If there was any day that I could have driven the truck into town instead of commuting by bike, yesterday was that day! I know I gave everyone hell for not getting out and riding their bike in this weather. I ended up eating my words during the entire commute to school yesterday morning. Anyhow, I made my commute but morning ride was pretty frigid. I got up a little earlier yesterday morning in an effort to get a head start since it was snowing pretty good. Thankfully, I picked up a new softshell jacket the day before and decided to test it out. I got started on the road around 6:45am. I immediately started to feel miserable. The snow was coming down so hard, I could only see about 50-60 feet in front of me. The worst part was the snow was really wet. As it would hit my face, the snowflakes kept building up on my chin fuzz and freezing. Another thing that started to freeze was my cassette. The roads were really slushy and all that slush somehow managed to make its way into my cassette. Within 3 miles of my commute, I had lost the ability to shift. I was stuck in my 28t cog. This left me spinning pretty pretty hard for the rest of the commute.
I made it to class with little insult to injury. Classes were fine and after a few hours, I came back out to my bike to find that the cassette was still frozen over. I pulled out my bike tool and tried to chip away at the ice but it wasn't working. I was able to pedal up the street to MOAB where I used their hot water and got the ice to melt. I hung around the shop for a bit and let the water dry on the cassette so it wouldn't freeze again. Afterwards, I made my commute home via the greenway for a few extra miles. The commute home was fantastic! It was no longer snowing and the path was really clear. As I suspected, I hardly saw anyone out and about which made it nice for me. I did come up on a female runner from behind and she did not anticipate my approach. As I rode past her, she let out a yell of several profanities. Not only was she startled but her outburst certainly startled me! I politely apologized for startling her but she was even more embarrassed and could hardly respond. Anyhow, I rode on and made it home safely and a lot more comfortably in the afternoon commute than my morning commute. This was definitely a commute that I will remember!
I made it to class with little insult to injury. Classes were fine and after a few hours, I came back out to my bike to find that the cassette was still frozen over. I pulled out my bike tool and tried to chip away at the ice but it wasn't working. I was able to pedal up the street to MOAB where I used their hot water and got the ice to melt. I hung around the shop for a bit and let the water dry on the cassette so it wouldn't freeze again. Afterwards, I made my commute home via the greenway for a few extra miles. The commute home was fantastic! It was no longer snowing and the path was really clear. As I suspected, I hardly saw anyone out and about which made it nice for me. I did come up on a female runner from behind and she did not anticipate my approach. As I rode past her, she let out a yell of several profanities. Not only was she startled but her outburst certainly startled me! I politely apologized for startling her but she was even more embarrassed and could hardly respond. Anyhow, I rode on and made it home safely and a lot more comfortably in the afternoon commute than my morning commute. This was definitely a commute that I will remember!
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