Weather Out There

February was very dull from a weather standpoint. We had mild weather, and milder: I didn’t write about a single wet commute. The weather was mostly in the 30s in 40s, with a few days in the 20s, and one at 60 degrees in the afternoon. I stuck mostly to my standard winter outfit, which was a heavy winter coat, wool gloves, and waterproof Timberland shoes. The lack of precipitation meant that I got a lot of riding on my fixed gear in.

I got all my tutoring out this month. I had disparate posts on the importance of bright lights, avoiding dooring (when generated some strong testimony in the comments), different varieties of tires, some different types of bikes, why you should never run red lights, proper helmet adjustment, proper use of quick release, and chain maintenance.

I boosted my front rack for its superior cargo carrying ability, including other bikes and freakishly large panniers. I also offered advice for talking to your non-biking peers. Following up on earlier discussions, I also discussed some ways to keep eyewear from fogging up, but the occasion never arose to test it. I also noticed the weird phenomenon of light, yet aggressive, traffic after championship games.

I also attended the Boston Area Bike Bloggers Meetup, which was really fun!

Here are some of the themes from this month.

Of course, there was the inaugural entry, and a follow-up About entry.

There was a good mix of weather, although everything resembled early spring more than winter. Some of my early entries were more verbose on equipment and comfort. There was a brief glimmer of winter, with slush on a couple occasions; we had rain and wet pavement more often. I continue to struggle with keeping the face and ears warm, although readers had some suggestions. Mostly, though it was dry and in the 30s and 40s, so it was very easy weather to handle.

On the non-commuting front, I recapped my New Years overnight tour.

I also had non-clothing discussions about a variety of equipment and social matters: dealing with a loose fork, riding in traffic (always a conversation starter), choosing between panniers vs. messenger bags, keeping your pants neat and clean (and intact), singing praises  to fenders, building or purchasing dynamo lighting, and maintaining tire pressure.