1 flat each yesterday and today... on different bike. Both of them were tubeless so the big 1/4" gash did seal up... but did cost me 3 co2 cartridges... bleh... Patched my regular commuter rig today so I will ride that tomorrow... and patch the other one tomorrow... (Big enough where I prefer taking it off and patching it, however, it still is holding air fine). Both times... I saw patch of road with glittering... construction debris in 30 mile apart locations... Erg... Why shrapnel on freshly paved road!!!!

The commute in this morning was a nice uneventful commute with the temp at 44f degrees. I took the longer route this morning that goes by the house with the beautiful gardens, which after passing that house I eventually get to the road with the nice long hill going up. I think this is the route I will be using now that the good weather is here.

A bit dangerous to ride this morning but said the heck with it let's roll.. a little rain but nothing terrible. Thought I might get socked by the wind but avoided that also. Rode three days in a row guess I figured out the problem. I've started waiting till I get to work to apply the androgel.. man does it kick after the ride!

Woke up to rain again this morning, but building upon lessons learned yesterday, I got up early anyway. Sure enough, by the time I fed the dogs and checked the radar on my phone, the storm had passed. Clear sailing ahead.

The ride was a bit muggy. And, as always after rain, my legs picked up some road grime. But, after two days of no riding, I sure as hell am not going to complain. Ditto tonight for the ride home as more storms are forecast. I simply don't care. Ride on!

Good ride in this morning.

Sometimes when I have a vehicle approaching from behind I will pretend I'm in a Mario Kart type of racing video game. In those games you can throw bombs or banana peels back to slow down your pursuers. In my case, a speed bump, a roundabout, or maybe even a stop sign causes the vehicle to slow down, but I continue at the same speed. Therefore I am losing them and winning the game.

Today I won against a school bus.

Cloudy but no rain... no rain! Supposed to get to 80 this afternoon... and then rain and tonight and tomorrow. Spring in the midwest

A much nicer temp this morning, 6C/43F, with sun as it has been so far this week. Showers forecast for Thursday afternoon and Friday, a welcome change from the very dry spring that we've been having so far. The nearby Junction Creek is very, very low, I've never seen it this low before.

Pouring rain this morning. I got completely drenched on the way to work. Thankfully my new Ortleib waterproof bags proved they were indeed as claimed so when I arrived my good clothes were nice and dry.

Was waiting at a stop sign for a reasonable break in traffic so I could make a right turn onto a very busy street. Apparently I wasn't aggressive enough for the girl in the car behind me because she decided to gun it and come around my left side, then make a right turn in front of me. Only to go about 50 yards and then stop for a line of cars backed up six blocks from a busy intersection. Goofball.

Had a weird thing happen when I left work last night. In the parking ramp alcove where I lock up my bike someone had leaned a little girl's pink BMX bike up against mine. It's not an area where there would be a lot of kids playing, and the bike was too small for an adult to be riding. For that matter, I've never seen another bike of any type in this parking ramp. Not sure where it came from. It was unlocked so I just moved it a few feet so I could unlock my bike and roll it out of the alcove. When I returned this morning the pink bike was gone.

Another great ride this morning. I hammered pretty hard on last nights Fred Ride...set some Strava PRs. I told myself that I absolutely had to ride into work today. Just a nice easy recovery spin. Meeting The Better Half after work for Handlebar Happy Hour (I'm so glad she has started to go with me...maybe one of these days I'll even get her on a bike in the city!) so I had to take a bike that will fit in her car. The Peugeot definitely will not, at least not without taking the wheels off. So...the carbon bike it was! Put my Carradice on and had a wonderful ride. Traffic was a bit heavy, but I just rode on past it all. Until I got into the city. My usual road I take to get to the office was closed, so I had to go up another street, which is all uphill and one of the main thoroughfares into the city. That's never fun.

Oh! I actually saw another person on my route using the bike lane!! Every now and again I see a roadie going the opposite direction, but this was a guy going somewhere in the same direction.

First commute in a while this morning and it felt great.

I've been taking a slightly longer route to work since last fall because the shortest route (avoiding major roads, of course) has some dangerous stretches (the 10th Avenue bikeway in Vancouver from Yukon to Oak), and also because the new route lets me climb up from home, generally cost along a ridge, then coast downhill the last ~3km to work. Same on the way home; climbing the first few km, then ridge, then generally coast home.

The new route is about 25km (15.5 miles) each way compared to just under 22km (13.6 miles).

Decided to take the old route today to see if the time savings would be worth it as an option when I'm in a rush.

Worked out at about 63min this morning compared to ~67-69min with the longer route (winter/spring times; usually 10-15% faster in the summer). Reaffirmed my decision to take the longer route; 10th Ave sucks.

My commute has been great lately, but just today a crew came in and ground up the center yellow line and both outer white lines with rumble strips. Now the nice, safe little berm I enjoyed for the last 2 years is even smaller.

Morning commute was a repeat of yesterday's morning commute - light rain/mist, a wee bit chilly to start, but I was plenty warmed up by the time I arrived at the office.

Evening commute was very pleasant, despite the overcast sky. I'm enjoying this while I can, because in a couple of months, it'll be hot and humid.

Still have a lot to learn on how to use the gearing on the Renegade (50-34 front, exposed cassette), but I'm sure the knowledge will come with time, enough so I'll be able to understand why a 50-34 crankset sucks . I'm using the 50T ring a lot more than I thought I would, but I'm still trying to minimize cross-chaining. I've come out of a complete stop on the 50T several times but I'm suspecting I'm cross-chaining when I do that.

The weather was beautiful today. Tad on the chilly side this morning, but the evening ride home was perfect. Finally got to shed my coat and hoodie.

Now, if only I could make that stupid clacking sound stop... looks like I have to take the bike in again. And it only has 500 miles on it!

A gray blur below
The squirrel tail brushed my toe
My back wheel goes bump

Warmer than usual this morning with high humidity and a summer mist hovering over the farmlands. If not for the corn crop being only a few inches tall, I could easily have believed I woke up to a morning in mid-June and not early May.

Beautiful, sunny, warm (11C/52F) and only a slight breeze. It was so nice that I was comfortable in summer cycling gear: shorts, long-sleeved jersey (albeit, summer weight) and short socks.

However, rain is forecast for this afternoon's ride home which isn't so bad because we desperately need it.

Happy Thursday!!

Warm and very humid this morning with heavy fog in places. My legs felt good because I drove yesterday due to forecasts calling for an 80% chance of thunderstorms. Of course, we got no rain at all. Our local forecasters continue their miserable track record for predicting rain. Today there is supposed to be only a 20% chance of rain, so we'll probably get hammered in the afternoon. I had a bunch of errands to run yesterday, so I made good use of my car.

GRRRREAT WEATHER THESE DAYS! Loving it except for a little bit of allergy sinus stuff on Monday. I guess the flowers are a bloomin' and the pollen is a flowin'. Was 60F this morning so still had a baselayer under the jersey and knee warmers. Felt a bit overdressed but was ok. A guy I ran across on the way in had a full jacket, tights and shoe covers on. Asked him if he felt a little warm, and he said that he did. Well, he was certainly getting a good flop sweat going. Had the case of the really creaky bike the last few days. Finally took apart the stem and seatpost and cleaned them. This silenced most of it. Just have to do the same for the bottom bracket. Always seems to happen after a good rain like we had last week.

Dark and chilly un-eventful commute. Today cabs are protesting Uber so the streets will be quiet for some other commuters to enjoy their ride. I ride at 7am, way before cabs start running around, so it didn't affect my commute personally, but I'll probably notice the difference in traffic on my afternoon ride.

ETA: PM commute was much more relaxed than other days, given the cabs protest. We saw a lot more bike commuters when we passed the downtown area. Had a cop in a motorbike that rudely passed us on the right. Grabbed food a couple blocks from home (because when I ride all I can think of is food lol)

Forecast and radar showed thunderstorms this morning so I rode like mad to try to get in before they started. I made it... but they never did and now it's beautiful and sunny. Worst part is some old guy passed me (yes he passed me) and made some snarky comment like "planning for it to get cold?" since I was wearing a jacket. Argh!

Cool (lower 50's), but a nice ride to work this morning. I'll likely have a bit of a headwind for the ride home. Tomorrow there is a pretty good chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon, so I may try riding in and then catching the bus home.

No commute today because I'm working from home, but I did go for a lunchtime bike ride around the block (an 18km block, that is). North winds are pushing down the smoke from those Fort McMurray fires (~400 km north of here), so it's a bit hazy, but the air quality warnings are only for "at-risk" people.

Thank you,
For the haiku.

[MENTION=348526]HydroG33r[/MENTION] 10th ave does indeed suck. The City's changing it up, public consultation is now.

Yesterday I drafted a rather rotund woman on an "e-bike" that was actually just an electric motorcycle/scooter.
I made it home in record time!