In Which CR Biker Admits He Is A Liar

Corner of Collins Road and F Avenue NE this morning.  A fine, sunny, cold winter morning--with mostly bare pavement.

Well, sort, of.  Not actually, because lying involves intent to deceive, I and was merely unintentionally misleading, which is not the same thing.

I wrote in late December that snow had ended the biking season, until further notice.  Further notice is hereby given.

It was cold this morning, what one of my daughter’s friends used to call “psycho cold.”  The temperature was in single digits Fahrenheit, which puts it way into the negatives Celsius, and a nice breeze made the outdoors feel like below zero in the Fahrenheit scale too.

But, I was bundled up.  I have new gloves, which proved very warm indeed. I wore my long johns, I had my two pairs of socks, two shirts including a fluffy warm MMU sweatshirt and my wind-cutting light biking jacket.  I even had on my jaunty green Nepalese scarf.

All in all, cold really wasn’t that much of a problem for me.  Ice was, in spots.  There are plenty of quiet residential streets in Cedar Rapids where black ice has been smoothed by the passage of traffic.  Even many cleared streets were edged with ice, making the traffic way narrow for your two-wheeled correspondent.

Still, the pavement is mostly bare.  I felt a bit silly starting off, but decided when I got there that it had not really been that bad of a ride.  I should be able to leave campus early enough tonight that I won’t be going home in full dark.

All in all, the first real commute on the new, stronger rear wheel was a success.  The most treacherous part was the Rockwell-Collins parking lots—I think they’ve been so closed down recently that there has not been enough traffic to wear away the ice—but even those were passable, with caution.

I am ringing bells as part of the MMU bell choir Thursday night.  Given the state of the streets, I may drive that evening, just to avoid a ride in full darkness—that black ice may be a bit too hard to spot, sans the help of our sun.

Still, I’m glad that 2013 sees, at least at its start, some biking commuting weather.  Take my word for it, if you want to.  But then again, maybe you should not.  I’m a known liar.

Not sure why, but at MMU I had the bike rack all to my self.  Guy in the background sure has a cold job!