esmith2039

Ugh NW wind today, or whatever direction it felt like at the moment. Chance for freezing rain today so rode on the studs, yesterday was awesome on regular tires. Not sure if I'll ride tomorrow unless the wind dies down.

OhLylo

30F with wind and light rain this morning .My hands were cold from the wet by the time I got in but not terrible. I had fresh legs since I didn't ride this weekend or Monday, so I really belted it on a couple segments. Hit a couple PRs. My usual sprint segment had stiff wind in my face today though so no opportunity to move up the leaderboard for that one today. I'm 17th overall on the 1 mile segment immediately after that, with only 15 seconds needed to break into the top 10 (2:45 today vs 2:30 to reach 10th), so if conditions are good and my legs feel ready on Thursday I may attempt that in earnest.

I did have a very nice woman approach me in the parking lot and say that she had a hard time seeing me in the rain. Duly noted. I need fenders anyways and I've been procrastinating on going to the bike shop, so if it's not pouring rain after work I may pedal over there and pick up fenders and more+better lights.

arsprod 

@HardyWeinberg great picture! Well, we're back to February temps, 31F this morning but the forecast for the next 2 days brings back near 60 and rain... and then back to the teens. I need to buy more gear!

wphamilton

Nice enough to take the road bike today, travelling light! It still has some dried mud on it from a sloppy commute a few weeks ago which reminds me that routine maintenance is overdue on all three of my bikes. I'm looking forward to the ride home though, still in daylight if I can get out soon enough and maybe my first "fast" commute of the year.

sienarot

I finally got to commute a couple days last week for the first time since my accident 6 months ago that resulted in a broken collar bone. This was my first major accident and I'm shocked at how gun shy I am now. I'm extremely nervous as I come up to icy parts and jumpy at the sound of cars honking, even when they're across the street. It's gonna be a while until I regain my former confidence.

RidingMatthew

I had a good ride to and from work yesterday until a guy a got mad at me for me yelling at him because he crossed the double yellow line. he then proceeded to turn his car around and follow me into my neighborhood to yell at me about yelling at him. People behind me were going to pass me and they could not because he was on the wrong side of double yellow line.

i talked to a friend who is a cyclist and police officer and I should have ridden off into a field away from him so that he could not follow me. I got stuck sorta in the cul de sac at the end of one of the streets. my friend also said i should have just pulled into a house like it was mine and called the police speaking loudly and clearly that I was being threatened and start describing him.

i hope the ride home is a bit less eventful.

HardyWeinberg

Yikes!

HardyWeinberg

16F and sunny here. MUP was bone-dry, but bike lanes on streets were ice, curb to fog line.

Darth Lefty 

OhLylo

I got hit by a car on the way home today.

I was very lucky. Nether I nor my bike are seriously injured. My arm and neck are quite sore and stiff, but I saw a doc and nothing's broken or egregiously injured, so it's motrin and tiger balm for me tonight.

I'd like to say I have a valuable lesson learned, but I don't. It was broad daylight, in clear conditions, on a familiar road, in nil traffic. I was riding in an appropriate lane position and was less than a mile out of my parking spot. I don't know if the guy didn't see me (in bright colors in broad damn daylight) or was distracted or just didn't feel like changing lanes, and maybe I never will, because it was a hit and run. I didn't get a plate, but I did get the make/model/generation of the car (a beige first gen Toyota Tundra truck) and he left behind his passenger wing mirror when he hit me, so the cops got that and are gonna try to figure it out from there.

I'm going to take the rest of the work week off of riding (or longer, depending on how my body feels in the morning and over the next couple of days). I may add cameras and more visibility enhancers of some sort before then, but I'm trying not to make hasty panic decisions because I got hit today.

Ugh.

RidingMatthew

@OhLylo sorry to hear about the hit and run. that kinda thing makes me wise I had a camera so that i could record things even when I am a bit disoriented or fuzzy. Hope recovery is speedy!

I rode home a slightly different way an no illegal drivers or stupid people chasing me down. It was 64F in February! shorts and jersey! I rolled slower and enjoyed the ride!

mgw4jc

Craziness going on. @RidingMatthew - the guy was riding on / over the yellow line coming at you? Not sure how someone can do that and not get hit eventually. @OhLylo - glad you are mostly okay. Sounds like a distracted driver to me. Or he was really bad at judging the distance to go around you.

Safe commute here today. Warmer still. I went for a walk at lunch yesterday and could hear hundreds of frogs out. It was about 70F and they all must have decided it was warm enough to come out from hiding all winter. Unfortunately I think the bug population is pretty slim right now.

arsprod 

That's my experience after several incidents and I think the hyper vigilance is a good thing. Didn't ride today - haven't been feeling quite right and heavy rain sealed the deal to drive

OhLylo

70F! Lucky. We missed the polar nonsense here in California but it's been pretty cold by our standards this week, with highs in the 40s and wind. I'm ready for spring.

Most drivers on this particular stretch aren't as considerate as they could be, but I've had them queue up when it's not clear to change lanes as well. Distracted is my guess as well. I'm hoping either the sheriff or the AF cops find him because my guess is that dude works at the same place as I do.

madpogue 

OUCH. Heal fast, man; you're in our prayers.

Similar thing happened here a few years ago. Lady here drove out of a local supper club, drunk, turned a corner and struck and killed a pedestrian. Same thing, mirror broke off. Witness saw it and got make/model/color. Cops took the mirror to a dealer, who narrowed down the model year. They went through DMV records, and found one with a broken-off mirror with an exact fit. Not sure if they'll go through that much effort with a "not life-threatening" injury, but then again, there may be some larger more sinister reason the driver didn't stop. They should at least treat is as a criminal misdemeanor and not "just" a traffic thing.

More visibility is never a bad thing, and not a "hasty" decision at all. I sit the fence on a camera. I've seen some amazing stuff caught on helmet cams, but is it worth the effort, and remembering to upload all that footage, and keep the batteries charged, etc etc?

OhLylo

@madpogue Thanks man. Really sore this morning but alive and kicking and I'm teleworking today so no need to commute, thankfully. My guess is that they probably won't go through that much effort, either, but they did take the mirror, photograph the manufacturing codes on the back, bag it, and all that, so maybe? I'm hoping the Air Force cops at work (who are probably rather bored with their jurisdiction of parking lots) will jump at the chance to try and track down a hit-and-run driver and will case the base for a while to see if this truck shows up.

I haven't decided on changing my setup just yet other than replacing the jacket the paramedics cut off, since I don't know what if anything would have prevented this crash. Like you, I'm hesitant to go through all the rigmarole for a helmet camera (not to mention the GoPros are $$$$$). I may start with some daytime-rated lights. I have a lot of idle time today while my dad has surgery so I'll probably shop around a bit.

pdlamb

Left a bit early, but it was so cloudy I had to rely on Goofy the Garmin to tell me when the sun came up. Between the clouds and all the winter brown and gray vegetation, it was pretty gloomy. A major road project in the area has really shifted traffic around; I did a right turn (into the third lane of traffic) and then a left to get across that intersection. Funny thing was, traffic was almost non-existent the rest of the way. Do all the cagers say, "Oh, I hear there's a big traffic jam, let's go sit in it today?"

About a mile from work I started feeling like I'd been pushing one gear bigger than usual. I may have to treat the ride home (and maybe tomorrow) as recovery rides.

You don't have to download the video if nothing happens, but you do have to keep the batteries charged. Which reminds me, I need to charge my helmet light and backup blinkie. And the camera, if I'm going to turn it on anytime soon. (The main lights on the dyno just keep glowing.)

pdlamb

The Cycliq (https://cycliq.com/bike-cameras/fly6ce/) is a nice light, except for needing a charge every night. It might have caught the guy coming at you, though if you live in a state with only rear plate required, getting the license after you get hit and go down may be problematic. I wish, though, they had a rack mount; my seatpost is covered up already.

OhLylo

Those look sweeeeeet, even though the front+rear together cost almost as much as my bike, lol. I live in California, which requires front plates, so a rear camera would definitely be helpful. It looks like they have a rear pannier mount in their accessory list as well.

clengman

45F and steady soaking rain here. I'll take 15F and clear over this mess any day...

Tundra_Man 

Been sick the last three weeks with some odd ailment that at times doesn't seem to affect me at all, but a couple times per day will take me down with flu-like symptoms, minus the respiratory ailments. Severe fatigue, achy joints, headache, chills, fever, sweats, etc. No runny nose, sore throat, cough, etc. After a couple of hours it will go away and then I'll be fine until the next attack. The last two mornings I've had an attack right when it was time to head to work, so I said "bag it" and just stayed home.

This morning I decided that sitting at home all day didn't make things better so I might as well suck it up and go to work. At least I don't have a physical job so when an attack hits at work I can just sit there and keep typing.

On top of that, we're in the time of the year where my brain starts to get mentally weary about commuting. I get tired of the cold, tired of the wind, tired of the ice, tired of the snow and tired of fighting the winter bike. I strongly suspect I'd feel similar if I drove, so I keep pushing through it on the bicycle. Probably another month of the really bad weather and then we'll start to see temps occasionally peek above freezing. Once I can switch to my hybrid it will do wonders for my mood.

This morning was 6F (-9F wind chill.) There was a sheet of glass ice that had covered the entire MUP, with another 1/2" of snow on top of it. I had to push a light headwind, but thankfully it really wasn't blowing very hard. Plus I was going so slow trying to keep the bike upright on the ice. Had one "OS" moment where I nearly went down. I could see tracks and marks in the snow where other bikes had hit the ground, so at least I kept it upright the whole way to work.

Supposed to get 4" of snow today, so the ride home with all that snow on top of the ice should be interesting. High today is supposed to top out at 9F, and then tomorrow drop back below zero so that ice isn't melting in the foreseeable future.

RidingMatthew

i heard frogs yesterday too. @mgw4jc he crossed the double yellow into a left turn lane which cars behind me could have passed me. It was a bit frightening to see him on the wrong side of the road especially when i saw people preparing to make a move to pass me. He then followed me down the street next to mine and down a couple other streets. I should have just pulled into a house and called the police or taken off into a farm field at the end of one the streets.

I drove even though it is beautiful because I have to get home and then get back to a meeting across town.

HardyWeinberg

16F, sunny; all the bike lanes and shoulders that were solid ice yesterday were clear this morning

robertorolfo

I know cops can seemingly be illogical at times, but I really don't see why they would blow this off. They have a make and model, so it shouldn't be too difficult to look up local registrations and check them out. It's not guaranteed to work, but they should definitely try.

I'm also considering a camera with all of the dumb stuff I regularly encounter.

wphamilton

I heard a chorus of cicadas today! Surprise because I didn't know they were due this year.