I had to drive to work today, due to my own foolishness.
After Wednesday's wintry commute home, I was a good and conscientious bike owner, and immediately washed off the worst of the salt and grime, dried off the moving bits with a hot-air gun, and re-lubed the pivot points. I even ran a few drops of lube into the cable housings, worked brakes and gears, etc.
Sadly, I neglected to take a basic precaution last night; I left the bike in the (unheated, detached) garage, rather than simply wheeling it indoors. As a result, I came out this morning to find that all four cables were frozen in their housing. D'oh.
I now better understand the urge to omit excess gearing/cabling/temperature-sensitive moving bits from the commuting bicycle. I'm becoming tempted to invest in an internally geared hub for the rear at least, maybe even with a drum brake.
Ah well. These things happen. Amusingly enough, it took me only 10 minutes less time to drive to work than to pedal; further verification that cycle-commuting really doesn't suck much additional time from my working day.
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