Very nice, mild ride home yesterday. Being my last commute of the week I left my trunk bag and all my stuff except keys at the office, and headed on home in "lightweight" mode, even wearing shorter ankle socks, and only a long-sleeve jersey and bike shorts. I hate all the extra layers needed when it's cold out.

I forgot to mention about the ride home Wednesday, not far from my office I was on my usual 2-lane rural rode, which winds back and forth a bit in some areas, but also has plenty of areas suitable for a car to pass me. Well this one car sat behind me for AT LEAST 7 minutes, almost 1.5 miles, at an average of maybe 14 MPH. I don't know what the deal was. I even waved the car to come on past me in a couple places, but it would not. I'm wondering if someone in the car was trying to film me or something, probably to post to their friends about how the idiot cyclist "was taking up the whole road".

[MENTION=301784]PatrickGSR94[/MENTION]. That is very disconcerting when they just hang back. That scares me that someone behind them will get angry and retaliate at me. Or the driver themselves is not good or secure in their abilities and will run me or another car off the road and over correct into me when they decided to pass.

I enjoy those days in lightweight mode. I weighed me and the bike in lightweight commute mode the other week and came in at 111 kg or 244 pounds.

Yeah the trunk bag and crap in it adds something like 7-10 pounds, especially if my U-lock is inside.

Crazy thing about that car behind me was, even after all the time, it eventually turned into a neighborhood, and there was only ONE other car behind it, who also turned into the same neighborhood. Just shows how little traffic there is on the rural parts of the route I take.

Yeah that is certainly a benefit of more rural areas. Being in a fully urban environment I am aware of impatient idiots with the must get in front and must get to stop sign faster mentality. I would have five cars behind me on a few 100 meter stretches.

[MENTION=301784]PatrickGSR94[/MENTION] - I wonder if they were looking for a street and weren't sure how close it was. That might explain why they were hesitant to pass.

Could be, but most people coming along that road in the same direction I'm going will usually turn into that neighborhood.

I tried a new route to my school this morning (I'm a teacher) and got buzzed by a school bus.

what a beautiful moon today! I've been off the bike all week; it felt great to be back out there this morning.

The local paper said this week will be blustery. And so it was for my ride in this morning. It was part tail-blusters and part cross-blusters, but definitely blustery. And 36F it was a bit chilly. I had a few extra minutes so I pulled into the Panera Bread and sat by the fireplace for a few to warm up.

Mid 20s when I left the house. Rode into a rare northeasterly wind this morning. It's probably the wind that's bringing the storm in late tonight. Forecasters are saying it will be all rain for us, but the rest of the northeast will get lots of snow.

Pleasant 32F with little wind - you easterners are getting the winds we had last week, snow tomorrow

cold morning at -16°celcius, -22°c with windchill. The forecast for the next 2-3 days is icy rain, rain, ice, snow, Wind... so I might go with the van, sadly...

Another no-drama morning, cool but nothing special. Traffic was easy, pedestrians friendly, park workers giving big friendly waves, and the one other cyclist seemed to know what he was doing, even the deer trotted languidly away seemingly more for show than fear. I feel for you all in the dark icy regions, but this winter has been good for me so far.

After a solid week of clouds and very little sunshine, we finally are getting a full week of sunshine, although somewhat cooler.

I didn't ride today but packed enough clothes into a small suitcase for 3 days. May try to ride Tues-Thurs but I'm not sure if I'll be able to handle 3 31-mile RT commutes in a row. We'll see how it works out.

I was doing M-Tu-Th commutes, but that schedule just would not work out very well at all for bringing in 3 days worth of clothes and then being able to take the worn-clothes home. Not very easily, anyway.

It was really warm this morning. I caught a cyclist at a stop light and then a third showed up, it was very unusual. I then went and passed the first guy and he went on the road one way and I took the chicane path for bikes through the park. He must have been rushing and blowing stop signs since he almost t-boned another highly visible cyclist. I passed him like a hot knife through butter uphill with my son attached. We took different routes and met again.

The rest of the ride was nice. I took some side routes to a avoid left turn line ups. It was a pleasant and nice ride.

I got my new studded tires for the four days a year. With the current forecast I feel foolish buying them. But they are a long term investment.

I also got a sweet Craigslist deal on a nine year old burley trailer. It has one broken clip which epoxy will fix and I need an axle mount hitch for the bikes. Other than some minor wear it is in amazing shape. All for fifty dollars!

Since it was so beautiful out this morning, I decided I'd take the scenic route to work... over Queensborough Bridge, along River Road in Richmond (right past [MENTION=190611]joeyduck[/MENTION]'s work), then back over the bike path on the Canada Line Skytrain bridge... crested the hill on Heather Street, then decided to hang a left and loop around UBC... then did a little more meandering to ensure I went over 50km this morning Gonna be a tough ride home now!

Awesome morning for a great ride! And almost past my house.

Thanks But looking just at the average speed of 24.7 km/h on the 52km today, I'd be looking at around 5 hours to do the 122km Whistler GranFondo. Fondo is 1,700m of climbing though, as opposed to my "piddly" 482m today. Need to do 50% more climbing to meet the Fondo pace.

Had been riding crappy toe cage pedals for awhile, doctors orders. But was waiting on new shoes and pedals to come in. Took them on the maiden voyage today and loving both. No work, but commuted around doing errands, the shoes walk quite nicely for being geared towards performance MTB type stuff. The tread is quite asphalt/linoleum friendly, and the cleats don't click most of the time, and when they do it's very faint. Also, I had only ridden CB pedals with my road SIDIs which also had two bolts, and I wasn't a huge fan, but with actual MTB shoes and getting the tread to interface on the cage of the pedal correctly gives a completely different feeling, like a whole new pedal. Absolutely loving the combo.

oh, and I got a light buzz from a honda today, nothing too bad. Otherwise it was mostly accomodating drivers, even in the horrible holiday shopping center rush.

edit: here's what the shoe looks like

Pleasant but unremarkable commute this morning. Got right-hooked on a fast downhill, he was far enough ahead of me but he couldn't have been sure, that was fun.

Late on the way home and feeling my health problems, went very slow in low gears. Saw only a jackrabbit.

Very few salmon fishermen in the morning and none in the evening. I think it's because I was a little later than usual in either direction.

My wife rescued me after work yesterday so I didn't ride home last night. It was drizzling and cold. I told her I could ride, but she insisted.

Slightly warmer today at 39F and a bit foggy for the start. A squirrel gave me a surprise. I did not see him amongst some leaves until I was right next to him and he decided to go across my path, but he then made a quick u-turn when he realized his path was through my wheel. Something like a small twig was kicked up and hit me in the leg.

That was the most exciting thing on this morning's commute.

Cold and wet this morning but no rain. It rained overnight with possibly more showers expected during the day, but it's supposed to be clearing off by late afternoon. I drove yesterday because my legs were fried after riding 60 miles on Sunday, and it was very windy both days. In short, I needed a break. I'm enjoying the Christmas lights while riding in the dark, but there aren't as many homes decorated this year as usual.

I've been seeing a lot of clueless people driving in the dark without their headlights on. I don't get this at all. How hard is it to notice that your lights aren't on? In one case last week, it led to a traffic accident that I saw unfolding before my eyes. It was almost totally dark and a car was coming down the opposite side of a 4-lane road with just its parking brakes on. Another car was at a stop sign on a side street and pulled out right in front of the car without its headlights on. Bam! The dufus with no lights smashed right into the side of the car pulling out. I hope nobody got hurt. I'm not sure how the cops would assign blame in a case like this.

32F and misty rain. Forecast says snow this morning with flurries this afternoon - what the heck is the difference?!

The forecast is a bit of snow starting at the end of the afternoon so I chanced the bike this morning. Tomorrow the forecast is for 10-15 cm of snow with icy rain and winds up to 60 kmh so... I won't take any chance

I broke another rear spoke on my old Wolber wheel during my commute home a few days ago. I did manage to nurse it on home that night, but I've taken it out of service until I get it fixed. I've probably replaced half the spokes over the past 9-months, but have decided to find something stronger that can deal with the additional weight I've added to the bike. My LBS has a couple of used 40-spoke wheels around that should be much stronger. I'll let you know how it progresses.