Borderline hot yesterday afternoon with temps near 80°F for the ride home. Should be slightly cooler this afternoon.

This morning's ride was good. Foggy/overcast so no visible sunrise as I neared Washington, but there was a nice breeze PDT the river. Almost got hit in the face by a few falling and, later, blowing leaves. At least they're still pretty. There's some good foliage along the Mt Vernon Trail these days...

I've had a rear flat on two consecutive days (Tues & Wed). (tiny punctures in the tube, street side with nothing visible in/on the tire itself)

I have several meetings that started early this morning, so I used the MTA/Bike & Ride for a truncated commute this morning.
I'm hoping for the best this afternoon.

-6C/21F, a little breezy with a few random snowflakes in the air, not nearly enough to say it was snowing. I've been feeling rather sluggish recently and just poking along my commutes, which perhaps explains why I've been getting passed by other cyclists with alarming frequency! This morning, I was riding along and started to see my shadow in my own headlight beam. Turning my head around, I saw another commuter cyclist gaining on me with an incredibly bright headlight. After he passed me, I half-heartedly chased him for a bit until our paths diverged. It was then I realized I was in 4th gear, and not my usual 5th. Not sure what's wrong with me, but I'm just not feeling motivated to really push myself these days.

Outstanding fall weather this week. Today, I finally left off the knee and arm warmers and was dressed just right for 60s. On the ride in, it was still fairly dark, and I saw a guy coming down a steep dirt path with lots of roots, and he did an endo in slow motion. Since another rider was stopped at the same place, I kept riding, but I still feel guilty for not stopping. I hope he was okay. I had enough trouble seeing the bike path so thought it was kinda gutsy that he was even attempting to ride down that path on a road bike. Next time, I will be a good citizen and stop.

Ooo, cool! I haven't encountered this yet but it will come.

Yesterday evening, while driving in the car, I saw an oncoming cyclist on the other side of the road with 3 incredibly bright lights, 2 on the handlebar, one on his helmet. Despite being 4 lanes over, the lights were incredibly bright and, with the helmet-mounted light, it looked weird. It actually took me a moment to figure out what I was seeing that had a triangle of bright lights. It made me have second thoughts about considering a helmet-mounted light. In reality, this person did not need so many or so much light considering s/he was on a well-lit road.

First real test of my new fenders, and they worked really well :) Light rain coming in to work today - I saw only one other bicyclist. Sometimes see as many as 10, so the weather seems to have dropped most others.

Question: what can I do to waterproof the Sigma computer and the bicycle lights? What should I use to coat the places where water can go in?

treadtread, I suspect they're fairly water resistant or maybe even waterproof. They know where this stuff is going. But if rain is heavy, I suspect Saran wrap would work OK.

I rode to work today for the first time in a few weeks. I really have to do this more often. I feel great, and my mind is so much more awake. I think of my cycling route to work as long and hilly, but my view of it is changing slowly. I took a slightly longer route, and it was about 14 miles. I took exactly an hour, and my computer, of course, said I averaged 14.0 mph. None of the hills felt difficult. I went at what I would call a moderately strong pace but I wasn't pushing myself. I ought to be able to push it hard occasionally, so I will try doing the whole route hard from time to time, just to build strength and endurance.

Weather is cool and damp and overcast. I wore a merino wool long sleeve polo shirt with a wool jersey on top. I was overdressed, but since both layers were wool, I didn't overheat, and I didn't want to go through the trouble of peeling off a layer. I was fine, and I dried off very quickly once inside.

I put a front rack on my bike and also fenders. For the time being, I can't attach my dynamo headlight, so I'm using a decent battery light. I ran it on the way in, figuring a daytime running light may not do any good, but it doesn't do any harm, and maybe it helps people see me. I also run my taillight on "steady" in the daytimes.

I shot this as soon as I arrived at work.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-m...0/IMG_0312.JPG

Drove in today because I'm leaving work early to take my mom to a ballgame ;). Just for fun, I turned on strava for comparison. Driving saves me roughly 4 minutes door to door, but costs me $8 in parking.

Cold, and the roads were wet, but at least it wasn't raining.

I almost got run down from behind by some guy in a big white F-150 who wasn't paying attention. Looked like a brand new truck, if I lived, that probably would have been a nice $ettlement. :p

-1C with excellent 42kph tailwind this afternoon. The ride home will be slow unless the wind dies down early. Yesterday I had a 40 gusting to 55kph headwind for the trip home. The road was torn up in one spot so I took the new section of the MUP. It has a nice drop that leads into a turn where I can easily get up to 40kph. That spot is completely unsheltered from the wind so it will probably get blown in with snow on a regular basis.

I stopped by the LBS this morning and my Pugsley had arrived but was still in the box. I'll be picking it up tomorrow afternoon. I got a black Brooks Professional saddle for it and brought it home today to get some proofide onto it. The saddle is probably in excess of 10 years old and is sucking up the proofide like crazy. I'd wipe the bottom and 30 seconds later it would be dry to the touch.

This afternoon's ride home was in beautiful warm weather, sunny and 20C but with a 43kpm S wind (about 1/2 of my ride home, yuk!).

Couldn't believe it that in these beautiful conditions, a car passed me with the telltale sounds of studded tires!!!

jrickards, do you bike-commute through the winter?

I was having a bad day. On my way back from work I was on the right side of the road minding my own business and some driver honks like an ass at me. He may have just got off an interstate exit ramp. Anyway as he passes me, he's between the left and right lane and eventually goes into the left lane. No one else is in the left lane or anywhere around. Well, I got behind him as he was turning left through the traffic light. After that, he makes a U-turn. He either doesn't know where he's going, or he's trying to get away from me. Well, I turned left and made a U-turn after him. I pulled up in the left lane next to him. Then he lied and said that it wasn't him. I have it on tape, so I know it was him.

I was late getting out this AM so I got a ride from my wife (she had a meeting at my work site by luck) with my bike. I worked until about 6:30 PM, and it was just getting dark. I was using my regular SigmaSport headlight to see while I changed the headlight bulb in my car last night, and I couldn't find it this morning so I found an old white blinkie light and fastened it with a few cut-bike-tube-elastic-bands. IT was not enough to see with, but certainly enough to be seen by any of the ~4 cars I saw on the way home.
As I was arriving at the bike racks the other last cyclist - an older chap - was just pulling on his reflective vest and riding off. I try to not race people when I commute as I tend to overdo it and feel sick, but since this was the trip home I figured I could push a little. I saw his tail-light cresting the top of the first hill when I was at the bottom (about a 50 m climb over 500m). I reeled him in on the last set of flats before we got back onto public roads about 7 km later. There is a long gradual downhill terminated with about 20 meters of washboard ruts leading directly into a fence with a narrow open gate, and I like to do top speed tests on this hill, while most others take it real easy to avoid hitting the fence. I caught up to the other guy, slowed to say hello, then blew past. I maintained my pace after the fence and I could tell the guy had sped up a bit to try and hang on to me because I hadn't slowed down but I was pulling away much more slowly than I caught him.

I have had a persistent cough for the past two weeks and this was my first ride, except for runs tot he grocery store and taking the dog for walks. It felt great!

Remember: that guy's punishment is that he has to be a dick the rest of his life.

When in doubt, pack the windbreaker!

It was forecast to be upper 60's on the way home today, but we had a cold front come through early this afternoon, and the temp dropped from 77 F to 47 F and windy in 3 hours. My nylon windbreaker saved my bacon tonight!

He looked like a white-collar kind of guy at least in his 50s probably or 60s. His driving was bit off and abrupt when I caught up behind him on the turn. That and the U-turn makes me think he was trying to lose me. I normally let this stuff go and don't chase down motorists, but I was too angry today to let this one go. He looked intimidated, and I'm sure he was surprised a bike rider caught up to him.

The way home last night was windy as heck, and kinda like sitting around the campfire when the smoke follows you...It seemed that the wind was always in my face. Whew, I was tired when I got home!

Not bad, all things considered. About mid 50's when I left the house in what was either a light rain or a heavy fog. I got to try out my new kludged together head light (Basically a 4W LED driven by 8 AA batteries) which lit the MUP nicely. The ride home was drier (turns out it was in fact rain) but it had the typical headwinds that I know I have to deal with.

It was a nice uneventful ride in this morning, at a cool 36f.

Another foggy, damp but warm ride in. I took an alternate route reversing my home commute with the way in today...so I have a great ride along the Annacostia River in SouthEast DC, past the Navy Yard and a large museum Destroyer, I passed our re-developed new park area, passed the baseball stadium, up to the SoiuthWest Waterfront fish market, passed the Jefferson memorial, then along a very quiet Potomac River (this area is full of tour busses when I ride home), passed Lincoln Memorial, and finally to my office.

A very nice warm ride again at 62f (17c). Everyone is talking Sandy for the begining of next week, so I guess we will see how much rain/wind we get. The blustery mornings are a pleasure, in which to ride. It's those cold windy mornings that are not so nice.

Haven't yet but I'm going to see how long I can bike-commute this year. We can get significant snow during the winter which means that the roads narrower and narrower as the snow plows can't push the snow as far off the road later in the winter as they can during the beginning. However, there is at least one hardy bike-commuter that I will occasionally see during the winter. I would also have to decide what I'm going to ride during the winter, I don't want to use my current bike although it is the only one with disc brakes.

What about you noglider? In NY, you should get significant snow too, especially upstate.

No biking today. Halfway home yesterday, I started to suffer pretty sharp and severe stomach/upper GI cramps and pains. I've never experienced that before to the best of my knowledge. I "hobbled" the rest of the way home, had dinner (no real relief), went to a funeral wake and then straight to bed. I decided to take a break today.

Hammer day. For coming off being ill, I rode one of my best today. 12mi in 37:10.

Still failed to crack the 20mph average for this ride though. I gave it everything I had this morning. Whew! Tonight I'm going to recovery ride nice and easy!

I live and work in NJ, where our snowfall varies a lot from year to year. Some years we get no snow at all. Our worst weather, in my opinion, is heavy rain and wind together at around 32F. Snow is less painful. I used to have a rule of no riding when there's snow or ice on the ground, but I've lifted that rule. Unfortunately, since I did so, there has been no slick stuff to test my skills on. Last winter was a dud.

Another bad thing is that the temperature fluctuates above and below freezing, so the snow melts and refreezes many times, leaving the surface in patches of completely clear and plowed snow banks turned to ice, plus patches of snow, ice, and wet slush. I don't know what tires to use in that case. I guess knobby tires are safest, but I'll be spending most of my time on clear surfaces.

I've been reading the winter cycling section of bikeforums for two or three years. Apparently, the folks there go by the Minnesota saying: there's no bad weather, only bad clothing. I want to see what my limit is. Maybe I won't find one if I find suitable clothing for our worst weather. We get a lot of humidity and wind here, though our milder temperatures will make you smirk.

Ooops, I missed that.

My brother-in-law doesn't live too far from you, in Short Hills.

In the mid-60s, we lived for a couple of years north of High Falls, in Oswego.

Short Hills is the next town over. Actually, Short Hills is a zip code in the town of Millburn, which is the next town over.

High Falls isn't anywhere near Oswego. High Falls is near New Paltz, NY, about 100 miles north of New York City. This is where we just bought a weekend house. Cycling there is very pretty. I might try cycling in the winter weather there. There might be some real snow there.

Near perfect day although southerner that I am I needed arm-warmers and gloves. It's been of a no-driving month of commutes, two months actually, minus a visit to the surgeon for my clavicle. It was a risk going back to the bike two weeks after surgery but it turned out well and I'm glad now that I did it.

I'm finally getting my conditioning back, such as it is, and was able to play the "rabbit" yesterday. A few miles at 21-22 mph, but I'm cautious with mup-bikers at underpasses and he passed me there - I could never catch up. LOL the truth is the speed-racers are actually slacking until they get around you but it's still fun to play rabbit and hound with them.

Wind is beginning to shift around from the north as a cool front is approaching...
http://mapmyride.com/view_workout?w=197885391