Felt cold this morning. Cloudy, flurries off and on, temps in the low 20s (F) and a light 5-10mph headwind.

I really felt like I was coming down with something yesterday afternoon. The commute and a short nap seems to have helped. I slept better last night and feel fine now. Knock on wood!
[MENTION=190611]joeyduck[/MENTION] - I hope your recovery is progressing. I'm sure you'll be back on the bike when the weather turns warm.

After nearly 2 weeks with no riding, I finally got in a commute on Tuesday. It was about 22F in the morning. I tried some new gloves and my new helmet, and also tried using a sweatshirt in between base layer and wind shell. I got pretty sweaty.

I simply cannot get my balaclavas (either one of them) to work with my ski mask without the mask getting tons of fogging and moisture inside, despite the foam seal around the lens. I just don't get it. Ended up using my ultraclava w/ breathing and nose holes with just my clear safety glasses pulled down from my nose slightly. It was marginal at best, still quite a bit of fogging. Halfway to work I pulled the ultraclava down below my nose for the rest of the journey.

Tried an idea from another member, I took some neoprene socks that I determined I would never use again, cut off the ends, and used the ends as a "toe cover" over my wool socks, inside my shoes. But even with that and toe covers outside my shoes, and thermal insoles, my toes STILL froze!

I ended up leaving the office early at 3 PM to make a 5 PM meeting near my house. Bright and sunny, upper 30's, used my regular balaclava pulled down under my chin, and the safety glasses. The sweatshirt was really too much going home. But otherwise it was a great ride home.

We got another 6" of fresh snow overnight so the city is mostly shut down. It was a very wet snow, causing a lot of downed trees and power outages. We've got no TV service but still have internet. Spent 1:30 hours shoveling snow, which will be my big workout for the day. Trying to decide whether to attempt driving to work so I won't have to use an entire day of leave.

10° into a 20 to 30 mph headwind this morning. Not terribly enjoyable.

I don't usually ride to work on Thursday, but there is rain in the forecast for Saturday, so I decided to ride today, and tomorrow, then give myself a break on Saturday and drive in. That'll feel odd as I always ride my bike to work on Saturday. When I was riding down the MUT this morning, there were two ladies walking in front of me, so I gave a nice ring of my bell to let them know I was going to pass them, and one of the ladies got all bent out of shape because I had plenty of room to pass, and shouldn't have rung my bell at her.....lol. Gotta love So Cal. So much for trying to be nice. :)

We got about 5" of very wet snow. The roads were mostly slushy. My office delayed opening until noon, which gave me time to help build a family of snowmen.
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=436247

I decided to drive in since the wife and kids would not need the car today. I'll try to ride tomorrow though the melted slush may freeze and make it bad first thing in the morning.

Proper response: "Okay, I'll just run into you next time!"

Where I come from, a couple of more weeks of this crap and things should start turning around. I sure hope so. Even though our snow total hasn't been much. I'm getting tired of the frigid temperatures. This morning wasn't too bad. 17f/-8c. The aftn ride home was a sunny, p/c, 16f/. Expecting more sub-zero stuff for tom'rw and Saturday.
They say we'll be in for a cool spring due to the Great Lakes being frozen over. Like last year.

you guys are hardmen...ice and freezing and stuff. I used to live in ontario, but now I'm probably getting all soft. lol.

Here's the kid on the way to school (Grade 1) this AM:
(The eyeball backpack means nobody can sneak up from behind.)


http://i1311.photobucket.com/albums/...psggm7u2dg.jpg

Since I am bed ridden and don't have a very nice view I have not realized how much the blossoms have come out. My mother in law has been raving about a magnolia on her ride to visit me. It apparently has blossoms the size of a dinner plate. My brother in law said his bees were going crazy with activity the other day.

But with no snow pack I'm very concerned about summer water levels.

All the best you winter warriors, we've really not experienced any winter this year. And I've not experienced any weather in five weeks.

Ride on BFers!

An interesting commute home. I stop in the right lane north bound at 15th Ave & McDowell and notice one of those old 60ish VW wagons. He was westbound on McD and had the light. But he was going really slow. Then he came to a stop in the middle of the intersection and westbound traffic started backing up.

When he got out to push his wagon I realized I was probably the only person in a position to help. People in their cars would just have messed up traffic more if they stopped and got out. I parked my bike on the sidewalk and got behind him and started pushing.

While we're doing this I look back to check on my bike and there is a moped parked right next to my bike. I'm thinking, "OH NO!", but he was still waiting next to my bike when I finish helping the wagon across the street. He saw what was happening and was watching my bike for me. I told him thanks that I appreciated it.

We talked a little waiting for the next light. He told me he had traded up from a bike. I told him I had done the opposite because I didn't have time to ride my scooters and my bike.

Weirder, about 1.5 mi up a small SUV turns right in front of me and a girl leans out and yells something like "We wanted to say thanks..." So I smile and wave. Another 1/2 mi and they pull up next to me again and ask if I can pull over. So I do. It was two young ladies and their mother. They just wanted to thank me and their mother gave me a hug.

Well, at least it's better than the last time I had an interesting commute.

Coming out of my neighbourhood a line of cars waiting to turn right, I heard somebody give a big honk just because somebody stopped to let pedestrians cross. Me on my bike on the left lane waiting at the light to go straight turned around and gave a stare into the general direction of the honker. A car pulled up beside me on the left side, rolled down his window and asked if I thought he was the one who honked.

I said “No, someone over there won’t let pedestrians cross the road” as I pointed to the general direction where the horn sounded.

The rest of the commute was un-eventful except for my expected challenges riding through the snow in the park.

The wet snow and slush melted enough yesterday that I rode in this morning. I saw several patches of black ice, but nothing big and solid enough to cause concern. They were more like a bunch of 3 or 4 inch diameter spots grouped together. I was able to either go around or stay straight through these.

I did hop off the bike at one spot where I normally ride a sidewalk for a short section. there was a good pile of frozen slush blocking my entrance to the sidewalk, and then the sidewalk had some ice on it from yesterday's melting. Overall, an uneventful commute in about 28F temps.

0F, bright and sunny. Now how does that work when the temp is zero? Sorry just strikes me as odd - I know it's relative but looking at 0 just messes with my head... there's no temperature this morning. Good to hear from [MENTION=190611]joeyduck[/MENTION], hope you're on the mend
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=436397

They did that because you helped the other guy with the van?

Yep. Weird.

It wasn't a van. One of those small wagons. It looked a lot like the 3rd pic on this page:

http://www.zcoches.com/fotos/vw-wagon

The guy could've pushed it himself without too much problem.

Thank you for the morning smile! Great picture and I love seeing kids riding, hope for the future!

My morning commute: 11 miles on the Pugsley took about an hour at -10F - which leads to another reason I love this picture, it's good to know that the trees are blooming, it will come to Minnesota.... eventually.

Today was the second day in a row that my legs felt really fresh; let's hope that's the case on the ride home...lol. Rain is forecasted for the next couple of days, so todays ride was all about the enjoyment of riding a bicycle. Heck, I even made some coffee to carry along. It's interesting how people come and go on my route. For a year or so, I always saw the same guy every saturday walking in the same place. For a while we waved, or I'd ring my bell. One day I found myself at the top of the hill, at a red light, and he was there too. I took the time to introduce myself; it was really a memorable experience as I found out that he was deaf. I pulled out a piece of paper from my trunk and we wrote our names on a piece of paper, then shook hands. Turns out his name was Gary. I saw Gary for a few more Saturdays after that; we'd wave and smile, then one Saturday he was gone, and I haven't seen him since. Gary has now been replaced by "short dude with bike at the bus stop"....lol. There's a spot on my route where I hop off the MUT, and jump on the road. There's a bus stop at this very spot, and I often see the same guy, with his bike, waiting for the bus. Today we waved and nodded like we usually do; I think I'll stop next time and introduce myself.

Rode home wednesday and it was one of the coolest and worst rides. Met up with a friend from work and then caught up with another bike commuter so we had a train of commuters riding together for a portion of the ride. That was RARE AND VERY COOL for these parts. Then we split up and headed different directions to our houses.

I started hurting in my side down to my groin area. It felt like I had been kicked in the privates. I stopped to breath and tried to decide if i needed to call my wife to come get me. I decided to press on and ride slower. It hurt. When I got home I had to stand there for a while to recover. I am not sure what was wrong but it was cool to ride with other people but it was horrible to feel so alone and in pain.
[MENTION=190611]joeyduck[/MENTION] take it easy and keep on working on getting better!
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=436433

It was 6f/-14c this morning. They had forecast -3f/-19c. The aftn was again sunny and pleasant. 17f/-8c.

Meanwhile in Boston, with temps in the mid-teens and no new snow, the street are opening up and riding is getting more pleasant if you have studs to handle the refrozen ice.

Street parking is still a challenge.

Last night..
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=436598

It was warm today, -5C!! Didn't have to wear my sweater, balaclava or leather shells on my wool mitts.

We had 5" of snow fall today. I went out for close to 2 hours to ride in it and see how bad the side streets were. They were mostly hardpack and loose snow. The bikepath had been plowed. That surprised me because a lot of the primary arterials hadn't been touched yet. So that was nice. I rode that for a few miles enjoying the frozen scenery along the river. I had the homemade studs on. The ones where I mounted hex head screws to the outer lugs from the outside. It's a 2.5" tire.They do good in any condition, except of course deep snow. But they handle hardpack and/or ice real well. They do well in loose snow as long as its not too deep. The temperature was 33f/1c with snow and drizzle from time to time.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5207/...0098f34b_z.jpg

So, the other day I've got a minute to kill and I try to upload a picture of my bike parked in Boston and a little post about my studs handling the ice and a snarky comment about parking. It never uploaded and I gave up but at almost the exact moment this post appeared. I'm finally now getting 'round to posting mine- at this point redundant but alas here 'tis. :p

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=436856

Just at freezing. City is in a bit of an ice situatin this Monday morning. Streets are fine but as I got up to the Washington monument, had to dismount and walk...like an ince rink!