It was right around freezing when I left work.  Wore the same clothes as the morning, minus the PolarTec top and plus arm warmers.  This was pretty comfortable.  The helmet liner by itself (no ear band) is enough to keep my head warm down to at least freezing, it seems.  Might see if I can go a little colder without the ear band.

I extended tonight’s ride to around 12 miles by riding a loop through Patapsco State Park (Glen Artney Rd to Grist Mill Trail to Swinging Bridge to River Rd).  Providing the trail is in good shape, this is a lot of fun after dark.  It’s quite the thing if you enjoy the feeling of solitude.  Quiet, dark, no one around and no lights except the bike headlight.  If I’m going to do this ride, I always try to ride it in the morning first to check the condition of the trail, so I know what to expect after dark.

The repair I made to my cheap rear blinker failed today.  The blinker fell off the bike twice, and the second time it pretty much fell apart.  I stopped and messed with it on the trail for a few minutes, but wasn’t able to get it to stay together.  Turns out one of the tabs that holds it together broke off.  Moral of the story: Don’t buy cheap blinkers.  And always carry at least 2 when riding after dark.  I still had my rack-mounted Planet Bike taillight, so I was good to go.

Tomorrow is my last ride before my long Christmas break, and there’s a big snowstorm predicted for the weekend.  If I can get moving early enough, I’m going to try to sneak in a longer ride in the morning, because it might be awhile before my next ride.  Will I be desperate enough to resort to the trainer?  Time will tell..  🙂

24 degrees at the start of the ride this morning, sunny with a 7mph west wind.  I took a 12 mile ride in.  Shoe covers, toe warmers, hiking socks, thermal jogging tights, bike shorts, short sleeve athletic shirt, long sleeve light cycling jersey, PolarTec pullover, windbreaker, medium weight cycling gloves, head band, helmet liner.  Feet didn’t get cold till the very end of the ride, but otherwise I was too warm, and got to work overheated and sweaty.  I need to lose at least one of the layers.  Short sleeve bottom layer maybe?  Rode the fixed again and will probably close out the week with this bike.

Last night’s ride was 34 with similar conditions, and I wore the same clothes minus the PolarTec.  It was an uneventful ride.

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.

Only 3 degrees difference between this morning’s ride temperature and this evening’s (49 vs 46) but that’s where the similarities end.  Cold front came through during the day, flipped the wind around to the northwest, and dropped the humidity a bit.  The result was a more comfortable ride home.  I wore the same clothes as the morning.

Road conditions are finally starting to improve a bit.  Things were considerably drier than this morning, with the exception of a few pesky washed-out areas in the park.

My rear derailleur started doing “surprise” shifts this morning and it was a lot worse at the beginning of this ride, until I fiddled with the cable tension doodad.  I guess these new cables are still breaking in after a couple of months.  In any case, I’m switching to the fixed-gear for the rest of the week.  The fixie is really starting to grow on me, with its smooth-riding, low maintenance steel frame and no tempermental derailleurs to worry about.

I was all set to get an early start on today’s ride when the equipment gremlins struck.  First, the cheap plastic clip broke off the back of one of my rear blinkers.  Two blinkers are a must during the dark days of December, so I fashioned a new clip out of metal pipe strapping.  It’ll probably last longer than the old one.  Not sure what I’d do without pipe strapping, zip ties and duct tape in the toolbox.  But unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of my troubles.  For some reason, my rear fender, after over a year of trouble-free operation, decided to start acting up today.  I noticed it occasionally hitting the tire during yesterday’s ride, so I figured, no problem, I probably just need to tweak one of the struts.  No such luck.  I ended up having to fiddle with it for 15 minutes to get it to stop rubbing.  I had to bend both of the struts at about a 10 degree angle just to get it aligned with the tire.  The wheel is straight and true, so I’m not sure what’s up with the fender.  When I get the chance, I’ll pull it off, straighten the struts, and carefully remount it.  Today I just wanted to get it to stop rubbing so I could leave on my ride.

Today’s conditions were almost identical to last night’s, except for it being light out.  The roads are still icky and wet with lots of standing water and gunk that sticks to the tires.  Definitely not ideal biking conditions.  I’d almost rather it be raining..  at least the rain would rinse the crap off the bike.  Weather was overcast and a very clammy 46 that felt more like 40.  Wore toe covers, hiking socks, leg warmers, cycling shorts, short sleeve athletic tee, light long sleeve cycling jersey, hi-vis windbreaker, light gloves, and head band.  The ride was about as comfortable as one would expect given the dampness.  Cold front is supposed to come through today, which will hopefully start to dry things out.

Kind of a double whammy of dark descending on us this week.  Not only are we into the shortest days of the year at one week removed from Winter Solstice, there’s also a new moon on Wednesday.  So this week’s evening rides are going to be…  dark, particularly in the park and on poorly-lighted Lawyers Hill Rd, towards the end of my ride.

Other than the utter blackness, tonight’s ride was uneventful.  The temperature was a not-quite-balmy 46, and I wore the same stuff as the morning, minus the rain pants and shoe covers.  My tires behaved much better after I wiped them down.  Road conditions were so-so.  Mostly dry but still some washed out areas, but still a lot of road grit and debris everywhere.

Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer with more fog in the morning.  The rest of the week looks dry.  I will probably take the road bike again tomorrow and then switch to the fixed-gear for the rest of the week.

Note to self:  after oiling bike, remember to wipe off excess and make sure it doesn’t get on tires.  I somehow managed to get to work without falling down, but boy was that some white-knuckled, slick-track excitement this morning.  Didn’t help that the roads were wet and oily (especially in Catonsville) too.  I survived by staying in the saddle for 90% of the ride and spinning up the hills in low gear.  Would have been a real drag if this had been the fixed-gear bike.

Rode into Ellicott City via New Cut Rd, then up Oella and Westchester Ave, and through Catonsville via Rockwell and Edmondson Ave.  Around 13 miles at a rather deliberate average pace of 14.3mph.  NWS says it’s only 34 degrees, but it felt warmer.  Mostly sun and some clouds, with fog around the river.  I wore a short sleeve athletic shirt, long sleeve Under Armour top, cycling shorts, leg warmers, rain pants, wool socks, toe warmers, shoe covers, light gloves, REI helmet liner, and hi-vis windbreaker.  Felt comfortable the whole way, and probably could have done without the rain pants, as they ended up with just a tiny bit of spray on them.  It had been about 16 hours since it rained.

I’ll be thoroughly wiping off my tires before the ride home tonight!

Friday evening ride: 33, clear and breezy.  Same clothes as the morning ride.  Quick 8 mile ride home.

Today I spent a couple hours cleaning Thursday’s muck off the road bike, degreasing stuff, etc. so it’ll be ready for the coming week.  Will likely need it at least tomorrow because I’m expecting the roads to be wet.  Love the master link on my new chain…  I don’t need a chain tool to take the chain off the bike any more.  Made the job go faster.

This year, I’ve started keeping several changes of clothes at the office, so I don’t have to carry clothes on the bike every day.  I am really happy with how this is working out.  Sometimes, I’ll shoot over to the office over the weekend to drop the clothes off while I’m running other errands.  Other times I’ll designate one day a “cargo hauling” day, strap on a backpack and extra pannier, and carry everything on the bike.  It all depends on the weather, how much extra gear I’m bringing (cold weather usually means more cycling gear), etc.

Looking forward to another week of bike commuting.

Yesterday’s 5pm ride:  Same gusty west wind as the morning, temperature around freezing.  Bundled up a bit more than I ordinarily would for low 30s because of the wind.  Top:  Short sleeve jersey, arm warmers, PolarTec pullover, hi-vis windbreaker.  Head: fleece headband, REI helmet liner/balaclava.  Hands: mid-weight winter cycling gloves.  Legs: thermal tights.  Feet: wool socks, road bike shoes, toe warmers, neoprene shoe covers.  8-mile ride home.  A little sweaty at the end, but felt like I was dressed appropriately for the conditions.  The ride was comfortable and my feet didn’t have long enough to get cold.  My STI shifters are starting to miss shifts occasionally.  Last winter I fixed that by squirting WD-40 inside the shift lever mechanisms, so it may be time to do this again.

Today’s morning ride: Colder but not as windy.  Around 23 with a wind chill of 14.  Wore the same clothes as yesterday evening and, again, ended up sweaty but comfortable after an 8 mile ride in.  Took the fixed-gear.  There was a bit of ice here and there where the runoff had frozen overnight, particularly in the park.  Nothing too treacherous, but I will need to look out for it later when it’s dark.

Wow, where to start with today’s ride.  Upper 30s with a 15-20mph west wind.  Same clothes as Monday 12/7 morning (including arm warmers).  I was comfortable in these clothes, but the real story was the wind and mud.  I took Montgomery out to New Cut Rd, which was uneventful except for a head wind.  New Cut dumps me out on Main St in Ellicott City, and at that point I have the choice of taking Oella Ave and going through Catonsville, or taking River Rd and going through the park.  Oella is kind of hilly, and I wasn’t feeling particularly energetic this morning, so I chose River Rd which turned out to be a mistake.  River Rd apparently flooded out during the rain we had Tuesday night into Wednesday, and while it was rideable, there were a lot of muddy, washed out sections.  There was also mud in spots on the Grist Mill trail, and lots of standing water, runoff and debris pretty much everywhere.  My bike ended up looking like I had just taken it through a cyclocross course.  It’s covered with mud and also making lots of unhappy squeaking noises.  This weekend it’s getting a thorough cleaning.

When it wasn’t muddy, I was fighting a strong head wind heading west through Relay and Arbutus.  Taking Oella would have avoided most of this, too.  Of course, if I had taken Oella, I’d be complaining about having no energy during all the endless hill climbing, blissfully unaware of all the mud and wind I was avoiding.

The ride home tonight may be a little chilly, but at least I remembered my headlight this time..  🙂