groovestew

I don't know guys, I think my season is coming to an end. I rode today, first time in over a week. I stayed home a couple days due to a cold, then we got a good dump of snow (about 8" in parts), then a cold snap...it's been easy for me to make excuses to either work from home or take the bus. I guess I'm not very hard-core, despite having a decent winter bike.

The weather this morning was fine for this time of year: -6C/21F, and no wind to speak of. Roads are crappy; main roads have bumpy ice patches, brown sugar, and slush. Residential roads have large areas of soft snow (thanks mainly to people shoveling their driveways onto the street). Most trails have been plowed, but I still ran into unplowed areas. Dropped my chain once (on a main road with 2' high snow berms on the side - no easy escape), then it came off the tensioner another time. It just wasn't a very fun ride.

Sixty Fiver

Just think...it can only go up from here.

groovestew

How's the Pugsley in this mess?

WillynHook

Beautiful.... See for yourself

Going to work in the morning....

https://faculty.salisbury.edu/~jwhowa.../Nov12Work.mp4


Going home in the evening.....

https://faculty.salisbury.edu/~jwhowa...Nov12Work2.mp4

Dr. Joe

Sixty Fiver

It lets me ride more than I might be able to and it floats through all that churned up snow, brown sugar, and slush like nothing else.

caloso

I finally got my act together enough to take one of my long (22 mile) detours in to work. 39F when I left the house, just cold enough that I was missing my skull cap under my helmet. Lovely to see the mist rising over the vineyards.

ChrisM2097

Nice. Glad to see that there wasn't much damage out there from Sandy. My father lives down in Onancock (VA Eastern Shore - Bay-side). I could definitely see myself living out there...now, if I could only convince my wife.

treadtread

Rode in to work after a week - kid was sick and I was babysitting - and the weather had improved. Was warm on the way in - I started off with a jacket but had to take it off really quickly. So - nice ride in

gecho

-5C with a light headwind. The ride took 67 minutes today, including a 1 km detour to check if part of the MUP had been cleared. So far none of the MUP I use on my commute had been plowed, but they might be done for this evenings ride. My radbot1000 cut out again on today's ride. I think I found the problem. The two metal prongs that connect the battery holder to the circuit board have worn through the metal contacts on the board. A good jolt must momentarily cut power resetting the light. Unlike the PDW Dangerzone, the radbot doesn't default to on when the power is first connected. A little solder on the contacts should fix it.

I had to decide this morning whether I wanted studs or fat tires, and I gambled on fat. A good choice as I encountered a lot of loose snow, and the packed stuff wasn't too slick. To get decent traction on the front wheel I lowered the pressure to 4 psi, which has got to be getting close to the absolute minimum. I certainly wouldn't go that low without snow cover. I went with 8 psi in the rear tire, but will bump it up to 9 psi for the ride home. Yesterday without panniers I rode with the rear at 6 psi, which had wicked traction but spread the sidewalks out a bit too much.


The fat tires are really stable in loose snow. Had I taken my mountain bike I would have struggled to keep going straight. Once I get the fat studded tires the Pugsley will be one crazy snow machine.

treadtread

All you snow bikers - what are your backup plans? Do you carry an extra tire? Not feasible for the Puglsey I guess - so what extra precautions do you take? Carry chemical warmers? Tot of rum?

Sixty Fiver

I carry a spare tube, patch kit, and a pump on any ride... the tyres on the Pug are exceptionally tough and puncture proof and have a heavy duty tube which weighs more than the tyre itself.

For backup I have a cel phone, bus tickets, and a flask.

acidfast7

U-bahn/Subway

groovestew

How far in total? Just curious. My commute is about 15.5 km, and it took almost an hour this morning. Summer commute time is about 40 minutes on average, so the ride today took almost 50% more time than summer average.

acidfast7

+1C on the way home ... seems that I ride faster in the cold (or there's less people).

24km (1h10m)

coldest ride so far ...

what do people do to keep ears warm under the helmet?

gecho

Just under 17 km, regular routes are between 15.25 and 16 the longest being if I use the MUP for most of the ride. I went slow in a few narrow spots, and had to get off and push through a blown in section. With snow on the ground 50 minutes is usually the best time I can expect compared with 35 in the summer. I won't be pulling off anything that quick without studs.

pepox369

Todays commute from our house in Arnhem, NL to Nijmegen was a *****! so much wind!!!! felt like a hill clime the entire way there..

The way back was much nicer, tho it rained during the day so it was wet in some spots..

acidfast7

interesting news ...

i've got the gf riding with me tomorrow, which is great! we're charging her light right now

let's hope she's ok with the cold

Notso_fastLane

Roads were wet, but the temp was just below 50F, so not bad. I managed to get to work just as my rear tire was going flat, though. I'm going to have to patch it for the ride home. I'm curious if I hit something, since I put liners in them about a month ago, or if that patch came off. If it's the patch, I guess I'm off to the bike store to get a new innertube tonight. *mutter mutter* ...I hate flats.

MNBikeCommuter

I wish that were true for myself. The last couple of mornings at about 20F have felt like I've been off the bike about six months.

For 30-40F, I pull my hair down over my ears. I'm sporting a ponytail, thanks to calling my daughter's bluff on a Locks of Love challenge. For below that, hair and a hooded wind breaker. Around 5-10F I start thinking about supplementing it with a lightweight wool stocking cap under the wind breaker hood.

St. Paul continues to do its fall street cleaning using water. There were several stretches of streets this morning with a 6-8' wide sheen of glare ice. It looked like they'd cleaned with a Zamboni...

acidfast7

Thanks for the tips! I did have an "unusual" muscle pull 2 days ago probably due to temps.

I have no hair



cooking Lecsó in Hungary.

pepox369

After 10 minutes of riding she will be complaining about being hot.. my girl does the same thing everytime we go for a ride longer than 5k.

acidfast7

0C/32F today ... gf did a great job

at the end, she said that she wouldn't ride again, but we'll see about that

dcb23

36F / 2c coldest temps yet for me...no moon, dark streets. I need a new headlamp!

aquateen

coldest morning yet! my phone said it was 33 degrees when i left the house this morning. first frost i've seen on a commute this year. no incidents but i was definitely careful on patches of leaves and wooden bridges.

jrickards

Skull cap and, depending on the weather, no/light weight/medium weight balaclava. The skull cap doesn't keep my ears warm, I depend on the balaclava to do that but, for example yesterday afternoon, it was +3C and not cold enough to need ear coverings.