David Bierbaum's recent thread on going stir-crazy is the impetus for this thread. You know you’re ready from spring when…. Go ahead give us some... Here’s a few to get started:

You change your iPhone wallpaper to a summertime photo of your bike.

You try to remember where you put your white cycling shoes.

You start thinking about going back to a dry lube.

You check to see if you've got new handlebar tape to spruce up the ride a bit.

When it's warm enough for a nice ride, but you had to repair the snow blower!

When you kick in the TV screen, after hearing the weatherman say "expect snow well into March."

When you haven't installed the 12-36 cassette that just arrived (to replace the 11-32 cassette) because you won't be riding up any steep hills for a while!

When you think 35 degrees F is warm

We've had an extremely warm winter (other than having two snow events instead of our usual one, and I was riding in CA during the second one), so I'm currently finding myself thinking temperatures below 45F are cold. It's so easy to become a weather wus.

In that vein, I'm off to CA again next week and I need to decide whether to play hookey for a couple of days and ride where the temps are in the 70s or just take care of business and rush back to ride in the 45F rain here at home. Oddly enough, I'll probably do the latter.

Funny. I put new handlebar tape on my bike last night. The triumph of optimism over experience.

It's supposed to approach 50 degrees today, going to put new handlebar tape on an older bike, a new seat on my Cannondale, and hopefully go for a ride with my son.

Tom

It’s supposed to be 50° here too, but the streets are wet and puddled with salty water. So I'll be riding my salt-encrusted, studded-tires-mounted, heavy beater mountain bike. Last year, the first year of ownership, I vowed not to bring out my ultra carbon fiber road bike out until April at the earliest; experience trumps optimism, and optimism is on the run.

Roads are in the same poor shape here too, but....we have a state park close to home that has inner and outer loops that are about 4 miles each, little auto traffic, fronts the Great South Bay and some nice wooded areas. Need to look out for fox and deer.

Only problem is the speed limit is 20 mph,

Tom

When you stop having to figure out which base layer to wear (was 70 deg yesterday). We are expecting some desperately-needed rain next week.

When it's 20 F you know exactly what to wear, but when it gets to 50 F you have to learn what to wear all over again.

You're sitting in your basement rebuilding a wheel, listening to 70s rock on you iPod, and it's the most fun you've had in two weeks.

Headline in today's (2/22/14) Boston Globe: "With wintry weather, scourge of potholes plague region"

There it is!

I'd be riding up the walls with that gearing. We just got another 15" last night. As usual, Jim Cantore and weather crew were somewhere else that's like getting 6" or something.

Our total is up around 160".

You have to avoid the ice flows while Kaking down the river.

I'm in Jamaica right now. Will be 60 and sunny when I get back to NM. No problem mon.

I'd like to play, but we're still waiting for summer to end.

I hope you get the rain.

Nice way to sneak that jab in there, John. Enjoy it before the oppressive heat hits.

I know I'm ready because I actually want to give both my bikes a nice warm bath.

We've already had a few days with extremely high humidity that feel as if it's already hit us. And then there's the ever popular tropical storm/hurricane season we have to look forward to.

Good luck with that! Saturday was a dream day, set between windy Friday and "back to Winter" Sunday, so I cruised the Confluence to get a look at the Mississippi. The solid ice sheet has broken up into this sloppy mess...

CRW_0541 by goofus_maximus, on Flickr


CRW_0542 by goofus_maximus, on Flickr