My Morning Commute

[NicDiesel]

Always happy to see this sign when I ride.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]4364[/ATTACH]

[KLizotte]

Wow, peds not allowed?!!!

So what’s it like riding in the Great White North? Much harder than here?

[CPTJohnC]

This morning was actually pretty pleasant, which is good since it is the last commute for me for 2013. I encountered a total of 25 bikes along the 19 miles of my commute. 7 of them were headed my way, and the rest were oncoming. I got to play with one biking related Christmas present – a new camera mount — and the other was firmly attached (a new lock).

[cyclingfool]

@KLizotte 72946 wrote:

Wow, peds not allowed?!!!

I think the beauty of it is that peds have a separate parallel trail, but NicD will be able to provide a definitive response.

Felt good to be back in the saddle for this morning’s commute, and I mean that most literally, since it was my maiden voyage on the Brooks B17 I got for Christmas. Just like my last Brooks, comfy out of the blocks and it will only get more so as I break it in.

It was nice to see a lot of commuters out this AM. More than I’d have expected to see today given the time I was riding it. People getting an early start on New Years resolutions?

I’d hoped to get in a ride over the Christmas days off, i.e., before the commute this AM, but it didn’t happen. What did happen was a round of bike maintenance done in bits and pieces over the days I had off, including a thorough cleaning of the drive train and truing up my rear wheel. I noticed it needed a little TLC — the first it’s needed in 1500 miles since I built it up this summer, at the conventional 500 miles settling in period it was still true.

[NicDiesel]

@cyclingfool 72967 wrote:

I think the beauty of it is that peds have a separate parallel trail, but NicD will be able to provide a definitive response.

That is correct – there’s a separate trail for peds that doesn’t get plowed during the winter (at least at Lake Nokomis where we live) so everyone uses the same path. That’s only a problem from December until March, so it’s not a huge deal, but during the warmer months there are separate trails.

Quote:

So what’s it like riding in the Great White North? Much harder than here?

I’m not riding this winter until around March or so (health issues) but the rides that I did before it got too cold and snowy were a lot of fun. Lots of trails and bike lanes here so you don’t really have situations like the overcrowding on the MVT during the warmer months (this may not be true over at Lake Harriet and Calhoun) and the ride down Minnehaha Creek is really pretty. The slush is probably the biggest challenge during the winter months, but if you have studded tires it’s not that bad. I thought the wind would be the biggest problem but it actually hasn’t been too bad.

[Geoff]

@NicDiesel 72972 wrote:

…if you have studded tires it’s not that bad.

Everyone here talks about studded tires. My brother, who lives in Michigan, uses tire chains on mountain bike tires. I did some checking, they are easy to find online. Why does everyone here use studs instead of chains?

[Mikey]

@Geoff 72975 wrote:

Everyone here talks about studded tires. My brother, who lives in Michigan, uses tire chains on mountain bike tires. I did some checking, they are easy to find online. Why does everyone here use studs instead of chains?

My thought is that chains are great if the entire path was snow covered. The freezing and thawing conditions in DC mean that our snow quickly melts and then refreezes becoming nasty ice that lingers for days, yet much of the path gets enough sun to melt and dry out. Personaly much of my commute is a mixture of MUP trails and roads (which are nicely cleared within hours of the first snowflake). The mixture of trail/road conditions makes studs more applicable because of their lower rolling friction to chains. It also may because studed tires can be fit onto more road/hybrid bikes where I would think chains would only work for fat tires.

[jrenaut]

Aren’t chains illegal around here? My understanding is that they really tear up the road (not so much on a bike as on a much heavier car, but still) unless there’s really a lot of snow, totally covering the road. We get snow like that so rarely, and it lasts for such a short time, chains aren’t really practical.

[NicDiesel]

@Geoff 72975 wrote:

Everyone here talks about studded tires. My brother, who lives in Michigan, uses tire chains on mountain bike tires. I did some checking, they are easy to find online. Why does everyone here use studs instead of chains?

On the lakes a lot of people do the roofing nails through old MTB tires but everyone that I know that rides on the street and paths uses either studded tires on road or MTB bikes or has a fat bike. Since I only have one bike I just have Conti City IIs but I don’t ride on ice or slush. Next year I’m hoping to have a fat bike so I can take advantage of all of the cool winter riding.

[mstone]

@Geoff 72975 wrote:

Everyone here talks about studded tires. My brother, who lives in Michigan, uses tire chains on mountain bike tires. I did some checking, they are easy to find online. Why does everyone here use studs instead of chains?

Chains don’t generally work on road bikes. (You need a tire that’s a couple of inches wide, plus another quarter inch clearance for the chain, even more for fenders.) Chains are good for real snow and packed ice, and pretty horrible for dry pavement. (Much worse than studs.) If you’re mountain biking up north, or commuting where snow is on the ground for months, chains are perfect. If you’re worried about patches of black ice, they’re overkill.

[dasgeh]

Wonderful first commute of the New Year and first commute in nearly 2 weeks. We were in Des Moines and Minneapolis (hi NicDiesel), which were very, very cold. My in-laws are awesome and have a wall full of bikes, including a tandem and a double WeeHoo that were screaming our name, but the trails don’t get plowed, and it’s not safe on the streets… I was kinda hoping to grab a Nice Ride in Minneapolis but (1) they hibernate, appearantly, and (2) it was the coldest I’ve ever been in my whole life. I drove across the street to Target one night, and I’m not ashamed.

@NicDiesel 72972 wrote:

That is correct – there’s a separate trail for peds that doesn’t get plowed during the winter (at least at Lake Nokomis where we live) so everyone uses the same path. That’s only a problem from December until March, so it’s not a huge deal, but during the warmer months there are separate trails.

Our friends drove us around on a nice little tour of SW Minneapolis/St Louis Park. They were pointing out parks, lakes, houses (stuff normal people would be interested in); I was gawking at bike paths (ok, and some of the houses — there are some great mid-century modern and contemporary houses scattered around). When we drove in Sunday night, the bike paths we completely bare, despite the foot or so of very frozen snow on the ground. It snowed an inch or two Monday, and that didn’t get plowed (the roads didn’t either – I’m told they wait until it hits 3 inches), so I didn’t get a picture of bare bike paths. I did get some showing the snow banks and the signage — that’s some impressive signage you’ve got up there. I hope it’s as useful as it looks.

NicDiesel – I hope you get to enjoy it soon. It sounds like there’s an amazing network of trails up there!

[cyclingfool]

I was surprised to see the forecast change to calling for two inches of snow overnight tonight into tomorrow, so I hurriedly donned my bike with its new studded tires. Not so much for today’s commute, but rather for tomorrow’s since a 30 mile break-in period on asphalt is recommended for the tires before use in snow and ice. I won’t get 30 miles today, but I figured 15 or 16 miles is better than zero. So, given my effort to swap out the tires this AM, I’m hoping the forecast holds and we get snow overnight and that it’s not so much as to close everything down. Although, I suppose if it does shut everything down, at least I’ll get another day off work and the studs will be more or less ready to go for the next snow and ice event.

Beginning of next week is looking COLD! Freezing Saddles will earn its title.

EDIT: Tomorrow’s gonna be cold in its own right:

From NWS:
Friday, January 3 at 8am
Temperature: 20 °F Dewpoint: 11 °F Wind Chill: 3 °F Surface Wind: NW 28G46mph

B-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-r-r-r-r-r-r–r-r-r!!!

[vvill]

cyclingfool;73212 wrote:

although, i suppose if it does shut everything down, at least i’ll get another day off work and the studs will be more or less ready to go for the freezing saddles ride i’ll be doing instead.

ftfy

[dbb]

Cold!

The wind coming downriver as I crossed the 14th Street Bridge was brutal. I recall muttering something about the wisdom of Rules 5 and 9.

Studded tires kept me upright so the wind could have greater opportunities to abuse me.

[TwoWheelsDC]

Ugh…on metro this morning. Thankfully, the rare times I take the metro are the times when it seems to be running fine. I’m going to try and bikeshare over to Union Station to catch the train to Conn. to at least get some #BAFS points in.

[Author]

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