Bring it!

Crappy photos courtesy of my crappy cell phone.

Seattle got it's first good winter blast this week and as usual it brought the city to a standstill (If Canada would just keep it's weather to itself we wouldn't have these problems). Anyway, I'm usually pretty wimpy when it comes to bicycling on snow and ice so I rode the bus to work on Monday when I saw snow in the forecast. And snow it did. The commute home Monday night was a mess. I got on a bus in the bus tunnel around 5:00, and by 6:00 the bus was only about two blocks past the end of the bus tunnel and going nowhere. From there I took matters into my own hands and got off the bus and started walking. It was really quite a fun adventure to walk home in the midst of a blizzard, passing hundreds of cars doing little more than idling and sliding. It took me about an hour and a half to walk the six miles from downtown Seattle to Ravenna where Sarah came and picked me up about a quarter mile from home. I'm pretty sure I beat the bus.

While I was walking, I saw three or four cyclists go by. They seemed to be getting along reasonably well in the snow. The only thing about it that looked a little scary was all of the two-ton four-wheeled hockey pucks sliding around on the road around them.

But mostly I was inspired. I worked from home on Tuesday, but by Wednesday morning with a bit of cabin fever starting to settle in and the snow still on the ground, I decided to give biking to work in the snow a try.


The roads in our neighborhood were hard-packed with some icy patches. The main arterials had been plowed and had some pavement showing through, but mostly I stay off of the main arterials on my route to work. It definitely wasn't my fastest ride to work. It usually takes me about 35 minutes each way, but today it took nearly an hour.


My bike probably doesn't have the ideal setup for riding in the snow with standard 28mm road tires. Still, it was much easier than I had expected. I did a little bit of squirreling around on some of the icy patches, but managed to keep the shiny side off the road for the whole trip. I have to admit, I had more fun riding in to work this morning than I've had in a long time. I mean, I'm not ready to move to Minnesota or anything, but… well… bring it on!

There's hardcore and then there's hardcore

Last Sunday was Halloween so I decided to dress up as a Randonneur and go for a ride. This was a special ride for a number of reasons:

1. This was my twelfth consecutive month with an official rando ride of 200km or more thus earning my first R-12 award.
2. It was the first real ride on my new bike, a Velo Orange Randonneur.
3. It was Halloween. duh.
4. It didn't rain even though it was late October. Well, it didn't rain much.
5. Near the end of the ride I rode through the drunken procession to a Sounder's game at Quest stadium... on Halloween!! (The only thing more entertaining than a bunch of drunk Sounder's fans in full green game regalia, is a bunch of drunk Sounder's fans in Halloween day full green game regalia.)
6. And if the Sounder's fan's weren't enough, I finished the ride on the top of Queen Anne where thousands of miniature Power Rangers, Princesses, Sponge Bobs, Wonder Women, Cowboys, Storm Troopers and Mermaids were parading down Queen Anne Ave and harassing the local merchants for free candy.

I really couldn't have asked for a better ride to put a fork in 12 months of Randonneuring.

The route started and ended on the top of Queen Anne. It headed North up to Edmonds, then over to Woodinville, Snohomish, Monroe, South through the Snoqualamie river valley to Fall City, on around the south end of lake Washington, and finally through downtown Seattle and back to the top of Queen Anne.

A nice Raleigh Superbe at the ferry terminal in Edmonds

I really enjoyed this entire route. It was a great mix of urban and quiet country roads. It had a bit of suburbs too which I'm never fond of, but you just can't get from the city to the country without going through the 'burbs.

The weather was pretty fantastic all day too. Cool, mostly clear, a few sprinkles but I never really got wet.

My new 'neuse taking a break near Carnation

Ah, and the new bike seems to be working out very well. It rides like a Cadillac, very smooth and steady. It's not a bike to win a Criterium on, but it loves to gobble up the miles. Even though I haven't been riding a lot lately, I felt good at the end of the fairly hilly 200km and I attribute that to the ride quality of this bike. It also doesn't hurt that it's a couple pounds lighter than the old Cross Check.

This sort of reminded me of that Rembrandt painting with all the guys standing around looking at a cadaver.

As I came through the Mt Baker/I-90 tunnel heading for Queen Anne and the end of the ride, I came upon a bike polo game underway in Judkins Park. Some people think I'm hardcore because of the long rides I do. Pffffft! These guys playing bike polo? They are hardcore! I was humbled watching what they could do on a bike.

Semi hardcore - Bike polo in Judkins Park.

Anyway, overall it was another perfect day on a bike. And I even made it home in plenty of time to head out trick-or-treating with Adam. Wait... did I say the bike polo guys are hardcore? Maybe, but Adam trick-or-treating is as hardcore as it gets.