I unfortunately had a bit of a family emergency and between work, school, and being out of town I haven't been on my bike much during the month of July. Which has been a bit of a blessing because the heat has only gotten more.....heated. The unfortunate side effect of this is cycling has gotten more dangerous, both on a temperature level and because everyone's fuse is about a quarter inch long.
On a representative commute recently, I was heading to work during evening rush hour. As I sat at on the blacktop at 5 p.m., I knew the weather channel had declared the temperature to be 105 F. However, the heat radiating off the pavement and coming off the cars surrounding me raised the effective temperature by about 20 F, meaning I was slow cooking on my bike in about 125 degree heat. The sun actually hurt. As I hopped up onto my pedal to make my turn after the light, someone honked at me, then cut me off. Maybe it's confirmation bias, but it always seems worse in the summer. Oi. Let it be late September sooner rather than later.
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