Beautiful day for my ride in to work today. 49F but had a strong headwind that I was battling the majority of the way in. As I'm fairly new to commuting via bike, I get really excited when I see any other cyclists on the road. My experiences have not been great so far though. My first week, I crossed another rider who went from street to sidewalk riding. Initially I was happy to see him although he didn't respond in kind to my wave and smile. He gave me a disapproving look and proceeded to ride on the sidewalk, matching my 21mph. Despite all that I've read here, it made me question my "owning the lane," which later I realized was crazy because I feel much better on the street than I do on the sidewalk. I also saw several other riders who failed to acknowledge me when I waved. This morning, I was riding the opposite direction of a large group ride of road bikes. I, again, smiled and gave a small wave without any response from the sleek looking road riders. I'll admit I was a bit disappointed that I wasn't getting any response at all. Luckily, as I was starting my last mile in to work, a gentleman on a road bike came up behind me (yes, I saw him in my fancy little mirror ) and we ended up stopped at the same stoplight, me being in the left-turn lane 2 lanes away from him and him continuing on straight. I looked over, smiled and said hello. AND.... He said hello back and smiled. My faith is renewed. I'm now confident that there are people out there who will respond so I'm going to continue my smiles and waves in the future. -- I didn't realize how much I looked forward to acceptance from other cyclists, but I really enjoy a friendly wave or smile. So, if you're in Colo.Spgs and you're reading this, you better smile and wave when someone does the same to you! Oh, and I'm riding home for the first time in the dark tonight. 11pm ride... Should be interesting.