The Fat Guy In The Back
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Sioux Falls, SD
Posts: 2,532
Bikes: '81 Panasonic Sport, '02 Giant Boulder SE, '08 Felt S32, '10 Diamondback Insight RS, '10 Windsor Clockwork, '15 Kestrel Evoke 3.0, '19 Salsa Mukluk
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Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1107:
Forgot to mention yesterday that when I arrived at the office and was juggling things around to take my temperature, I dropped my helmet. The flashlight I keep zip-tied to the top snapped off. Thankfully the light still worked, so later that evening when I got home I zip tied it again. It's mainly my back up light in case the battery on my main headlight dies in the middle of a ride, so thankfully I didn't need it on the way home.
Today's commute was extremely slow. We had about 1" of wet, heavy snow yesterday with temps hovering just above freezing (unusually balmy for January in South Dakota). There wasn't enough snow to run the plows, and during the night the temp dropped below freezing which meant this morning everything was an icy rutted mess. Any tire track or footprint turned into a frozen lump that I had to ride over. The open areas where the snow had melted yesterday were now glassy smooth with ice.
I probably should have taken my other winter bike with studded tires, but by the time I realized that fact I was more than a mile down the road and I wasn't in the mood to go back and swap bikes. It probably would have been a wash anyway, as the studded tires handle the sheet ice better but the fat bike handles the rough frozen surfaces better. I rode really slow to be cautious. I felt my tires slip out from me dozens of times, but thankfully never enough to take me down.
The MUP was in a lot worse shape than the roads. I had three miles on the roads, and five miles on the MUP. Averaged about 7 mph overall, which means it took more than an hour to get to the office, and that was with a tailwind.