Photos: Riders in the fog

I saw way too many folks riding around this morning without their lights on. Really need ’em on in this fog to stay safe (front and back, please).

Left at 5:30am from Hollywood heading towards Gresham. It was foggy and icy nearly the whole way. No problems with traction, just took it very slow around corners and when stopping. Looking forward to an ice-free ride home this afternoon.

Outstanding photos, Jonathan!

Beautiful shots!

“bridges are notoriously icy because they have no warm earth beneath them”

And from what I understand, the two crashes on N Flint were right around the steep part of the freeway overpass:

http://bit.ly/vCDNqR

So that’s probably why it was extra slippery.

Lots of impatient drivers not paying attention this morning on N Vancouver and making stupidly dangerous moves across the bike lane.

I was fully lit for exactly this eventuality, but it did little to induce better behavior from people behind the wheel.

Some drivers are outright hostile to bike lights. To wit: from yesterday’s ‘Rant and Rave’ in the Seattle Times “Rant To the bicyclist whose flashing strobe light reflected for blocks in my mirrors. Those blinding lights should be prohibited.”

Seems like you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Hopefully it will just be a matter of some drivers getting used to them.

Studded tires are one thing that is pretty close to failproof. For our not-really-winter conditions one in front is generally sufficient. I ride with a front studder all winter and no longer have to worry about slipping in the middle of a frosty curve.

For non-studded tires, I find that (unlike on wet pavement) a tire with a modest “file” tread pattern generally does grab the ice a bit better than a pure slick. Rubber compound should make a big difference, too, but we’ll have to rely on tire-by-tire evidence here. I will say that I’ve found Ritchey SpeedMax cyclocross tires to be pretty decent on frost.

As for lighting … It’s not just cyclists who don’t have the sense to use lighting on foggy mornings. As is usually the case, it looked like about 1 out of 10 motorists didn’t have the wits to turn on their lights either.

Anton, it isn’t the brightness of bike lights that is driving people crazy — it’s how they’re aimed. I think this is becoming a serious problem now that powerful bike lights are finally available to the masses. Car low-beam headlights are designed to mostly illuminate the pavement, and have a sharp cutoff across the top to avoid blinding others. The reason high beams blind oncoming traffic isn’t because they’re brighter (they’re only a few percent brighter than low beams in most cases), it’s because of how they are aimed.

It’s fine to aim a $20 blinkie straight ahead to get attention. It is NOT okay to do that with a 500-1000 lumen light that approaches the brightness of a car headlight. Aim it down! If we don’t do a better job of managing our own lighting, the legislature is going to do it for us! And that will NOT be a good thing — just look at the ridiculous bike-lighting regs in Europe. FWIW, I’ve taken the further step of installing a 4″ long “hood” on the top of my bike light, which reproduces the sharp top cutoff that is common on car headlights.

I saw one of those folks go down this morning on N. Flint. She was just pass the overpass, or maybe on the edge of it. People already seemed to be going pretty slow. It was also precipitating there–it was like a very small snow shower. Plus on the Broadway Bridge, I saw a few folks walking their bikes, presumably because it was too icy for them. The roads were less icy in NW and SW than along the Williams/Vancouver area, where there were a lot of frosty leaves.

I knew it was cool this morning, but I didn’t realize how much colder it would feel than last week. Today I’ll be buying some new gloves, because waterproof isn’t enough for this temperature. I need some insulation.

Hardly any fog over here on the West side (Beaverton). Super beautiful ride though with the clear sky as the sun peeked over the hills and made all of the frost and ice come alive.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/11/bikes-and-tech/reviews/review-continental-topcontact-winter-ii-tires_197231

it was so beautiful this morning i stopped to snap a few photos too…

Fun ride this morning over the Hawthorne bridge. I don’t think I actually “saw” downtown until I was coming down the far side.

I’m sad I had to work today (well, thankful I have a job, really!) – I would have *loved* to bike to the top of council crest and look out at the city over the fog – the shots on the news this morning were beautiful.

Post title: was I supposed to hear “Riders on the Storm” after reading that?

Or maybe “Smoke on the Water”?

I’ll take cold and dry over rain any day. My least favorite riding weather is when it’s rainy and just a little above freezing. I find it easy to stay warm so long as it’s dry, it’s just a matter of layering well.

Second the cold and dry over rain. But I’ll ride in either.

A few words on lighting – generator (dynamo) hub and light. Especially the LED lights. Never go out, don’t care that it is cold. No worries about batteries EVER. Yes, they cost money, but you can get a decent dynamo hub for less than $100 now. Considerably less.