Riding in this morning felt great!

While the mercury was only around 2 degrees when I left home, it’s already up to 14 degrees and without much of a breeze, it was a pretty solid ride. Going to be close to 30 for the evening ride downtown. Still some snow banks and ice around to impede the ride but for the most part the snow banks were pushed back along the road, the city parts of the bike trail well salted and free of ice. The nice thing is I do get at least more exercise in, though the real exercise is the evening ride home once there is daylight and not too much snow and ice on the bike trail.

I gave another try at nitrile gloves under my glove liners and wool gloves, and that helped a lot. Between the sunshine and lack of wind, with the energy burned riding my bike, it didn’t feel particularly cold, and I did not have numb hands when I got in the office but my feet were a bit cold probably from trudging through the snow to park my bike at the bike rack. Maybe I should have brought the bike into my office but I didn’t want to track in all of salt, mud and snow into my office. The front brake remains soft from air bubbles in the fluid but after a bit of pumping it always stops well. Sewage treatment plant this morning is a bit pungent, as it wafts into my office in the cold, but whatever, it felt good to ride in.

Most people think I’m crazy for riding my mountain bike to work on a two degree morning, as I get passed by the endless lines of Honda Civics driving to the suburban office parks, so they can make more money, buy plastic and put it in their recycling bins.