Riding in the New Year: January 2018 Rides

[Crankin]

My first ride last year was on Wed., Jan. 4th. That sure didin't happen today!

[emily_in_nc]

My first ride last year was on Wed., Jan. 4th. That sure didin't happen today!

LOL -- I looked mine up too when I read your post. Last year it was warm here, and we rode Jan 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6th! Still hoping to ride this Sunday or worst case Monday. It's been seriously chilly and sooooo windy in central Florida. We have walked, but just can't face the wind on the bikes.

[ny biker]

Someone I work with went out for a bike ride last night. Temps were in the high 20s. He had hoped to ride on Jan 1 but it was about 20 degrees and he "didn't have enough clothes."

So we got 0.5 inches of snow. All the schools are closed. East of DC they got a few inches, with higher accumulations near the ocean. The combination of 0.5 inches of snow on my car and a cold wind did not make me happy but I had no trouble getting to work. The highways around here are clear, so I just need to be prepared for icy spots on neighborhood roads when I go home tonight. And the condo association did nothing to clear our parking lot so I will expect that to be icy until Monday when we finally expect temps to rise above freezing. Things might melt a bit when the sun comes out tomorrow but any puddles or slush will freeze up at night.

Meanwhile, local news in NY report 16" in my home town with heavy bands of snow still passing over the area. I'm still waiting to hear from family there. I also heard about 30 foot ocean swells off the NJ coast. And wtf in Boston -- motorists being rescued by boats due to flooding. Those must be some cold flood waters.

It is very windy today. I think it is expected to stay that way through Saturday. I completely agree with you Emily -- even if the temperature was higher I would not be planning a bike ride with these winds.

On the other hand, I have a couple of gift cards for the LBS so I might head there this weekend. I have one helmet that I use for daytime rides and another that I attached small lights to for use at night. After my last night ride I dropped that helmet. It only fell a few feet onto the pavement so it might be okay, but I had been thinking about replacing it anyway with a MIPS helmet. So this seems like a good time to go helmet shopping.

[Crankin]

There is flooding in the usual coastal spots, Scituate, Newburyport, Plum Island, the Cape and pretty much the whole south coast. However, we now have the ocean overflowing the Seaport District in Boston (a first) and several rivers, too, that are close to the coast. Also, one of the T stations is flooded, by the Aquarium.The snow is still going here in the NW suburbs, but winding down. We have at least a foot, probably 15 inches. It's powder, here, though. DH is outside, for a first pass at cleaning off our cars, so it doesn't freeze up. He just has nothing to do now that he doesn't have to snow blow and shovel! The guys who plow and shovel our little condo street have been by a few times.
I wasn't here for the Blizzard of 78, so I guess we are lucky that the storm is moving right out and up the coast. Apparently it got so bad in 78 because it was the same type of storm, which got "stuck" and stayed around for 48 hours. I was here for the No-name storm (A Perfect Storm) which demolished most of the coast, with just rain. It was bad out here, but my DH took my kids out to trick or treat. This is just one reason why I would never live within 10 miles of the ocean.

[north woods gal]

Single digits for highs, these last few days, but, yup, still riding. Really, though, it's not too bad, since I can bail out and be back inside in minutes. Be a lot more serious an issue if I was 15 or even 10 miles out and started have problems with the cold, or worse, a breakdown. I'll wait for more reasonable temps before I head out farther down the road.

I'm usually good for about 45 minutes to an hour in these temps, just fat biking around our trails and neighborhood roads, but it's still a good workout and it is every day. It's basically just enough to keep me in good bicycle shape, anyway, without having to resort to the indoor trainer. (Uugh!)

We've been in something of snow drouth these last couple weeks. What snow we have is getting thin, old and crusty, so the XC ski and, especially the snowmobilers, are crying the blues. The fat bikes actually like the hard packed, crusty stuff, though. Fly right along ... no waxing needed ... dirt's as good as snow ... even ice, no problem ... great winter riding machines, these fat bikes.

[ny biker]

My parents are only a couple of miles from the LI Sound but they are on a hill. I never met my grandfather, who had the house built when my father was 12, but he was in the merchant marine as a young man so I suspect he considered flood risk when he chose to live on higher ground. As it turns out, they only got 8" of snow with this storm (the reports of 16" were for a town in New Jersey with the same name as my hometown) but there was some flooding near the sound. The main risk for our family during floods is that it's not possible to go anywhere until the water recedes, and if things are really bad there would be no help from the fire or police department in an emergency.

Around here we're now just waiting for the cold air and wind to go back where they belong. It might actually warm up enough for a night ride later in the week, but the roads right now are white with salt, so regardless of air temp I will need a good cleansing rain before I can do much riding outside. All that salt is bad for the asthma. If we don't get rain, maybe next weekend I'll be able to take the mountain bike out, maybe on the C&O canal towpath.

So, today instead of a bike ride I did the next best thing and went to the LBS. I ordered this helmet in white...

https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/e...olorCode=black

...and used a gift card from Christmas to help pay for it. I was able to try it on in the store but they didn't have the color I wanted in stock there. It seemed pretty comfortable and I like that it comes with a removable visor.

[Crankin]

Why is the weather not cooperating? I am glad we will have some normal weather in the 30s for a few days, but Friday we leave for Franconia, NH for the long weekend and x-country skiing. It will be 36 and raining, even up there. Saturday, even worse, 27 and freezing drizzle. With a 2 foot base of snow, Saturday might be salvageable with good grooming, but with the freezing rain, ugh. It will be close 60 here on Friday, but pouring out, so, even if I was at home, I couldn't ride.