cold weather riding is some of the best

end of season report: Continuing the quest to be a 'has been' instead of a 'never was'. It eludes me still.
Where I live, it's still in the 90's, but colder weather is coming. We're lucky to have year-round riding though. I'm done with the competitive road rides for now, and will be turning up my gravel bike for the really fun fall & winter riding

I heartily agree, provided that it is not too cold, and if it is, that you are properly dressed for it. Because if you aren't, cold weather riding is downright horrific and nightmarish, way worse than riding in extreme heat.

Personally, I use fall a 'cross-training' time to recover from the season. It keeps the sport fresh. Now is great time to get those hikes in & the kayak out (I also do both). I have a grave bike as well - I'll start getting that out again for some longer 'for fun' weekend rides over the winter. I'll ride down to maybe 25 degrees (with a neck garter over my mouth), but beyond that it really messes with my lungs and asthma. If I wait until late morning, it'll probably be 35 degrees anyway. Over the years I've learned to layer pretty well, and have really good shoe covers and gloves (critical!). Not that much snow here in GA, but when it does get sloppy, I ride rollers in front of the TV.

I am going to try to ride more during this winter. My reluctance has been based on my experience trying to ride through one winter on my motorcycle. It was horrific. Especially the day I was on an interstate at about 65 mph and then realized that the bike was rocking because I was on black ice. Scary as hell.. That was my last winter ride..

The only season ending here in Georgia is the too damned hot to ride season. I'm looking forward to the beginning of my favorite time of the year to ride.

Summer has been especially tough for me this year as the final step in a series of surgeries and treatments had me totally banned from riding or any other strenuous activity for all of June and July. i never imagined how hard it could be to motivate myself to start back riding when the temperature and humidity are soaring almost every day.

My season is just beginning.

[MENTION=151366]BobbyG[/MENTION], that's fantastic. Thank you. I don't read any Hebrew. I just recite by rote. You could well be right about the word moving from Hebrew to Yiddish.

Your end of season report.....But regarding the usual "cycling season" here in Boston, I call it Leg Season:However, Leg Season 2018 has been a bust; about 20 miles per week: So with about two weeks to go in Leg Season, I bought a Giant Escape bike and taken it for a couple of test rides. It should be adequate to usher me into a steady Winter Riding schedule. :D

My 'best bike' ('86 Miyata 710) was trapped in AZ with only my infrequent visits to take it out for a ride -- so after my visit out west this past March, I had it shipped back here to Ohio so I could enjoy it more. I like the Miyata's ride so much, I even put my beloved Fuji S-10S into a well-deserved retirement -- After almost 60,000 miles, I think it has earned it!

My former 'best' Ohio bike was the '84 Univega Viva Sport that was upgraded to near-Miyata 710 specs of the same year, so now I have redundant bikes... If was riding blindfolded (a neat trick in itself ;) ), I'd be hard pressed to tell those two apart in ride 'feel'. I couldn't sell the Viva for even half of what I put into it doing the refurb/upgrades so I guess I'm stuck with it as a 'loaner' should anyone visiting need a rider.

In all, I only commuted around 20 times the 25 miles r/t on the 710 this past year due to road/sewer construction, and the detours were on much less bike-friendly roads with absolutely no shoulder. I also took it on a few more 20-40-mile jaunts in the countryside around here. Total=~1200 miles

The Viva got ridden a half dozen times for 'fast' rides out here in the sticks until I brought the Miyata home, so maybe 160 miles total.

OK, Ok...Fast is a relative term. I think I do OK for a 60-year-old near-Clyde with an average riding speed of just above 18mph. I did break my old one-way commute record one morning when on the Miyata -- 41 minutes, eight seconds door-to-door for the 12.5 miles. That works out to an average of 18.3mph including time spent stopped at traffic lights!

I am quite disappointed with my mileage total for the year so far...

"End of season"?!?! The hell with that, this is the beginning of the good season: When all the fair-weather cyclists stay indoors and there are far fewer klutzes, newbs, and idiots vying for space on the roads and paths.
I'll probably get >40% of my total annual mileage between now and New Year's Day.

(I live in New York, in case that's germane.)

This has turned into a broader topic than the original post, and I'm cool with that. Some people ride a bike for fun or exercise or both. I do, too, but the rides usually coincide with going somewhere I need to go. Most of my rides are between home and work. It's part of my exercise regime, and cycling is also soul work for me, so it's not a luxury but a necessity. But since I commute on bike, the weather is less of a factor in my decision of whether to ride or not. Today's weather here in NYC is cool and overcast. If I rode for pleasure only, I might look out and decide against it. I had a gusty, shifty headwind the whole way. I might call that unpleasant. But it was pleasant, and I can't remember many commuting rides I've taken where I regret doing them, wishing I had taken the subway instead. A bad day on the bike is usually better than a good day on the subway.

And like [MENTION=53807]Bob Ross[/MENTION], I like it when the bike routes are emptier due to so-called bad weather. Our bike routes are crowded like just about everything else in this densely packed city. I live and work in Manhattan, the densest part of the city.

"End of Season" in Socal means we all start complaining that it's under 60 at the start! Brrrr

"End of season"??? There is no end of season in Florida. September means cooler (more comfortable) temps will be here soon. :beer:
In hot months we're out at 6AM. In fall and spring we're out any time of the day. In the "cold" months we're out a bit later when the sun has warmed up the day a bit.

2018...So Far : 1900
 

Hoping for 600 more miles by end of yr:

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...aed087dad.jpeg

We've had a couple of days with the high in the 70s, so I guess summer is over in Oklahoma. For the next six months it will be extremely variable, but should contain lots of good to acceptable cycling weather.
In cycling terms this year got off to a very slow start with a change of job, lots of stress and some health problems (all related of course). I'm happy to say that even though my new job leaves me less time to cycle, I'm back on track and hope to maintain at least 200 miles a month through the fall and winter.

Yep! It's still in the 90s around here. Forecasters are saying that it doesn't look like it's going to change anytime within the next several weeks. Loving it! :love:

Same thing here (Minnesota) - road season ends in December or when the ground freezes whichever comes first. But clothes are a very big deal in the last third of the season (Sep, Oct, Nov). Then there is fat biking season which starts when I get off the road.

Last year in June, I got drilled by a car and broke my right tibia/fibia/left shoulder. That ended my season early last year. Trust me, there are easier ways to get a new bike.

I was super psyched for this season and I started riding in February. I started getting in some good rides when I noticed a screw in my ankle was sticking out. The Dr. had to remove a plate and four screws from my ankle at the end of April. I had to stay off the bike for two weeks after my surgery.

I had signed up for a 140 mile charity ride in the middle of June. I figured I had 34 days to train after my ankle surgery. I did 4 rides a week plus a big ride on Saturdays. I some how made the 140 mile ride, but it took me a couple of weeks to recover...:)

I got in about 1200 miles, but now it's time for me to start my "Zwift" season and get some indoor miles and get ready for next season.

Riding after work is coming to an end, but I'll be riding as much as possible on the weekends all fall/winter.

Here in the southern end of the Golden State we don't have an end to the season. Hell we only have two seasons--hot and hotter. I'd love to live where I had all four seasons.
Jon

I think one of the best things about cycling is that allows one to deeply experience the seasons. After three months of hot rides to work and back, I'm now experiencing more comfortable weather. In a month, all my trips home from work will be in darkness. In two months, the studded tires go on, and snow may come. A few months later, trips home slowly become light again and the warmth returns. The passage from Ecclesiastes definitely applies.

We used to just have two seasons:
1.) January 1-Thanksgiving: ride all the time
2.) Thanksgiving-January 1: There be monsters (shoppers rushing, drunks, drunk shoppers) aka roller season

The past five years or so we've added fire/smoke season. It hits at some random time between July and September. The logging roads are all closed and you don't want to ride out to them anyway because the air is toxic. We dodged the smoke almost completely this year in the Willamette Valley. (Points south weren't so lucky; I left NorCal as the County fire struck, and it was followed by the Mendocino complex shortly thereafter. And don't even mention the Rogue Valley; it was invisible under a cloud of smoke all summer.)

In spite of our awesome weather and luck with the smoke, I barely got 8000 miles in. I'm procrastinating on knee surgery (only a problem if I walk; I can ride all day, so what's the hurry?) and my spouse is procrastinating on a hip replacement, so we just didn't find as many tandem rides happening. We're hoping for more riding this year. We're locked into 50 miles per week with our granddaughters (the four-year-old rides eleven miles four days a week and we add the six-year-old for part of that), so we always get in the saddle at least a wee bit.

I normally ride late February/March through November/early December; don't ride through mid-winter. Usually accumulate around 5k miles or so.

However, this year has been a bit of loss. Major health issues beginning Friday April 13 (yep!) pretty much wiped out this season for me. Still dealing with some on-going matters, but I was able to resume riding the end of August. Plan to keep going as long as possible -- hoping for an extended, mild Fall.

Can't complain; managed to get through 67 years without anything much at all going wrong medically. Nevertheless, by way of consoling myself I've ordered a new bike.:D