caloso

My two cents: I would definitely find a new route. I'd rather ride through the bar district at 2 am than a school zone at 7:45 am.

HardyWeinberg

340 revs on the 52t ring going home Friday (140 revs going in) over ~13 miles r/t commute (no revs on 52t ring for lunchtime errands).

Today's ride in was made annoying by my freaking front derailer that I just cannot tame. My main goal now is to get it assembled enough that I can ride it back into town to LBS after work. Right now, w/ no tension on the derailer (cable disconnected), the cage is centered over the middle ring. Makes adjusting L limit screw tricky.

oilfreeandhappy

I had a flat today. 3 weeks ago, I rode on a 500 mile tour. This weekend I went on a 250-mile tour. No problems. Then on an 8-mile commute, I get a blowout! Go figure...

luckysnafu

Warm and humid ride in this morning. Fairly fast for a Monday morning though I am hoping to avoid any rain or storms this afternoon on the way home.

chephy

Today I listened to music on my bike for the first time! Sounds nice.

I stayed on trails for just about the whole commute, however, and was shoulderchecking like crazy to make sure I wasn't one of those annoying, oblivious to everything mp3 junkies.

Topher_Aus

I had a bad run. I called in at a servo to top up my tires, and the compresser had stopped, so I ended up with a flat rear tyre. I thought this wasn't a problem as I had a little hand pump, but then that broke as well. I now had a flat tire, and no way of re-inflating it. I then walked my bike to the next servo, but that had an automatic tire inflater that I couldn't get to work with a bike tire. The next one also had an automatic inflater, and the one after that didn't have air at all. I ended up walking about 4ks until I finally found a servo I could use.

beingtxstate

First commute on the new Trek...I was smiling ear to ear

icedmocha 

Commute home today was good. To work last night at 10:45 however I had some hooligans yell at me and attempt to hit me with a beach-ball looking thing. I might get a helmet HID to blind them with for next time. A sound investment I think.

donnamb 

Rode up to the vet after I got off work to pick up food for The Monster. Why is it that cars treat me better when I'm hauling a 10 pound bag of cat food on the back of my bike?

tokolosh

they're scared you might sic the cat that eats it on them

nice day today. woke up early, but took a long time to loosen up enough for the ride, so in at about the usual time. there was coffee at home but no milk, so i treated myself by stopping at the gas-station first and buying one that i carefully carted over to the business park, then took specific time to loll around drinking before i went on with the day. i keep wanting to get up and get out and get there early so i can do that more often, just to enjoy the independence of being right there at work . . . not working yet.

i'm noticing something new these past couple of months. my feet don't like this. fine during the ride, just like the rest of me, but the rest of the day is all twangy and tender once i get there. the ligaments ain't happy, i guess, but right now it's more interesting than troublesome.

i've lost the headlight i've been using. had to chain the bike to a non-rack part of the cage this morning, due to overcrowding. did my best to keep it away from the slide-back door, but i guess it got banged anyway because the clip that holds the front casing on is broken. eh. i wanted to go buy things for my bike anyway, and in the meantime there's duct tape around here somewhere.

eventually i will get the bike in to the shop for its 2-month checkup and readjustment.

mhifoe

I made my first commute today following the birth of my daughter 3 weeks ago. Even though I hardly got any sleep it was a nice peaceful way to spend 90 minutes and left me feeling the most awake I have felt for a while.

I bought some panniers at the weekend which are fantastic. I also ordered some SKS mudguards which will hopefully arrive before some rain does.

If anyone else is thinking of commuting and has a kid on the way, I seriously recommend that they sort out routes and equipment beforehand as I did. I doubt I would be capable of working up to a long commute now, especially as my weekends are no longer empty!

* jack *

OK... ready to battle the crazy auto and foot traffic on move-in day at Duke... wish me luck!

p.s. Triangle folks-
We're starting up Cruiser Tuesday in Carrboro again: first ride of the 2006 season is tonight!
https://www.cruisertuesday.blogspot.com/

vtjim

Get a mirror, and ride faster than everyone else. That's how I do it.

Nice morning ride except for the headwind. ~60F. My chain is producing a sort of grinding sensation every once in a while, even when well-lubed. Actually it gets worse after I clean it. I fear it's near death. My inner chainring is badly worn so I can't just replace the chain. I may have to take the bike in for replacements before the chain detonates. It's the original (1987) drivetrain.

diff_lock2

Almost killed a kid.

Going over 40kmph down hill, and i see a lady comeing my way so move away more to the right cause i was going fast and there was water spray... then! this kid moves our to my right (in front of me, his left) from behine the lady to get in the puddle i was avoiding, so i slam my brake (front) but that didnt help even though it slowed me down to maybe 20 i was too late and going fast enough to dice this kid (3-5 years old) lucky he didnt go all the way to his left. i barly had room to avoid him, with a ditch on my right. Well i made it through and heard the lady scream at the boy just as i passed him... scary *****s...

And a few days ago it was raining like crazy and my v brake would fail to work untill the wheel revoved 2x or 3x, got my heart pumpin a few time lol.

dalmore

Glad you missed the kid diff_lock2 Scary stuff when that happens.

Today was extra protien day - I ate a bug. Honestly don't see why my cat likes them so much ...

GTcommuter

Well as of today I'm officially settled into my new route. It's not great, but it has some real advantages with less traffic and passing a Chick-fil-a. I'm trying not to eat any fast food, but their chicken biscuits are good. Maybe once a week on Friday if I've done all my extracuricular running during the week. Two incidents today: one with an anxious teenager, probably listening to that dang rock-or-roll music; other with a suit-type in an Infinity, gave me a honk and a "what's up?" gesture. I took the lane and made my turn at the next light.

Mr_H

Typical ride: 55 degrees or so this morning, I actually had to wear a long sleeve shirt (better then wearing the full jacket, more visible in a white shirt/yellow pull over anyhow). Relaxing...got passed by two cop cars who gave me plenty of room and no guff.

I had one of those "I'm glad I biked today" experiences too. Someone was flying a hot air ballon over the city, nice ballon, bright colors, one of those real cool sites that you don't get to see often. I caught it out of the corner of my eye and was able to watch it for a good minute or two while biking. If I had driven, I most likely never would have seen it (going too fast) and if I had, I would have only been able to watch it for about 10 seconds.

Gotta start bringing my digital camera

Wulfheir

I left early and did an extra 9km before my usual commute. I concentrated on staying in zones 1 & 2 below 72% of max hr. I averaged 33km/hr somehow, I usually average about 24.5.

mudskipper99

My ride into work was uneventfull at around 1:30am. Coming home, in the span of 2 min. or less, first as I was peddling away down the MUP, some girl pops out of the trees from a hidden path/shortcut and runs across the path to catch a bus. Had to break really hard and skidded, but she never even looked at me, even though my skidding tires were loud.

Got going again and I was still a bit shaken from almost crashing into a girl, now I suddenly notice there is a large group of ducks clogging up the pathway. Again, had to brake hard and skidded. The ducks were sure taking there time moving out of the way, but at least they werent quaking at me, for interupting their nap, like they usually do.

Started off again and then a mini-van speeds in front of me, turning left. She floored it to get through a small break in traffic, and nearly ran me over. Yet again I had to brake hard and skidded to a stop. Of course the lady behind the wheel was on a cell phone, as usual. Never looked at me.

knucklesandwich

Had a late day yesterday and rode home in the dark around 9pm. The Trek headlight I took off my fiancee's bike isn't doing the trick. If I want to keep commuting after DST ends, I'm gonna have to invest in something better.

tuolumne

My rear tire locked up in the middle of a busy intersection. Turns out the rope I had used to secure a roll of drawings had wrapped around the axle. That was a bit tricky to unwind. Where were the drawings? I back tracked and found them a mile back on the sidewalk next to a street musician. Sure beats bumper to bumper.

MyPC8MyBrain

I may have to be digging up the lights soon. It was a bit darker this morning. I hung the TL100 blinkie on the back just for kicks. My LED kits came in last night, so I'll build them into my bike box when I get some time. Also got White flahsing LED's. Think I'm going to figure out how to hang them on the front somewhere for the blinding strobe effect.

Ride in was nice, but it seems like there is a bunch more traffic with school started. High School kids are running at the same time as me in the morning. Weather was 58f and 76% humidity with fog and overcast most of the way in. Passed 3 riders going the other way, and was cranked off by a roadie in an Ironman kit headed up the hill. That boy shore did have some prudy legs.

pinkrobe

I felt really good on the ride in today. The sky was all glowy - I think local forest fires caused the blood-red sunrise. I caught a roadie with relative ease [maybe because his bike is older than I am and he had no clipless]. Traffic was very light again. It's going to be painful after Labour Day, when everyone starts driving again.

HardyWeinberg

Nice ride in today on mtn bike (blue road-y bike is resting its front derailer). No change in commute time or anything. Do I really need 2 bikes? (spare is nice).

spiritfirst

The car started acting up last night when the wife and I went out to dinner so I drove it and my bike to the mechanic this morning and commuted in from there.

I was looking forward to my new route. I tried going home on the new route last night but ended up getting a little lost and having to backtrack a bit. The new route is great, though -- no Elementary school, that's the big thing, but also no chain-killer hill (broke my chain on it a couple weeks ago) and looks like an even quieter street. It's a couple more turns, but much nicer. Now I just need to learn it.