I would try that and get a finger caught between the chain and sprocket ending up in a pile on the side of the road.

Nice tailwinds for the ride home yesterday. Should have them this afternoon too.

This morning I checked the weather app and it indicated no rain today and the temp was 55. Stepped outside and it was a steady heavy drizzle. Grabbed my touring bike with fenders, switched my lights over, grabbed a raincoat forgoing the rain pants, and headed out. The drizzle got heavy enough I was beginning to regret the no pants choice but glad I didn't after I warmed up. Wind was brutal coming off of Lake Superior. Battled it the whole way. Took me a bit longer but it was a nice ride overall. Built up some street cred with a few of the regulars that pass each morning. One tapped his horn after passing me, a couple others that typically move over minimally gave me plenty of room this morning.

You may have already tried this trick, but what often works is to shift back down to low and keep pedaling. The front derailleur will then pull the chain back onto the rings. No greasy fingers. Works the opposite way too if you drop the chain off the lowest ring; shift the front derailleur into high and keep pedaling.

I've found this works about 75% of the time. The other 25% the chain will get hung up on something and require me to use my fingers like you did to unstick it.

I had a bike that liked to drop the chain off the front no matter how much I adjusted the front derailleur, so I got pretty good at getting it back on without stopping.

Anyone here commuting through Charlotte?

I'm not close enough to be affected by any of last night's craziness. My boss's wife works for Bank of America and was told to leave early yesterday and to stay home today.

Thanks. I was just wondering. I know I would be in a world of hurt if the small city where I work suddenly rioted. I just can't see any safe way to ride in should that happen.

Drizzle on the verge of rain just as I got to work. not too warm. Nice ride.

40F and sunny all the way, no fog.

No key (or blank key) is a bad idea in my hood. Especially since my car was broken into with the cylinder pushed into the door. You usually can add a new key to the car. But that assumes that the lock is in working order. I think the mechanic had to replace the cylinder with a new one and could not rekey for the existing one. Oh well. It appears that getting some parts like I needed for the door handle mechanism are getting harder to find for my 18yr old Audi. No local dealers had them and the mechanic had to order them from Canada. Yeeay.

Sorry for the wandering a bit off topic...

raining this morning but finally decide to ride anyway didn't want to pay for parking.


I was almost hit or I almost hit a Lexus suv one block from my house. I was riding down the road and a lady comes flying up from a side street. I see her and start to slow. She seems like she is stopping but barely stops and then steps on gas to turn right (direction I was heading) I yell at her and she slams on the brakes. I hear her say sorry, so sorry. I almost slam on my brakes but am afraid of sliding into her car due to the wet roads. thankfully she stopped and my heart eventually returned to normal riding rate. (talk about a way to fully wake up, adrenaline)


further on my ride I see a school bus behind me. I see lots of busses on my ride unfortunately. The bus follows me and decides to pass me in the face of oncoming traffic over a solid line. when the other car is close the bus just moved over as if I was not there and if I had not slowed up I would have been run off the road. I have already emailed but I plan on calling about it as well.


I hope the ride home is more mellow. I hope the wind calms down as well.


I was pretty proud for riding and leaving the house in the rain. I was wearing a coat with all kinds of reflective stuff and blinking light on the back. I had another light on the back as well and have hi viz ortliebs.


people are so dumb.




Good news is that the ride home yesterday I went over 5000 miles for the year. 300 more than last years high mark.

I had such good rides Tuesday and yesterday that I wanted to ride again today, but my schedule is tight in the evening, so I figured it wouldn't be prudent to ride today. Plus I broke a spoke last night on the way home, so I'd have to prepare a different bike, and I didn't want to spend time on that.

ugh, I hate seeing groups like that. A bike lane is no place for a pace line. A group like that should always ride 2-abreast and control the right lane, or single up and use the bike lane. Being barely into the traffic lane makes the group ambiguous to motorists whether they can safely pass or not, hence why traffic was backing up.

Uneventful commute this morning. Tuesday was fairly uneventful also, I rolled through the outlet mall on the way home and found out where the new Krispy Kreme is going in. My wife has wanted one down here for at least 25 years now. Shortly thereafter, I was in the right lane, with traffic passing to my left, and some woman yelled "get on the sidewalk"! No thanks I'll stay where I am.

No ride this am due to I need to get to the ice cream social with my grandson, the ride to his house to pick him up is about 50 minutes away with no traffic. No traffic on a Friday evening, good luck with that. And I needed to be packed because I am going on a mini-tour this weekend with a friend. We will be riding to a campground in the central part of Ma on Saturday and coming home on Sunday.

Humidity felt lower but was hotter this morning, guess it was the lack of a breeze. Only missed Wednesday this week. Forgot to charge my headlight and the taillight is about out. Probably was stupid to ride without them but seemed to have no issues, 90% of the route is lite up anyways. Can't get the freehub off the wheel for the Trek so it's either another bike or new wheel, I can get one at a thrift store cheaper.

Fall is here, but it is still humid. I'm not really sweating a bunch, but I'm just damp feeling when I get to work.

A couple of nights a week I like to do some strength at the gym, but missed most nights this week. I'd been wanting to try it before work, so I did today. I had to take a backpack in addition to my regular stuff in my trunk. I left a little after 6am (normally leave at about 7am) and took a different route to hit the gym. At the gym there is no convenient place to lock up. The trees and light posts are surrounded by decorative grass I'd have to trample to get to. But one of the employees was right by the front door when I got there and I just asked if I could bring my bike in and she said, "Sure! Don't mind at all."

It worked out pretty well, though the route was about 2 miles shorter. I usually avoid this route because of traffic and opt for the longer less traveled road, but it wasn't too bad today.

Great week - 60's in the morning, 80's in the evening, little wind, no rain, I like it!

Another perfect morning, mild Temperatures, calm winds and no humidity. Going up to 88 this afternoon though. So, That ride home might be a bit sweaty.

First outdoor ride in the past week and only bike commute this week. My wife and I went to the beach (without bikes) last weekend, and it has been raining nonstop here ever since we got back. The remnants of TS Julia have been parked over North Carolina for the past week and we've had cloudy skies and intermittent rain (at times heavy) the entire time. It's still cloudy this morning but the rain finally stopped and it's supposed to clear off this afternoon.

My week off the bike totally threw off my morning routine. I had reinstalled the dynamo light system on my main commuter bike last weekend but haven't been able to test it due to the nonstop rain. After leaving for work this morning, I quickly realized the front light wasn't coming on. So I stopped and fiddled with the wires, realizing that the plus/minus wires were inserted in the wrong holes in the front hub. After riding about 3/4 to work, I realized that the back light still wasn't working, so I stopped again at a bus stop with a bench that I could lean my bike on. I took my eyeglasses off and laid them on the bench because I can't focus up close with them on. I fixed the wiring for the rear light, but stupidly left my glasses lying on the bench when I restarted. Unfortunately, I didn't realize my omission until I had ridden all the way to work, taken a shower and got dressed. As I was packing up my gear in the locker room, I realized that my glasses were missing, and remembered laying them on the bench but not putting them back on.

My office is about 3 miles from the bus stop where I left my glasses, but I didn't want to put back on my wet, smelly cycling clothes and ride another 6 miles. So I called my daughter, who lives a couple blocks from my office, and asked her for a ride. Fortunately, she was home and was able to give me a lift. My glasses where still laying on the bench, right where I left them, so the story has a happy ending. They are prescription glasses that cost me about $400, so I would have been sick if they were gone. I treated my daughter and her boyfriend to some coffee at Starbucks for her trouble.

Hopefully the rest of my day will go a little smoother.

Ugh. Lucky you. My work clothes would have gotten damp from me sweating and stressing about the glasses.

Today was another day where driving would have been much easier, but my commitment to cycle commuting forced me to find a creative solution:

6:45 AM - Drove truck loaded with bicycle and son's golf clubs to his school.
7:10 AM - Parked truck, removed bicycle and rode 9 miles to work.
8:30 AM - Son rides bus to school.
12:00 PM - Ride 9.5 miles across town to client's office.
2:40 PM - Ride 2.5 miles to son's school.
3:00 PM - Load bike into truck. Pick up son early from class to take him to his golf tournament.
3:20 PM - Drop son off at golf course. Park truck and ride bike 4 miles back to client's office.
6:00 PM - Leave client's office and ride 4 miles back to golf course.
6:30 PM - Load up bike in truck. Drive son and his golf clubs back home.

Perfect time of year for commutes in my opinion. Cool enough to wear shorts and not sweat unless you go hard enough - though of course I do - and still sunlight in the mornings and evenings. It should be under 90° for the ride home; in the shaded Greenway that also counts as cooler weather.

Checking my records, today was 181 consecutive bike commutes since January first. Here on out I'm taking my PTO one or two days each week, so I'll have a lot of those 3- and 4- commute weeks that you guys talk about

When I first moved out here I could not make it up the steep (for me) hill without pushing my bicycle for a hundred yards or so about a mile from work. I was just thinking about that on my way in. A year later and I don't exactly fly up it, but I have not stopped except for traffic for a long time. Today I noticed I didn't really think much about it till I was almost up it. Nice ride in, cloudy but not too warm not even 80F yet. Seems drivers have suddenly started crowding me on the wide main road I usually have no problem on. Maybe I am too far right or something, need to think about it.

It was an okay ride home, feeling a little tired, until I was a couple miles out and one of my rear rims broke a bladed aero spoke. Or so I thought, it actually broke one of the nipples. Vuelta Corsa Lite wheelset, 20/24 spokes. They have well over 8,000 miles on them with never any problem whatsoever before this.

It happened right as I pulled out from a side road onto a busy arterial, in the left lane, about to move to the center lane to turn to another side road. I had to stop and get off the bike in the center lane, and move the bike across to a parking lot, because the spoke was sticking out and getting bent from hitting the frame, rear rack, cassette, etc. I have a multitool but no spoke wrench with me, so I had to squeeze the remaining nipple on the spoke very hard, through my gloves, in order to get the nipple off the threads and get the spoke out of the hub flange. Took at least 5 minutes just to get that little piece off.

Finally I got it off and stashed everything in my trunk bag, then road home very slowly and gingerly, not wanting to put a bunch more weight or power down over the rear wheel for fear of breaking another spoke or nipple. The spoke is intact although bent, but putting tension on it should straighten it out. Going by the LBS this afternoon (brought wheel and spoke in the car with me today) to get another nipple, or possibly another spoke, some rim tape, and a spoke wrench to keep in my saddle bag.

Last night's commute was perfect: sunny, moderate temperatures, beautiful scenery of all types , and I picked up free beer earned by commuting. I've been using the Biko app, which tracks distance cycled. You get 1 point/km, and then redeem the points for stuff. I got 12 beer for 1 week of commuting (150kms). Big Rock Urban Brewery rules.




First real drencher of fall this AM! Another summer's worth of sweat/salt in my helmet washed down into my eyes--this is an annual event, you know. It wasn't too bad this time.


The solar-powered commuters stayed home, but the regulars were out.

Warm (for Edmonton in autumn) and breezy. Should have a nice tailwind for the ride home.

50F + 'rain' (no identifiable drops but definitely wet)