Despite the heavy snow falling, and the rapidly disappearing tarmac (under a blanket of white), I carried the Surly out of the basement and set off on the morning commute. I wasn’t really looking forward to it, but I had a slate of meetings that I’d rather not deal with over the phone, and, really, I just needed to go out in the snow and do the commute–to get over that hump, as it were. So off I went. The side streets through Morningside and Highland Park were snow-covered, but since it was a fair bit warmer than Wednesday, the level of grip was much higher. The narrow tires were cutting through the snow and hitting wet pavement beneath. Additionally, I began to discover the great mystery of What Streets the City Will Salt.

Hampton Avenue, on the other side of Heth’s Run, was covered with salt. Crunch, crunch, crunch. North Negley was wet-ish and slushy-ish. Outside of the tire tracks, the snow was decent, and again, I was cutting through the crud to wet pavement. At Centre Avenue, however, Negley became snow covered, though grip was acceptable. Ellsworth wasn’t terrible, either, but past Morewood, it was snow. I thought conditions would improve closer to Oakland, but I would be wrong. Fifth Avenue was completely snow-covered. Wha? I trailed a bus the entire way, so I could comfortably sit in the tire tracks without really blocking traffic. The Birmingham Bridge was, ummm, interesting–covered with snow, but with lower levels of grip since the surface was colder. Traffic was light, though, so slow and steady wins the race, and soon enough I was rolling into the loading dock. I asked one of the maintenance guys if I could borrow a bucket to throw some water on the bike to clean it off, and he suggested I just use the hose. Excellent. It’s nice to know the bike is rusting while I work.

In other news, I’m buying a used mountain bike for days like this, likely a 29-er Redline Monocoq. Whee!

Posted on 7 December 2007