The upshifts on my mtb rear derailleur have been extremely sloppy all week in the cold weather. Tonight's ride home was particularly frustrating as it was taking 3-5 turns of the crank for the shift to occur.

I figured the cable housings were gunked up, so while I was putting my slicks back on I decided to clean them out. The little red tube that comes with WD40 works well for purging the housings, then I purged the WD40 by spraying in some aerosol teflon lube. Everything is smooth again, but I'll know for sure tomorrow morning.

It was a very nice commute this morning. I saw my first other bike commuter leaving out of town this morning at 5:40am. We talked for a couple minutes, then he took off, he was faster than me. It was nice to see someone else out on the road with me. The temp was a very cool 41f, with a clear starry sky.

Chilly, chilly at 40f (4c). I passed several school bus stops in the dark, and saw a number of children in holloween costumes. I just happened to be in all red, mostly because it was clean. It is good to see the kids honoring a very old and fun event.

Coldest ride in so far, -2C, but again, dry. Some ice on the roads where puddles had been splashed over the road and frozen but I felt no slippage (although I tried to avoid all of them, I ran across a couple).

Beautiful clear morning sky. On the last part of the commute, I was riding east, into the morning sky glow with the crescent moon and Venus (?) ahead of me. Nice!!

Pretty nice as I rolled out at 5:30am. Riding the single speed again today, enjoyed the ride too. A couple of miles before I made it to work, it started to rain on me. Thank goodness it was warmer today. It lasted long enough to get me wet, but then it stopped. Nothing about rain in the forecast.

The ground didn't get wet enough to put the usual stripe on my back either.

It's supposed to be sunny and in the mid 70's today.

Really nice weather today with sunshine and scattered clouds with temps in the 80's... it was soooo nice that I started my commute nearly 40 minutes earlier and was cycling on the beach-side at a snails pace, soaking in the rays. Reached the office with plenty of time to spare too!

Have been back to commuting on the bike this week, after more than a month off the bike due to funerals, illness and never-ending rain in the afternoons. We finally are seeing a little dry weather here in South Florida and have been cooling off this week with me leaving this morning with a 66 degree start to the day and a breeze from the north. It's nice to leave in the early morning twilight, and watch the sun come up off my right shoulder as I head north up the road to my work place. I was suffering some leg pain for a while when riding the bike, but have learned that the seat had moved and I was really stretching that left leg (on my recumbent the seat tends to migrate BACK away from the pedal) so once I paid attention to that, I'm feeling better and riding more. It's good to be back...

Tractor Tom in Okeechobee, FL

Almost the same report here. :-) But the ice on the roads was because St. Paul seems to love to clean their streets in sub-freezing temps. It was easy to avoid and most streets were warm enough to keep it liquid (this time), but it's irritating. :-)

And the last part of the commute, I was riding west, with the morning sky glow in my rear view mirror. It's the first morning I've made it to work before the sun actually rose.

One additional note: The "country" water fowl are starting to head south and overnight in the MN Valley Wildlife Nat'l Refuge. They can be distinguished from the locals in that they're spooked by cyclists and take flight, whereas the locals just ignore us and continue doing whatever they're doing.

Glad you're OK. Could have turned out much worse.

I've been commuting every day, but to busy to stop by here so I gave been playing catch up as far add the forum is concerned.

The weather is getting good... Really good. This morning was around forty degrees F when I rolled away from home. Perfect weather for a long sleeve tee or short sleeves and arm warmers, which was my choice this morning. Legs felt great once I got warmed up... I was trying to record my ride on Strava, which for some reason didn't record, which is too bad because I am pretty sure I would have set a new personal best on a couple segments of the MUP. Oh well, recorded or not, it was a wonderful ride in.

Had a close call/buzz with a plumbing company truck a couple days ago. Guy just passed way too close as he was gunning it. I
managed to get the plate number, so I have a letter drafted to the company's president, which I'll be mailing today too complain about bad driving on his employee's part.

Coldest day of the week. I'm very glad I have convertible gloves (go from fingerless to mittens). If it gets much colder, I'll need to start wearing my face mask. I didn't check the thermometer, but I imagine it was around 38-40F (3-5C).

-1C with a 21kph headwind, I should have put my shoe covers on as my feet started getting numb toward the end of the ride. About 2km into my ride I came across a guy on a mountain bike wearing shorts, he must have been cold. About 1km later he took the MUP and I stayed on the road, our paths intersected twice over the next 3km at MUP underpasses.

My gears are shifting very smoothly after I cleaned the housings last night. That little loop going into the rear derailleur was probably the culprit. During wet rides water can roll along the cable and freeze up inside. This cold weather has my cantilever brakes howling very loudly.

It has been my experience that you can cause problems by wearing shirts and pants that are too warm. The same is not true of gloves and boots.

Awesome commute today, ran 5 miles then rode 4.5 into work. Not really a bad day at work but an extremely eventful day at work that included a 911 call and by the time I rode home all that stress was just gone.

25 miles in heavy drizzle. Got soaked, yay.

Had my first good 'soakeroo' of the season. I had fun, except for dealing with all the wet stuff afterwards.

3.5 miles in steady rain ... 54 F ... cake walk

Well... damn.. there must be something in the rain. Or whatever that was on the ground that got wet and and splashed onto my chain (I assume salt water). Got on my chain and it started to rust within an hour. Same with my girls friend chain too.

Friday was the 100th day commuting for the year! That was my goal last year but I only made it to day 94. I got an early start this year because of the mild winter and easily made 100. My revised goal is 120 commutes, or about 1/2 of the working days in the year. I'm guessing I'll hit that number around Thanksgiving.

BTW, Friday morning was a beautiful clear sky and I had the pleasure of staring up at the crescent moon and Venus for just about the entire ride. Funny how it kept reminding me of the Soviet Flag!

A very nice warm morning at 66f (19c). It was one of those beautiful nights to have spent near a campfire, talking about anything and everything with good friends.

warm and wet .....

I had to bring my car to the mechanic as it needs a sticker and before it gets a sticker I need to know what needs to be fixed to make a decision to either sell it and get a new vehicle or fix it and stay the course. The good thing was I was able to bring my bike so I could ride from the mechanic's to work. The ride was only 6 miles and very flat, compared to my usual 10 and very hilly. Though I got to ride so all is good. I saw many people out walking this morning, usually I see very few people. What a difference in the localities.

Heat wave! 61F/16C with a blistering south (tail) wind. Not really looking forward to the ride home. Maybe I'll take the MUP. It's flat and slower so the wind won't bother me as much.

Heat wave indeed....I was positively comfortable riding in. Two close calls: one last night with a SUV just inches from my bumper...driver simply not looking forward but rather back and to the left. Then this morning I was side by side with a coity bus, I was in the bike lane and the bus pulled ahead...as we cleared an intersection a police car comes whipping through to make a left. Gave 'em the death stare (as far as I could and still feel like I would not create a problem for myself!).

Kudos, that's an accomplishment!

Today was cold again well about 48, but luckly I got some shoe covers this weekend, really it wasn't as cold as I was dressed but I needed to test all the gear out before its really cold. I am loving my commute and find a few ways to change it up but ~10-12 miles each way. With lights and traffic takes about 40-45mins.

The best "commutes" happend this weekend. I got my girlfriend a lovely blue trek 7.2 and she loves it! I could barely get her to go to the store and back a few weeks ago but this weekend we rode every day about 2-4 miles round trip for a beer run, saturday breakfast, and sunday night grocery shopping!