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How was the commute today?

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Old 03-09-04, 09:48 PM
  #4251  
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For some reason traffic was bumper to bumper all the way to Morningside (about 7km). I slide through unaffected, but some clown still has the nerve to point to the footpath on the Story Bridge as though he thought I was somehow in the way and delaying traffic. Idiot
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Old 03-10-04, 12:08 AM
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Beautiful commute today, especially with the weather finally nice enough to take the nice bike out.

With the bus strike, my daily commute of 12 miles has been stetched to 30 miles, but with today's weather, I greatly enjoyed the extra miles!
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Old 03-10-04, 12:17 AM
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beautiful day. Half way to work, the front derailer would not shift. This is bad as I have a tough hill on my way home. Took the trolley home instead. Beautiful day, though.
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Old 03-10-04, 02:18 AM
  #4254  
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Originally Posted by Allister
For some reason traffic was bumper to bumper all the way to Morningside (about 7km). I slide through unaffected, but some clown still has the nerve to point to the footpath on the Story Bridge as though he thought I was somehow in the way and delaying traffic. Idiot


Gotta love 'em don't cha? What I love the most is if you cop a red light, allowing a gap of about 100 metres or so between the intersection and the back of the gridlock. As soon as the light changes they all take off like Ayrton Senna, only to have to slam on the brakes again a second later. Or the idiot pulling out of that service station just south of the Chevron Island turn off, so determined to cut me off that he only missed hitting the car in front by millimetres -- best part was, he totally failed in his objective.
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Old 03-10-04, 06:21 AM
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Windy here too for the trip home. not as bad as before. Nice sunny ride home, saw two other commuters on my route, that is the most I have ever seen.
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Old 03-10-04, 10:47 AM
  #4256  
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It's still cold here, but this morning provided a nice dose of sunshine. However, some ugly grey clouds have amassed and seem to threaten precipitation of some sort. Perhaps it will turn out to be a snow flurry, which was mentioned in this morning's forecast - we had a little at lunchtime!

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Old 03-10-04, 10:57 AM
  #4257  
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Mid 60s F yesterday evening, snow on the ground this morning. It sure feels like spring time in the Rockies!
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Old 03-10-04, 11:22 AM
  #4258  
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Windy! Head winds in the early morning. Nasty cross winds in the late morning on my return. According to the Weather Channel the winds are 24 gusting to 32. My Trek 1500 was getting knocked sideways and at one point I thought I was going to get pushed about a foot sideways into the curb.

Otherwise, it was great
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Old 03-10-04, 03:27 PM
  #4259  
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Another great day clear and sunny low 50s temp wise a little headwind. Yesterday was not so good, but I had to drive in for a lunch meeting anyway so who cares? Def. early spring weather though -super variable, lots of rain and then sun and then rain again. Temps still a bit too variable but things are looking up.

Starting to get antsy for some touring action...
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Old 03-10-04, 05:04 PM
  #4260  
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Originally Posted by Chris L


Gotta love 'em don't cha? What I love the most is if you cop a red light, allowing a gap of about 100 metres or so between the intersection and the back of the gridlock. As soon as the light changes they all take off like Ayrton Senna, only to have to slam on the brakes again a second later. Or the idiot pulling out of that service station just south of the Chevron Island turn off, so determined to cut me off that he only missed hitting the car in front by millimetres -- best part was, he totally failed in his objective.
Yeah, it never ceases to baffle me why some motorists still think they can get through city traffic faster than a cyclist. Red lights seem to have some strange attractive power that draws drivers to them like moths to a headlight and they have to get as close as possible to them as quickly as possible.

As for today - traffic was backed up even further. Turned out there was a semi stopped in the middle lane of the Story Bridge. God knows how many roads feed onto that one bridge. The traffic snarl will be there for hours. I passed lots of frustrated and, conversely, resigned looking motorists today.

The other cyclist I saw and I had a good laugh about it at one of the traffic lights.

Nicer weather today too. There's a bit of a cooling breeze out there - must be another storm brewing.
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Old 03-10-04, 06:45 PM
  #4261  
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This morning was one of those rare days that the temperature & snow was just right to freeze my SPD pedals' clips. In spite of stopping twice to "key" my cleats and clips, I couldnt click into my right pedal until I was almost at work. This evening was much better, even if there were some wind gusts.
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Old 03-10-04, 09:09 PM
  #4262  
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Originally Posted by Allister
Nicer weather today too. There's a bit of a cooling breeze out there - must be another storm brewing.
That southerly actually started last night. I managed to sneak in an extra 45km or so after work.

Had some jerk in a red sports car deliberately swerve at me today. Good job I was lane claiming and had some space to back into. I'm a little disappointed with myself that I didn't take a number and fire off a little report.
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Old 03-11-04, 01:11 AM
  #4263  
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Chris...I sure like your approach to taking license plate numbers..Maybe in Queensland you have fewer characters on the plates than here in California...Here we have 7 characters, I think, with a strange mixture of numbers and letters.
The cars pass so quickly and become distant so fast, I don't see you can see them in time.
If I could fire off a police report, that would give me more satisification than cursing at the jerk.
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Old 03-11-04, 03:51 AM
  #4264  
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Great ride this morning on the Dawes racer. She was treated to new wheels and new 52T chainring recently and this was the first time out on the new kit. We were just cruising along. Av. speed 18.4 over 10.5 miles was pretty good for me too.

Cheers,

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Old 03-11-04, 03:53 AM
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Had a good cycle in today, my commute's short (hey, I've just realised this is my first post! Have to nip along to the introductions forum after this one!), just about 1.5 miles, but it's all uphill. For those of you who know Edinburgh, I start out at sea level and end up just a hundred yards below the castle. For those of you who don't know Edinburgh, the castle's built on a volcanic plug! I'm usually fairly comfy but sometimes just get dog-tired, today though I was in the zone! Stomped all the way up the hills, past all the traffic at lights and into work with a smile on my face and a song in my heart!
Ahhhhh!
And my boss just called in late, so I can read BF for a while!
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Old 03-11-04, 04:45 AM
  #4266  
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Originally Posted by cyclezealot
Chris...I sure like your approach to taking license plate numbers..Maybe in Queensland you have fewer characters on the plates than here in California...Here we have 7 characters, I think, with a strange mixture of numbers and letters.
The cars pass so quickly and become distant so fast, I don't see you can see them in time.
If I could fire off a police report, that would give me more satisification than cursing at the jerk.
Here we generally have six characters. It's doable if you think quickly enough, but the problem was, I didn't. Had I looked up straight away and caught even a glimpse of the plate with the intention of reporting it, I'm sure I could have memorised it for long enough to pull over and write it down.
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Old 03-11-04, 06:58 AM
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Great ride in today, I feel that I'm really getting back into the swing of things after taking off Dec through most of Feb. Had a good rythym and took the time to enjoy a beautiful sunrise, geese, ducks, the airplanes at National...I even refined my "system" a little to include: a bigger backpack (to accomodate shoes instead of bungey-ing them to the rack), leaving some things at work instead of loading/unloading them each morning, and a rear fender to keep spray off my back. I used to have to constantly check to see if my shoes were still on the rack after a bump as they'd fallen off or come lose several times. Now my bag is completely packed the night before so all I have to do is throw it on and leave-it cut a little over 5 minutes off of my total time. Also, is it me or does it seem that more people are starting to ride to work these days?
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Old 03-11-04, 07:26 AM
  #4268  
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I also had a great ride in this morning, left a little late, actually got to ride in the daylight for a change, temp was 0 C, 32 F, light tailwind from the south at 8 Kph. I think I had a little solar power going for me too, it was my fastest ride of the winter so far. Beautiful red rubber ball sunrise over a rippled Lake Ontario viewed from the Beach trail. Saw a local resident sitting at a picnic table on the beach having his coffee in his housecoat (must have been an insulated housecoat).
The shore ice is almost gone, only out about 30' at most and about 3' thick, in February it was out about 300' and about 8' thick. When I rode along the trail in February I was half expecting a Polar Bear to come bounding across the ice. I guess I watch too much Discovery Channel.
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Old 03-11-04, 08:19 AM
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Temps in the 40s (F) and a little wind, but otherwise sunny and pleasant.

I find myself sometimes reluctant to ride in every morning. It's only a 6 mile ride, but I feel like a slug first thing on weekday mornings.

But I generally don't regret it once I get moving, and then I look forward to the 6 mile return trip every night.

Of course, I'm a wimp about riding in bad weather, but I just catch the bus on those days.
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Old 03-11-04, 09:04 AM
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The ride home last night was really fun. I had to work late (when the home office you represent is in New Mexico, business development TELCONS are on Mountain Time), and it was great to swoosh through the darkness with overcoat stored on the rack and halogen light making a white tunnel.

mjw16:

I have the same impression -- these are a lot more bike commuters on the road than there have been for months. I think that there is a long-term increase as well as a short-term one -- there seemed to be about as many on the road this January as there were in June a few years ago.

This weekend, I am taking off the studded tires. The last ice vanished two weeks ago.

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Old 03-11-04, 11:34 AM
  #4271  
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I got extra miles in yesterday going to both offices and that was nice, even though it rained part of it (45F/7C). Today I woke up to 5F/-15C with winds up to 35mph. I had to drive today because I've got all sorts of running to do and a tight time frame. Tomorrow is suppose to be some of the same, I'll have to dig out my foot warmers for my ride in.
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Old 03-11-04, 12:19 PM
  #4272  
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Cold this morning! It felt even worse as I was on the road bike going faster than I can push the commuter bike. Sunny skies.
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Old 03-11-04, 01:53 PM
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On Tuesday I bused home since I worked late. Spent most of that trip kicking myself for taking the bus, since it ended up being slower than biking, and the dark wasn't so bad. Worked late yesterday as well but I did ride. It went fine, although my headlight is pointing a little too far down.
The weather was pretty incredible. Biking down the beach is was probably about 50s. Then as I turned away from it I was met by a very warm headwind, 70-some degrees I would guess. The whole ride home there were these sudden temperature transitions.
Biked in again this morning. It's more fun in the light, and I'm feeling pretty good.

Tim
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Old 03-11-04, 03:03 PM
  #4274  
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Last couple of days have been quite nice. Been able to maintain a good speed on the journey, however it was all change this evening on the way home. Wind had picked up which made things colder and slower. To make matters worse something seems to be wrong with the chainset/bottom bracket feels like its slipping ever now and again. Time to browse the Mechanics section....
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Old 03-11-04, 03:43 PM
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Haven't commuted all this week... been sick with a flu/cold. Is it perverted to read these stories to keep me company?
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