wphamilton

The rainstorms finished with us about an hour before quitting time yesterday so I was able to take the Greenway home, which remained just under its flood level. Although the advisory claimed high winds and trees down in the area I saw no sign of that, only the usual post-storm debris.

I did start tweaking my faired rain-bike, starting with swapping out the handlebar. I'd cut the hooks off the old one thinking I'd just ride on the hoods, but I couldn't get low enough that way to be fully out of the wind. Since I'd also chopped off the top section of the wind screen. It turned into a project since the old bars had that weird grip shifter and I had no spare integrated shifters, so I would up clamping an old downtube shifter to the bar top (the shell and mounting interferes with the normal location). It looks a little strange, but objectively that's not the first strange thing you'd notice so I decided I don't care about that. Adjusted some shape in the shell. Next up I want to improve the aerodynamics and increase coverage before the rainy stuff and potential cold weather hits.

jrickards

It was very clear. However, I expected to be passed by ambulances before I got to the hospital (about 5km/3mi away from the accident) but nothing, I thought that was a rather ominous observation.

dramiscram

Big big headwind last night on my way home, it was a good workout.

Warm again this morning, gray sky but no rain. We expect rain later today.

Darth Lefty 

How far over does the fairing come? I didn't get much rain coverage out of a full height motorcycle windshield at motorcycle speeds so I'm thinking if you want to keep the rain off your face, might wind up with something like those scooters with a roof.

wphamilton

Currently about the same height as the top of my shoulders when I'm in the drops. I had an extension of about 14", which I took off to reduce drag in the summer (and too hot!). With the extension I'd be completely dry in the torso and my back would stay mostly dry - until I stopped of course.

I did experiment with a top enclosure a few years ago but it was unsatisfactory for me. Mainly, too hot no matter what the weather, and too restrictive. The best compromise was stretching spandex over the top (across my shoulders on back, not my head though!) and adding a pattern of vinyl scales so it could breath and still shed water. That was a little weird though.

joeyduck

The heavy rain stopped for my ride this morning but it was still wet and cool, about 10°C. I like biking and hiking in the rain; some weird punishing self pleasure I have. I opted for my rain tights and an extra layer on the top. The tights were okay but probably unneeded and the extra mernio top was certainly unnecessary.

I had one person block the whole road in the area where I have complained to the city about traffic patterns as a result of attempts to make the area bike friendly. I was hauling at about 50 km/h when the person stopped to let someone out. I yelled at them in my biggest voice I reserve for extreme anger and frustration. My wife has heard it once and said it scared her. I thought about ramming their bumper with my front wheel but thought better. I rarely get that angry but it just pissed me off since I was bombing down a hill and was focused on the dump truck wanting to left cross me and I got around him and a car suddenly stopped was offloading in the lane. I had to brake hard and I ended up locking the rear with the wet but stopped within 6 inches. After yelling at them they also could not figure out where to go and there was little space due to narrow roads as a result of foolish bike lanes. They finally moved enough for me to squeeze by on the left.

I am glad I only take that route once or twice a week since it is reserved for days I do not do the daycare run. Since they built the bike lanes I have someone blocking the lane/road, illegally turning, almost been right hooked or have almost hit jaywalkers every time I use it. The city had the best of intentions, but the plan was ill conceived.

I later had a person pull a very unsafe pass but at least they gave me some distance. It was a short break in medians with approaching traffic.

Other than that it was a pleasant commute and I needed to vent. I had a great almost week off for my wife's graduation, medical appointments and Thanksgiving.

principia 650

last two mornings very nice warm ride in lower 60's ride home even going to be better today upper 70's. now for tomorrow looks as if it is going to be VERY wet

caloso

Noticed my rear tire was flat as I was carrying my bike inside. I guess it happened in the last block before arriving at work. If you're going to flat, it might as well be then.

funkybioped

It was way wet today on my commute in. I have some cheep splash pants but they didn't do much but keep the dirt off my work clothes underneath, thus they were clean and drenched. I walked around in soaked pants until they dried. Way uncomfortable! My feet were soaked too. It was fun and all but I guess I'm gonna need to think this through a bit better! Lol. I really want fenders and a decent pair of "GoreTex" like rain paints but I am broke. Guess I'm gonna ride with my bathing suit under my rain pants and change when I get to work!

verdricity

In retrospect I could have handled the situation better, but at that time I was pretty frazzled (never encountered a driver like this before and didn't immediately recognize how dangerous the situation was) and righteously indignant (so I didn't want to stop as that would have been letting him "win"--obviously it's not much of a win if he runs me over). While this was happening it really didn't matter what I did--the driver was going to keep harassing me, whether I was in front of him or behind him. When I was biking behind him he was deliberately slowing down in front of me while honking the entire time. He kept waiting for me at stop signs, so he wouldn't have budged if I had stopped behind his car. This whole incident was pretty terrifying. Now, of course, I realize the correct thing to do would have been to stop, get off the road, and just let the whackjob go.

Anyways, commute was much better today, and I hit a ton of green lights on the way back which is always fun. I've noticed that today I was much more paranoid about cars behind me (part of me is still waiting for the whackjob to come back) but I expect that will fade away with time and anyways, a bit of paranoia is healthy. I've been biking to a shuttle stop, but eventually as I get in better shape and become more confident with urban cycling I want to bike all the way to work (about 16 miles one way) at least once a week.

mgw4jc

Dry ride home last night. Enjoyed a bit of a tail wind for some of it.

Almost got taken out twice this morning. On one downhill I have a left turn into a neighborhood entrance. It is downhill up to and into the entrance, so my turn signal is usually pretty short as I need my hands on the handlebars and brakes. I saw a car coming out of the neighborhood approaching the stop sign faster than normal - you've seen the type that appear to be in a hurry. I guess they didn't see my signal and thought that I would pass as they are making their left turn out of the neighborhood to the main road I am on. As I slow down to make my left they are coming right into my path. They do stop, but I have to swerve around. I gave them a look with my arm out and a WTF expression. The only thing I can think of here is that they didn't see my signal.

A couple of miles later was a right hook. In this case I have to believe the driver saw my right turn signal and decided to make it a double turn where it is not. I usually swing a bit wide on this right because of some rough pavement, but the driver turned right also leaving me barely enough room to stay on the road. I guess these right hookers think that once their person is past me, they are clear. They forget about the additional 10 feet of car that is behind the driver's seat and that is not yet past the cyclist when they turn.

On the bright side, we have beautiful weather today - just under 60F for the ride in; low 70s this afternoon.

jrickards

Cool like yesterday, 9C/48F, but essentially dry, the roads were a bit damp and there was a bit of hanging spray in the air.

Yesterday, with the rain coming down and the roads wet, despite the bright headlight, I didn't see and hit a bad pothole and thought I had either flatted the front tire or broken a spoke. I pulled over to where there was a building with bright lights outside and checked: no flat or broken spoke although my fender had slipped a bit and was rubbing slightly everytime the wheel spinned (I couldn't see if there was a wobble in the rim in the poor light but from the sounds of the fender rubbing, it would have been pretty minor and ok to ride the rest of the route into work). When I got back on the bike, the handlebar didn't feel right, likely, my jolt turned the drop bars down a bit so I fixed it later when I got to work. Also, when I stopped for the accident about 25 minutes after the pothole, I then realized that my rear blinkie could have been bounced off and I turned around to check it: it was still there but just barely holding on so I reseated it.

Note to self: (1) no matter how bright the headlights, wet roads aren't lit up as well as dry roads and (2) even clear glasses will have their visibility reduced when wet. This morning, with the bit of spray in the air, after a few minutes with lightly tinted glasses on, I took them off and rode without them.

tarwheel 

Finally some dry weather after two days of rain. This has been the wettest year that I can remember and we're now nearly 11" above normal YTD. I keep thinking that the weather has to dry out sooner or later but then more storms come along. Normally we get a lot of sunny days in NC, which is why we're known for our blue skies, but we've had very few clear days this year.

ill.clyde

After a week away it was nice to get back to it today. Definitely felt what a week off can do to you though. Opens my eyes a little bit more for working hard this winter to stay in good shape.

51 degrees, very wet out, some spray in the air still. It's rained since Monday, and today it's supposed to finally stop. Hopefully there's no rain on the ride home. LOTS of wet leaves on the MUP though ... no sudden movements.

spivonious

Got caught in the rain coming home last night. It wasn't too bad, and I was mostly just damp until I rode through what I thought was an inch of water. It turned out to be more like 8 inches. Everything got soaked.

Nice weather this morning, with a nice breeze that should dry everything out by the afternoon.

arsprod 

53F and finally a dry ride in - well the roads were wet but no rain

PatrickGSR94

First really chilly morning of the season, wore my long non-insulated tights over bike shorts with Smartwool socks, plus arm warmers and thin high-vis wind breaker, and full-finger gloves. It was only 47 degrees, maybe that makes me a wuss? I dunno, who cares. I stashed my fingerless gloves, cycling socks, and Halo skull cap in my trunk bag for use on the ride home when it should be sunny and upper 60's.

No real issues with motorists. One section is a 2-lane road alongside the interstate, with me going south, and I noticed the northbound side of the interstate (heading into the city) had a huge backup of traffic from some incident farther north (behind me). I'm sure those folks were hating being in their cars right there.

wphamilton

After losing a few of them, I finally gave in and just zip-tied it on. No more lost blinkies.

jrickards

I'll have to consider this although this is the first time I've almost lost this one, it fits on the rear rack quite tightly on its own. Thanks!

CJ Str3tch

After three straight days of biking to and from work in the rain (some drizzle), it felt much better to commute this morning in the cold sans the rain. I was beginning to think I was turning into a frog! The weather forecast says no rain for the rest of the week and into next, so it should be much better going forward. Anyone find that with fall and the leaves and debris from trees on the road, it makes for a more "interesting" commute? I blew a tire yesterday morning after hitting a couple of "hidden" objects - hidden by leaves and other things.

PatrickGSR94

I tried rigging up one of my rear lights to my kid's trailer, but the design was flawed. I lost it at Chick-Fil-A one time when I had to pull the trailer off the curb, but didn't notice it until about 1/2 hour later when we were across the street at the hardware store. Went back to Chick-Fil-A and there it sat in the parking lot up against the curb, still flashing.

dramiscram

No Wind, rainy and gray.
There's roadwork again on my commute, no detour this time but the traffic goes one lane at the time and I had a hard time arguing about the safest way to let a cyclist thru with the flag man. He wanted me to go at the same time as the cars and I wanted to go last. I finaly got my way...

joeyduck

I have lost several blinkies and front lights, but I have done attachment adjustments and have not lost one in a while, knock on wood. I consider them consumables and i have stopped using rechargeable batteries since I get more upset losing them.

It was a nice ride last night home, my son was tired and cranky on the way home and refused to put on his rain pants. It was not raining but his seat is usually damp at the least since it is outside all day, even though it is covered.

I have a left turn on my commute that is usually okay, but last night I did not make the green arrow, nor did the car in front. As the lights turned yellow him and I started to turn, then he suddenly stopped in the middle of the turn in the middle of the intersection with a green for cross traffic. There was no traffic coming I am unsure of why he stopped. I am certain that I rear ended him. It was more of a bump with the front wheel. No worries or damage but annoying to have to start again under the traffic conditions in the wrong gear.

I was all ready to go this morning and realized I forgot my helmet. I was rushing to get my wife and son out as well as myself and forgot. I then had to go upstairs to our landlady and get the key since I also locked myself out. I gave our cat sitter the key for the last weekend and I am usually the first to leave and the last home so I do not need the key typically. But I got my helmet and got on my way.

I had one woman try to merge into me, thankfully I was in the lane and had the bike lane to move into. Otherwise a uneventful and nice commute.

RidingMatthew

i wore tights/ always wear smartwool socks plus arm warmers and skull cap with the windbreaker and softshell full finger gloves. I was comfortable. Eventually took off the arm warmers.

As I was getting dressed, I was like let them make fun at least I am riding and not driving.

Darth Lefty 

Send some of that our way, our reservoirs are empty. NOAA is forecasting average weather for the next three months, which would be a huge improvement.