Ice Ice Baby...........

[Max]

Alright stop all you commuters and listen, I,while riding, inhale all car's emitions....
Well, winter is here and has hit us with the subtlety of a pick-axe up the spinal column. I've come to the conclusion that 19 Degrees is no colder than 29 degrees. Your frozen either way. Pearl Izumi should invent a snow-riding suite. We'll see. So, for now, stay warm and watch out for the dreaded black ice.

[DirtRagArt]

You're a better man than me, Max, I drove today...

[leapfrog]

yea, i had my first bit of commuting ice when riding with brad in pittsburgh last week. we were flying down mcartle (?) i think, when he just rips through a serious patch of ice...scared the shit out of me...i probably would have bit it. fortunately all the ice i hit was on flatter roads. stay safe.

scott
leapfrog bike zine

[Ken Braatz]

It's supposed to be 12 degrees and windy in the Philly area tomorrow morning. Let's see how committed (or committable) I am.

[Rotifer]

I hit some ice the other day on a bridge. The crappy thing was, I saw it coming, moved over to the railing (the bridge is arched) and tried to slow myself down by grabbing the railing with one hand. It worked till I hit the ice where I went down in this slow, clipped in jumble. I'm sure I looked like a dumb-ass but the rest of the ride was superb so F 'em. :)

[hairygrump]

word to your mother...

We've had 2 sub-20 degree days here, with 3 more to follow. I'm always taken by surprise by those first super cold days. There's a hill that, by the end of summer, I'm just dancing up and am hardly winded by the time I reach the top. That shit gets so hard when the temperature drops below freezing that sometimes I'm not sure I can ride the bike up.

Is that just my body telling me I'm a jerk for not babying it more, or is there some kind of lung/heart reason for the cold to make me weak?

Either way, I'm glad it's here, in a way. Nothing like icicles hanging from your beard to tell your coworkers that you actually like your job and would ride your bike through frigid conditions to get there in the morning.

[Rotifer]

One nice thing about the sub 30 temps here ... Walla Walla is at the edge of an area called the "Palouse". We have 20 and forty foot thick deposits of top soil from the bottom of an ice age lake (Missoula) that periodically filled and emptied (when the glacial dams broke), roared across N. Idaho and E. WA and backed up at the mouth of the gorge. When this stuff freezes it forms the perfect mountain biking surface - like dirt-track motorcycle racing. Makes the single-track oh so nice.

Now I shall go hit it with a little night action, think I'll take the cross bike today (see dancing banana).

[Max]

It was 8 degrees today. I don't know what it was with the wind chill. How ever, after the second mile or so you soon forget how cold it is, except the minute parts of your body that aren't covered. Our building now only has three devote commuters left. All the rest have packed it in. "I come from the land of the ice and snow................", which reminds me, the only thing worth doing in the winter when you can't mtb is snow board. Those are my two favourite things to do, bike, and board. Word.

[DirtRagArt]

Holy crap, man, I rode in this morning and for some unknown reason decided to wear my Zoic winter tights without shorts over them... Not to be crass, my my entire nether region went numb... Thank God I had a hot shower at work to return circulation... Ouch. Lesson learned.

[Max]

Oh yes Jeff, a lad could lose his bearings in weather like this. I sometimes even put rain pants over everything else just to protect the under carriage. I am pleased that you and your member maid it to the DR showers in one piece. Bundle up, brother, it's one cold mother.

[Max]

by the way, I meant "made", and not "maid", just too much going on upstares.

[leapfrog]

see im thinking of this freezing ass weather as an advantage to my future life plans. like, if one DID freeze his "bearings" off, well then that just saves me the few hundred dollars i'd have to pay for the operation. seems like a win win situation to me.

hell, i might just start riding crotchless. clipless and crotchless.

scott
leapfrog bike zine

[Rotifer]

like, if one DID freeze his "bearings" off, well then that just saves me the few hundred dollars i'd have to pay for the operation.

Planning a sex-change are we? (http://phuket-plasticsurgery.com/article/)

[leapfrog]

haha...not THAT kind of operation. just because i was handing points out to the ladies at the punk bike doesnt mean i wanna be one.

scott
leapfrog bike zine

[DirtRagArt]

Yeah, this morning was a mistake. This afternoon I made sure to wear some shorts over my tights when K-man and I went for a quick burn through Hartwood... and man, I'll take this freezing weather every day until April if it means the trails will stay this dry and fast... Oh yeah.