Weather Out There

Although today is a springlike day, I thought I would reflect on the EVO Drone gloves I’ve been wearing. The exact product name escapes me (and google is no use), so I’ll have to fill that in later. They’re made of thin Nylon fabric, which is pretty good about not sucking up rain. They have the “hunter” thumbs and index fingers, which are good for checking your phone without taking the gloves off. What makes them truly useful is the attached outer mitten – I’ve found this allows you to stay warm and extra 10-15 degrees of outside temperature by defeating the wind and holding in heat. It’s an air impermeable synthetic that is sewn into the wrist of the glove and folds into the top when you’re not using them. (If you’re neat, they don’t look bulbous, either!) Although the seam on these covers has a bad habit of ripping under normal use, this hasn’t compromised the performance of the glove. You can see in the attached picture how I can get a few fingers through that cover after a few months of riding. They’re not too expensive (around $30?), and Hub Bicycle Company in Cambridge carries them. Of course, now that it’s just about spring, you’ll have no occasion to use them…

The gloves do a great job of keeping your hands warm, despite the covering sprouting some holes.

I suppose now that I’m overtly recommending products, I should announce that I’m moving from my current, non-bike related job to start working at Hub Bicycle Company. I’ve been going there as a customer since a few months after the shop opened two years ago, and as I became disenchanted work in the soul-stealing financial industry, I also discovered that I’m cuckoo for bikes. I can safely say – as a customer – that it’s an awesome bike shop, but don’t believe me, believe Yelp. I’m going to be working there full time starting later this month, which means I’ll be reporting more second hand on bike commuting (on customer attire, as the shop is walking distance), but there will still be plenty of errand running and general transportation riding.

Weather

Temperature: 57 degrees

Road condition: Dry

Clothing: Light spring jacket, timberland shoes, light Pearl Izumi gloves, messenger bag

Comfort: I was definitely too warm. Every time the weather changes I relearn the lesson: slow down, wear less. Today would have been OK without a jacket.

It was windy today, and should be more so later, according to the forecast. There were tons of bikers out, and I expect many, many more next week.

I left my house this morning to feel a lot of squishiness in the tires; although tires don’t need a lot of inflation in the winter once a month seems to be the outer limit. Since I was already around the corner, I just rolled over to the gas station and pulled out one of these handy dandy adapters (no pump on me!) and put some free air in there. (Free as in beer, not as in speech.)

Shrader, Presta Adapter: helpful to have for using non-bike shop compressed air.

The most adventuresome three-season bikers were out today on their thoroughly rusted bikes. It was a very slow march down Hampshire Street, with many winter coats in attendance, and very satisfying (for me, anyway) passing as I flew over the Longfellow Bridge. While there was generally good behavior, namely stopping at lights and not “shoaling” to cut to the front of the line, there were a few serial offenders who kept leap-frogging. To quote some other Boston Biker blogs, “don’t cut in line,” and “I want to mount a bottle of triflow on my handlebars.”

Weather

Temperature:  45 degrees

Road condition: Dry

Clothing: Light fall jacket (with a long sleeved shirt), Pearl Izumi gloves, Timberland shoes, messenger bag.

Comfort: Lovely! I was glad for having sleeves, as the jacket I have tends to expose my wrists (the humanity!) and send air up my arms. I ditched the gloves once I was in Boston.

I’m going to switch up the post order, putting weather and such at the end now. It’s been pretty repetitive, so I’ll put the variety up front.

If your knees (as opposed to thighs or calves) hurt from pedaling, your chain needs maintenance. If the bike is painfully unresponsive to your pedaling, your tires need inflation.

Weather and clothing

The weather this morning was bracing, despite being a mild 24 degrees. My face was cold, but happily warmed up with riding and collar adjustments.

Temperature: 24 degrees

Road: Dry

Clothing: Heavy winter jacket, wool gloves, Timberland shoes, messenger bag

Comfort: My face and legs took a little while to warm up. It was definitely on the edge of needing additional covering in those places.