I noticed the cars were passing a little closer than normal on the highway section I ride...Soon realized my cygolite hotshot SL was MIA...that explains the rattling I heard when I hit that $#!+@^* pothole 8 miles back. Totally bummed...I really liked that tail-light. :notamused:

Happy Monday indeed!

I wanted to update about my ride home friday. It was an beautiful but also wild ride home. I looked at radar and it showed rain north of here and I was riding southeast. I really felt like adding a few miles so I went the longer way home. :(

I was within 2.5 miles maybe less from being home and I saw dark clouds and said they look like rain clouds. Within seconds big rain drops started hitting me. I started to pedal faster. I took my next turn and the bottom fell out the sky. I was soaked with in seconds. It started raining so hard I debated pulling under someones carport but I could not find one at this point so I pressed on like a wet rat pedally my heart out. I was going to stop on the front porch of a church down the street from my house but I was only .7 miles from home and soaked so I pressed on. I made it to my street and was riding down the street about to attempt my turn up the driveway but my brakes did not stop me at all. I rode past our house and finally came to rest at neighbors. I turned around and went back to our house.

My wife was looking out the front door and yelled out to me as I rode by... she thought I could not see our house. I told her I could not stop to make it to our house. I believe that was the most effective argument for my next commuting bike to have disk brakes EVER. :thumb:

Later as we were talking she was like "surely my husband would not go the long way"... I grinned sheepishly and she said "you did didnt you!" Guilty. She just shook her head and said, "you know you would have been home before the rain if you went the other way" I know, dear, I know.

but good news as well I have been worried about my panniers leaking and the stuff in the main compartment was dry! I had my headlight on HIGH and she said she saw the glow coming down the road. People out on the main road really gave me a lot of space and actually seemed patient as I pedaled through the downpour.

I had a few commutes like that this summer, RM.

Weather this morning was fine, cloudy and humid but no rain. It's supposed to be cloudy all day, which should keep a lid on the temps. The forecast is looking sketchier for Tues & Weds, with another cold front moving through and possibility for severe thunderstorms at some point. We've had some doozies lately. The rainy weather put the kibosh on a planned weekend cycling trip along the New River Trail in VA, but we're gonna attempt it again this coming weekend.

63F, heavy rain, headwind - but glad to be back on the bike!

It was foggy and a steady drizzle all the way to work. 51F but it felt much colder. I kinda like to see the fog in my headlight in the dark, as long as it's not too heavy of a fog. Although, the cars that come at me in the opposite lane could turn off their brights when they are coming at me!

@tarwheel this is one of the first for me to be stuck in some rain and it was a doozy. Sure made the wife nervous but it certainly was an adventure and it allowed me to get 95 miles this week and save wear and tear on the cars. Plus she did not have to come out with the kids in the rain. :)

I got sick this weekend and am still a tad ill. So no commuting today. Hopefully tomorrow!

Nice to be riding again after a day off and guests in town. 69F / 21C Humid....Indian Summer.

It was a very nice commute this morning. It will be my last commute for till Dec. 1st. I made a commitment to a friend(single mom) to make sure her child gets to school. He will be going to the before school program starting in Dec. so my commitment is a mere six weeks out of my life.

Nothing wrong with helping someone out like that. Good for you.

I was surprised to see 71F this morning when I woke up. Some early morning rain left the roads wet, but I did see some blue sky on the way in.

A pretty major storm is on its way and getting here around lunch time. If it doesn't clear out or at least let up enough by quitting time, my wife will have to rescue me.

Thank-you mgw4jc, I am happy for helping someone. I am also happy that she asked for colder months rather than the nice weather in the summer as it is easier to stop riding now than the summer.

63F, heavy rain, headwind - same as yesterday

It is a balmy 16C/61F, albeit, slightly raining, and I can't ride because I had to take the car to go to the doctor's because of an eye infection I developed over the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.

Enjoy the day people!!

It was a soaker, and my hard-fairing bike didn't do a good job keeping me dry. Since I'd stripped some pieces off for the summer. I need to do some tweaking or else build a new one, or replace some panels. They're basically disposable construction.

Sunny, warm, tailwind. Nice!

Surprising lack of posts in the past 12 hours. Seems odd. Anyway, had a decent ride this morning except for the one guy that decided to *** his engine as he passed me. Light drizzle when I left the house this morning, plus a head wind.

I thought I would have a nice tail wind for the ride home, but it turned out to be a stiff cross wind from the left side. A bit scary coming down that one descent at 30+ mph. Then right at the halfway mark it started raining again and turned out to be a real soaker all the way home.

Also felt a bit more vulnerable as one tail light was out when I got to work and the other nearly there, and I totally forgot to charge them up. So I had no rear lights at all for most of 15+ miles, half of that in the rain. Made it just fine, though.

I took an extra day off for Canadian Thanksgiving this past weekend. I should be back at it tomorrow.

First time poster, been lurking for a few weeks and have started commuting by bike for the first time since about that long. I need a place to vent after my commute today, which ended with a phone call to the police...

As I was biking on a main street I forced a car that was pulling out of a parking lot to stop and wait for me to pass. Apparently that was an unforgivable offense, as he waited for me at the next stop sign and then proceeded to tail me and honk continuously over the course of a mile. At various points he would pass me, wait for me at a stop sign, and then start tailing and honking again. About three quarters of the way into this I started to flip him off (which, while justified, was a probably a bad/dangerous decision) but then towards the end I became overwhelmingly worried that he was going to try to run me over, told him I was going to call the police, and stopped by the side of the road to do so.

I don't think the police will do anything about it, but at least they now have his license plate number in case anything happens. Now I'm just worried I'll see him again, as I bike this route every day. I'm not sure what he would do if he saw me again, as he seemed seriously unhinged.

And then after all this I missed my shuttle by about thirty seconds, so I was thirty minutes late :mad:

You took the wrong day off... Expecting the Ark weather to be starting this week, I busted out my waterproof Fasterkatt spd boots over the weekend and raised my saddle the associated 5mm to accommodate the thicker soles. Today was GORGEOUS though. Tomorrow's forecast not looking as good. At least there'll be less Nike traffic on the routes...

Why did you keep passing the guy so he could continue to tail and honk at you? If he was waiting at the stop sign, just pull up in the lane behind him and wait for him to go.

I think you did the right thing by calling the police and by not flipping him off (I did that recently and it wasn't pretty). Other options would be to simply stop while he goes on or take a detour to get away from the guy altogether. Bummer on missing the shuttle though.

The big storm that was supposed to bring rain all day yesterday did not get here until 5pm yesterday. It turned out to be a mostly light rain and only for the first half of my ride home.

A much drier ride in this morning except for the roads still being somewhat wet from overnight rain. But clear and sunny for the rest of the day and week I believe.

Rain, rain, rain but 9C/48F so not so bad. I came across a bad car accident on the ride in, the police, fire and ambulances were there (I heard them about 10 minutes before I got there). It was at a T intersection and I wanted to cross the top of the T but the police were making the cars going the same way as me turn around and take another route in to the city. However, when I got to the front of the line, the policeman looked over his shoulder and said that I could probably squeeze by but to be careful. I thanked him, squeezed between the ambulance and the curb and continued in to work (about a 5 minute delay).

I'm on the injured list this week. I took the baby on a hike Saturday in his sling, and came back with a pulled TFL or IT band. I've no idea how it happened, maybe just posture or a maladjusted harness. I rode to work on it Monday and really shouldn't have - it's so much worse. Driving to work and taking my Vitamin I.

Yes, but I'm sure I would have given him an ear full of expletives. No advice other than stay away from these wackos. As I'm often reminded we don't want our tombstone to read "He had the right of way." Welcome to the forum and commuting.

53F and rain, again. A lot of downtown road construction and they have those big metal plates on the streets. When those are wet they scare the crap outta me - look like black ice

Bicycles For The Win!!

And I bet the road after that was nice and clear since the cars were being turned around.