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-   -   2019! The “How was your commute?” thread! (https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=1163199)

K'Tesh 12-31-18 10:03 AM

2019! The “How was your commute?” thread!
 
Yes, I've re-upped, and am still in China, and it's 2019 here... So, let's get started...

How was YOUR commute?

DeanSams 12-31-18 09:37 PM


Originally Posted by K'Tesh (Post 20725740)
Yes, I've re-upped, and am still in China, and it's 2019 here... So, let's get started...

How was YOUR commute?

hey there K'Tesh! My ride was awesome and always the best way to start the day. Hope your New Years is going to be a great one too.

Darth Lefty 01-02-19 12:20 AM

No mileage resolutions this year. Due to likely having a medical*, my resolution is merely to be biking again by the end.

* if a bike racer can have a mechanical then I can have a medical

BikingTech 01-02-19 03:36 AM

I went on a bike ride with a Time Lord.

esmith2039 01-02-19 07:06 AM

First ride of the year and 22 degrees with the wind chill in single digits... brrr. Feet was a bit cold and parts of my face, the barcaliva wasn't situated right. Smelled onion rings when I got to work at 0630. that's just not right!

mgw4jc 01-02-19 08:03 AM

Happy 2019! Annual mileage, time rode, average speeds, etc. are all reset to zero again. No hard goals or anything. If I ride consistently I should be more than 120 miles per week, Subtracting out holidays and vacation puts my average closer to 100/wk, so I should be able to ride 5,000 miles this year. I was short of that last year due to driving more in February and March.

We have spring like weather here: about 48F this morning. I wore shorts and a light jacket over a t-shirt. I dressed much warmer the past 5 or 6 weeks.

Skipjacks 01-02-19 08:24 AM

It was cold!

Last year I didn't start riding regularly until April because I'm a wuss when it comes to cold.

This year I'm pushing through until Spring! (Amazing how much a jacket helps.....)

arsprod 01-02-19 08:58 AM

Thanks @K'Tesh for getting us started again! Happy 2019, and great first ride of the year - 36F, no wind, wet from overnight rains and a bit foggy and misty.

Steely Dan 01-02-19 09:51 AM

not a bad start to '19 in chicago.

30 degrees, light SW wind, heavy over cast.

there was more icy residue on the bike path than i had anticipated.

i should have been on my studded-tire winter beast, but the street and sidewalk in front of our home were bone dry, so i was on my regular commuter.

i nearly lost it on one turn across some black ice, but my front tire was able to grab back on to bare asphalt just in the nick of time to avoid going down.

Tundra_Man 01-02-19 10:05 AM

First commute of the year! And while showering before I left I was seriously tempted to break my consecutive streak and just drive. But I didn't.

I'd been off a bike for two full weeks while we were traveling in Ohio and Kentucky. So that didn't do anything positive for my fitness. Plus, the temps in those states were in the 40s and 50s, so that didn't do anything positive for my winter skin.

This morning was 9F with a -7F wind chill. We got a couple inches of snow on Monday which wasn't enough to cause the plows to run. Yesterday's temp was below zero which caused the snow on the pavement to become rutted hard pack and ice. That really slowed me down, causing my average speed to be about 7 mph.

I overdressed. Fearing the cold temps I threw on an extra sweatshirt between my work shirt and my windbreaker. Had the roads been dry pavement I probably would have been OK with this, but with all the extra effort I had to exert with the snow I arrived at the office a sweaty mess. Oops.

Being the first commute of the year I stopped to take a photo to commemorate the event. Then I chatted for a minute with the guy you can see walking in the distance. He walks the MUP every morning all year round, so we've become acquainted.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d8ff323794.jpg

PatrickGSR94 01-02-19 10:27 AM

Nothing yet for me, with heavy rains expected today and tomorrow. May commute tomorrow depending on rain timing, and most likely will commute Friday.

Although I did do my first ride of the yesterday, 1/1, heading to a couple of stores to pick up some stuff.

joeyduck 01-02-19 04:57 PM

Happy New Year friends!

I have not been riding but I have finally fixed my bike trailer, again.

We spent the start of the winter holidays without a boat and without power. We had a big wind storm tear through the region, BC Hydro reports it was the worst in their history. We were into our 6th day before my islands power was restored. That 6th day was Christmas afternoon, just in time for dinner!

The storm came through the preceding Thursday and I didn't have school that Friday since school has no power.

At home, since were isolated to an island were personally more prepared. We have plenty of food stores, camp stoves, a BBQ, wood stove, and a generator (I found on the side of the road and fixed!). We were honestly without want, except our hybrid septic system needed a pump out. Our system is on city lines but our sewage is a hybrid system which has septic tank digestor which flushes to a holding tank to later have only wastewater effluent pumped to the city mains, and after about 5 days we were wanting to pump our holding tank. We gladly accepted friends who wanted a warm place to hang out. Overall it was fine but a bit stressful start to the holiday.

But I don't have to go back to school until Monday.

I hope everyone is enjoying the new year and ride safely!

K'Tesh 01-03-19 01:28 AM

Not riding as much as I did in years past. I used to live 5 miles from work, then I was laid off in 2009. My subsequent job was 10 miles away. Then I got fired from there, and it couldn't have been soon enough (ACS/Xerox/Apple Support SUCKS DONKEY ****!!!). I ended up with an offer to go back to school, but it was too far to ride after I moved 15 miles out (cheap rent) from it. My current job is only a few blocks away from my apartment, and I ride daily, but I don't have the passion to ride as much as I used to (no trails, no off street paths, and Chinese drivers are (to say the least) scary).

I'm also currently dealing with a flare up with some foot pain. So, walking and riding is something I'm trying to lighten up on until it goes away.

mgw4jc 01-03-19 07:34 AM

Light rain and drizzle to start the ride, but mostly stopped after 3 or so miles. Then just wet streets for the rest of the ride.

Local schools are back in session and traffic was basically back to normal. Happy that it is already Thursday.

Tundra_Man 01-03-19 08:26 AM

Whew! That was the toughest ride I've had all year!

But in all seriousness, it was also the toughest ride I've had in a long time. 8 miles of forcing a 50 pound bike with studded tires against the wind through horribly rutted ice. I averaged 7 mph. I was bounced around so bad by the ruts that it felt like my teeth were going to fall out. Now that I'm here at work my arms are sore from fighting the handlebars the entire way. At least the temp warmed up to a balmy 24°F. I arrived at work completely drenched in sweat.

Frankly, I'm really not looking forward to noon when I ride across town to a client location. I hope I can recover physically a little bit in the next few hours.

arsprod 01-03-19 09:19 AM


Originally Posted by Tundra_Man (Post 20729028)
First commute of the year! And while showering before I left I was seriously tempted to break my consecutive streak and just drive. But I didn't.

This is exactly why I don't pay attention to consecutive days any more - became more important to keep the streak than deciding if it was a good idea to ride. That said, I'm not sure I've ever forced myself to ride and really regretted it, but have driven and regretted not riding!

Colder this morning, 29F, but I'm getting used to these calm, no wind mornings. And the sun's actually out today!

PatrickGSR94 01-03-19 09:47 AM


Originally Posted by arsprod (Post 20730618)
This is exactly why I don't pay attention to consecutive days any more - became more important to keep the streak than deciding if it was a good idea to ride. That said, I'm not sure I've ever forced myself to ride and really regretted it, but have driven and regretted not riding!

Colder this morning, 29F, but I'm getting used to these calm, no wind mornings. And the sun's actually out today!

Yep, I did today. I was all ready to go last night, but at 5 AM this morning just wasn't feeling up to it. And of course now at work I wish I would have ridden. :(

wphamilton 01-03-19 04:19 PM

I thought I'd slip one more Greenway commute in last night before it floods again, still raining after it had rained lightly all day. About a mile in I came to the Webb Bridge trailhead and a cluster of ambulance, police car, another one further in, in the dark, couple of cops standing around. Cops wouldn't say anything, surly actually, so peering down the path I could see there was still activity going on and I decided that going through would be too brazen, even for me. It took about 3 minutes for a gap in the traffic to allow me to cross the street for my alternate route, and I was in a hurry because the road is kind of narrow right there, on a bridge. I got up to speed quickly but didn't get 50 feet before hitting a pothole, hard, hidden in a puddle. Instant flat, rode it a little to get off the bridge, replaced the tube fairly quickly but first CO2 cartridge - leaking out as I fumbled for the valve stem, wouldn't fill the tube. Weird as that sounds, that's the fact and I have reason to suspect a buggered up thread. I had another, the danged thing wouldn't screw into the pump head. Fortunately I had a THIRD cartridge and it worked.

I got around to looking at the remaining cartridge at home after patching the pinch flat, and sure enough the first two threads were badly bent. Trying to pull them down with needle-nosed pliers - it is my last cartridge after all - it punctured the neck. That great deal on 3 cartridges on Amazon is not looking so great now. I don't know if I want to try again and rig some sort of cap on the threads, or just get another mini-pump.*

*ha, I found another 3 CO2's, threads intact, so I can put that decision off for awhile. Must have been a pack of 6 that I bought.

wphamilton 01-03-19 10:31 PM

Just didn't want to deal with the rain so I took the velo bike today, which I hadn't used since last winter, if then. It lives outside on my patio, a little rusty to be honest. I'd done a little tuning up over the Christmas week, ready to go on Monday but the last charge on the headlight battery had killed it so I had to wait for a replacement.

Awesome for the comfort as far as the elements go though it takes some getting used to, to ride this beast.


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e4479194e9.jpg

mgw4jc 01-04-19 07:25 AM

@wphamilton = interesting looking rig there. Is your head above the siding for decent visibility? Seems like any sort of cross wind would blow you right over.

Just rainy enough and the car was available, so I drove. A mostly light, soaking rain that is expected to last all day. Not even cold out, but dark. I'm not fond of rainy and dark as I feel visibility is just not great, even for driving really.

I had a decent ride home yesterday. For some reason Wednesday's rides were quite a bit slower than usual, despite having had my bike tuned up over the weekend. I barely averaged 15mph that day. But on the way home yesterday I was feeling good and averaged 16+ overall, happy that I didn't lose all biking ability over the holiday breaks.

Tundra_Man 01-04-19 08:21 AM

By the time I got home last night I had been bounced around so much that every joint in my body was aching. I even took some ibuprofen, which I rarely ever do.

This morning's commute was more of the same: lots and lots of rutted ice. I'm not the only one noting the poor road conditions. Plenty of car drivers are talking about them, and there's lots of online discussion about how bad they've gotten. It's pretty rare that we see streets this bad in our area as usually the city is on top of it. I think it was a perfect storm that set this up: On December 31st we got some unexpected weather, so the pre-treatment trucks weren't out. Then we received a base layer of freezing rain, followed by just under 2" of snow which wasn't enough to cause the plows to run. The wind picked up and caused drifting. Then on January 1st when all of the city employees were off work the temps dropped below zero which turned everything into a frozen rutted mess. At this point there's not much we can do but wait it out until evaporation, friction and sun warmth eventually melts everything off.

At least the other day's factors were pretty nice: 28F, very little wind and the sun was starting to come up.

arsprod 01-04-19 09:12 AM


Originally Posted by Tundra_Man (Post 20732096)
This morning's commute was more of the same: lots and lots of rutted ice.

Ick, rutted ice is the worst and here it's created by DPW's attempts to clear roads and trails. They'll salt snow without plowing and then the snow refreezes to ice. Fortunately, while it's been cold enough (27F this morning) we've had no snow.

And speaking of public works, they sent out a notification that they were (finally) repairing one of the trail's bridges that shifted last year. It literally sank about 6 inches on one side. It's passable but have to slow way down to hop the drop. The work was supposed to start 12/13 and they were closing that section of MUP which has no easy pass around (it's a bridge!). They set out flashing signs... and that's it. Nothing. So every day it's a crap shoot whether the bridge will be passable. Whining over

wphamilton 01-04-19 09:47 AM


Originally Posted by mgw4jc (Post 20732054)
@wphamilton = interesting looking rig there. Is your head above the siding for decent visibility? Seems like any sort of cross wind would blow you right over..

The sides are no higher than my back when I'm in the drops and getting low, head and shoulders above riding relaxed on the hoods.

Winds are no issue, possibly less than when you're on a road bike.

This one is actually 4th or 5th generation of these, but I think that the flat top design in the back is a mistake for aerodynamic purposes. Should have kept it rounded.

HardyWeinberg 01-04-19 10:14 AM

47F, dark, windy, raining

heywood 01-05-19 01:25 AM

We've swapped offices so i'm down to a 7km commute from a 18km.. i'm going to add more in the week just to make up for it, i'll add a slow winding trail in somewhere.
Today we went up to +5C it felt very spring like going in..too bad that's not for a few more months, but something to look forward to.

Seems like most people took this week off, it's been a very light traffic all week long. I assume we'll be back to normal as of Monday.

Cheers!


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