mgw4jc

That is scary. Stay safe.

Cooler and wetter today. 46F. It was a steady, but light rain at the time I like to leave. I waited about 8 minutes and it let up. The roads were plenty wet, but I didn't really get rained on. I went with tights instead of shorts because I knew the spray would soak my shins and get them pretty cold. Only fail was not wearing my wool socks. My feet were a bit water logged and a little cold by the time I got to work.

Weather forecast says high of 74, but rain all day. I'll be surprised if it gets that warm.

dcb23

Back in the saddle after a week off. Tired, sluggish, 10lbs heavier....gotta get back into the game. Mild and light rain coming in here in DC area.

tarwheel 

Today was likely my last commute of 2015, as we are supposed to get heavy rain all day tomorrow and I'm off work Thursday and Friday. When I woke up this morning, a line of heavy rain was approaching our metro area and I initially figured that I would drive. However, the rain moved through pretty quickly and I remembered that I have a lot of comp time that will turn to sick leave on Dec. 31, so I left for work an hour later than usual. Glad that I waited because it was a very pleasant ride. Roads were still soaking wet and the air extremely humid, but the rain had quit and the skies were clearing by the time I reached work. The temperature felt like it jumped at least 10 degrees during my commute and I had to peel off my vest about halfway to work.

Got an nice affirmation of my visibility while waiting at a traffic light. An older woman in an SUV in the lane beside me rolled down her window and yelled out: "Hey, that's a nice set of lights you have on your bike." It was already daylight at the time, so she would have really been impressed if it had been dark.

tarwheel 

Hey mgw4jc,

Are you gonna top the magic number of 5,000 commuting miles by the end of the year? You're getting awfully close but the weather has been awful here. At the beginning of December, I figured that I had a good chance of topping 5K if the weather dried out. Hah! It has turned out to be one of wettest Decembers on record here and has rained nearly every day of the month. I have somehow managed to top 700 total miles for the month but that's because I've done a lot of long rides on the weekends. My commuting has been a disaster this month, and it's rained nearly every work day.

RidingMatthew

@tarwheel i wish that i had some comp time I could have ridden after it moved on 30 minutes to an hour would have been perfect.

I was prepping to ride this morning but pouring rain, wind gusts 10-20 mph, and 42F so I just decided to drive. I hope I can make it to my next mileage goal by the end of the year. 34 miles to 4700 for the year!

jrickards

Big snowstorm last night (still ongoing), limited plowed streets, not fluffy but wind-compacted snow, didn't ride in as I would have just carried the bike the whole way. Looking forward to playing in the snow this evening with the dog. Plowing should be done by tomorrow morning so I should be able to ride in then.

spivonious

Light rain while coming in this morning. My face was cold by the time I got to work...should have worn the face mask. Tailgated by an idiot coming down the hill out of my neighborhood. I forgot that I'm not as important as blue Hondas.

esmith2039

Light snow but the roads were clear, still ice on some parking lots though. Temp wasn't too cold yet either. Still getting some weird looks on the road! No one is used to seeing bikes on the rode in this weather. The only bad is the boots I'm wearing must be putting more stress on my knee's and my right one doesn't like it. I think the main thing is the muscle isn't relaxing around it. Grew up on a farm and have been kicked at least once on that knee.

mgw4jc

I just saw your update over on the mileage thread. I had updated my mileage on Sunday, but someone else overwrote it. I just fixed it. As of Sunday I only needed about 20 miles to hit 5000. That is less than a full round trip commute. So, yes, I hit it on Monday.


I've been pretty lucky with the rain until this morning. Yesterday morning I waited an extra five minutes and it stopped, but I rode on wet streets. Today it wasn't raining when I left and it looked like it wouldn't start for a bit. And it didn't start for about 35 minutes. My commute is about 50 minutes. The last 3.5 or so miles was in a steady rain.

I was totally soaked when I got to the office. I can't remember being this wet when getting to work. Luckily it wasn't too cold at about 60F. I wrung my shirt out in the bathroom and could have filled up my water bottle halfway or so. My shorts seemed pretty dry though.

We are under a flood watch until Thursday morning. I very well may be calling my wife for a rain rescue this afternoon.

RidingMatthew

@mgw4jc be careful and congrats on the goal.

This week has been horrible for bike commuting. I think i would rather deal with cold than rain. It has rained and rained. Between now and thursday.. Heavy rainshowers with rainfall ranging from 1-2 inches.. 2-4 has already fallen in our area. That is a whole stinking lot of rain. I have a rain coat but I just can not psyche myself up enough to ride in the pouring rain multiple days in a row. (Tip my helmet to the PNW people, I could never live there)

I am putting my hope in being able to ride Thursday but I have be smart because some of my extra mileage ways would be affected by the runoff from a local lake. I am sure it is flowing like crazy with all this rain.

Maybe I need a fat bike to commute on to "float" over stuff haha

tarwheel 

I totally agree with preferring cold weather to rain. Some of my best commuting months have been in the dead of winter when it's been dry, and some of my worst months have been in warmer months when it rains all the time. However, if I have to ride in the rain, I prefer it to be cooler because my rain gear works better. When temperatures are higher than about 55-60 degrees, I end up getting about as wet from sweat as I do from the rain. There is nothing much worse for me than riding in warm rain because your raingear is essentially useless. The aspect of riding in the rain that is most frustrating to me, however, is not being able to see well. I need to wear glasses, and they fog or spot up in rain so much that it is hard to see. I had a crash a couple of months ago while commuting that was directly related to this. I couldn't see the road clearly, ran off the edge of the road and went down. Fortunately I wasn't hurt or my bike damaged, but it easily could have turned out otherwise if a car had been passing me closely at the time.

arsprod 

I checked to make sure I wasn't the idiot that overwrote yours and can confirm I'm not because mine was overwritten too! Congrats on 5,000 - amazing!

mgw4jc

No worries. It was a timing issue. I posted my update just a few minutes before the person that overwrote mine. He must have started before I saved my post. I try to be quick when making the update, but it takes a lot of scrolling.

timvan_78

you guys are crazy (prefer cold to rain). It was about -4degC (25degF) this AM and my feet were cold. I'll take rain any day. The view of the snow on the local mountains is beautiful though!

enigmaT120

It's easier for me to stay warm when it's cold than when it's cold and raining. I don't even wear a jacket when it's below freezing, just layers. And my cheap old ski gloves.

dcb23

Final commute in this morning for 2015. Another mild December morning.

Was stopped by a woman walking down the road in the dark asking for directions to a gas station...she asked if she was still in DC, she wasn't, in fact she was a good 5 miles out of DC. I let her use my phone to call her husband and then a cab happened to drive by so she grabbed it. Random things you see in the early hours.

Have a safe and joyous New Years's Eve everyone, see you in the 2016 thread!

mgw4jc

My wife picked me up yesterday so I didn't have to ride home in the rain. It let up enough by 5pm that I would have been fine. But I was glad I didn't have to put my still damp bike clothes back on.

A decent ride this morning on damp roads, but no rain. Traffic has been nice this week with the schools out and many others on holiday. Next week will be back to normal though. And back to five days. I am off work tomorrow.

And it looks like my wife and kids are going to pick me up again tonight so we can go eat dinner somewhere. That means this morning was the last of my commutes.

2015 stats
Total number of commute rides = 407
Total commute miles = 5057
Average speed = 15.8mph

RidingMatthew

@mgw4jc that is impressive number of miles and average speed. great job and happy new year.

Rode 15 this morning! hope to ride at least 19 tonight to make and even 4700 miles for the year.

ChicagoDan

This was my first commute after some upgrades to my setup. I added a trekking bar, new dual kickstand for stability off bike. I like having multiple hand positions instead of the single position the old bars had.

I didn't enter this year with much in the way of expectations. In 2014, I had a little over 200 miles on Divvy bike share bikes between my office and the train station. In April, 2015, I started commuting by bike from home to the train station, and only missed a few commuting opportunities after that. I will end the year with a little less than 3,000 miles.

esmith2039

Balmy 28 degrees for the last morning ride. Wet roads but no ice. Looks 10 degrees warmer for the ride home. 2082 miles for the year (since March). Goal for next year is to have less than 10 working days that I didn't commute by bike. I have almost 6 weeks of vacation so I'll actually miss more. Should be around 3000ish miles not counting any weekends and vacation trail rides.

mr geeker

my last commute of the year was cold, much like my first commute of 2016 will be.

commuted miles for the year: ~2500

PatrickGSR94

No commutes since 12/18 since we had rain plus scheduling issues all during the week of Christmas, and I've been off work all this week. Hoping to get back to it for 2016 on Tuesday, or possibly Monday (most likely Tuesday).

Tundra_Man 

First commute since Dec 18th, which also was my last day I worked. I was out of town for a couple of weeks visiting my wife's family in Ohio. It didn't drop below 40 degrees the whole time we were visiting, and we had a few days up in the 60s. It's always surprising how fast I lose my winter skin every Christmas when we visit. Gained 4 pounds while I was gone because we ate out almost every meal and I have no ability to practice moderation.

This morning I was back on my bike for the ride to work. 9 degrees and a little bit of snow flurries, but nothing accumulating. Our area received about 20 inches of snow while I was away, so the side streets and MUP still had plenty of hard pack and ice left over from the plows. Took the winter bike with studs. Not too bad of a ride. My upper chest got a little cold but I survived (kind of a weird area to get cold, though.)

Zap Hassellhoff

The weather in Sacramento has been pretty mellow lately compared to the rest of the Nation. That's the Central Valley. The temp at 7:20 this morning was 43° degrees with 92% humidity. Cars were on fairly good behavior.

PatrickGSR94

Please use the new thread: https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/...ute-today.html