Annnnd we're back! :)

[Danneaux]

Thank you for your patience during today's outage. It seems a server may have been down for maintenance.

Back now!

Best,

Dan.

[jags]

 

[Mike Ayling]

I only login once a day and it was OK then.

Mike

[ají]

thanks Dan

[bobs]

 

[RST Scout]

Yay!  Nice to have it back.

[John Saxby]

I was beginning to wonder -- stars misaligned, the Natural Order of Things evidently & profoundly out-of-sorts, and now the Thorn website kaput...

Well, normal service resumed in some respects at least, TGFT. 

On the matter of the NOT being out-of-sorts, is anyone able to do anything about the jet stream?  It's off on a "slow meander", say the climate scientists. Normally, I'm in favour of slow meanders, especially on a summer evening, but now we have weird things like warm south-westerly winds in mid-January, miasmas coming our way from places like Ohio, producing rain and other airborne crud -- but never consistently enough to make riding a bike a viable option, only enough to ruin the canal for skating :-(

In a similar vein, Dan, we heard news stories--real ones--of serious ice storms heading your way. Everything OK?

[Danneaux]

In a similar vein, Dan, we heard news stories--real ones--of serious ice storms heading your way. Everything OK?

Well...no, and yes.

No...in that we've been dealing with one ice and snowstorm after the other this last three weeks or so. Big, tree-snapping things and lots of power outages. I was without power for just a few hours, but the folks across my back fence were without for six days. I offered to string a power cable through the fence to keep their refrigerator and freezer going, but they decided to stay over at their kids' place, where there was still heat, lights, and intentional refrigeration.

I got out on the Nomad for a 100km ride the other day, but it was still snowy and ice in places. My driveway was one of the worst. The snow was easy enough to remove, but I spent a couple hours Saturday chipping through the 1.5cm of ice that remained. Attached below is a photo taken of me by the car after my ride. This is in one small corner of the plowed store parking lot where I went to pick up some hardware. There's still ice out front and throughout the garden, but it seems to be melting at last. Now, we've got a warm spell and torrential rains are expected along with widespread (areal) flooding. Portland to the north had temperatures well below freezing when the rain hit there today. Up by the Columbia River, as much as 3.8cm of ice formed when the rain froze on contact. I feel for them.

Back to your question: Yes...in that it looks like this round is over for the ice and snow and we can turn the page to begin dealing with floods. That 100km ride took me through farmlands in the southern Willamette Valley and I found myself needing to make big detours to find roads that were not underwater with icy hummocks of leftover snow alongside. I saw a couple fish swimming and flopping across the road where it was under about 15cm of water.

Spring is still a ways away, but we'll get there! 

All good thoughts are with those of us dealing with the wet, white, icy stuff for awhile yet.

All the best,

Dan.

[ají]

you using spikes, Dan?

[Danneaux]

you using spikes, Dan?

On my shoes! I have removable "tire chains" that consist of wound stainless wires that encircle a rubber web that attaches to my shoes. I wore them on my ride so I could walk the bike uphill and downhill when the tires didn't get traction.

I don't have spiked or studded tires at present, but back in my uni days, I used to make my own using stainless blind rivets and carbide toothed washers to commute on. They worked reasonably well going uphill, but downhill was something else again!  If I braked hard on dry pavement at night, I could raise showers of yellow sparks, so there were some upsides as well. 

Mostly, I rode carefully the other day, tried not to lean, and watched like crazy for black ice and icy hummocks of snow that had frozen. I made it okay, but it was not the most relaxing ride. 

All the best,

Dan.

[ají]

 nice one Dan. I heard Schwalbe do some nice spiked tyres. do you not like them?
can you tell me about your internal frame protection routine, or link me to the entry?

[Danneaux]

nice one Dan. I heard Schwalbe do some nice spiked tyres. do you not like them?

I think they're terrific, but I have a number of bikes, spiked tires are not the least expensive, and I have not felt I could justify the cost in recent years for the relatively short time I would use them in my locale. If I lived where it was more consistently ice or snowy, then of course they would be a terrific investment...probably a necessity, as I enjoy riding in what many regard as "bad" weather. 

I'll answer your second question in a separate topic, to make it more easily searchable in the future.

Best,

Dan.

[ají]

glad you like the "bad" weather, living in the mighty PNW!

[Matt2matt2002]

I noticed the site was down.
Does the fact that I checked x4 times indicate something?

Weather here in Scotlandshire has been mixed but nowhere near as bad as parts of USA. Ski slopes 60 miles from me are still struggling.

[geocycle]

Glad we are back, it is disconcerting to click on the link and nothing is there! I guess a procedure for notifying users about possible longer outages could be put in place.  Perhaps the default might be a message on the Thorn cycles website?