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2019! The “How was your commute?” thread!

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2019! The “How was your commute?” thread!

Old 01-16-19, 09:40 AM
  #126  
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Originally Posted by arsprod
Frustrating ride today. DPW announced almost 2 months ago that they would be repairing an MUP bridge and closing that section of trail - then nothing happened. Yesterday they decided it's time to take the next step and close that section of trail. So they had 2 months of clear, relatively warm weather to do the work and now that it's cold, 8" of snow with 2" more coming tonight, they close and route traffic on city side streets that aren't cleared. Genius... argh!
You don't call the lights and barricades "progress?"
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Old 01-16-19, 09:44 AM
  #127  
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Originally Posted by pdlamb
You don't call the lights and barricades "progress?"
Heck no, it'll take another 2 months to actually start the work. In the meantime they've put up fences to block the path that we could be using while they're waiting for... whatever
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Old 01-16-19, 10:17 AM
  #128  
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Originally Posted by arsprod
Heck no, it'll take another 2 months to actually start the work. In the meantime they've put up fences to block the path that we could be using while they're waiting for... whatever
Are you going to honor the barricades? Here, I usually consider it a warning to "proceed at your own risk" and go over until they actually start work. For a few days anyway.
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Old 01-16-19, 10:21 AM
  #129  
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Originally Posted by wphamilton
Are you going to honor the barricades? Here, I usually consider it a warning to "proceed at your own risk" and go over until they actually start work. For a few days anyway.
No choice this time - after the barricade they put up a fence on either side of the bridge. I went around the barricade then looked to see if I could move the fence away!
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Old 01-16-19, 10:22 AM
  #130  
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Originally Posted by wphamilton
Are you going to honor the barricades? Here, I usually consider it a warning to "proceed at your own risk" and go over until they actually start work. For a few days anyway.
But I sent a really nasty tweet!
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Old 01-16-19, 12:01 PM
  #131  
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32F, nice sunrise, no black ice. On the other hand, I fixed a flat in the garage and could not get my 10 yr old skewer to keep the wheel straight (on my 10 year old crosscheck). Never had a problem before, but could not tighten it down enough to stop the wheel from tilting over to hit the chainstay.

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Old 01-16-19, 12:03 PM
  #132  
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Originally Posted by arsprod
But I sent a really nasty tweet!
Fight the power!
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Old 01-16-19, 05:13 PM
  #133  
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Nice light conditions this evening. Thought I'd take a photo on the ride home. Going down to -17c tonight...

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Old 01-16-19, 07:19 PM
  #134  
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4th leg this week in the rain coming up. It was really gushing and gusting 45 min ago. Now it sounds gentle but drenching. Should be ok.
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Old 01-16-19, 07:24 PM
  #135  
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Originally Posted by pdlamb

Later on in the commute I asked myself, how many jerseys do I have that would qualify in such a competition? (The one I was wearing was covered by a solid yellow jacket at the time.)
Related question, why is a jogger dressed like that held in less contempt than a cyclist dressed like that? Mostly gender?
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Old 01-16-19, 08:06 PM
  #136  
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Every year or two years, it seems like there's one new guy during the winter dark that complains about headlights to everyone coming toward him. Believes that everyone but him is doing it wrong, and takes it upon himself to educate them. Usually I see them once or twice, then they either give up or learn better. But I've heard it the third time from the guy this year, "Please turn down your lights", and I can recognize him by the sing-song delivery and that he's always riding with another guy. At least he finally got a light himself. The first time I sang back to him, "Please get a light" since they were riding ninja.

My light is aimed down 15-20 feet ahead AND pointed off to the right so there's nothing more I can do for the guy. But I'm tempted to sing out Please shut up.
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Old 01-16-19, 09:23 PM
  #137  
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Two stories today. One, a sweet old lady with a Northern Europe accent - couldn’t place it because her English was very good - flagged me down. She had just moved to the area with her daughter and was out walking in the rain. But she had gotten lost and didn’t have a smart phone. She was looking for apartments but had the wrong name in mind. I went through names until I said one she knew and directed her that way. I wonder now if she had dementia and I should’ve called the PD.

on the way home I kicked a few branches off the path and was feeling righteous when a quarter mile later I came upon this:
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Old 01-17-19, 07:36 AM
  #138  
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A good ride in. A bit faster than usual as I left about 5 minutes later than I like and had to make up some time. Clear and about 30F for the ride in. Chances of rain this afternoon, but it's already changed from 70% chance at 5pm to 40% and it only says showers. I'm not worried about it.
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Old 01-17-19, 08:27 AM
  #139  
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Woke up to about 1/2" of snow. Just enough that I wanted to clear it off my driveway before cars drove on it and turned it into an icy mess.

One nice thing about fresh snow is I can see how many other cyclists are out before me. Today I counted 8 other bikes other than mine on the MUP.

The bad thing about fresh snow is I can't see where the ice ruts are. I know the general locations because I've ridden on them every day the last three weeks, so I would slow down. Despite that I had about a half dozen "OS" moments where the bike would hit a rut hidden in the snow and try to slide out from under me. Somehow I managed to keep it upright the whole ride in.

23F this morning and the wind was light, so it was pretty warm. My shirt was drenched underneath my windbreaker by the time I arrived at the office. I suppose the next step is to go shirtless under my windbreaker, but that seems a little weird. I guess I'll just have to deal with the sweat when the temp is in the 20s.

Tomorrow will be interesting. We're supposed to get up to 6" of snow and the temp is going to plummet to well below zero. Normally I would just account for extra time for my ride to and from work. However, tomorrow I also have to take my son to some Dr appointments during the day. Sometimes the appointments get a little lengthy. So I don't know if it will be worth it to ride in to the office for less than two hours before I have to leave? And after the appointments will it make sense to ride back to the office for another couple of hours? During the summer it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but if we have 6" of unplowed snow on the ground and sub-zero temps that will probably at least double my commute time. Is it worth it to spend four hours riding back and forth to work tomorrow? Still not sure what I'm going to do. Thankfully working remote is an option, but I don't care for that as I don't find myself very productive when I'm working from home; too many distractions.
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Old 01-17-19, 09:01 AM
  #140  
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Originally Posted by wphamilton
Every year or two years, it seems like there's one new guy during the winter dark that complains about headlights to everyone coming toward him. Believes that everyone but him is doing it wrong, and takes it upon himself to educate them.
I feel your pain! There's one guy (who goes missing this time of year) who hates my front flasher and as we approach each other turns his on and when we pass says "you're flasher is on." Well yeah ya dope... why else would I have it!

33F this morning and weather people say freezing rain. I didn't see anything freezing about it, was just rain. Fine with me - it's washing away some of the snow. Mid ride I got a text from a buddy reporting that his son-in-law was pushed off his bike coming into downtown and the bike was stolen. The police came out but I know they'll never catch the *******. It's hard enough to commute this time of year, now we have to watch out for thieves. This adds to the fear mongers about MUP safety who want trails closed when it's dark. Argh...
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Old 01-17-19, 09:21 AM
  #141  
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A little above freezing and little or no wind this morning. Was set on riding only Mon/Wed/Fri during the winter months but in hindsight that just sounds lazy so going to try all the time again and quit being a wuss. That cold takes it out of me though.
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Old 01-17-19, 10:06 AM
  #142  
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Mother Nature was taunting me. I got out a bit late, started riding, and a light shower started right after I left the house. Half a mile later, I couldn't see through my glasses, so I went back home and grabbed a cycling cap to catch some of the rain.

Barely sprinkled the whole way in after that.
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Old 01-17-19, 10:43 AM
  #143  
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40F, wet. Pretty psycho car traffic today. I guess a full moon is approaching.
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Old 01-17-19, 11:16 AM
  #144  
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Amazing sunrise this morning on my way to work.
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Old 01-18-19, 08:45 AM
  #145  
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32F and pleasantly boring. The rain yesterday did a great job of washing off most of the snow and ice, just in time for another round of major snow tonight followed by below 0 temps. My office is closed Monday for MLK day and I'm glad to have an extra day for streets and trails to get cleared. Happy Friday!
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Old 01-18-19, 09:37 AM
  #146  
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The weather forecast yesterday morning said today would be partly cloudy. What they didn't mention was that "above ground" was going to be the cloudy part.

Foggy, damp, and some brief showers had me wondering why I rode home last night in similar conditions -- I could have driven the car, and been dry and warm inside. Then I remembered that days like this mean the 20 minute drive in takes at least 40 minutes of stop and go traffic. Much better to be out in it if it's going to take nearly as long driving as cycling!
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Old 01-18-19, 10:20 AM
  #147  
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Snowy. It was my first ride in snow.

Granted it was less than an inch coating. But with road tires.....well that was fun.

It's warming up to 45 my the ride home though so all should be easy going back.
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Old 01-18-19, 10:30 AM
  #148  
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Originally Posted by wphamilton
Every year or two years, it seems like there's one new guy during the winter dark that complains about headlights to everyone coming toward him...."Please get a light" since they were riding ninja...My light is aimed down 15-20 feet ahead AND pointed off to the right so there's nothing more I can do for the guy. But I'm tempted to sing out Please shut up.
If you light is properly adjusted, as you indicate it is, then the guy indeed has nothing to complain about. Likewise, you are right to let them know that they are just as annoying as the blinding light people for riding without lights.

That said, the blinding lights thing is real. It happens with motor vehicles as well, where people seem to think the only goal is to see and be seen as much as possible. They don't consider that people coming in the opposite direction need to see as well. Trucks and SUV's only exacerbate the problem with regularly adjusted lights that are mounted higher than the eyeline of some car drivers, but gas is cheap and they are big sellers, so the car makers don't seem to give a damn. I guess the same applies to helmet mounted headlights, although I've never encountered that issue personally.

Originally Posted by arsprod
There's one guy (who goes missing this time of year) who hates my front flasher and as we approach each other turns his on and when we pass says "you're flasher is on." Well yeah ya dope... why else would I have it!
Mid ride I got a text from a buddy reporting that his son-in-law was pushed off his bike coming into downtown and the bike was stolen. The police came out but I know they'll never catch the *******. It's hard enough to commute this time of year, now we have to watch out for thieves. This adds to the fear mongers about MUP safety who want trails closed when it's dark. Argh...
I don't see any issue with using a flasher, but is it pointed straight ahead and flashing like an EDM strobe light? That can be pretty annoying for other riders.

More importantly, I would hope that the cops would take that stuff seriously. If it was in a dense area, there should be plenty of security cameras around. Besides theft, which is bad enough, you could also argue that knocking someone off of a bike is an attempt to injure them, so they shouldn't just be blowing it off.
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Old 01-18-19, 10:32 AM
  #149  
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The way in today was pretty good. The rain we've had all week is finally gone and the temps were in the low 50s, so that was great. I installed my horn last night, but had to relocate my headlight as a result. Bad call. The new spot makes it point too high, so I couldn't see a thing. I ended up switching on my phone's light. I also used a stick roller on my sore legs this morning and that helped a fair bit (plus it feels great). And I only had one salty brodude in a Compensation Truck act like a jerk, which is below average, so overall a pretty good ride! And it's Friday! Looking forward to the ride home.
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Old 01-18-19, 10:35 AM
  #150  
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A bit over an inch of snow on the ground, almost enough to make me wimp out, but... eh. I left a few minutes early and it was fine. Now and then you get a snowflake direct hit in the eye, which isn't much fun, but life goes on.
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