We are finally starting to get some more favorable conditions for road biking.  The roads are completely dry except for a couple puddles in the park.  I took the fixed-gear bike today and didn’t miss having fenders.  No road salt anywhere, either, which I’m going to enjoy while it lasts.  According to NWS, it was 31 when I left and 34 when I arrived at work.  I took the bike down Bonnie Branch Rd and through the park.  Usually when I go this way, I go straight out Montgomery Rd to Bonnie Branch.  As part of that, I need to go through the traffic light at Montgomery and Ilchester Rds., which can be a pain on the fixed-gear because it’s in the middle of an uphill climb.  Anyone who’s ever ridden fixed will tell you that it’s a pain starting uphill from a dead stop, particularly when you’re sandwiched between a bunch of impatient drivers.  So today, instead of approaching this intersection on Montgomery Rd, I detoured onto Kerger Rd, turned left onto Ilchester and made a right turn back onto Montgomery.  The traffic is actually worse this way, because it piles up quite a bit at the light, but the road is flat here so it’s a little easier to start and stop my way through it.  I’m still not sure which way is the lesser of the two evils.  I should probably avoid the intersection altogether and take Beechwood Rd to Bonnie Branch.  Beechwood is a pretty steep downhill that makes for quite the spinning extravaganza on a fixed-gear with a 42/18 ratio.

Clothing: shoe covers, toe warmers, thermal jogging tights, bike shorts, short sleeve shirt, light long sleeve cycling jersey, arm warmers, windbreaker, mid weight cycling gloves, head band, helmet liner.  This seems like a pretty good getup for low 30s.  I could probably even lose the arm warmers after the ride warms up a bit.

I still want to get a set of clip-on fenders for the fixed-gear so I can take it out in wetter conditions.  It’s amazing how much kruft gets on the downtube just by riding through a single puddle at 5mph.  The idea behind the clip-ons is that they’ll be quick to put on and take off as needed, unlike the full fenders on the road bike, which are attached with a huge rube-goldberg confection of bolts, zip ties and electrical tape.