My lame 2008 Mazda3 (with only 40k miles on it, since I bike to work) has been falling apart.
I dropped it off at the dealership in The Valley today (northern part of Los Angeles) for service.
It’s only 15 miles from my home. That’s an easy ride, no problem!
I look on Google Maps – I get to take two protected bike ways almost the entire way there. Score!
It’s 90 degrees in my neighborhood, but that’s OK – there is a breeze. No problem.
I didn’t have any frozen water bottles or ice, but that is OK – I fill with water and dump in the Crystal Lite electrolyte mix.
And I’m off!!
- About five miles in, my water bottles are HOT. The water now tastes like warm jello.
- About ten miles in, I feel like vomiting.
- About twelve miles in, I stop by a donut shop and get my water bottles refilled and start guzzling like a mad woman, and dousing myself with water.
- At fifteen miles, I roll into the dealership, incredibly happy for this ride to now end.
It was over 100 degrees in that part of the valley.
Now, is that “too hot” to be biking? Or should I keep biking in severe heat to “toughen up”?
Is there a line when it crosses into idiocy?
But couldn’t one argue that the Tour de France is almost an insane feat of human endurance?
15 miles. That is nothing. 15 lousy miles. But throw in 100 degree heat on pavement, and man. What a sloppy sweaty mess I turned into. I miss living on the west side of LA where it’s around 75 degrees right now.
What’s the hottest (or coldest) weather you’ve ever biked (or jogged) in?
But it was a dry heat? Each year I end up riding in the upper 90’s and upper 20’s, those are my yearly extremes. I am sure others have ridden in more extreme conditions,
To a native New Englander (me), it was a dry heat. To a SoCal native, it was humid.
Woo, upper 20s!!! Do you wear something over your face (a balaclava?)?
If the weather on my side of the Valley is any indication- No, it was a pretty damn humid heat. AKA Pure sweaty misery.
But would a dry heat have been much better? Sure, the sweat would evaporate better, but you’d probably dehydrate faster, and the air is still depositing large amounts of heat into your body and everything you’re carrying.
I find walking in 100+ heat to be pretty intolerable, even in the shade my skin still feels like it’s burning from the hot air. I can’t imagine shoving my face through it at 20mph.
I guess to me, it wasn’t that humid (compared to where I grew up). I’d say the humidity was only at 40%. Which is nothin’.
That is a good question – which is worse, dry or humid heat for cycling?
I stayed at 15 MPH for the whole ride; didn’t want to push it in the heat. x.x
last summer i was rear ended. i had to drop my truck off at the body shop so they can fix it. i decide to take the day off work since i was goingto be truckless for a week. I jump on my bike and computer turns on. 90 degrees. Not bad. I commute about 12 miles to the rent a car place. after waiting an hour thye say my insurance company made the reservation for the next day. after using words that not even a drunken sailor would use i walk out and get back n my bike. computer turns on 99 degrees. FUCK!!! i had to ride 25 miles to my house… BTW i was wearing black skinny jeans and I didnt wear padded shorts!