Messy Ride

[goride]

I know many of you ride/commute by bike all winter long, and I am inspired by your bravery. Even though we have had a relatively mild winter with little snow, yesterday was only my second outdoor ride this year. It was way outside of my comfort zone. I did manage 25 miles on my hybrid on a paved trail, mostly wet with large puddles, but miles 5-7, and the same miles on the reverse were slush, ice and snow covered (almost lost my courage on the return, knowing the conditions over the next 2 miles). I never had to get off the bike to navigate it, though, so the ride was a confidence builder . The winds were around 20 mph, with some pretty strong cross-winds, so I was glad to be on my heavier bike. When I got home, the bike looked absolutely terrible, and we have our outdoor water turned off and pipes drained to prevent freezing. The whole bike looked like picture 1 below, so it definitely needed more than a wipe-down. Picture 2 was my solution. Then I had to scrub the tub .