2019! The “How was your commute?” thread!
#426
Senior Member
35 and pleasant. My fenders did work keeping me dry in some puddles this morning. It started to snow ever so slightly when I got to work, but it's not gonna be an issue. Also, my Cycliq died despite being at full charge when I left. Weird. I need to troubleshoot that tonight.
#427
born again cyclist
we got a hard freeze last night (down into the teens) and all of the gloppy/slushy/sleety/snowy mess on the path last night was a complete ice festival this morning.
i got to have a little schadenfreude moment. as i was chugging along on my studded-tire winter beast, another commuter on a lean and mean road bike with what looked like 18s on his wheels passed me up.
about 50 yards past me he encountered an especially bad section of rutted ice and went down. i rolled confidently up to him to ask if he was ok. he was already up and checking out his bike and said everything looked good, so i rolled on.
studded tires are slow. but they work.,
i got to have a little schadenfreude moment. as i was chugging along on my studded-tire winter beast, another commuter on a lean and mean road bike with what looked like 18s on his wheels passed me up.
about 50 yards past me he encountered an especially bad section of rutted ice and went down. i rolled confidently up to him to ask if he was ok. he was already up and checking out his bike and said everything looked good, so i rolled on.
studded tires are slow. but they work.,
#428
multimodal commuter
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A bunch of snow fell on us yesterday. I could have made it to work, but getting home would have been trouble, so I stayed home.
By this morning it had turned pretty much to slush. No black ice or anything, but there were puddles.
By this morning it had turned pretty much to slush. No black ice or anything, but there were puddles.
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#429
Senior Member
Relatable. I got sick of swapping my clear lenses for my sunglass lenses so I've just been rolling with clear, but I came in later today and was moderately annoyed by sun in my face. Bleh.
#430
Senior Member
Evening Commute 44°F, calm winds, clear - didn't bother with the gloves or changing into my cycling gear, just rode home in the office clothes. Stopped at my LBS and picked up one of those park tool cyclone chain cleaner things since I'm way over due to clean and relube my chain. I replaced the chain during the fall tune-up but winter weather and the city salting the roads for every little weather incident has taken its toll. I'm already seeing rust, so I'll need to attend to that this weekend.
#431
Let's Ride!
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Massive amounts of rain again today. This week has been terrible. The sun came out yesterday and I was debating riding today but good thing I did not. It poured and traffic was a mess. I would have been soaked plus visibility was poor. I have enjoyed my rental Jeep. the rain has washed it off for me too. a ford f 150 ran over the front of my car in a parking lot.
after a good weekend camping
Reason for the rental
Well when you have a Jeep you have to drive it in the woods!
after a good weekend camping
Reason for the rental
Well when you have a Jeep you have to drive it in the woods!
#432
Senior Member
i got to have a little schadenfreude moment. as i was chugging along on my studded-tire winter beast, another commuter on a lean and mean road bike with what looked like 18s on his wheels passed me up.
about 50 yards past me he encountered an especially bad section of rutted ice and went down. i rolled confidently up to him to ask if he was ok. he was already up and checking out his bike and said everything looked good, so i rolled on.
studded tires are slow. but they work.,
about 50 yards past me he encountered an especially bad section of rutted ice and went down. i rolled confidently up to him to ask if he was ok. he was already up and checking out his bike and said everything looked good, so i rolled on.
studded tires are slow. but they work.,
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#434
Senior Member
Got to ride home last night between rainy days. Raining again this morning, plus I had to make a run to the airport at lunch. I brought by bike in hopes to ride home this afternoon.
The airport run was to pick up my sister-in-law who is staying for a few days. I picked her up and drove her back as far as my office and then she took the car from there, leaving me with my bike. Depending on how bad the rain is I'll either bike home or someone will rescue me at 5pm.
I was approaching and hoping to hit 500 miles for February, despite the shorter month. That is not likely to happen after missing so much this week. I hear next week will be much drier.
The airport run was to pick up my sister-in-law who is staying for a few days. I picked her up and drove her back as far as my office and then she took the car from there, leaving me with my bike. Depending on how bad the rain is I'll either bike home or someone will rescue me at 5pm.
I was approaching and hoping to hit 500 miles for February, despite the shorter month. That is not likely to happen after missing so much this week. I hear next week will be much drier.
#435
Senior Member
Morning Commute: 38°F, 9 mph wind, cloudy
Evening Commute: 45°F, 6 mph wind, cloudy
Hit the grocery store on the way home and picked up the next three nights dinners. I'm thinking I need to replace my panniers. I have these: Bushwhacker Omaha - Bicycle Grocery Pannier but after a year they're starting to wear out and not holding onto the rack very well when loaded. I need something that can hold up to regularly carrying a week's worth if groceries for a family of four and I don't have anywhere to store a cargo trailer. Recommendations appreciated.
Evening Commute: 45°F, 6 mph wind, cloudy
Hit the grocery store on the way home and picked up the next three nights dinners. I'm thinking I need to replace my panniers. I have these: Bushwhacker Omaha - Bicycle Grocery Pannier but after a year they're starting to wear out and not holding onto the rack very well when loaded. I need something that can hold up to regularly carrying a week's worth if groceries for a family of four and I don't have anywhere to store a cargo trailer. Recommendations appreciated.
#436
GATC
Rode home in pelting sleet. Had a 2 hour meeting staring out the window at beautiful flakes falling from the sky, w/ deer frolicing in the woods. Then when it was time to leave, sleet the whole way.
#437
Disco Infiltrator
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Day off - last day off before my short term disability, technically. Rode the tandem with the 4yo to lunch and back. Then washed the commuter bike and put it and the tandem in the back of the garage. The Chariot too, wife doesn't use it. I suppose that's it for a few months and that's it for those bikes specifically at least until autumn. You guys in the frozen North can laugh at me for putting my bikes away now that spring is here.
In the afternoon a fellow dad was letting his kids run amok on their sidewalk bikes and mine joined them. The 5yos were much impressed with my 4yo's 16er and no training wheels, and their dad used the chance to get the two oldest to try without them. Success! And my kid is an influencer!
In the afternoon a fellow dad was letting his kids run amok on their sidewalk bikes and mine joined them. The 5yos were much impressed with my 4yo's 16er and no training wheels, and their dad used the chance to get the two oldest to try without them. Success! And my kid is an influencer!
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#438
aka Tom Reingold
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Wednesday night, I went to a monthly sight-singing party some friends have. It was in the middle of a horrific ice storm coming down. We had just had about two inches of snow. On the snow was an inch layer of slush, and the ice was forming on top of that. I hadn't ridden enough lately, and I decided it was time for an adventure. I bundled up and took a risk that I would be overdressed. I wore my ski helmet which is extra warm and my extra warm lobster claw gloves. I grabbed a Citi Bike bike. These bikes weigh 50 pounds and put the rider in an upright position, which improves traction. The tires are wide. The bikes have drum brakes, impervious to weather.
The river path was pretty empty because the conditions were so awful. My glasses were covered in rain, though my rear view mirror on my glasses was somehow unaffected. The texture of the surface covering changed often, so it required frequent adjustment to my pedaling technique. The bike slid and fishtailed quite a bit. Anticipating a fall, I imagined myself wiping out and landing on my hip and shoulder, just in case it started to happen. As luck had it, I never did fall. Rain kept falling and forming ice on everything, including the bike, my gloves, my jacket, and my glasses. But since I was overdressed, I was quite warm, and the ice didn't bother me. My average speed for the 6 mile ride was only 7 mph, but I was working pretty hard.
There were a couple of steep climbs, and the rear wheel spun out, so as the bike started to fall to the side, I jumped off and pushed it up the hill.
I got to the party, and the folks who had made it there said that even just walking on the street was treacherous. They had to walk very slowly. The folks who normally come to the party from New Jersey wisely decided not to make the trip.
That was enough adventure for the night for me, and I walked with a couple of the folks from the party to the subway. The surface was so slippery that at some points, we didn't pick our feet up while walking; instead we slid our feet along the ground.
The river path was pretty empty because the conditions were so awful. My glasses were covered in rain, though my rear view mirror on my glasses was somehow unaffected. The texture of the surface covering changed often, so it required frequent adjustment to my pedaling technique. The bike slid and fishtailed quite a bit. Anticipating a fall, I imagined myself wiping out and landing on my hip and shoulder, just in case it started to happen. As luck had it, I never did fall. Rain kept falling and forming ice on everything, including the bike, my gloves, my jacket, and my glasses. But since I was overdressed, I was quite warm, and the ice didn't bother me. My average speed for the 6 mile ride was only 7 mph, but I was working pretty hard.
There were a couple of steep climbs, and the rear wheel spun out, so as the bike started to fall to the side, I jumped off and pushed it up the hill.
I got to the party, and the folks who had made it there said that even just walking on the street was treacherous. They had to walk very slowly. The folks who normally come to the party from New Jersey wisely decided not to make the trip.
That was enough adventure for the night for me, and I walked with a couple of the folks from the party to the subway. The surface was so slippery that at some points, we didn't pick our feet up while walking; instead we slid our feet along the ground.
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Tom Reingold, tom@noglider.com
New York City and High Falls, NY
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“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.” — Elizabeth West, US author
Please email me rather than PM'ing me. Thanks.
Tom Reingold, tom@noglider.com
New York City and High Falls, NY
Blogs: The Experienced Cyclist; noglider's ride blog
“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.” — Elizabeth West, US author
Please email me rather than PM'ing me. Thanks.
#439
Senior Member
Day off - last day off before my short term disability, technically. Rode the tandem with the 4yo to lunch and back. Then washed the commuter bike and put it and the tandem in the back of the garage. The Chariot too, wife doesn't use it. I suppose that's it for a few months and that's it for those bikes specifically at least until autumn. You guys in the frozen North can laugh at me for putting my bikes away now that spring is here.
In the afternoon a fellow dad was letting his kids run amok on their sidewalk bikes and mine joined them. The 5yos were much impressed with my 4yo's 16er and no training wheels, and their dad used the chance to get the two oldest to try without them. Success! And my kid is an influencer!
In the afternoon a fellow dad was letting his kids run amok on their sidewalk bikes and mine joined them. The 5yos were much impressed with my 4yo's 16er and no training wheels, and their dad used the chance to get the two oldest to try without them. Success! And my kid is an influencer!
#440
Senior Member
Sunshine! We haven't seen clear skies for about 10 days I think. I left home at about 6:10am and was surprised to see dawn breaking that early. All the cloudy mornings have kept it dark until after 7am. The temp said 30F when I woke up, but it felt warmer than that except for the short downhill where the wind was pretty cold.
I went to the gym for a bit before work. Then saw a friend arriving at his office and stopped to say hello. It was quite nice out and I could have kept riding all morning.
I went to the gym for a bit before work. Then saw a friend arriving at his office and stopped to say hello. It was quite nice out and I could have kept riding all morning.
#441
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Like mgw4jc said, Sunshine! I got a new pair of prescription cycling sunglasses a week ago Friday, and on the days when I could ride, it was too dark for them -- until yesterday! Unsolicited plug: very nice job by SportRx.
No flooding on my route, although there's a couple roads within a few miles that are closed. Even though most of the creeks are down substantially from Friday night and Saturday morning, there's more than a few wet spots on the road; the ditches are still full, so water coming down to the road flows out of the storm drains to the ditches and into the road. Chilly compared to last week, and there's still a north wind blowing from the front that blew through Friday night, but that was a tailwind this morning.
And a couple pairs of bluebirds made it north to the field across from my office this morning!
No flooding on my route, although there's a couple roads within a few miles that are closed. Even though most of the creeks are down substantially from Friday night and Saturday morning, there's more than a few wet spots on the road; the ditches are still full, so water coming down to the road flows out of the storm drains to the ditches and into the road. Chilly compared to last week, and there's still a north wind blowing from the front that blew through Friday night, but that was a tailwind this morning.
And a couple pairs of bluebirds made it north to the field across from my office this morning!
#443
Senior Member
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I'm stupidly going to go out an a limb here and say we're done with snow for the season. It was just below freezing this AM, but sunny, which was nice. My bike could use some spring cleaning, which always reminds me of this Calvin and Hobbes comic:
https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1993/04/10
https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1993/04/10
#444
Senior Member
Morning Commute 27°F, 9 mph wind, sunny.
Evening Commute 41°F, 2 mph wind, clear
nothing really notable, although I did manage to clean and relube the chain yesterday so it did make my ride easier, much less annoying squeaks.
Evening Commute 41°F, 2 mph wind, clear
nothing really notable, although I did manage to clean and relube the chain yesterday so it did make my ride easier, much less annoying squeaks.
#445
Let's Ride!
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Sunshine! We haven't seen clear skies for about 10 days I think. I left home at about 6:10am and was surprised to see dawn breaking that early. All the cloudy mornings have kept it dark until after 7am. The temp said 30F when I woke up, but it felt warmer than that except for the short downhill where the wind was pretty cold. I went to the gym for a bit before work. Then saw a friend arriving at his office and stopped to say hello. It was quite nice out and I could have kept riding all morning.
had a coworker ask me why I rode when I have a rental car..
#446
The Fat Guy In The Back
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Today was my first ride to work in a week (my first time going to work in a week, for that matter) because I wound up in the hospital for six days due to a heart infection. I'm out and feeling better than I was prior to going in. I'm going to be on IV antibiotics for 4-6 weeks. My cardiologist has informed me that I've taken my original defective heart valve as far as it's going to go, so they will schedule the replacement once the infection is resolved.
When they were releasing me from the hospital and I was talking to the Dr. about my timeline to go back to work, I explained to him how I'm a full-time bicycle commuter and asked if I could resume riding to work at the same time. He was emphatic that I should continue to keep doing what I've been doing, as outside of the infection and the valve he says my heart was in better shape than any other cardiac patient he has. He said the best thing I can do for my heart is to keep riding. So, this morning as I was planning on going back to work I just made my usual plans to ride.
Turns out it was a challenging morning waiting for me. -3F with a 15 mph wind making for a -18F wind chill. The worst part, though, was that the MUP hadn't been plowed from the snows over the weekend. Had I known this I would have taken a different route to work, but by the time I discovered it I was pretty much committed to this route. I originally was supposed to go to our office 8 miles from home, but I quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. I didn't have it in me physically, and I was moving so slow through the unplowed snow that I would have been pathetically late. So I made the decision to rearrange my work day and head to a client's office instead that was about 4.5 miles from home.
The temps had made the snow rock hard, so there was no plowing through it. I wound up carrying my 50 lbs bike for at least 1/4 of the way to the clients office. It took almost an hour to get there, and my heart rate was pegged the entire time. I'm wearing a heart monitor so I had to write an entry in the diary explaining the reason for my abnormally high pulse during this time. It really wasn't much fun this morning. Hopefully they get the MUP plowed for the ride home. If not, I'm going to backtrack and ride the streets home even though it is a much longer route and has a ton more hills.
When they were releasing me from the hospital and I was talking to the Dr. about my timeline to go back to work, I explained to him how I'm a full-time bicycle commuter and asked if I could resume riding to work at the same time. He was emphatic that I should continue to keep doing what I've been doing, as outside of the infection and the valve he says my heart was in better shape than any other cardiac patient he has. He said the best thing I can do for my heart is to keep riding. So, this morning as I was planning on going back to work I just made my usual plans to ride.
Turns out it was a challenging morning waiting for me. -3F with a 15 mph wind making for a -18F wind chill. The worst part, though, was that the MUP hadn't been plowed from the snows over the weekend. Had I known this I would have taken a different route to work, but by the time I discovered it I was pretty much committed to this route. I originally was supposed to go to our office 8 miles from home, but I quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. I didn't have it in me physically, and I was moving so slow through the unplowed snow that I would have been pathetically late. So I made the decision to rearrange my work day and head to a client's office instead that was about 4.5 miles from home.
The temps had made the snow rock hard, so there was no plowing through it. I wound up carrying my 50 lbs bike for at least 1/4 of the way to the clients office. It took almost an hour to get there, and my heart rate was pegged the entire time. I'm wearing a heart monitor so I had to write an entry in the diary explaining the reason for my abnormally high pulse during this time. It really wasn't much fun this morning. Hopefully they get the MUP plowed for the ride home. If not, I'm going to backtrack and ride the streets home even though it is a much longer route and has a ton more hills.
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#448
Senior Member
Although it was almost 60F yesterday afternoon, the wind made it feel colder. I didn't wear gloves and my hands were pretty chilled at the end.
Nice ride in this morning. Cool but not cold. 13 miles.
Nice ride in this morning. Cool but not cold. 13 miles.
#449
aka Tom Reingold
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Gee, @Tundra_Man, I'm really sorry to read that. What defect do you have?
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Tom Reingold, tom@noglider.com
New York City and High Falls, NY
Blogs: The Experienced Cyclist; noglider's ride blog
“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.” — Elizabeth West, US author
Please email me rather than PM'ing me. Thanks.
Tom Reingold, tom@noglider.com
New York City and High Falls, NY
Blogs: The Experienced Cyclist; noglider's ride blog
“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.” — Elizabeth West, US author
Please email me rather than PM'ing me. Thanks.
#450
Senior Member
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Some more sunshine, but the clouds are moving back in. One through road still flooded near my office, will the creek recede before the next round of rain hits?
Got luck this morning, a train came through and blocked traffic for me at the three intersections where it could. Love it when there is NO oncoming traffic to watch for!
According to the thermometer, it was in the 40s on the ride in. I felt cooler with the jacket this morning than I did yesterday without.
Got luck this morning, a train came through and blocked traffic for me at the three intersections where it could. Love it when there is NO oncoming traffic to watch for!
According to the thermometer, it was in the 40s on the ride in. I felt cooler with the jacket this morning than I did yesterday without.