CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
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The beanie is ditched halfway to work in the morning, and earlier heading home; I've started thinking I need a new pair of fingerless gloves; and this morning the t-shirt/midlayer/waterproof jacket combo had me baking.
Strangely my feet are still cold.
Anyway, spring? Bring it on!
"Anyway, spring? Bring it on!"
Well, yes, but.
Strange thing is it's only 2deg C.
But with absolutely no wind.
Maybe you were riding hard/faster today?
Was it that cold? Cor, really didn't feel it! Then again, you may be right (see the Racing the Puncture thread).
I'm craving those summer mornings when you can ride in at 7am in a t-shirt, stopping in the park to eat a bacon sarnie and watch the world go by...
"I'm craving those summer mornings when you can ride in at 7am in a t-shirt"
How many per year??
Similarly, 2 weeks ago I lost the rubber booties and cut the vests down to just 1 Icebreaker midweight. On Monday I ditched the skullcap. Yesterday the buff moved down from around the ears to just around the neck. this morning I ditched the longs and had my above-the-knee bibshorts and legwarmer combo.
I don't think it's getting *that* much warmer, I think now that temperatures are staying a bit more reliably above zero, I'm beginning to aclimatise. Also, since it's started getting half-light by the time I leave the house I've dropped the commute time back down from 30 minutes to 25. On a good summer day it's 22.
It felt cold this morning when I set off running so I had a fleece on to start but I soon discarded it. I am starting to look wistfully at my shorts.
I once did the commute home in 13 minutes. Got all the lights, and, to be honest, the route I took is almost all downhill (and I would imagine a good bit shorter!).
Normal commute to work is 25-30 minutes depending on the headwind - last summer I set myself the target of less than 20 minutes and managed it about the third attempt. Almost killed me mind...
@chdot, I actually find you can get a good couple of months of warm-enough-to-commute-in-short-sleeves weather...
It's never warm enough at 7am for a t-shirt. Never.
Warmest morning I remember from last summer (07.45ish) was 15 deg. (Think I did just have a shirt on that morning (plus various other garments - know what you lot are like...))
It's never warm enough at 7am for a t-shirt. Never.
Pedal faster and in a bigger gear and it is!
15 degrees isn't warm enough?!?!?! I'm a Geordie who grew up in the arctic wasteland of Aberdeenshire... :P
"I'm a Geordie who grew up in the arctic wasteland of Aberdeenshire... :P"
What are you doing wearing a coat, then? You'll get disqualified.
I'm already thinking it's time to ditch the long-sleeved base layer under my T-shirt (and I merely lived in Durham until I was 2¾).
"I'm a Geordie "
By admitting that though you loose any credibility to gauge temperature, your country men renowned for their lack of jackets even in sub zero temperatures and their other half's wearing even less.
"What are you doing wearing a coat, then? You'll get disqualified."
I do feel like an outsider when I go down for the football. Sitting in the Bigg Market in the middle of January, the frost and ice on the ground already starting to glisten, watching the queues for the clubs, is a real education.
Ive found that if you want to be comfortable on the bike you have to put up with being cold off it. Ive been back in my shorts for the last couple weeks, though i recon some knickers would be better just now. Maybe we are just getting used to it.
Ive found that if you want to be comfortable on the bike you have to put up with being cold off it
Good observation. If you wan't to be comfortable on the bike you also have to avoid Eric Pickles' "rubber knickers"
Im supprised he knows the technical term for 3/4 lengths, and not the brand name lycra. mind you, I think E.P. and lycra should never ever be combined. :P
I've found that if you want to be comfortable on the bike you have to put up with being cold off it.
Hence what I wear to ride to work or any time I'm riding predominantly, isn't the same as what I wear when I ride to the local shops, the supermarket, or when I'm bimbling around town from place to place and walking and standing as often as I'm pedalling.
Compared with December's snow riding, my thermal tights are now ordinary Roubaix, my Buff lives not over my ears and neck but in my bag in case I need it, my thick waterproof gloves are now my woolly Sealskinz, I'm back to airy mtb shoes rather than Goretex hiking boots, and under my waterproof jacket my fleece mid-layer has made way for a long-sleeved t-shirt (and even a short-sleeved t-shirt on occasion). I did actually get acclimatised to the sub-zero temperatures quite quickly.
I heard that some cyclists on the northern Eastern Seaboard of the US were riding to work in -26°C temperatures this week.
"15 degrees isn't warm enough?!?!?! "
Actually, I did concede that on that morning I was just in my shirt.
Wearing the right amount for the bike still means being cold for the first few minutes while you warm up. Last year my commute was <10mins and mainly downhill so over dressing wasn't a problem.
year my commute was <10mins and mainly downhill
I take it it was a hot and sweaty mainly uphill ride home then - unless you've made some advances in perpetual motion that you've been keeping to yourself ;)
Yeah, sadly uphill on the way home so much more likely to be in shirt sleeves.
But given my commute included a train journey there must be scope somewhere for someone to commute downhill both ways if they could choose a different station for leaving and returning.
Can't think of an example in Edinburgh though...
Perhaps if you lived halfway between Tyndrum Upper and Tyndrum Lower and commuted to Crianlarich? 'Spect the train choices might be a bit limited though...
If you worked (or lived) in a building with entrances/exits on two different levels on different streets and the difference in altitude between them spanned the altitude of the entrance/exit at home (or at work) it would be possible, though would ignore some sort of traipse up some stairs during the working day (or sleeping night).
Yeah, my first thought was if you worked in the Cairngorm Ptarmagin Restaurant and could take your bike up on the funicular of a morning. But this would involve living in a cave on Cairngorm somewhere which seems like a bit of a sacrifice for a perpetual downhill commute.
Perhaps if you worked at the courts and lived half-way down Victoria Street and were allowed to leave via the upper levels. Certainly <10mins each way.
[topic]Unless it's been extremely windy or extremely rainy I've generally found a coat-type thing too much so far this winter. Two base layers over the torso and one covering on the arms usually suffices. I did leave last night with one LS and one SS and some arm warmers completing the second layer but reluctantly switched the top layer to my coat-type thing when the rain got to the point where I was getting slightly damper being uncovered than would have been the case through perspiration with the coat on, at the speeds involved.
@cb if you lived in Falkirk you could cruise down to Gramestown in the morning and get the train to Falkirk high in the evening.
If anyone cares, I've just been wearing my high-vis jacket over a t-shirt and have stopped wearing long-johns under my jeans :) I have some extra clothes in my bag and I put these on when I get to work. Never a sweaty moment.
Dunno what I'll do when the temperature rises above, say, 10 C though... it'll probably involve sweat :D
Last week it was Craghoppers, shirt, fleecy in the morning and no fleecy in the afternoon.
Didn't bother with hat or gloves although I did have them with me.
In 2-3 weeks I'll not need lights in the morning, already don't need them in the afternoon even when picking up number 4 son.
Out East Linton / Gifford way today. Pretty chilly because of the damp hanging in the air. just comfortable in roubaix tights, bibshorts, booties, wooly socks, merino longsleeve, longsleeve jumper and a buff and skullcap. Hands and face got pretty cold though.
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