rumrunn6

good or bad?

I can't tease myself w/ thoughts of Spring so I'm resigned to accept winter now & any foreseeable future. so, not bad, but not necessarily good

Hypno Toad

Spring will arrive ... in about 10 years

I know you know, I'm into winter, but gotta say with COVID-World, I want get outdoors with out looking like this:

MinnMan

6 weeks astronomically. But "spring" may not come to Minnesota until much later. We've had sub zero temperatures in April.

But I am enjoying the greater amount of daylight.

rumrunn6

Friday expecting a day of freezing rain, sleet & "glaze" temps around 34F then drops into the 20s Friday nite into Saturday oh boy

MNBikeCommuter

I'm ready to move on just from the bike maintenance and clothing logistics aspects. We have a high of 2F for today but the wind is fortunately pretty light. A couple of days ago with a balmy 15F, it was gusting to 40 mph out of the wnw. Nine miles out, I decided I'd had enough and turned around. No snow or freezing rain in the forecast though so roads remain pretty good for February.

MinnMan

Yes, this is nice. I'm planning some rides this weekend on the bike without studded tires.

MinnMan

We have -9°F this morning. Blue skies though.

rumrunn6

sympathies! 40F here today! watching my neighbors' roofs' gutter ice dams as their roof snow melts & goes who-knows-where

djb

6 weeks or a bit more, it reminds me I need to move my arse and dig out my touring bike and give it a good once over, open up the bb and regrease everything, and then change out my cowbell dropbars for some slightly wider ones that I bought used.
Then put those bars onto my road bike to have a slight flareout (which I like) instead of the regular drop bars on it.
and then do an overhaul on my wifes bike too
and then hopefully if I get all this done, it'll be time to tear down ye ol winter bike and regrease stuff that gets all mucked up during winter riding.

rumrunn6

oh boy sorry I mentioned it

djb

I'll probably only do part of that.... But that's ok. Life has just been busy this winter.

I like winter and have fun doing outdoor stuff, but it is nice too to think that we are half way through.

parkbrav

Yep, we currently have about 10 hours of daylight here in the northeast. Since the birds like 10 hours of daylight minimum, it may be just a matter of time until the birds start returning. I mean the Canadian Goose and the wild turkey

parkbrav

Gotta "love" those ice/sleet/slush storms, RR. And we're getting at least one more on Monday, possibly another on Tuesday.

But these rest of the week will be in the 40s and Wednesday will be sunny

rumrunn6

the re-freeze overnight adds to the fun walking in the morning! eek!

rumrunn6

gonna need sun tan lotion on Saturday

MNBikeCommuter

Uh, not really:

Hourly Forecast for Tomorrow, Saturday 02/12Intervals of clouds and sunshine. High 6F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.

rumrunn6

awww shucks. oh well, don't know where my beach stuff is anyway. thank you

djb

umbrella here, then ice skates.
No studs on the fatbike, so might be sketchy Sunday.

MinnMan

Yeah, we've got a tough weekend ahead. It snowed/rained overnight Thursday/Friday, with temperatures in the high 30s this morning. Now it's getting cold (15°F or so) and so we have serious refreeze. And tomorrow and Sunday mornings it will be cold, maybe -5*F or so.

My local side streets could be skating rinks. I **Seldom** take a full weekend off from outdoor riding, but this looks like it will be an exception.

Extra Zwift time, I think.

rumrunn6

if it's cold & fluffy like here, it should be no problem

djb

We won't be getting snow, on the weekend, just warm and rain then the big freeze again. Even biking today I was really glad of studded tires.

parkbrav

I'm hearing about the lower temperatures up north. We are getting re-freeze and water ponding over ice.

I can report that I see several flocks of Canada goose flying in from the south. But I have no wild turkey sightings at the moment.

And I see the Magnolia, American Elm and Maple (?) trees advancing in their leaf-sprouting cycles. But no actual leaves to report at this point.

Hypno Toad

I was out on Thursday with the dusting of fresh snow on the ice (I was on my Dillingers) .... I lost count on the number of 'snow angles' (AKA wrecks) along the trails, and a couple looked like they would've really hurt! Funny part, riding on the groomed trails on the frozen lakes was the best/safest "trail" surface.

I was happy to ride Zwift over the weekend too!

MNBikeCommuter

Thursday I managed to get out before most of the snow hit, which happened four miles from home. The first mile was biking in a snow globe, and then the wind and sleet kicked in for the final push (into it) home. Friday was a good day to take off to let the roads recover. Saturday I managed the two miles of iffy streets to get to a county road with good shoulders. (Light traffic but I wouldn't have done it during rush hour.) 20 miles was it though given the 3F. Yesterday, Plan A got aborted a couple of miles into it because of crappy roads, Plan B got aborted, and I ended up doing laps on a 3 mile loop of fairly decent county road shoulders. I managed to lay down seven tracks in the snow, hoping someone would see it and "be impressed so many cyclists were out."

And then we get another inch overnight messing up what road recovery there was over the weekend. Yeah, I'm ready for spring.

Hypno Toad

My road bike is ready for pickup at the LBS (Grand Performance) ... all I need are dry roads ... the long wait for spring!