Awesome commute - despite some cold, drizzle, head wind and darkness. Today's ride started dry and was the maiden voyage for using a pannier and my new B&M Ixon IQ headlight.

Portland has had some serious rain the past week, and on and off showers. The leaves are so pretty to look at, not so great to ride through. Several sections I had to signal and ride outside the bike lane area, no issues with the drivers.

To work, dry and felt really good, climbing my 7 miles out of downtown toward work (350+ feet of constant uphill), love the new 170mm cranks, just feel like I can find that good RPM and pace. (Swapped out the 175mm stock cranks a bit ago). Except for the really slow points, the single sided pannier was not noticeable and my back loved not having my stuff on it for 15 miles.

Just before I left work for the ride home, there were several downpours and I was questioning whether riding to work was a smart thing. Then, as if someone was going easy on me, it all let up and there were actually some breaks in the clouds. It was getting dark, though, leaving at about 4:30pm. I knew I would be in dark soon.

The 7 mile back down Barbur toward Portland was nice, though I probably rode slower because the shoulder has some random dips, leaves and other junk. Again, drivers were pretty cool when I signaled to move left into the traffic lane in order to avoid the piles of wet leaves.

The B&M Ixon IQ was great - not only was I seen, but I could actually see the road, a good thing with it being wet, strewn with leaves and all. Just needs a bit of tilt adjustment, but a great light.

The best thing was I had several sections where I hit that amazing rhythm of speed, pedaling and not feeling like I was exerting a lot of energy. Brought back some great memories of when I rode a lot some 15 years earlier. Cycling nirvana for sure.