It wasn’t a very good weekend for riding. I was planning on riding with my friend Chris on Saturday, but his bike was in the shop. Besides that, it was in the upper 30s, windy, and drizzling intermittently. I went for a ride anyway, but I rode the 45-minute Mount Gilead ride, rather than a much longer ride that I was hoping to do. It felt good to get out, but a little disappointing. I thought about riding further, but I felt chilly. I dressed pretty warmly, but the wind just cut right through me. Alas.

Sunday was slightly warmer, but it snowed on and off throughout the day. It was too warm for the snow to stick, but still chilly. In fact, it was warmer on Christmas than it was on Easter (yesterday). It was so weird.

Now, I certainly could have ridden anyway, but I’m just plain tired of this cold weather riding. Heck, 40 or so isn’t even that cold, but it felt colder to me than it was outside. Instead, I took the opportunity to do some work on my bike.

A little background: I suck at working on my bike. I almost always break something in the process. But last week I successfully installed a new left shifter on my old mountain bike. I even had to use a hacksaw to get rid of parts of the old shifter, since it was integrated into the brake lever. I had hacked off the old right shifter Saturday night, and I installed the new one on Sunday. Surprisingly, I didn’t break anything, and I seemed to have everything adjusted properly on my first try. And I’m truly astounded at how easy it was.

Along the way, though, I destroyed the grips, and that bike has bars that I guess I can best describe as mountain bike bars with built-in bar ends. A non-standard grip, in other words. So I decided to put some cork tape on them, and do the whole twine/shellac thing. I meant to get natural cork tape, but they were out of that, so I got white instead. And I got amber shellac, with the idea that I can use it on my road bike and hopefully get the tape to be a closer match to my Brooks honey brown leather saddle.

White tape, hemp twine, pre-shellac

After three layers of amber shellac

Things turned out a little more orange than I intended, but I think it looks pretty good on the green bike.

The whole bike


Another angle

This morning was colder — 25 degrees when I rode to work. It’s looking like it’ll warm up, which would be most welcome. I’ve been riding to work in my work clothes lately, instead of changing once I get here, and so far that’s working out really well. It saves me time and I haven’t destroyed any of my work clothes, yet.

Sunday we had sunny skies and temperatures almost reached 70 degrees. Yesterday it was in the lower 30s and raining all day. Then last night we got a bit of snow, and this morning it was back to riding in snow — and ice, since a lot of the rain that fell yesterday froze overnight. As usual, the bike path caused me some problems. As I was going uphill toward the Bypass, the path curved and there was some ice I didn’t see. My bike sort of slid sideways. Fortunately I was able to push it away from me and simply stand up, although even then my feet were slipping. Some people waiting for the bus were amused. So was I, once I determined I was safe. I walked the remaining 20 feet or so of the path.

I understand that nearly 70 degrees the other day was unusually warm for this time of year, but now I got a taste of spring, and I’m ready for the real deal. Although I’d settle for not having to contend with ice anymore — that sure is getting old.

What can I say? February was brutal. We had snow, ice, rain, freezing rain, and temperatures ranging from single digits to 40s or 50s. I commuted by bicycle through all of it, basically, but aside from a few weekend rides, commutes were my only rides.

Total miles ridden in February: 172.18
Commute miles: 81.60
Road miles: 87.08
Errand miles: 3.5
Mountain biking: None. Too muddy.

Here are some highlights:

• My hardest commute yet
• Some snowy commute photos
• Modified Paragon Ride

While Sarah and I were at dinner last night, we looked out the window and saw snow falling. Literally a minute later the snow turned to rain, and it continued to rain on and off throughout the night. More rain was predicted for this morning, to transition to snow later in the day.

I had considered driving to work if those conditions played out. Riding in the rain in the 30s is really unpleasant — I’d much rather have snow, or even single-digit temperatures. Getting soaked at freezing temperatures chills you in a way that’s hard to shake. So I was pleasantly surprised when I woke up this morning to find it was snowing, not raining, even though it was about 34 degrees. It felt quite warm and I didn’t zip my jacket all the way, even though it was snowing. The bike path continues to be the only problematic part of my ride, and it’ll probably get worse as it gets colder throughout the day and continues snowing. I may avoid the bike path tonight, unless we get enough snow to give me a layer with better traction on top of the ice.

Overall, I’m pleased with how well I’ve done riding all winter. But now it’s really getting old, and I’m ready for warmer weather. This February has been particularly difficult. Hopefully we’ll get warmer weather soon.

Friday evening commute

My ride home on Friday was very difficult, not as difficult as my Friday morning commute, but conditions were still poor. We had gotten some more freezing rain throughout the day. Fortunately the roads had mostly improved somewhat from being salted, and from people driving on them. But the less-traveled roads were still covered in ice, slush, frozen slush and more ice. During part of my ride, one road has a slightly banked turn, which is normally helpful. But in this case the angle kept pushing me toward the edge of the road, and countersteering was not very productive. If I tried moving to the left, I started slipping. So I had to strike a balance so that I could both stay on the road and maintain traction.

I didn’t even attempt to ride on the bike path on my way home on Friday, because I knew it would be one solid sheet of ice. Maybe if I had a sled I would’ve gone that way. Instead, I rode on the shoulder of the Bypass briefly and cut through a retail parking lot. There was some ice there, especially by Starbucks and I ended up walking/sliding on a sidewalk for a few feet and lifting my bike over the curb to get through.

The weekend

I had good intentions for the weekend. I planned to do some riding, and Sarah and I were planning on going hiking with my friend Dave. Unfortunately the icy conditions from Thursday and Friday persisted, and while roads in town were in pretty good shape, I figured the back roads wouldn’t be. I could have ridden around town or something, but I didn’t. I thought I’d run an errand or two by bicycle, but the opportunity didn’t present itself. Sunday was supposed to be warmer, but instead we woke up to find it was snowing outside. A layer of snow on top of layers of ice didn’t seem conducive to riding, so I didn’t ride.

Monday morning commute

This morning’s commute felt warm, at around 30 degrees. Conditions weren’t bad except of course for the bike path. It was covered in ice, but with some melting occurring over the weekend and water dripping from the trees above, at least it was porous ice. I tried to stay on some of the snowier areas, and kept my speed down. The ice and snow crunched especially loudly beneath my wheels, alerting a pedestrian up ahead to my presence. My bike shook from riding over frozen footprints. I only saw one other bicycle tread in the ice, from someone with skinnier tires than mine. I thought, “They’re braver and/or stupider than I am.”

Other than that, my commute this morning was uneventful and actually quite pleasant. I really enjoy this peaceful time on my way to work. It gives me a chance to wake up, reflect, observe. It’s a great way to start my day, and I’m still surprised sometimes by just how pleasant a 30-degree (or colder) bike ride can be, even though I’ve been doing this all winter. And I like the fact that since I ride to work, bicycle rides are the first and last things I do each workday, and each workweek. Somehow the daily grind seems a bit better when it’s bookended with bicycle rides.