[MENTION=366933]mgw4jc[/MENTION] I think since I have lost almost 40lbs since 2010 my body gets cold way faster. I used to be warm all the time and now I find myself cold and now thinking about bringing jackets/ sweatshirts to stay warm. I wore a long sleeve jersey Monday home and it felt like I had nothing on and was chilled throughout the ride so i figured I could go wool jersey with arm warmers this evening.

this morning I had on Knee warmers under long bib tights, short sleeve wool jersey, arm warmers and performance jacket gloves and balaclava. I was comfortable for the whole ride even though i took the jacket off. I basically took it off since I was in town with lots of stoplights. I did not want my glasses to fog up.

I got a new Light & Motion Urban 800. I already had an Urban 500 but it has been "pulsing" and L&M offered me a 30% discount on any of their lights as a replacement. The Urban 500 is out of warranty, so it seemed like a good offer. I have been extremely pleased with the Urban 500, despite the recent problem, which is probably due to the battery losing power -- I've had the light about 3 years and use it 3-4 days/week. They offered to fix my existing light for about $50, but I opted to buy a new more powerful light for $50 more. I can use the old light as a backup.

[MENTION=86492]tarwheel[/MENTION] sounds like a good deal. I would like to have an all in one light and i like the side visibility as well.

Big big headwind this morning. Rainy and cold but I was dressed accordingly so the ride was nice anyway.

It's only the second morning of the major roadwork on my commute but I'm already friend with the flag lady, yesterday morning when I told her she would see me 4 mornings/week she didn't believe me. This morning the first thing she told me is: even in the rain !?! Yes m'am! She told me she don't usually like cyclists because they wont oblige to signaling in roadwork area...

There was a lot of blow down from the wind that came through last night. I had to watch for the thick sticks under leaves; I did stop and clear a few big branches off the road.

It was a nice ride for the most part. I did have someone prompt me to call the police when I got to work, which is very rare.

They started to tailgate (within one foot) me wanting to pass in was in the lane just right of center on a busy narrow, two lane section with opposing traffic and a solid yellow line. I am okay with people passing on this if they are safe-ish and not jerks. I tried to wave him off and took the left tire track/center to stave off more idiotic maneuvers. But then he tried to pass on the right. I got to the stop sign, through the intersection and then kindly pulled over to let him go. I was then behind him 4 blocks later at the stop light. He was first I was second. When the light went green he went slow then brake checked me and waved some gesture (not the bird) at me in retaliation. Then he went away and I went to work and called the police.

They said that would call the registered owner and I hope they will and I thanked them.

^ sounds like a real jerk. I hope the police track him down.

My ride in this morning was tough. Steady 10mph headwind with occasional rain. I managed to get in without getting too wet, but man are my legs tired! Hopefully the wind doesn't change direction so I can get a free ride home.

At least to let him know people are watching. I hope I do not run into again, it is my daily route.

Yeah headwinds are not fun. My legs were a bit tired cresting the bridge in the head wind. I have Friday off since my son's daycare is closed and I think that I may not cycle for three days for a bit of a rest.

last night i had a rare tailwind!!

I'm still only braking with my right hand (thumb injury) and in the wet my braking power was really really suffering. Not safe--so late at night I cleaned the rim and replaced pads. The next AM I was cursing myself because I had stupidly cleaned up the FRONT not the rear. I cleaned the rear and replaced pads that night.

I've been quite ill for a week and half so next to no bicycle commuting. Had to go to southern Williamsburg today and the trip always takes three times as long by bus so I biked it. It was a wet and cold commute so for the first time this year I had to break out the heavy rain coat and long gloves. I feel up to commuting tomorrow but with the weather supposed to be as wet and even colder I think I should stick to the subway.

Wet

Cool again, 0C/32F, slight breeze. I left earlier this morning, at about 6:40am and it wasn't until the last 10 minutes or so, 7:20-7:30, that there was enough light from the morning sun to be able to ride without needing my front light (I kept it on any way, to be seen).

Weirdness happening at a particular intersection yesterday and today. This set of lights, I've never been able to trigger and for that reason, I routed my ride in to another set of lights, even though that mean adding nearly 3km to my ride and a 500m/yd 3% hill to the route: for the sake of exercise and fitness, that's ok. Months ago, when I first started to use this route, I would get to that light I couldn't trigger and have waited up to 7 minutes because that's how long it took for a vehicle to pull up beside me and trigger that light which is why I devised the alternate. Over the past couple of weeks, I've decided to go to that light and find an opportunity to jump through the red when there was a break in traffic and it so happened that more vehicles are stopping beside me so rarely have I had to jump the red. However, the past couple of days, when I got to the red, moments later, it turned green for me: I wasn't prepared for it yesterday and while I wasn't paying attention to the light but to the traffic to find a break to jump through, a truck waiting for his left green signal honked, I looked up and, despite no other vehicles beside me, it had turned green so I waved thanks and went through. Today was similar, almost as soon as I got to the light, it started changing so that my direction would be green. There was only one vehicle stopped at the red light the other way so I didn't bother waiting for my light to turn green, I just went before it did and good thing too, it didn't actually turn green, it just cycled right back to a green light in the cross direction: maybe it "thought" that it had made a mistake by starting to change my direction to green and then had second thoughts and made the cross direction green instead. Weird! Maybe my light triggered it to change and when I started to move, it didn't "see" my light anymore and figured that there was no vehicle there afterall. I'll watch what happens over the next few days to see if I can detect a pattern.

tailwind?!?! what is that? all i ever find is headwind on my rides.

I am thinking about calling the police... on the police. A police cruiser passed me on a double yellow in the face of oncoming traffic and the cars further down the road were all stopping for a school bus. I have the car number. I just wonder if it would do any good.

Approach it with the regular, "I want to report an unsafe driver..." Then instead of giving a license, just say, "Police Cruiser XX," and hang up! It would be interesting to see what they say though. I never understand why people have to pass right before a stop sign or when there is stopped traffic just ahead such as the school bus.

Headwinds on the way home yesterday. Definitely a slower ride.

A good, chilly ride in this morning. I can't get a old James Bond theme song out of my head while I'm riding: "GoldFinger." But my version of the song is "Cold Fingers!"

Ideal weather for commuting except for the wind, which apparently is affecting nearly everyone. I'll take the wind over rain any day. My legs are feeling the effects of high mileage lately. I've ridden 230+ miles over the past week and nearly 1,000 miles over the past month -- much of that touring. This is also my favorite time of the year to ride and the weather has been great.

Big big headwind this morning, steady 35-40 kmh with windgust up to 70 kmh, I needed 1h18 min. for a ride I usualy do in an hour.

Sometimes there is a complaint department. I have a letter I have been sitting on from the most scary incident I have had in half a million kilometers of driving from a police cruiser. I still may send it, to the department and the oversight board.

Get a news story to do a public reporting piece on it?

Last night it was drizzling. Then when I came out from picking up my son it was pouring. It was a fun ride home in the rain, my son loved it. Though he complained the rain was stinging his cheeks.

I got my deal extreme shipment last night.

This is what I was most looking forward to:
T6 XML-T6 3-Mode 900-Lumen White LED Bike Light with Battery Pack Set - Free Shipping - DealExtreme

Man it is bright. I angled it down to about 4-6 feet in front of the bike and it was bright on low. I think a few cars who otherwise would not have waited choose to wait due to it.

This morning it was appreciated also; it was incredibly heavy rain. Probably the most wet I have gotten in years. I had a lot of water to wring out of my clothes when I got to work.

Combined with the blow down the drains were blocked and there was a lot of water everywhere. The worst was the point when the whole road was flooded three inches deep and since it was all flooded and dark and caught me off guard while I was wathcing other traffic.

I enjoyed the ride and was glad I had my new light.

Drencher last night.
Rain of epic proportions this AM. I might work on an ark for the commute home. I had to stop a few times because a summer's worth of salt/sweat in my helmet was washing into my eyes. By the time I got to work my eyes had that coke-fiend look.

Glad it was not just me that thought that about this morning, I recall one morning a few years ago having rain this heavy on the ride. It coincided with the 6 foot breaker that engulfed me from a passing truck.

The decision to build an ark may be a prudent decision. Lets meet at Slocan and paddle home together if this rain continues.

well sad news... Yesterday the Beaver I saw was lieing upside down and dead in the bike lane. I was sad to see the poor guy go. He was huge. He was gone this morning.

Great week of riding! Before riding home last night my wife asks me to go short way they are hungry then while I am riding texts 3 more times eventually saying I could long way. I guess she thinks I can hear my phone while riding. (in panniers) I showed up at home and she was surprised. I had a fast ride home ... the short way too.

The ride home tonight will put me over 100 miles for the week... even if I go the short way. I hope I can go the longer way.
Riding home yesterday some people were burning fires and it smelled so good. Fire and dry leaves. Lovely fall days!

The ride in was 41.9 degrees when I left the house and wore the same stuff I wore earlier in the week and fogging up something fierce. Kinda made me frustrated to be that hot.

Wow, I hope nobody drowned yesterday. We've been very dry this whole week in the south-east states.

Nice sunrise on the way in. I tried to get to a nice picture taking spot but the orange colors had mostly gone just before I got there.

I'm still wearing shorts and just a long-sleeve shirt for these 44F mornings. I'm okay riding, but after I've been sitting at my desk for about 10 minutes, a chill kicks in. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I may need to store some hot chocolate or something to warm me from the inside. {shiver**

i would recommend covering your knees. the tendons that go over the outside of your knees dont have muscle to insulate them. I have heard cover your knees. PS I apparently wear a lot more than you do. I had on too much today. I was sweating and taking stuff off a little past halfway in.

I am thankful for the dry weather. if is cold and wet it makes it easier to think about driving which is the problem when your car gets 28-32mpg
it was a pretty sunrise in my rearview mirror for me too

Haven't posted in a while, but still riding about 4 times a week. This morning was a bit too exciting. Almost got wacked by a guy going through a red. Traffic was unusually light this morning. I saw him coming from the left, but he was so far from the corner, with plenty of stopping room I discounted him. No other traffic. Luckily I glanced back to the left as I entered the intersection just in time for a quick stop (rear wheel left the ground).

Ya'll be careful out there!

Was going to ride Thursday morning, but when I woke up I was just way too sore from spending most of Wednesday taking field measurements of industrial floor trenches at a project site. That meant LOTS of bending and kneeling down, and my quads were just killing me Thursday.

So I took the car and bike, and rode home yesterday. I left around the usual time, but traffic seemed unusually light, which was really nice.

This morning I was late leaving, about 6:25 instead of 6:00, and I could DEFINITELY tell the difference in traffic. Many more cars passing me than usual. One azzhole decided to honk behind me while several oncoming cars passed, then yelled out something I couldn't make out as he passed me. I'm sure it was something about "get offa tha road!" but oh well. Honking means he saw me, and he still made a full lane change to pass.

So this morning makes THREE round trip commutes this week, first time I've ever done that since I started in May of last year. I also haven't missed a day of commuting since I was sick in mid-July. And I surpassed last year's October miles total yesterday, and still have another week of riding to go!

The one silver lining of these cool mornings, as far as I'm concerned, is riding in jeans if I want to, skip the shower and change shirts at the office. Costing me a leisurely five or six minutes, saving that by skipping the locker room, it comes out about even.

It's also nice that it hasn't rained on us for about a week!