arsprod 

37F, seems colder than it is. Suppose to rain and possible snow later this week. yay

HardyWeinberg

20F and blinding sun. Supposed to cloud over by lunchtime, which means 20F warmer.

noglider 

I was too lazy or whatever to ride at all last week, so I was going to ride in today, dammit. And I had fun! It's a pretty bright and crisp day, and we finally have seasonable temperatures. I stopped at the post office and then physical therapy and then went to work, so I rode 15.5 miles instead of the usual 13.6 or so. Headwinds were stiff as I expected, but it didn't dampen my spirit this time.

My shoulder is getting better! I do stretches several times a day under the PT's instructions. It helps.

esmith2039

Wet and umm more wet. Wore my rain pants for the first time this morning. Not bad overall, got the thicker pair at walmart. See how long they'll hold up. I actually overheated both directions, 28-31 and 38-41.

Tundra_Man 

Consecutive Commute #148 :

Snowy today. Rode to work this morning and there was only about 1/2" on the ground. At least 6" has come down since I arrived and it's still falling. Going to be an interesting ride home.

HardyWeinberg

Incorrect, 33F and raining. Maybe I should have put the studs on after all...

caloso

Cold. 30F when I left the house at 6:30. My feet and hands were numb/painful. Tomorrow I'm wearing full booties rather than toe covers and ski gloves rather than cycling gloves.

Tundra_Man 

Well, I made it the 8 miles home. By the time I left work there was 7" of snow down and it was still coming down hard. I rode two miles down some pretty busy streets, but the cars were sliding around so much I decided to take the MUP for 5 miles even though I knew the path wouldn't have been plowed at all yet.

It was tough riding. The accumulation was deep enough that the bottom half of my chain was always covered by snow. This caused my chain to pick up the snow and pack it into the cassette, which then caused the chain to constantly skip. Very annoying. I kept dropping my gears as the snow got deeper and I got more and more tired. I was moving so slow that halfway home I texted my wife to let her know I was alive, just running way behind. My heart rate was pegged and I got drenched with sweat.

Somebody had walked down the MUP, and a fat bike had ridden it a while before so there were some ruts that were icing over. Riding in the ruts was easier pedaling, but bounced me around a lot. Riding through the unplowed snow allowed me to keep the bike on a straighter path but was harder pedaling. I split the difference and would ride through the unplowed stuff for a couple minutes, then ride the ruts for a while. At one point I hit a big rut, bounced to the right off the trail, and came to a stop completely upright with my feet still on the pedals. I sat there for a little bit admiring the situation.

Finally, after about an hour and 20 minutes I made it home for less than a 6 mph average. I was completely wasted physically. We'll see how much gas I have in the tank for the ride to work tomorrow. I doubt they're going to have everything plowed by then (supposed to get 4 or 5 more inches of snow during the night.) I may have to throw in the towel and drive to work.

bonsaiclist

27 degrees, clear and cold this AM. Wife and I both rode- I act as her "pit crew", as she has to be at work before me, then get myself going. the ride "to" was great- the trip home (7 miles uphill) was not. Really need to get in better shape (ie ride more....) I'm in awe of those of you who can do his on a daily basis.

essiemyra

It was a very nice commute today with the temp at 23f degrees when I left the house. Not even half way through my hands got very cold, so I stopped at a store at the half way mark, went in and warmed up my hands. They were fine the remainder of the ride until the last 1/4 mile. Other than that an uneventful ride.

dcb23

45F / 7C and more of that rain so many of you have reported. I think the rain will go through today so a wet ride home but will end by tomorrow's commute in.

Was actually a good ride since the headwinds are gone but once I reached my building a well-meaning guard needed to check with his superiors about bike access...so I sat there for 15 minutes waiting.

Phil_gretz

Aside from rain soaked socks and tingly fingers, it was a pretty good ride in today. I'll need to use the neoprene booties if it continues to be wet at these temperatures. But overall, not a bad ride in.

50 degrees with only a 40% chance of rain sounds like a similarly pleasant ride home tonight.

Tundra_Man 

Well, my streak is officially over at 148 days.

Got up early this morning to blow snow out of our driveway. When I'd gone to bed about 8" had fallen since yesterday morning. Looks like we got another couple of inches overnight, and more expected to fall early today. The snow on our driveway had been driven over a couple times, so I decided I'd better get some of it off now. If you let it sit, then you wind up with these icy ruts across your driveway that last for weeks before the sun finally takes care of them.

Once the driveway was cleared, I hopped on the bike. Typical of our area, this much snow doesn't warrant school or business closings, so there was no staying home today. If our city shut down for every weather event we'd be stuck at home for 5 months every year. Time to head to work.

I knew it would be slow pedaling for my 8 mile commute so I was rolling about 1/2 hour earlier than normal. Plows hadn't yet run down our cul-de-sac, but I was surprised how easy I moved through it even though my legs were still completely wasted from yesterday's ride home. "Great!" I thought, "this will be easier than I expected." That all changed a few hundred yards later when I hit the main roads. These were emergency snow routes which means plows start clearing them immediately once 2" has accumulated. The only problem was the plows hadn't dropped their blades all the way which left a solid chunk of rutted ice with drifts of snow accumulation on top of it. I suppose they didn't drop their blades all the way because they knew they'd be coming back to make a final pass once the snow stopped falling, and they wanted to save their blade edges as long as they could. Unfortunately it made for a bad surface for a car, and an even worse surface for a bike.

I struggled mightily to get down the road. I couldn't find a gear that was low enough to let me blast through the drifts, but high enough that wouldn't cause my rear tire to break loose and spin on the bottom layer of solid compact. The studded tires just weren't enough to bite in, and I found that I couldn't even hold a straight line for 10 feet. Looking at my tracks I left it looked like a drunk monkey was riding the bike. My trail was nearly as wide as it was long with me wobbling back and forth trying to keep the bike upright. I'd slide out and come to a stop frequently, but then would have trouble gaining enough initial speed to get going again. Thankfully I had left early enough that right now there were no cars on the road, but that was going to change soon.

What worried me more is I knew that a mile down this main road the conditions would get even worse when I hit the unplowed parts that I rode home through last night. After it took me nearly 10 minutes to ride 1/2 mile I knew that there was no way I was going to make it to work on time. I probably could have walked faster than I was riding, and there was no way I was walking the whole 8 miles to work and back. So with my tail between my legs, I conceded defeat and turned around for the trip home. At least I gave it the ol' college try.

Bummer that my streak ended, but I knew it was bound to happen. We've had something like 28" of snow so far this year, and I made it through most of it. They'll have the streets cleared by tomorrow morning so hopefully I'll be riding again. And hopefully not having a consecutive streak going doesn't kill my motivation to keep riding even when things get difficult.

jrickards

148 days is a number to be proud of and a challenge for next year. Considering you're living in snowy SD, it is not surprising to encounter sufficient snow that a bike can't overcome.

Great work @Tundra_Man!!!

This morning's commute was in mild -3C weather. It was mild (+2C) on the ride home yesterday so more snow/ice melted (not that we had much, most of it was leftover from the freezing rain and light snow that followed it on Friday) and it had frozen overnight so I had to be careful around icy patches but no issues because road sand/grit had become embedded into the icy so it wasn't really slippery.

mgw4jc

Definitely a good try, and sounds like a wise decision to turn around. But what about the sick day option? If you don't go to work, then technically it wouldn't count as a missed commute, right? Good streak, Tundra.


My morning ride was wet, drizzly and foggy and in the low to mid 40s. Basically a good commute with lighter than normal traffic. Plenty of wet leaf hazards out there.

metro2005

Rain rain rain and more rain and ohyeah, 45 mile an hour headwind. with gusts up to 50MPH which almost grinded my pace to standstill.
After almost an hour and a half of riding everything was soaking wet when i got home.
It sucked.

So today, i took my bike to work again just to see if it will happen again. ....

tarwheel 

Nice commute this morning with temps in the mid-40s and cloudy skies, but no rain. Hopefully the dry weather will hold through the afternoon. It rained all day yesterday, so I drove and was glad that I did because it was coming down very heavily during my afternoon commute time. My goal of topping 5,000 miles bike commuting is slipping away by the day with all the rain we continue to get. It is supposed to rain heavily again tomorrow. Ironically, it was totally dry during the 4-day Thanksgiving weekend, when I was off work.

mtessmer

This is yesterday morning. I got 25 miles in. The weather went a little down hill from there.

bmthom.gis

No commuting in today, but I will talk about yesterday. Morning ride in was for the most part really great. I did feel like I was fighting with myself though 1/2 the time. Maybe my rear wheel is a tad off center. I got a new wheelset for my commuter, and switched the front wheel already, but still have to do the rear (need a chain whip and such to switch the cassette over). Not a whole lot to report, except yet another stupid train that completely stopped and blocked every possible way in the direction I was heading. I mean, really now, WTF?! So, I had to turn around and head a different way after the proper one finger salute.

Evening ride turned out to be semi-epic. I decided to try and find my way to some different roads just to change things up. Turned off the regular route (I still knew this part quite well) and eventually came to a road closed to thru traffic sign. Ok, whatever...that just means there won't be many cars around! Come to another sign/barricade that said road closed. Okay, there was a side street right next to it, maybe it cuts through past the closure. I waste a good mile/mile and a half to determine that no, it doesn't and there is no way to get from where I am to where I want to go without going through the road closure or pedal all the way back from whence I came. The other option was to follow the side road to the main thoroughfare from my part of town to the city...a road with no shoulders and too much traffic...so not really an option at all.

Back up the hill to the barricade I go. Obviously they had to block out cars, but why should I feel like I couldn't surmount whatever obstacle lay in wait. shortly after I go around the barricade, I come to a huge dirt mound blocking the entire road. Okay, I'll just get off my bike and walk around. Once I get around, 1/2 the road is gone! Washed out during the flood we had a month or so ago. Kind of cool to look at, and maybe I'll just keep walking my bike, since there is another big dirt barrier ahead. I get to the other side, go past the next road barricade and I am in the clear! Of course, I forget the name of the road I am supposed to turn down next, but know that a few roads connect to that one, so I turn off shortly after and wind my way through a neighborhood and find the road I want.

Things are looking up! Then I come across a memorial garden on the left, and then gravestones on the right, then gravestones on both sides of the road...the only lights are mine and some illuminating some gravestones. A tiny bit creepy, I suppose but it was also quite pretty. Made me think back to walking through Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

I'll have to do it again and take some pictures while the road is still gone, but I think once they fix it it will be a good change of pace for the ride home.

RidingMatthew

https://www.velominati.com/the-rules/https://www.velominati.com/the-rules/https://www.velominati.com/the-rules/@mtesser i like the photos

I drove yesterday and was glad i did rain all day. Today, I said I am riding.. it was like riding through a 40 degree cloud. Foggy and rainy but still better than driving. I was glad I rode because I pass over the interstate .9 miles from house and it was backed up if I had driven.

other than foggy glasses which seems to be fixed with removing the prescription part ... not a bad ride. I hope the weather people are wrong about tonight forecast.

Date night with my daughter too.

Remember Rule #9 "Fair-weather riding is a luxury reserved for Sunday afternoons and wide boulevards. Those who ride in foul weather – be it cold, wet, or inordinately hot – are members of a special club of riders who, on the morning of a big ride, pull back the curtain to check the weather and, upon seeing rain falling from the skies, allow a wry smile to spread across their face. This is a rider who loves the work"

arsprod 

Yeah, but it'll happen again! If it makes you feel any better a couple years ago I was determined to continue a self-imposed streak and rode a snowy day that I shouldn't have. After slogging for over an hour (11 m commute) and getting just a little over half way I got stuck - and had to walk several miles before I could ride again. It sucked! You were smart to bag it.

Pretty pleasant here for December 1, 47F and rainy, but the cold and snow are heading our way. For some reason I'm already well over 4,000 miles this year. Computer must have cheated

noglider 

Last night was a lot harder than yesterday morning. And the morning had headwinds and the evening tailwinds. I think that while my shoulders are gaining back their freedom of motion, they're still weak. They felt awfully tired on the evening ride. I think they are asking for rest, so I'll do that while I keep up the stretching exercises.

This has been a wake up call for me. I've neglected my upper body all my life, and it's time to take care of it. I can't be super fit just from the waist down.

I took the subway to work today, which is just as well, as it's going to rain. This evening, after my singing rehearsal, I might take Citi Bike home, which will be five miles.

noglider 

@mtessner, you and your bike and your surroundings look great. Is the sky sunny or overcast? Do you get grey skies most of the winter as we do?

HardyWeinberg

Drove - needed to get the teenager and his robobaby to the school. Regretting ditching the bike trailer when the kids outgrew it, could have sent the teenager with the trailer to drag the robobaby back to school...

BTW 31F today is soooooooooooooo much warmer than 33F was going home last night. The compost bin was not frozen shut this morning for instance.

spivonious

I'm very impressed with those who ride in the snow, especially in 8"+.

Rainy ride in this morning. I really need fenders for my new Bianchi.