Skipjacks

The cold isn't so hard to deal with as long as it's dry. Today it was about 35 and damp. The damp really puts a chill to the bones.

Fortunately it's warming up all day and should be 50 by the ride home!

mgw4jc

A pleasant drizzly ride in this morning. It was about 45F. This is the time of year when I see people on Facebook posting invites for spin classes and/or group indoor training events. "$25 to come sit and spin with us!"

It looks like heavier rain is coming this afternoon. My wife needs to come down this way around 5pm anyway, so a pickup just may be the way to go.

Skipjacks

I never understood spin classes.

I don't fault anyone else for liking them. I just don't get it.

You drive to a place that has a stationary bike and let someone yell at you for an hour while you ride it. Then drive home.

Nothing about that sounds appealing to me.

I have a stationary bike at home. I ride it all the time on bad weather days when I don't ride outside. I enjoy it. But I don't get going to another place to do that as a group with yelling.

arsprod 

Have to drive today because of outside appointment (gah!). Sucks because even though it raining it's the last day of 50's - supposed to start snow/wintry mix by tomorrow morning. And I just took the studs off!

Tundra_Man 

Kind of an ugly ride today. Woke up to 4F temps with a couple inches of snow down. The big story though was the wind. 30 mph minimum with gusts way higher than that. Of course I had to ride straight into it.

The wind was pushing the snow around so there were areas with dry pavement and other spots with big drifts. Wasn't too bad except for some areas where cars had mashed the snow down which made those spots pretty slick even with the studded tires. I slid out around one corner but got my foot down and stayed upright.

Kept my triple in the lowest gear the whole way to work and just tried to spin the best I could through the drifts and against the wind. I averaged about 7 mph. The wind was pushing me all over the place so it was difficult to track a straight line. At one point a gust of wind came that was so strong it literally brought me to a stop. I put my foot down, waited for the gust to subside back to the regular gale and then proceeded onward. Took 45 minutes to make it the 4 miles to the client's office.

The good news is the wind isn't expected to change direction by the time I head home, and although it is supposed to subside a bit I should still get a good push. High today is projected to get up to 10F, then the temps are going to drop well below zero for tomorrow's ride.

ptempel

Another nice albeit a bit messy ride in this morning. The bike is getting a lot of road grime due to melting snow. Would have been nice for the PA of NY/NJ to clear the snow from the south sidewalk a little better. Oh well. At least its open. Looking forward to temp going into the 50's F tomorrow. But it will be a rainy day, though. But I'll still take that over snow...

Darth Lefty 

Welcome to Bike Forums!

rhm

First above-freezing morning commute of the year! The snow is melted off the roads, except for a few piles here and there, like at corners. The canal towpath is still covered, so I'm still riding the long way to the station.

pdlamb

Warmer weather -- upper 50s! It's so much easier riding without all the winter gear.


Though I started wondering, why does it make so much difference? Warm weather: shorts, jersey, 2 socks, 2 shoes, 2 gloves, headband, helmet: 10 items. Cold weather adds: base layer, tights, jacket, change headband and gloves, so only 3 extra items. Why does it feel like it's 100% harder to get dressed/undressed??

Skipjacks

THIS!!

In the summer...shorts and a t shirt. Done. Riding is easy.

In the winter, long pants and a sweatshirt...and somehow that feels like a chore.

You are not crazy! (Or if you are...so am I)

HardyWeinberg

Monday was a nice ride but I paid for it with hip flexor problems. Tuesday and Wednesday I carpooled from home to offsite meeting, but for the moment, until I can calm down the hip flexors, I am driving. Blech.

antmaster5000

Moved on top of a large hill but also much closer to my job. Shorter but more intense commute. Kind of miss my old 10 mile commute, but it is nice to have the option to only have to bike 2 miles if I am not feeling it. Am still staying in pretty good shape due to a 300+ ft climb every day.

robertorolfo

I know what you mean, but I've done a few of them in the past. Some people actually like/need the yelling, for extra motivation to work hard.

Another reason might be location. Riding at a high intensity might be hard in certain areas where you don't have the right roads, or continuous roads, to do so.

My GF now does them on occasion, and they have the display at the front that measures everyone's output during the class (it's optional). I'm actually tempted to join her once just to see the results.

mgw4jc

I also think it would be interesting to see where I stand having only commuted, but probably not enough to pay to go do it. I have some friends who are really into the wattage and output numbers. There's a local Orange Theory Fitness that holds group sessions and displays how hard everyone is working be it on a bike, rowing machine or treadmill. I would much rather ride or run outside simply because I get to be outside. And outside is free!

mgw4jc

Slacker today. We're looking at some pretty good rain and thunderstorms this afternoon. Our kids are still out of town and the wife doesn't need the car. Plus she said that if the rain is bad she would rather not have to rescue me, so I just drove. Bummer too as it is 65F!

haphaeu

It is the bad roll and particularly cornering that annoys me. Studded sort of “walk” sideways when cornering in dry asfalt.

When spring comes, you’ll see how awesome it is changing back to slicks 😀

ptempel

It was 57F this morning. Really warm for a change. Wonder if its close to a record? Well, I'll take the warm messy car wash over the colder snow clogged up roads. Was almost too warm to wear my rain jacket. The jacket is just a formality. You're still getting wet in the rain no mater what anyone says. There's alot of small bits of trash on the streets in Manhattan. I guess they are overdue for the street sweepers.

arsprod 

OK that sucked... when I went to bed it was mid 50's and raining. When I woke up it was 24 with freezing rain, sleet, and snow. I knew it was coming and switched back to the studs. Most of the roads and trails were passable just slow, nothing had been plowed. At one crossing I came to what I thought were some blocks of snow until I tried to go "through" one to find out it was ice. Somehow I managed to stay upright but when the crank hit the pedal smacked me in the shin. Argh! I had a 20+ mph tailwind... and I'm taking the bus home!

Tundra_Man 

-8F this morning with a -26F wind chill. I overdressed on top and got a little sweaty. My goggles iced over about 3 miles into the ride, so that was a bit of a challenge.

pdlamb

Bad Weather Coming! Bad Weather Coming!


That's the vibe, anyway. Nice ride in, though I added tights from yesterday (just in case). Came over the last hill before the office and I think the temperature dropped 10 degrees right there. Word is they're closing early (11:00??) so we can all get home safely before the temperature drops below freezing and rain turns to snow (at 4:30 or so, go figure!).


I might make a wrong turn on the way home while the weather's still half-way decent.

rhm

Yesterday, 5:20 PM, I got off my train, walked to my bike locker, put my hand in my pocket, and found that I did not have my keys. After emptying my pockets and messenger bag and searching everything, and not finding my keys, I called my wife for a ride. Then I called Citibike to report my citibike key lost. The customer service guy killed my key and made a note of my predicament. I then entered the lost key chain on the NJ Transit lost and found website....

A few hours later, Citibike called me; the same customer service guy. He had a NYC bike messenger on the line who had my keys; found them on the street.

I got a ride to the station in the morning, met the kid, got my keys, forced him to take $40 as a token of thanks (really nice kid, insisted he didn't want the money. But I was more stubborn than he, he took it eventually).

My keys were pretty smashed. Couldn't get into my office; that key was completely broken. I had to go to the main office and get the card with the codes, take that to a locksmith, and have a new key made. Didn't get to my office until almost noon.

All in all, things could have been worse. Still, what a fiasco!

jrickards

First commute in a few days, it's been mild (and rainy and then icy afterwards) and unpleasant but today was nice enough with a dusting of fresh snow on the roads and paths. It was -12C/10F but with a windchill (during downhill runs) of about -23C/-9F that proved more than my tights and light shoes (that was a mistake!) could handle so my toes, knees and thighs were a bit cold when I arrived.

I normally leave my bike outside overnight at home which hasn't been a problem: yes, snow might fall on it (easily brushed off) but with temps in the -20C/-4F or lower, I wasn't concerned about freeze/thaw rust development. However, last Thursday, it went up to 7C/45F with a bit of rain and I forgot the bike was outside so when I brought it into the garage on the weekend, water must have gotten into the drive chain and frozen there because the rear derailleur wasn't shifting this morning (well, it would, about 200m/yd down the road after I had shifted on the handshifters). The bike is inside the indoor bike cage at work now so it will thaw and should be fine for the ride home.

PatrickGSR94

Your 10 items (2 shoes, 2 socks, shorts, jersey, 2 gloves, headband or skullcap, helmet) in summer, turns into as much as 17 items for me, once I add toe covers, 2 layers on my legs, 2 layers + jacket up top, balaclava, gloves, glasses or ski goggles etc. It takes twice as much time or more to get into all that stuff as compared to the summer getup.

No commutes for me since Wednesday of last week. Thursday was a massive washout, which turned to sleet and ice (nasty) so we had a snow day Friday. Still a few remnants of ice left here and there, and I'm not equipped for riding in that so I drove to work this morning. Snow forecast tonight into tomorrow so we might be off again, not sure yet.

Tundra_Man 

Today's commute would have made Jack London proud.

-5°F with 20+ mph north winds making for windchills well south of -30°F. We got about 1" of new powdery snow yesterday afternoon which was blowing and drifting with the strong winds.

Today the client office I normally would have ridden to (4 miles from home) was closed for Martin Luther King day. So the only option I had was to ride to our company office which was 8 miles from home. The wind was mostly crosswinds but there were a few stretches where I had to ride straight into it.

The roads were in pretty decent shape overall. 1" of powdery snow slows me down a little, but not bad. Once I hit the MUP I was riding on virgin snow. The wind had pushed some areas completely clear so I could ride on dry pavement. In other spots, though, the wind had created drifts more than a foot high. There was one 1/2 mile stretch where I think I walked more than I rode because the drifting was so bad. I'll probably take a different route on the way home to avoid that area.

Around the 4 mile mark I was getting noticeably cold in the hands, feet and (oddly enough) kidney area on my back. My goggles were starting to ice over. The wind was just whipping right through all of my layers. I pressed onward until about the 6 mile mark where I came off the MUP. At that spot there were some apartment buildings so I pulled in and warmed up in an entryway for a few minutes. In 9 seasons of winter commuting that was the first time where I had to stop to take a break from the elements.

Back on the bike for the final 2 miles was challenging. This portion of the commute is through an open area with hardly any trees and sparse buildings, so even on calm days any little breeze is very noticeable. Today it was downright brutal. I put my triple in the lowest sprocket and tried to spin the best I could.

I finally arrived at work an hour and ten minutes after I left the house. I know my warming stop didn't take more than 10 minutes, so that tells me I averaged 8 mph. Felt like I'd just run a marathon, though. When I removed my layers I found there was ice and frost on the insides of all of them where the wind had come through and frozen my sweat. It sure didn't feel like I was sweating, but apparently I was. The warm shower sure felt good.

Today was an example of when developing a long consecutive bicycle commuting streak motivates you to keep it going through those difficult days. Had I not had an established streak, I would have definitely driven a car today. Instead I can increase the counter to 442.

esmith2039

Brrr 18 degrees but the north wind was whipping it up. Supposed to get colder today, might be brutal on the way home. Riding every other day in this seems to work better for me.