A pretty decent accumulation of heavy wet snow on the lawn this evening. It should be mostly gone tomorrow. But the weather is definitely turning, I had to wear pants and a jacket for the first time since April this week.

Starting to change here too, wore pants twice this past week and once the week before. Hopefully we're 4-6 weeks away from any snow, although 5 years ago we had snow on October 30. I wasn't riding in those days.

Mark

saw 2 snow plows out this morning & was thinking, what the heck? thought maybe they were just moving the trucks or the plows around into position for future use, away from their summer storage lots

Heavy frost yesterday morning in Minneapolis, but thankfully we seem to be quite a ways away from actual winter. This morning it was in the mid-40s and unexpectedly it began to rain an hour into a planned 4 hour ride. It wasn't miserable, but still the ride got cut short. Snow would be better than that.

Time to go down south... Yep... 70°F Springtime in Australia

Of course here in Central Texas it just got under 90°F...

The weather yesterday was great, 20C and low wind, probably the last shorts weather of the season. Decent fall weather in the 2 week forecast, which is good as there are several road projects running long.

Just got first frost here today.

No snow since the first bit melted, but we are in for winter temperatures starting next Tuesday. Daytime highs around -10C going forward. Time to switch over to my winter boots. I'm surprised I've been able to get by with just show (er shoe) covers until now.

I had a long sleeve 260 weight Icebreaker shirt in my closet for years. I considered it "too good" for cycling, but since it wasn't getting used I figured it might as well become cycling gear. Its been nice to wear, though I'd prefer a higher neck. Noticeable improvement over my other base layers particularly when heading into a strong wind where my jacket is blown snug against me. A testament to wool being much less compressible that synthetics. Gloves in particular, the palm side insulation gets squeezed flat when grabbing the handlebars.

27F this morning. ran down to the local strip mall in my car to dispose of a dead trapped mouse & saw a bike rider, in the dark, w/ a rear blinker, heading down a local rural road, about 6:10am. kudos to the rider! Brrr!

We had our first snow of the season about 2 weeks ago. Snow stayed on the ground for 3 days and then it warmed up and everything melted away.

In my area, there hasn't been a "hard" freeze yet. A couple of mornings below 30ºF, and one day with light flurries but where none of the snow stuck to the ground. Has been relatively warm, for this time of year. It isn't uncommon to get an inch or two of snow on the ground by end of October, and it's nearing the end of November already. Of course, snow's coming.

The one key thing I worry about, as I age, is falling. Slick roads top the list, for me. I try to avoid. So, frosty mornings tend to be out. The few weeks when all the leaves are on the ground and wet ... that's generally out as well. (I know: wimp. But as snow and ice is relatively infrequent where I am, I'm okay with awaiting "clear" days for riding.)

Our crazy weather continues. It got up to +6C overnight, then the wind picked up to 80 km/h and the temperature dropped to -3C in just an hour. Heavy snow tomorrow, then back down to -20C.

Two weeks of above freezing daytime highs has melted much of the snow. Main streets are clear to pavement, residential streets are a mess of various types of ice. I've been using my mountain bike all week and going further than I usually do in winter. A winter storm on Tuesday is poised to return all the snow we lost.

My Moonlander fat bike is regularly getting rear tire flats. Turns out I'm at about the same tire mileage where it started doing it last time. The low pressure flexing of the tire causes the rubber to flake off exposing the casing fibers which rub against the tube wearing holes. I added sealant which worked for a while, but I don't think the sealant can easily get to the part of the tube with the holes. Tons of tread left by the sidewalls are toast, but I suppose 10,000 km isn't bad for a tire.

Both Tires were Surly Lou. And both had serious rubber flaking issues, not sure if its a bad compound or poor vulcanization. A 45Nrth tire I have on the front doesn't have the same problem, so I ordered a 45Nrth Wrathlorde instead of another Lou. That will save me some effort as it is a pre-studded tire and I won't have to screw in 200+ grip studs. I sure got my moneys worth out of those grip studs. I first had them screwed into a Surly Nate on my Pugsley, then moved them to a Surly Lou after I switched to a Moonlander, then moved them to the second Lou tire. All told over 20,000 km of use on those studs and they are still in excellent condition.

I live in Saint Paul and commute to downtown Minneapolis. Cycling in Winter is not always safe but my goal this year is to ride to work at least once month. I fitted a Fuji Tourer with studded tires and honestly feel safer riding over walking on the ice that covers our streets. In January, I made a lazy decision to ride my Specialized Turbo Levo eMTB one day - it does not have studded tires. One block from home where the ice is thick, I crashed on a left turn and my head slammed the ground. Thank goodness for the relatively new helmet that I had on or it would have been a trip to the hospital or worse! The following day was the Alex Pretti ride and I was back on the Fuji. Pro tip to keep your hands warm: silk base layer followed by rubber gloves and then loose top gloves to make space for warm air.

So I went to put some air in my fat bike to see how long it holds air to see if I'd be good to take it for a ride tomorrow. The valve started free spinning as I was attaching the pump. When I pulled the tire off the valve stem had cleaned popped out of the tube, no torn rubber. I could push it back in but it was very loose and could effortlessly be pulled back out. I wonder if the Slime 2 in 1 I used did that. I hadn't used Slime in a tube before and likely never would again even if I hadn't had an issue. I was just going to see if I could get through the season with my worn sidewalls knowing they could keep damaging the tube causing slow leaks. I've never had a presta valve fail that way before.

What do you mean no torn rubber? Is it one of those metal-only stems?

I have had it happen, and a hundred years ago, I was a bike shop mechanic, so I've seen it. It's not common, but it happens.

Valve just popped out clean.

A little end of season snow today and early next week. But since the city has switched to laying down straight salt, I should just pass on riding until the roads dry.

Sizeable late season snow in the forecast for tomorrow. I might actually get to try out my new fat bike tire.

All the snow had melted and the roads were dry then bam, 6" of fresh snow. Bigger than any single day snowfall we had all winter. Hot next week so it won't last long. I took advantage of the incoming moisture to overseed the lawn yesterday.

I've had this happen a couple of times. Sadly, always on Schwalbe tubes (though I still like these better than "no brand" tubes).