Fall and Winter Commuter Challenge!

[indigoiis]

Today it was so frickin' cold, but I did it anyway. My face-covering (now a complicated two-part Gore/Turtle Fur combo) got completely covered in a thick layer of frost from my breath, as did my fuzzy outer gloves. ...Is winter over yet?

I get the complicated face covering thing! I use an old cut off turtleneck, a polarfleece head band (and instead of putting it over my ears and head, I put it over my nose) and a polar fleece cap with ear flaps.

Can only commute 2 days a week as the darling dotta won't go near her bike in the cold... DARN!

Using my old steel frame mountain bike with tractor-style tires.

[keepclimbing]

It's going to be in the 40s this weekend! Woohoo! A respite from the snow and ice. (Hello, potholes!)

[out_spokin']

So January was all over the place - winter thaw, winter's revenge, a vacation, a head cold, and a new foster dog...phew!!!

It was my worst month so far, but I got back on the wagon for some frigid-y but getting lighter every day commutes, and just barely got to the 66% mark...I'm counting it as hitting the goal for the 4th full month of our challenge!

Off to the weekend bike projects...

[kfergos]

Yesterday night we got more snow. Snow on snow on snow. This morning I took my usual back roads route to work, knowing there was a good chance of at least some snow remaining on the lesser-traveled roads.

Mostly it was OK; I averaged about 11 or 12 miles an hour, perhaps. The killer roads come with 3 miles of work: Tiny neighborhood roads that I swear never see a plow, are heavily shaded by dense trees, and to whom the touch of salt or sand are complete anathemas. They had a inch-thick covering of packed-down snow, which the Ice Bike website describes thus:

Heavy snow that has been traveled upon by automobiles is one of the most difficult of surfaces ICEBIKERS have to deal with.

Not only do you have the wheel diversions caused by the ruts, but also the polished smooth surface underneath where cars have spun tires trying to get going.

The best technique is to avoid this stuff, riding in the undisturbed snow at the side of the road. While a lot of work, undisturbed snow is always easier to deal with than trafficked snow.

If your balance good you can sometimes make progress following the tire track, but don't count on it for very long, and certainly don't expect to make good time. Also, there is a thin layer of highly compacted snow at the bottom of the track, that tends to squirt out from under your tire throwing you slightly left or right.

Getting through heavily trafficked snow is seldom elegant, often a lot of work, and always a nerve wracking experience, especially if there is automobile traffic nearby.

Frequently, the falls that seem inevitable from second to second can be avoided by continuing to apply power and steering as best you can. Your side slipping front wheel often bites when it hits a slightly more solid ridge, and if you can delay the fall for half a second or so you may find that you can recover. Don't be in a hurry to dab, stay on the pedals and apply power. This is a lot like riding in loose sand.

As you power through this stuff, you will have to make rather large steering corrections to compensate for impending falls. This preserves your balance. You will, however, find yourself going in a direction slightly (or not so slightly) different than you intended, and this can not always be permitted if motor traffic is in the adjacent lane.

This pretty accurately describes the conditions I rode in. I actually got off and jogged with my bike for a while and made faster progress than I did on two wheels. That warmed my feet up, at least. Part of the way while I was on my bike, as my wheels went sliding in separate directions, I suddenly realized that this was more like sledding or skiing than biking.

Total distance this morning: 13 miles
Total time this morning: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Typical for a snowy day. I'm getting really, really tired of snow.

On the bright side, somewhere on those snowy back roads I passed 10,000 miles ridden since September 2007, so all was not in vain.

[Geonz]

I got back on the wagon after that one day - especially because snow is definitely not ice. The plows had pushed the five inches out of the way.

Three weeks ago I decided I wasn't going to say "enough already!" This will be a hard winter... gonna shoulder it up. So Tuesday, when we'd gottn another inch of snow and the guy said it was 5 degrees - we were only supposed to dip into the teens, I'm pretty sure - I just did 50 jumping jacks to get blood circulating to my hands. When it went down to four and three (zero at the airport) I yelled at the radio and did more jumping jacks.

Tuesday we had also gotten another inch before I went in and I figured I'd leave early and that worked well, 'cause I was between the hourly traffic bulges and yes, the snow was pretty undisturbed. Alas, the elastics that hold stuff together that lost their elastic really lost it and wrapped themselves around my hub and broke off a chunk of chain guard. Fortunately, the jumping jacks did their thing (or it was a miracle ) because I could take my gloves off and unwrap and - another miracle - had my pocketknife handy to snippy snippy ... and my hands didn't get cold. No, they weren't frostbitten

I wore my butt completely out riding in because I was plowing through snow and there was an 18 mph headwind and based on today's effort level, I think there's still crap wrapped around the hub. It took over an hour of hard pedaling and high heart rate ... fortunately that same wind kept the ride home a fit and proper "cool down" (and the temp was a balmy 14). Fortuantely on Wednesday I go at 5 and the LBS on the way home is open 'til 6 and they love me, and fortuantely I still have enough layers so that today it was 3 but I was warm. (And fortunately when you put a million layers on you can do jumping jacks without giving yourself a black eye or having your boobs bang your knees.)

This Saturday is the "Illini Chill" ride so I really wanted to be getting in shape for it... yesterday helped Since it's supposed to be 47 (with wind and rain of course ) I'll take the folding bike...

[tulip]

It's too durn cold. I just can't do it! Normally down here we have days of cold mixed with days in the 50s during the winter. Not this year-it's solid cold (except for last weekend, and I did ride then). If I wanted to have really cold winters I would have moved north. I'm ready for spring.

[kfergos]

Geonz, you're such a stud! Stud-ette, I guess I should say. Good for you. I'd have wimped out.