Bicycling in Bloomington

 I have not been on the bike since last Tuesday. It’s the weather !!

I don’t particularly mind cold weather and wet weather is generally fine. But, cold, wet weather causes problems for me. My morning commute from home to College Mall Rd has a number places where the road is narrow and shaded. There are a few consistently dangerous spots on Sare Rd that seem to gather moisture during the day and freeze overnight. If Sare Rd had little traffic, it would be possible to avoid the ice but the road is heavily travelled, and narrow and curvy in places.

I have some experience riding in ice and snow and after doing it for awhile, I decided it wasn’t much fun. Of course, it’s not much different from off-road riding in many ways. Last Friday, it snowed and iced. I drove my spouse to work and was driving towards my office when I saw a bicyclist riding on 7^th St. I’m fairly certain it was my fellow Bloomington biking blogger - Ear to the Breeze. The look on his face was similar to what I feel riding down a rooty, rutty, rocky hill on a mountain bike. His words.

A second reason that I don’t commute in wet weather is because I often need the car to arrive a meetings in clean clothes. I work in a building that is more than a mile from most of my meetings. It’s always faster to ride than drive to the meetings. When the roads are dry, it’s fun to ride. But, I don’t like to arrive at meetings with wet, gritty pants from wet roads.

Together, the cold, wet weather has prevented me from riding for a week. I’m happy that I can ride the trainer and run occasionally. And I’m looking forward to better weather.