vredstein

Tonight was the first genuinely comfortable ride home I've had since late May.

For the past four months, all my ride to and from work have warm, at or above body temperature. This was the hottest summer on record. Keep in mind, we're talking about the hottest summer on record for Tucson, Arizona, not Rockester, NY or Wyoming.
Most times, I'm heading off to work at 9:30 a.m. and heading home around 7 p.m. My bike computer keeps track of and temperature. During most of the summer, I'd head out and note the temp reading, watching it steadily climb during the 1/2 hour ride to work. One late June day, I remember it reading 116 as I arrived at work. I don't sweat much during the ride, but once I stop moving and park my bike, my pores open up. I can then look forward to spending the next 8 or 9 hours covered in a layer of my own funk.

There's something disheartening about spending four months in a constant state of dehydration. You can drink all you want, but when the temps are that high, your body can't radiate it's heat outward. It's the environmental heat that raises the body temp further. Hydration is a losing battle at best.
In cold conditions, you can cover up to conserve heat. You can ride faster, put out more energy to generate more heat. But during desert summers, ultimately you can only get naked. Not practical, much less enough to even things out.
But tonight, the temps were in the mid 80's. Riding through the air actually cooled me off, a sensation I hadn't experienced for well over 100 days.

During October, it will only improve. The cooling down in October seems more satisfying than the warming up in March. When you come out of the bitter cold and into the heat, it's experienced as a gradual lessening of the suffering. Once you hit the heat, you aren't immediately warm. The warming process is actually kind of painful, pain you go through to get to a certain specific endpoint of comfort.
But when you come out of the heat and get cooled, the satisfaction is immediate. The very first instant of cooling puts you in a state of ease through and through. The process of cooling is savored.

And October is a full 31 days of this satisfyingly steady cooling process being repeated. Here's to a long, cold winter.

Stay cool,

Zrane

Amen. I was so incredibly happy when the heat dome over Oklahoma and Texas broke. 90 degrees at 7AM is just obscene.

Ratchet

The two of you, and several other year-round-commuters in the south and southwest are convincing me more and more that this state sucks as far as weather goes. It has been a cold, rainy september; temps in the 40s-50s most days when I am riding, 13/15 of the last rides were raining and windy. I even told my husband that someday I want to be a snowbird. I'll take your chilly winters over -20 F winters anytime.
Enjoy your cool, I'll be here crabbing, because October is sure to be even wetter and colder. I don't mind dry cold so much, but when it's wet... yuck.

MK313

Absolutely love October & November for commuting. Unfortunately for Ohioans, next comes December, January & February (and this past year March).

idc

It's already getting too cold for me even here but then I'm originally from Australia.

Steely Dan

i absolutely LOVE temps in the 50s for commuting. i'd say 50-55 degrees is my perfect zone for riding. wam enough to not be cold, yet cool enough to not be a complete sweaty mess by the time i get to work.

october pretty much rules!

EdgewaterDude

Hear, hear!

As another Chicagoan who is enjoying these temps, I've got to say that it's nice when humidity is around 30%. I don't sweat nearly as much, and if I do, it's dry enough outside that it will soon evaporate.

Though, that means I'll soon be scouting out deals on balaclavas and lobster claw gloves.

wolfchild

Fall has always been my favorite time of the year. Not just for cycling but for all other outdoor activities.

Andy_K 

Yeah, October weather is awesome.

vredstein

Being a snowbird is the way to do it in Tucson. October through mid-May is fine. But keep in mind, June through September is, well, see my original post. Claims of perfect "year round cycling" are highly misleading, because you hear them most often during times when the rest of the country is in the grip of winter.

Mult47

I usually change into biking shorts & a t-shirt for my ride home because I hate sweating like a dog in street clothes. Yesterday, I just rolled up the cuffs of my shirt, clipped my right pants leg & took off. Hardly broke a sweat & enjoyed the ride immensely.

Sixty Fiver

I was born in October and fall really is my favourite season... part of it must stem from knowing that it could snow any day and one really appreciates every sunny day you get.

The mornings are crisp and with the temperature hovering around freezing it is too cold for my daughters to ride to school but by the afternoon they wish they had their bicycles as the it is once again shorts weather. Our evenings are also quite pleasant as one can stay out quite late before you need to throw on a sweater or a jacket.

It has been unusually warm through September and this is when we saw our hottest temperatures of the summer and hope October brings us more sunny days... winter can wait a little longer.

I guess it is also nice to be as warm as you want to be... could not handle southern temperatures and will keep our winter and cold thank you very much.

mgw189

We had almost 17" of rain here in Upstate NY (Binghamton Area) in Sept most of it falling since Sept 10th.

Easy Peasy

Nice cool day in the 50s. No sweat at all after riding! Just wish it would dry out.

tarwheel 

I'm digging the fall weather too. Our summers are not nearly as hot in NC, but much more humid. We had 3 solid months of weather when the highs were 90-100+ nearly every day, but the hot spell finally broke here in mid-August. The past month has been close to long-term averages, but it felt cool compared to the rest of summer, and we also have had a ton of rain lately. My mileage was way off in September due to all of the rain.

no motor?

I'm loving it too. My convertible pants are great this time of year when they temperature changes enough during the day to go back and forth from shorts, and the crowds on the MUP have already dropped off.