Quite a different ride in today

I stopped and froze my fingers in the 17°F weather (the wind was only about 10-15mph from the NW ie headwind) to take a picture of the bike path, but left the DL cable at home. DOH! No snow shots now. Maybe I can upload them tonight.

Either way, my brave plans to ride in on the bike path? Not a chance. I was relegated to the slushy barely plowed shoulder of the road. Like last year.

Except now instead of trying to ride through 4-6 inches we have just about 20 inches of snow. Maybe a pugsly would work, but even that would really suck. Granted if i had no choice but to cut a new trail through the snow, well I probably would. BUT.

But, the road beckoned to me "take the easy way" and i succumbed to the siren song of the plowed salty pavement. The Croll is hating me right now, the salt water etching components and frame, puddling on cardboard here in the office.

Let me tell you that new Planet Bike Fender works SO MUCH BETTER than my other clip on jobbers. SO MUCH BETTER. Seriously. Their stuff flat out ROCKS. Notice that there is a list of replacement parts there.

Really it is amazing. Since I haven't unpacked the cross bike and converted it back to full coverage fendered glory as a daily commuter I'm still abusing the Croll in the snow and ice.

I've got my pair of Blaze 2W on the front lighting the way home and a Superflast Stealth (best tail light on the planet w/o a doubt) on the seat post and a Blinky 3H on the skid lid.

Commuting, i've been doing that bike commuting thing for a looooooong time. A very long time. This planet bike stuff? Awesome. All the time in Michigan and now the Ocean State, i've got a lot of extreme commuter miles. "Extreme"? Yeah, most people would say commuting by bike on a day like today with the roads they way they are is extreme. Seventeen degrees, windchill in the single digits (not counting pedaling induced windchill) on snow and salty slush. Maybe that is why people in their cars were looking at me like I had 3 heads or an extra arm on the ride in. It took a bit longer than normal but man. So worth it.

So worth it.

And that Planet Bike stuff? Totally FTW baby. FTW! (which unless you are up on current stuff means "for the win" don't worry i had to google it the first half dozen times I started seeing it show up).

Where's Waldo? Heck am i the only one not wearing jeans? - well besides the short dude wearing carharts two legs to my left). It was a great place to watch the race. And yell at Myerson as he went by "IT IS JUST ANOTHER BIKE RACE"

Time for some lunch (PBJ FTW)

heddwch
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