I am a total wimp cyclist: ice-averse, frostbite-averse, machismo-averse.
But I biked to and from work today. In January. In Minnesota. On skinny tires.
And it was lovely.
I have very mixed feelings about this.
To be clear:
I did not bike to work because of some newfound hardiness.
I biked to work because there is hardly any snow or ice in sight, and it reached 54°F today — on Jan 31, a date when MSP would not be shocked to see a negative high temperature. Thus the mixed feelings.
@inthehands Lovely ?!?!? Wow :) When road conditions get iffy I actually sometimes feel anxious ;P tho' sometimes I can suspend that and tell my brain "angular momentum is strong! The road is not going to pick up your bike and throw it to the ground!" and Just Roll Through
@inthehands but sometimes that zone is there and the other times I just get off the bike, not even as a decision. (I hate being anxious :P )
@geonz
Lovely because road conditions are great, there is no snow, and it was 50F. Thus the mixed feelings.
@inthehands I did a lot of biking in the Twin Cities during winter and loved it!
@inthehands Wait, what? I’m in the Twin Cities and here I thought I was following some sophisticate who lived in London AND New York City. And I graduated from CSU, too. Where did my life go so wrong?
@cxj Well, if you thought you were following some sophisticate and it was me, then your life has gone very wrong indeed!
@cxj
P.S. Did you take any English classes at CSU?
@inthehands Only the required pair of low level writing classes, I think. It was eons ago.
@cxj My mom taught English at CSU, although if you took comp and nothing more, it’s unlikely you’d have drawn her name. But she did teach it now and then.
@inthehands for some of us it takes longer to bike to work than just walk
@inthehands Yes, I share those feelings. I enjoy the riding, the endorphins... and waft prayers for mercy to the skies.
@inthehands eh the summers are going to be miserable might as well enjoy what you can when you can
I miss cross country skiing
@inthehands I am in California and also a wimp cyclist. Fortunately there's generally no ice, only rain (which I hate). For the month of January I've averaged three days of biking to and from work per week.
@kccqzy Apparently that’s the kind of January Minnesota is headed for, unless we cut our carbon emissions to zero yesterday.