Cool and breezy this morning, and I'm a bit sore after a tough game of floor hockey last night, so I was slow. I instinctively grabbed my fixie, but between the wind and fatigue, I soon wished I had taken a geared bike instead.

Fantastic commute. I wrote about it on my ride blog here.

https://ridewithgps.com/photos/large/1559128.jpg

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https://ridewithgps.com/photos/large/1559130.jpg

Overcast and headwindy this morning. I don't usually mind headwinds, but I had been hoping to use today for low-intensity riding and that wasn't going to happen without taking twice as long to get anywhere. Plus, I didn't have anything in the tank so it felt that much harder. Whine-whine-whine... ;)

I slept through my alarm! Or, more likely, I turned it off without quite waking up. I know lots of people do this, but it's only like the second time I've done it. I woke up 20 minutes later and realized, if I'm quick about things, I can still catch my train. Out the door in seven minutes, rode like I was doing interval training. I caught the train, but oh, man! was I drenched.

My commuter (road bike) drivetrain has been making an intermittent crunching noise, no doubt due to being worn out and abused all winter.



The other day I took my steel beater MTB. Less than ½ way home and I ride over something sharp and hear the hissssssssss of air escaping.

I unclip and coast but don’t stop—hey, every yard I can coast is a bit less walking! (My patch kit etc are on a saddlebag on the road bike at home.)



The tire gets soft (~35psi) and the hissing stops. I limp it home, rip it off and discover it’s a slime-filled tube that had healed itself. The funny thing is, I don’t EVER recall buying a slime tube. There's a hole in the tire the size of a pencil.



Anyways, I need to spend some quality time on maintenance.


Weather has been amazing for riding.

Set up my new bike with lights and bag for my first commute in a while. Doc told me to stop until an ortho eval. He told me to get back out riding. A cool 37f when I left the house with temps expected to rise in the upper 40's today. Forgot my phone at work last night so I had to add my mileage manually to Strava.

Had my first commute of the year today. Also got to ride my new bike, a 2015 BMC GF02 Disc. The bike is a joy to ride. Much different than my 8.5 DS, in the best ways possible. Ride was 15.8 miles and I did it in 1:22:23 of moving time. Not bad for not riding any bike since October. Can't wait to make this my 5 day a week workout!

This morning I rode to a dentist appointment. From there I rode to our company's office across town. At lunch I rode 8 miles back across town to a client's office, stopping on the way to run a couple of errands.

It's 55 degrees, sunny and best of all only a 4 mph wind (very rare in South Dakota.) It's simply a glorious day. I was kind of bummed when I reached the client that I had to go spend the afternoon inside.

Once again asked a driver to please stop texting, put away the phone, and pay full attention to driving.

ughhh I do that wayy too often - missed and failed a college course final exam one time because of it, one that I would have aced. Just this past Tuesday morning I woke up at 6 instead of 5, despite 2 alarms at 4:55 and again at 5.

This morning, though, I got up on time. I left the car at work yesterday and rode home, with a little tail wind which helped. This morning I felt slow and lethargic, but I still made it.

I also get up at 5AM on the days I cycle to work. It's funny because I don't leave the house until about 6:15-6:30, but I have a morning routine that eats up a lot of time.

First thing I do, typically, is stretch my legs and back while I feed the dogs and brew a pot of coffee. Then I spend a few minutes reading and drinking a cup or two of the fresh coffee, half of each cup filled with cold water. By 5:40, I am in the shower. By 5:50, I'm out walking the dogs which serves as a nice warm-up and gives me a chance to gauge temperature. Before, I know it, it's 6:15 and time to ride. Add in a few minutes to clean the chain or add air, and I am off.

The commute in was nice with the temp at 43f degrees when I left the house. My odometer fell off going up a hill, since I was lucky enough to hear it I stopped and picked it up. I am not a fan of stopping on hills.

Beautiful morning for a bike ride! I made good time, felt strong, pushing it a little more than I have been so far this year, and really appreciated the opportunity to start my week this way.

[MENTION=297321]essiemyra[/MENTION], The stopping part is okay, it's the restarting that hurts so much. :)
Glad you didn't lose your odometer.

Nice morning for a ride. 48/50F felt very nice. It was warming as I went and on one stretch of road I was thinking how nice it would be if I could just keep going for an extra couple of hours like this.

Happy Monday all!

Nice ride and blog [MENTION=152773]noglider[/MENTION]

Today's ride in was?? Yes, you guessed it, still in subfreezing temperatures, -3C/27F. I guess the nice morning temperatures 2 weeks ago was an aberration and it looks like morning rides will be in subfreezing temps for most of the next 2 weeks too (into May!!??!!??). However, at least it has been clear and sunny and dry for most of the mornings so far.

Finally, the city is sweeping the sand and dirt from the sides of the roads giving us cyclists the ability to move further away from traffic (but of course, traffic is going to nudge up to us anyway). Our local cycling advocacy group, Sudbury Cyclists Union, is organizing an activity where we measure the width of the sand/dirt that is left on the road from the winter (and cars have had no problem dealing with the narrowed lanes) and then approaching the city for painted bike-lane lines on some of the roads. We now have an Active Transportation Coordinator position with the City and that person should be able to help us improve cycling infrastructure in the city.

On Friday, when I got off the train, it was not raining. After I walked out of the station, walking across the parking lot to my bike locker, I felt a few drops. As I turned my bike onto the road home, it started raining.

A quarter mile later, I felt a blast of tailwind and the deluge began. But it didn't last long; I felt a blast of headwind, and I rode out onto dry pavement, where it wasn't raining. Nice!

A half mile later, I felt another blast of tailwind and suddenly I was in the heaviest downpour I've seen in years. Within a hundred yards, I was so wet I couldn't have gotten any wetter by jumping into a lake. I rode through that storm, thunder and lightning all around me, for about a mile. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, I rode out of it again. Dry pavement. It was dry the whole rest of the way home (3 miles or so) but I was still drenched when I got there. My wife looked at me and said "what happened to you?" The rain never did catch up with me.

It rained pretty hard last night, but it was finishing as I was headed out the door this morning. The roads were wet, but at least nothing was falling from the sky. Temps in the mid-60's with a fairly strong head-wind... although it should make for a good push home tonight!

We have weird pockets like that here too. Last year, I rode home in pouring rain. I get home, and my wife says, "You're drenched."

I tell her it rained the whole way home. She replies by saying, "It just started raining here."

15 minutes later the rain is over. I assume the cloud moved at my speed, and it literally hung right over my head the whole way home.

Today marked my 50th consecutive bicycle commute to work.

Went out this morning and ran a few miles before I hopped on the bike to ride to work. 55 degrees, overcast and a mild headwind. We had quite a rain storm yesterday evening (1.5" in about 20 minutes) and then some more rain throughout the night, so the ground was wet and there were puddles. But nothing falling from the sky while I was out. Really it wasn't too bad weather-wise.

About 1/4 from my house I saw where a car had missed a corner, driven through a yard and hit a house. Weird. Curious what the story is behind that one.

Accidentally got too close to a group of goslings and the mama goose took after me. Thankfully I can ride a bit faster than a goose can run and she didn't decide to go airborne.

Last week I passed my "9th year anniversary" since I started bike commuting, so I'm now working on my 10th year. I've bike commuted more than 36,500 miles over that period. My goal is to top 40,000 miles before I retire but I'm not sure I can last that long at work. Ironically, I've ridden my classic Italian De Bernardi the past two commutes, which is the bike I first started commuting on. The De Bernardi is proof that you can commute on just about any bike. It has none of the features most commuters look for in a bike -- namely, room for larger tires, mounts for fenders and racks. However, I commuted a lot of miles on that bike using a Carradice bag to carry my gear and forgoing fenders. The bike rides so nicely that it's as comfortable on 23 mm tires as my touring bike is on 32s, and it's a heckofa lot faster. Here are some shots of my De Bernardi from the "old days."

Since my road bike's 8-speed shifter bit the dust yesterday I decided to take the fairing bike for a change. It felt a little strange since I hadn't used it this year and only once or twice last fall and winter. I'd been keeping it in reserve for really nasty weather, which we haven't had for awhile, so I needed to modify it a bit yesterday so I wouldn't be sweltering inside. Opened up some breeze flaps outside of the handlebars for a little air flow, which also improves the handling but I forgot that the downtube indexed shifter (that I moved to the handlebar LOL) is a hair off and I needed to tease it into gear. But that wasn't really all that distracting. I remembered to throw a pump in back but no tube or patch kit :rolleyes: which was a little distracting.

It's the only bike of it's kind in existence so it draws a few stares, but thankfully no video recording. That I noticed. Maybe local drivers are finally used to me.

@tarwheel That's a lot of miles :thumb:

I'm one commuting year behind you but I'll only have about 30,000 commute miles in two years. Looking back it seems like it's been a long journey.

i have had some really awesome commutes. and i have had some really jarring awful commutes.

someone honked at me as i took the lane (and signaled way ahead of time) b/c of course someone was parked in the bike lane that i had to go around. i started yelling "do not honk at me, i have a right to pass someone parked in the bike lane. do not threaten me. you're not even going anywhere." as i passed this person stuck at the light while i made a right onto another bike lane.

it's infuriating that people do not share the roads or the space. why the hell do they think they're more entitled to the road than anyone else?

in any case. last Friday a tour bus proceeded to run me off the road. i had to literally jump the curb to not be run over b/c the tour bus was tailgating me, and honking, leaning heavily on the horn. which i of course then yelled at everyone touring NYC on that bus telling them they are paying for someone to run over people so that these jerks can give them a tour, and are they proud of that? i then said they should report the driver that he is unsafe. i of course passed these @$$holes as well because car traffic in NYC goes no where (stopped at lights indefinitely).

then on Sunday as i was cycling the last block to home with my child on the cargo bike, another jack@$$ proceeded to honk at me, even tho i was to the far side of the lane, not even taking the lane. if he felt uncomfortable passing he should just slow down and not pass and STFU but instead he honked at me. to which i yelled/roared, "do not honk. stop honking your damn horn."

i'm a commuter and i get around on the weekends with my kid on a bike.

so i have had some rough encounters to say the least. and i bet this is not just me. this season has been REALLY unsafe. two brooklyn cyclists have been killed within this last week. 2 Cyclists Killed in Brooklyn Streets to Be Memorialized... it's been utterly horrific on many levels.

Rainy weather today.
When I left, it looked like it could clear out a bit, so I started riding with my normal clothes...
Until the rain started to drop little by little...
Did not want to stop to put on rain pants over my normal pants...
I thought, it's only one mile left to my destination.
... too lazy to change clothes...
Started to rain more more more.
Hmm, almost destination, trying to sprint harder... already wet wet wet.
and more more more rain...
Arrived at the station soaked!
Went in the train, to the toilets, put off my jeans and put on rain pants instead.
It totally does not fit my other clothes right here at work... but hey.

40F, blinding sun. Supposed to be back in the 80s next week.

Well done [MENTION=86492]tarwheel[/MENTION], now I know why it's so hard to catch up to you in the mileage thread :)

66F/19C warmest commute yet...and bugs, bugs, bugs.

Still cool, 1C/34F, but at least not sub-freezing. Cloudy or overcast while riding, but after getting out of the shower at work, the sky to the east was clear and sunny, I should have ridden in a bit later to enjoy nicer skies.

Got a couple of new lights for my wife and I from Mountain Equipment Coop (Mountain Equipment Co-op). I got the Cygo-Lite Streak 350/Hotshot SL Combo lightset for my wife and the Cygo-Lite Dash 350 front light for myself as I already have a decent rear light. I'm impressed with all of them. I've been buying lights from eBay in the past but they lasted only a couple of years each time so I decided to spend a bit more and get them "locally". So far, I'm impressed.

Have a great day people!!

Tough commute this morning with a stiff headwind almost the whole way. On the plus side, it's sunny, warm and supposedly very little chance of rain. The next couple of days are looking very iffy, however, with a high probability of thunderstorms both days. I'll make the call tomorrow morning about whether to take my chances riding. I might be joined on a commute by another BF member, [MENTION=42002]JimF[/MENTION]romBoston who is visiting the Triangle for a few days, if the weather cooperates.

[MENTION=86492]tarwheel[/MENTION] - 36,500 is big. You'll be close to 40 at the end of this year.
[MENTION=397406]snow_echo_NY[/MENTION] - can you ignore the honks? It sounds like you get them often enough that letting them get you upset isn't worth it. As long as you aren't in the wrong, just let the honks go knowing they are just impatient and inconsiderate and letting you know that with their horn.

A bit of a tailwind yesterday afternoon helped me get home. Enjoyed that.

A nice ride in this morning. Right about 60F. No rain in the forecast here in NC, so looks to be nice all week.

This morning I stopped for a quick photo of the sunrise hitting this pollen/leaf sprinkled pond.
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