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Yesterday was cold about 0F and everything was plowed and hard and no wind so I went for a short ride, first one in weeks. I blew it, I should have went more than a few blocks as it is now -10F and snowing and blowing and is going to be even colder tomorrow. Now there is too much new snow to ride. Then it is going to slowly get warmer, up to the teens over the weekend. Hopefully it won't snow more and the plows will be out. We are right on average for snow accumulation. The city has been very lax about plowing this winter. They often don't even bother to plow my street and my wife can't use the VW. We use my 4 wheel drive truck to get through the snow, after a few days it gets packed enough for the VW. They have even been closing a few city streets when it drifts, can't ever remember that occurring before. Can't ride when it is like that. The solution is higher taxes, but I would rather put up with the poor service than higher taxes. I might have to retreat to warmer climes for the winter. Update: 11:30 AM Its getting colder as more of the arctic front moving down. I went to the store and got a massive ice cream headache just walking into the store. -28F predicted for Thursday night, wind chill of -40F. If this weather works its way down south it's going to be bad.

It looks like this or better (more snow) each winter at this time of year.
 
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Been riding this one in the snow the past few days. Does real good in fresh snow but gets squirrely on the street when it gets rutted and churned up from the cars. Helps to make smooth pedal strokes. I try to move my feet in circles to help make it easier to balance.

snow4_zps3603d964.jpg~original
 
Chad T said:
Been riding this one in the snow the past few days. Does real good in fresh snow but gets squirrely on the street when it gets rutted and churned up from the cars. Helps to make smooth pedal strokes. I try to move my feet in circles to help make it easier to balance.

snow4_zps3603d964.jpg~original
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Looks like a good bike for the slippery stuff, not too far to fall. Nice bike. I think it is going to get very cold by tomorrow in Columbus as they are saying it will be -30F here tomorrow night. I bet you get -5F at least.
 
Right now they're calling for 2 degrees for the low but it was supposed to be -9 at one point. 2 degrees does seem better than -9 but it's still cold.

The Stingray does make it easy to put a foot down. It also puts most of your weight over the drive tire. I had a Stingray when I was a kid that had a knobby on the back and a ski on the front. Worked great in fresh snow.
 
Feels like heck. :p That was two snowfalls ago., maybe two weeks or three. theres since been so much snow at times, opening the front door is something we sit and question in bed.
 
Rode 7 slow miles this morning, beautiful, partly cloudy, windy with hard packed snow, no slush or mush, first time with such good conditions in several weeks. My chain was frozen and salt rusted from sitting in below zero so it skipped for the first two miles. They are saying the worse of the cold is over. It warmed up 16 degrees F since I went to bed at 9:30 PM last night, all all the way to +3F. The wind gave me an ice cream headache, without the benefit of the ice cream, and aching molars after about 3 miles. I will admit I had to stop for 3 short Bud Light drafts just to fortify myself before continuing. It is going to be 11F tomorrow, then back down to 0 to -9F until Tuesday when it will be +23F. At +23F it will be too mushy to ride as the hard packed super frozen road snow will become mushy from the salt. It will have to get cold again or the plows will have to remove the mush. The city has been just letting the mush stay on most streets to save money on plowing. I built a winter bike without studs for bare pavement like we had last winter but I have not been able to use it this year because of the poor plowing. I broke down and joined a gym with good exercise bicycles. I have an exercise bike but the gym has videos and women to ogle while I pedal, which I hope will help pass the boring stationary bike time.
 
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Anyone had enough winter yet? -20F right now but is is going to warm up 43F by tomorrow then the bad news, down to below zero F for the rest of the long range forecast period. Lake Superior got so cold last winter that it never warmed up as it usually does. We still had pack ice for Memorial Day. It was warm for early winter this year but now with this extended cold 91% of Lake Superior is frozen over. The only open spot is of 40 miles north of Munsing, Michigan where the Lake is the deepest, 1332 feet. The good news is that we won't have anymore Lake effect snow because there is no lake, only ice, which doesn't vaporize when arctic winds blow over it. yeah. I think the south and east are still in for it because all this cold that is still poring in on me has to go somewhere. I say good riddance, you all can have it. Off at noon to the gym to ride exercise bikes and discretely stare at the women.
 
Even though I am further south I am still sick of this winter. Below zero temps, snow, ice.......... Last winter was similar to this where I live.
 
us56456712 said:
Oh, I hate you right now, I got cabin fever. The big event lately has been for me and my 2 dogs to stare out the window waiting to see the snowplows. We see which of the 3 of us can bark the loudest at them when they go buy.
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Sorry about that. Im actually from Michigan. Moved to Arizona in 99...couldn't take thaat cold weather and being stuck inside all the time. Winter here is time to ride bikes
 
It's been so cold lately that I quit looking at my thermometer. I was trying for la la land but watching TV I just saw that we made the national news; coldest spot in the continental USA (-28F). So much for la la, what a rude awakening. Ho boy, 25 more days until spring, ha, ha, ha. I did go to the gym and did an hour of stationary bike riding. I did two workouts, beginner and the mountain climbing training workout. The climbing one was great with a large screen and projector. I went at noon and there were a lot of young women there, which is great for me because they are focused on all the young studs and totally ignored me so they don't seem to notice my grey haired lecherous gawks. It was too cold to walk the mile to the gym so I drove. I figured walking back all overheated and still sweating would not be good in -F temperatures. Ideally I would like to walk or ride my winter bike to the Gym. The stationary bikes at the gym are quality units and fit me real well, so well the I am going to take a level and measuring tape to get the settings I tried. It is easy to make fine adjustments as everything has spring loaded notches that can be quickly clamped for tightness. I tried a variety of settings and I think I really found the optimal one for me for both sitting and standing. A lot of the mounting climbing training video was done standing. I do a lot of standing on my Klunker and love hill climbing. It is the only thing I am better at amongst all our 60+ riders. Everyone else has better balance and can descend the narrow twisting single tracks faster than me, I beat them going up hill, but I weigh way less than the other old guys.
 
GuitarlCarl said:
Lazyboy, fireplace and an old guitar...
That's my winter ride for now...

Carl.
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I got an old Japanese guitar I found at the thrift store. My intention was to learn to play it. So far it has been two years and I haven't been in for a lesson. One of those things I should take up to pass the time. Perhaps when I get old. I really would like to do this but the bikes keep getting in the way.
 
us56456712 said:
I got an old Japanese guitar I found at the thrift store. My intention was to learn to play it. So far it has been two years and I haven't been in for a lesson. One of those things I should take up to pass the time. Perhaps when I get old. I really would like to do this but the bikes keep getting in the way.
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That's cool. Funny how my bikes are what I do to stay young...

Carl.
 
Well, It hasn't warmed up yet. Still only getting to a few degrees above 0F in the day and -20F at night. Its official, todays satellite photo shows that Lake Superior is 100% frozen over for the second year in a row. Last year this cold started in December so the ice was much thicker at this time of the year and the satellite photo shows this as the color is not as intensely white as last year, but pretty similar. I probably should not attempt to ride my bike across the Lake to Canada just yet (they are calling it 100% ice covered but the N. shore of Canada looks pretty open and iffy to me). I wonder if there will be Lake ice again on Memorial Day? I have been riding in the gym to some real good training video programs. High gear, mountain climbing, sprinting and interval are the programs I have tried. I am about half way through trying out the various bike training video programs. I found I was really wimping out on my home velo machine training. My gym workouts have been 1 an a half to 3 and a half hours long. Got nothing better to do than to look at the snow banks, and it has been too cold to work on bikes. I got 4 injections into my spine today to reduce back pain from my failed 15 year ago back surgery. I am elated, feel like a kid as the pain is mostly gone. I get these injections quite often, had so many over 15 years I could even figure it out. Back to 2 hours training tomorrow. I want to continue to abuse my body for as long as possible, I am pushing 70 and figure I only have a few more years before those Ritus brothers take over and win (Art is the worst one of the brothers). It's weird, I feel better when I abuse myself than when I sit around.
 
Heat wave, +6F on my thermometer right now at 10PM. No snow now for several days and the plows have FINALLY been out so tomorrow AM before the sun angle gets up and melts stuff will be a good time for a bicycle ride. A few days ago it was -12F and the sun was out and the higher sun angle was melting and crystalizing the high parts of the snowbanks. It will be melting with the higher sun angle tomorrow even though it will be below 32F so before 10 AM will be a good time to ride. My buddy is a retired city employee and wants to sue the city for improper snow removal from the streets. He should know as he worked in the street department. The street was too narrow for both pickup trucks. He moved over to avoid a collision and his mirror hit a frozen snow bank and busted off. He is hopping mad. He told me where the city was siphoning money from snow removal but I don't recall where he said it was going, then again he is sarcastic so it was probably a joke. I am getting tired of using spuds, hatchets and hammers to remove the rock hard frozen, muddy, sandy, salty ice from my wheel wells so my wheels can turn without friction and my VW diesel can get more than 5 miles to the gallon. My driveway looks like our vehicles have been using it for a privy.
 

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