easy and short. I wanted to keep riding.

drummer5

Started off pretty chilly and I busted another spoke(3rd since sept, getting new wheels soon) but on the positive side I picked up some new cork bar tape and put it on around lunch time and I love it.

Grim

Like a lot of others I got my first good and cold weather today. Being this will be my first winter commuting I am still sorting out cold weather gear.

Was 39f here this morning. Overall my gear selection has worked ok for being low end gear.

Compression base layer, Regular short sleeve tech pull over, Nashbar Siberia and Sugoi Venture as a wind breaker. Heavy weight cargo pants. Toasty warm while peddling. Had to keep the Sugoi unzipped halfway in fact. When I stopped for lights and intersections was a problem...without the airflow I started overheating and sweating. That gave me a chill when I took off but the base lay quickly got the moisture out and all was fine after moving a short distance. Maybe I should be an ass and run the lights to fix that...Just kidding. Part of the problem is my Nathen refelctive vest is a pain in the butt and pulls everythign too tight and keeps me from getting at jacket zipper. Going to go by Harbor Freight and get a looser vest this week.

Up top I got a Performance cap that covered my ears. Top of head was great. Lower face was cold but not bad. I have a Baklava I also picked up I may try tomorrow but I think it is going to fog my glasses if I pull it over my nose when it gets real cold.

My big fail was gloves. Picked up some Fox full finger un padded gloves but I think 40f is about the bottom end for them. Last week and the end of this week they would be perfect. Probably should have got the heavier gloves that I passed on These however will make really good liners for when it gets really cold around Jan.

Overall my ride in was nice and built my confedence in peddling through the winter. Ride home was outstanding. 65f with the base layer and shirt I wore was just right.

MIKEnDC

A touch warmer than yesterday morning: ~40F/5C. Same gear as yesterday--running knickers, SmartWool microweight under my Showers Pass jacket (the SP has been languishing all summer as it is just plain too warm over 55 or 60F--even with everything wide open)--with the major exception of full-finger gloves. Cool, clean morning air. Gotta love it.

And I STILL feel sorry for all the people stuck in cars--for whatever reasons they are stuck...

Big_e

Great ride! Nice and quiet and still dark. Just alittle cool so I broke out the arm warmers. I rode around Jefferson Blvd looking at the shops and basically looking at my reflection in the shop windows. I'm on my new (old) Alpine Guadalupe commuter. Great bike with stocky steel frame. I didn't stop at my donut store, time to watch my diet again.
Ernest

tarwheel 

This morning felt positively balmy (low 40s F) after yesterday's cold temps (mid 30s). I had a tough ride home yesterday afternoon because I started coming down with a bug during the day. My wife was sick on Sunday, and I apparently caught it from her. It was mainly stomach cramps but any kind of illness seems to sap my strength, so struggled riding home with all of the hills on my route. After taking a shower when I got home, I had soup for dinner and then crashed on the couch watching TV all night. This morning, I felt 95% better, so I rode to work as usual. I'm a strong believer in exercise as a cure or preventative for sickness. I rarely ever get colds or any other bugs, and when I do, they are usually gone within a day or two.

cg1985

Pretty cold this morning. Only getting colder. Which is good news, it was mid 30's. Why good news? because I wasn't wearing a whole lot of gear, gloves, regular clothes, and a windbreaker and felt great.

Was riding in today and got a surprise. Early in my commute I was speeding up after moving through a stop light, and noticed a shadow of a biker, at first I was like, oh it's just multiple shadows of me. Then I looked behind me to check traffic before my right turn and saw another biker there. JEEBUS! Scared the daylight out of me.

He said, "Sorry, I'm right behind you there" I felt bad because I then turned onto another road, it might have looked like I was being mean and didn't want him behind me.

I guess that 99 out of a 100 times I see another cyclist on the same side of the road, I am passing them, so seeing one pop up behind me was startling.

girljen

It was hard to get on the bike this morning. There was a car in the driveway taunting me: "Psst. Jen. Drive me. You can stop for coffee! Nobody's using me today...and nobody will ever know." I spent all morning debating with myself and rationalizing and changing my mind...and ended up riding to work anyway!

Slightly overdressed. Had a nice, mellow ride in spite of that fact. Didn't see anything too remarkable. Didn't care.