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Friday evening
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…
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Winter’s here
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…
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This morning’s ride
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…
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Yesterday’s return ride
Overcast/41. Same clothes as the past 2 or 3 rides. Fairly comfortable. The big story with this ride was around 3 in the afternoon when I realized I had left my headlight on the other bike. Fortunately I keep a mini “Mag Lite” flashlight in my rack trunk, so I strapped it to the handlebars…
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Ride notes
Around 15 miles again today. 34 or so at the start of the ride, 38 or so at the end. Partly cloudy. Same clothes as yesterday’s afternoon ride. Feet cold after first half hour. Head really sweaty at the end of the ride. Comfortable otherwise. I’m going to need to do something about the cold…
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Today’s ride home..
It was around 40 degrees for the ride home. Left at 4:45 and had a little bit of light for the first half of the ride. Wore exactly the same stuff as the morning, minus the arm warmers. This would have gotten a bit warm if the ride had been longer, but it worked for…
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Ride notes
So, I’m starting my second winter season commuting by bike, so I figured I’d use the blog to record notes on my rides, including clothing I wore, which bike I rode, etc. The idea is to get a better sense of what works best in different weather and road conditions. So here goes. First sub-freezing…
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The Great Tire Showdown
Summer’s over, and that means that the joys of cold weather bike commuting are right around the corner. I’m still trying to find an all-season commuting tire that provides the best combination of speed and resistance to flats. And of course, nothing provides a better test bed for tires than Maryland roads in the winter.…
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Brewing…
Thinking about brewing this yummy-sounding brown ale this fall… Oak Leaf Brown Ale 6 2/3 pounds light malt extract 1 pound crystal malt (80L or higher) 1/2 pound chocolate malt 1 pound dark brown sugar 1 ounce Kent Goldings hops (bittering) 1/2 ounce Perle hops (flavoring) 1 package British ale yeast 3/4 cup corn sugar…
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This morning’s fun
Today’s pool maintenance fun.. Spend 30 minutes with the leafmaster, vacuuming up all the junk at the bottom of the pool from the storms last night. Achieve pleasant sense of accomplishment and well-being as I begin to remove the leafmaster from the now-clean pool. Watch leafmaster bag separate from leafmaster as I’m pulling it out…