Mars

As I type this, New Orleans is dead in the sights of Hurricane Katrina. It is supposed to arrive there sometime tonight. My best wishes and hopes go to everyone riding out the monster storm tonight and tomorrow.

I will be riding all 5 days this week, I think, the first time since spring. Hope my legs and butt are up to the challenge! Good riding everybody and cross your fingers for the people of New Orleans.

jur

Oh drat. Now we have 2 week 24 threads.

Mods, please merge?

tibikefor2

Well, what a glorious day in the Nation's Capital. Temps in the high 60s and not too humid. Hope everyone has a great week. On a side note, I will be putting aside some $ for the inevitable Help New Orleans fund.

craigery

My first VLC. I rode from my house to my parents house yesterday for an engagement party for me and my fiance. It ended up being 27.2 miles. That is the furthest I've gone so far.

Marylandnewbie

Craigery, good for you on stretching out the distance.

I skipped the morning commute since it was the first day of school for my son. We drove over to school so we could both see him off. I'll be riding from now on and since his school is just off the bike trail I use, it will be easy to swing by. I think there will be a few times this fall when he and I will ride to and from school. I'm looking forward to the novelty of bike commuting to school. It seemed like a great morning to ride, too bad I missed it.

I agree with Mars in hoping the damage to New Orleans will not be too bad and hopefully there will be no loss of life -- but on the upside this may be what it takes to wash the stains and smells of decades of partying off the bricks of Bourbon street. Probably now the sort of street cleaning anyone was looking for. I wonder what effect storm surge flooding might have on the termite problem that is eating up a lot of New Orleans.

french.ace

Going to be a slow commute week with alot of activity at home going on. As of now, it looks like only thursday and friday (which look like they'll be the nicest days anyways). Do we have any VLC'ers from the New Orleans area?

On a side note, I smoked my record time home on Friday and felt really good doing it. It feels really good to have a real good ride every once in a while.

DanO220

I'm feelin' for New Orleans - especially with the great weather we're having out west. Yes, it's been blistering hot in SoCal, but the mornings are still really nice for riding before the real heat arrives. Although you're not going to find me cruising around at lunch time, this morning's commute was great. I was feeling a bit of running I did on the weekend. If y'all don't run like me, try jogging a few miles and a couple 100 yard dashes to mix it up. I was sore, but the bike uses a few different muscles so it actually helped me recover from the foot race. I usually don't work on Monday's, but they called me in so I'm getting in on the ground floor of this week's VLC. I'll probably skip tomorrow but make the ride on Wed and Fri. Feeling great! Hope everyone has a great week on the bike.

DanO

jur

We had a great spring weekend inserted in a chilly winter here and some great riding was done, training for Melbourne's annual Around-the-bay-in-a-day, Oz's greates bike ride. There was this one chap in our group, Mr Thunderthighs, who works for Boeing, he must have a job kick-starting Boeing engines. He's also extremely competitive, and rides in front hammering all the time, then waits occasionally for everyone else to catch up.

Well I didn't commute 50km a day in hilly terrain for 8 months for nothing, so I decided to keep up with this chap as he hammered. With those massive thighs he was able to sprint and draw away from me a bit initially, but by putting my head down, keeping cadence high and with controlled breathing, I was able to reel him in every time and then stay with him regardless of how he tried to shake me. The last time as we waited for the others to catch up, he looked at me with sweat pouring, and said that he tried all he can to drop me but just couldn't do it, that I was very good.

Vive la commuting!

I made the sub-60 minute commute yesterday morning and today, but last night on the way home I felt fatigued and it was windy, so I took it easy.

Mars

Whoops! I didn't even see your other thread! Oh well!

Another hot and humid day. Rode my commute largely without incident. Stopped to help a woman whose chain had come off. She had a chain guard that covered most of the ring, so it was a bit of a struggle. Got her on the road again, though. Told her she could repay me by stopping and helping a cyclist with a breakdown next time she saw one.

Hey! My wife is drinking my sangria again!!!!

The remnants of hurricame Katrina are supposed to be passing through here tomorrow and thenext day, so lots of rain in the forecast.

Longhorn

I'm very disappointed that I couldn't start my VLC today. It was the first day of school and I brought my clothes and bike and was all set. However, I just have too much work to do! I'm teaching a course for the first time and have a new text in the other and just can't relax until I have my plans and quizzes and such ready to get me through the week. Since it's a one-way commute and I have a bunch of stuff to carry back to school tomorrow, I'll have to wait until Wednesday.

I did get to try out my new Brooks Champion Flyer "S" saddle for about five minutes Sunday. The good news is that for those five minutes, it was comfortable.

Marylandnewbie

Back in the saddle today. A very uneventful ride in although the forecasts of rain this afternoon seemed to clear away a lot of MUP users. I think our heavy rains are supposed to arrive this afternoon/evening and run through tomorrow, so I can look forward to some wet riding.

It looks like I will be taking my son to school on a bike at least one day next week and possibly two. That should be a fun change of pace. I should hit 2000 mi. on the bike sometime toward the end of next week if everything goes as planned. A milestone, but somehow not as amazing to me as passing the first 1K. I guess as you get more used to riding it is not as hard to believe the miles piling up.

Looking forward to winter commuting I was wondering is anyone in the VLC rides on studded tires in the winter? If so, how much (if at all) do they affect your bike handling and speed? Any other tips to riding on studded tires anyone has to offer?

tibikefor2

Newbie:

Studded tires are a blast to ride on packed snow and ice and not so much fun on bare pavement. A couple of points is that studded tires are quite heavy, which will increase the rotational drag. When I ride the studded tires I expect a 10% increase in commute time. One other thing that you will notice is that you will ride a lower gear. The only handling difference is when making turns. On studded tires you can not dive into corners, but take them in a more sedate fashion.

Also, in my humble opinion the only studded tire worth buying are Nokians.

JavaMan

Hello VLCers! Yesterday I brought clothes and food to work in my car, and the weather was clear and beautiful. Today I commuted by bike and it was foggy I'm sure it will burn off by noon. At least I didn't have to ride in the rain.

Things are very busy for me at work right now because we are doing clinical trials on a new product I developed. So far, so good after 1 week at three locations. I felt pretty tired on my commute this morning even though I didn't ride Monday - maybe it's stress.

DanO220

That's my problem Longhorn. I work at an advertising agency and we're getting pounded this week with work, while we're upgrading all our computers and software. We'll be working 12 or 14 hour days straight through today and tomorrow. It's a good thing I rode in yesterday because I might not get back in the saddle until it's time to go home on Friday. It's times like these I wish I lived like 10 or 12 miles from work, because I would be able to pedal the shorter distance even when I'm plagued by overtime. You can always ad mileage to make it a VLC, but you can't take it away when you don't have the time. I hope everyone is having a good week. Keep the faith.

DanO

Marylandnewbie

Tibike -- thanks for the info. I was heavily favoring the Nokians as well since from everything I've read they seem to wear the best. I was just curious about how they feel in actual use.

Do I assume correctly that most riders hold off putting the studded tires on until snow actually flies? Given their extra weight I assume most people put off using them until necessary.

JohnnyCool

Greetings to the VLC! Speaking of weather..well we were...sort of. Does anyone else experience what I call micro-climates on their commutes? These are perceptable changes in temp, humidity, wind during your commute. This morning's were very pronounced. I have a very short (1/2 a block) decent down to the level of my bike trail and it felt like the temp dropped 2-3 degrees. Further on up the trail, it became slightly foggy, warmer and very humid - my glasses were actually fogging up! That had not happened before. Finally, about 12 miles into my commute, as I rounded a long sweeping turn, the temp drops 4-5 degrees! I was surprised at how pronouced this drop in temp was. I'd have put on a jacket if I had one. Anyways, I was just surprised at how varied things were this AM.

PS - My thoughts and prayers go out to those impacted by Katrina
PSS - I keep playing Led Zeps "When the Levee Breaks" and Tragically Hips "New Orleans is Sinking" in my head. (I'm weird)

tibikefor2

Newbie:

I have two sets of wheels for my commuter. This way I can swap wheels when necessary.

rainedon

Sorry for my absence the last couple of weeks. I got married and was on the obligatory honeymoon, but I'm back in the saddle and feeling pretty good in spite of all of the eating I've been doing. I got to commute in the rain for the first time in months yesterday. It felt kind of nice and familiar. I'll take a nice mist over a 95 degree commute any day.

It is bike commute challenge 2005 here in Portland during the month of September. Sponsored by the Portland Bicycle Transportation Alliance. A friendly competition between buisiness' to see who can get the most people commuting. I signed my company up and am trying to create a few new commuters in the process. There are 21 workdays possible for us in September and I've set a personal goal to commute 18 of those. That should get me into shape for cross season.

Nate

mirona

I'm just popping in to ask how long is very long? I start my commute once again next week and it is 32 miles round trip. Can I join your super duper club?!

JavaMan

rainedon - Welcome back. Congratulations on your marriage!

mirona - If you have to ask...it's long enough! Welcome!

jur

Very windy today. Trees lying over the bike paths at couple places. No sub-60 min commute for me. I hope a falling tree doesn't land on me or anyone else for that matter.

Gusboh

Just started the VLC today boys (and girls).
23 km each way (about 30 mile RT).

Had a 15 knot side/headwind on the way in, forecasting a 45 knot side/headwind on the way home.

"Welcome to the big leagues boy"

- Gus

JavaMan

Welcome, Gusboh! You and jur be careful in the high winds!

On my commute home today, I was going pretty slow, so I decided to try the bike path that runs from Doheeney Beach to San Juan Capistrano. It's been about 6 months since I've used it.

Well, the high tide had flooded the bike path where it goes under PCH, so I had to make a detour. If that wasn't enough, there were 2 different groups of people walking 3 abreast on the wrong side, bikes going every which way, kids playing who did not get out of the way until I shouted for the 3rd time, and so on. But I really did not mind! Riding slowly (about 15 to 17 mph) makes all the difference!

I noticed about a dozen pelicans at the beach, and that the creek along the path was very scenic. I crossed a picturesque, well-rusted pedestrian bridge with rough-hewn timbers for a roadway, and realized how quiet it could be without cars. Plus I had a tailwind!

I know I often put down MUPs, but today I actually enjoyed it!

DamianM

That was fun wasn't it!
Where you riding to - from ?

TheDL

Congrats Nate! I was wondering where you've been.

Commuting is not panning out for me this week it seems, drat. I too am tiring of the heat.