Ok back to bikey topics.
Oh.My.God. it was cold out there this morning. I think I got frostbite on my thumbs, owie. Must get full gloves, these fingerless puppies are not going to cut it in the mornings. And dark? Yikes, dawn was barely breaking 30 minutes into the ride. At the hour I come in there’s not even that much traffic, so I didn’t have a lot of cars traveling in the same direction to light the road. The road I start out on, which takes me 20-25 minutes to cover, is almost completely unlit. There’s one intersection about halfway down it that has a light, but other than that it’s DARK. I slowed down on the downhills, which is no fun, but I was afraid of what might be in the shoulder that I was about to run over and couldn’t see. I skirted some wood that was laying in the road, that was the only scary moment when I could have lost my balance and toppled over if I had zigged when I should have zagged. Happily I arrived intact. I even shaved about 5 minutes off my time! I had a couple people stop to let me go: a woman making a right turn ahead of me, who waited for me to go past although she really didn’t need to, excessively polite and cautious on her part. And then crossing the overpass on I-5, a truck slowed to let me go but I stopped and waved him on and both driver and passenger waved, and the truck behind him waved a thank you to me as he went by.
And the hills are still improving! Either that or my shifting is getting better and I’m learning which gears I do best in. But I certainly don’t dread the hills the way I used to! YIPPEE!! And this after not riding for a week, so that is really encouraging. I’m so looking forward to the ride home this afternoon. The weather is so perfect right now, it’ll be cool but sunny. I just know I’m going to regret not bringing my camera. One of these days I’ll get a nice shot of Mt. Hood on the way home and post it here.
4 responses so far ↓
McBloggenstein // October 8, 2008 at 12:04 pm |
I look forward to those pictures.
For a full fingered glove, I really like the knit ones. Like these:
http://www.ebikestop.com/defeet_duraglove_black_sm_glove-GL7785.php
They are very breathable, while keeping warm and especially dry. Any other full fingered cycling glove I’ve tried make my hands sweat, and if the gloves end up getting wet, they get even colder!
Digital Dame // October 8, 2008 at 12:57 pm |
Thanks for the recommendation, I may order a pair. I’ll have to pick something up locally if I want to ride in again on Friday, though. Probably wouldn’t hurt to have a couple different kinds for different conditions. My thumb still hurts, it feels like someone whacked it with a hammer!
disgruntled // October 11, 2008 at 11:18 am |
I get on pretty well with just a pair of ladies’ black leather gloves, which are smart enough that I can wear them anywhere, and leave me still able to manipulate the gears and the brakes etc. They probably won’t handle a real US style winter, but they might be worth buying as a stop gap and then when you pick up a proper cycling pair you could still use them off the bike.
Digital Dame // October 11, 2008 at 11:31 am |
Thanks, Disgruntled. The really sad thing is, I had my regular driving gloves in the car, which I should have taken when I dropped the car and hopped on the bike. They aren’t the warmest, but would have been better than the fingerless bike gloves. I’m heading to my LBS today to try to find some good riding gloves for the winter. It was 30ºF/-1ºC this morning! Luckily this area is pretty temperate, we don’t often get a whole lot colder than that.