Cool (4C/39F) with quite a strong headwind (breeze) so I'm glad I bundled up (thick jersey over a light merino baselayer, Buff under my helmet to prevent my bald head from getting too cold and gloves but I was comfortable in cycling shorts and ankle wool socks). Beautiful fall colours on the trees and pink sky in the east (which may mean that the forecast of rain today may actually be correct).

I GoPro'd (is that a word? LOL) most of the ride that I'll put together as a video tonight, we'll see how it turns out. I'd like to add music (copyright free) but although I know that some people I follow on YouTube use SoundCloud for some of their music, I can't figure out how to find copyright free music there so it might just be without audio.

I got off to a late start so I had to go slow to make up for lost time. No sweat no shower, quick change and at my desk with 10 minutes to spare!

Interesting concept, going slow due to running late. There would probably be fewer crashes on the roads if motorists had the same line of thinking.

Especially when you consider that an hour or two lost from one fender bender will account for more than all of the 5 or 10 seconds, added up over the years, that they save by driving aggressively.

Although it's not foolproof, with these mild mornings I could save even more time - I figure a minute maybe - by biking even slower in casual clothes and skip the cleanup entirely. It's a balance between the need for speed and getting there on time.

To be honest, if I take my road bike and go all out on the direct street route, hit the lights green or at least in the gaps, I can do it in five minutes less including the shower. But that's highly dependent on the traffic so I seldom try it in a time crunch.

Got to ride home in the rain last night, spent the entire ride cursing myself for not breaking down and getting better rain gear than the emergency poncho I use.

This morning 70 degrees and damp. Roads were still wet from the rain yesterday and last night, and I discovered the I better not put off adjusting my rear brakes any longer. (I've been trying to hold out on the adjustment until I could get down to the community cycleworks and have access to the shop tool and equipment.) I had to stop short at a light and almost went over the handlebars because my fronts grabbed so much more strongly. The pads are still fine, but I had replaced cables not that long ago, so I need to do an adjustment to take out the slack from the initial cable stretching.

While I'm still pretty bad about edge riding during most of the commute I'm trying to force myself to be a bit bolder about taking a lane when I need to. It's a work in progress, I think having been hit back in 2009 still has me a bit nervous when it comes to riding in heavy traffic. Trying to take the lane more has seemed to help reduce the number of drivers who think it's okay to pass me on the left only to make a right turn directly in front of me.

After Nate came through this weekend, it's been humid. Sticky, feels-like-90-when-it's-70 humid. You know how lots of electronics spec sheets say something like, "Humidity: non-condensing"? I'd have shorted out this morning if I were electronics.


Almost no traffic since I had to get in early for a meeting; I don't know whether it's better to get started in the dark and avoid the traffic, or wait until the sun's up. At least I'm riding generally west in the morning, so most* traffic won't have to look into the rising sun to see me!


*Never know, though. Some people backing out of driveways are scary, as are some folks who're taking two full roads' width to make a turn.

Smoky here today and the weatherman said stay inside, plus I need to hit the Halloween store this week, so no ride today.

42F, overcast.

Crazy sidewind (and/or headwind depending on which way I was pointing) last night.

That's how I am. I like having roads to myself in the early hours. But in the cold, dark winter it's just depressing to ride when it's so cold and so dark, like I feel like I would enjoy the commute much more if I could leave the house at 8 instead of 6 AM. But I know traffic would be far worse.

Spokey Robinson is his current bike. And come to find out last night all his clothes comes from thrift shops and now he is up to 379,000.00.

Anyway, today's ride was very nice except for the person who I got spooked by standing at the end of the driveway. Due to it being so dark I did not see the person until the last minute and then I said hi!. So that road is off the ride until it starts being light before six am. The temp was a nice 51 f degrees with partly cloudy skies.

Back on my bike after several months running in (not the full distance). Body is telling me I need to give it a break from hitting the pavement by feet.

66F/19C pleasant ride in but boy am I out of synch with my bike commuting routine.

High 40s today, so out came the full fingered gloves, arm warmers, balaclava and tube socks. Also, headwinds.
Tomorrow morning it is supposed to be in high 30s, so I will add tights to the above.

One school of thought here is to just get wet and not worry about rain gear - at least when it's warm. If it's warm you're just going to sweat underneath the waterproof stuff and be soaked anyway.

Major fog turned to no fog and back to major fog for my commute. My arm and leg hairs were all water beaded up after riding. I had to remove my glasses for the last couple of miles. Nice enough ride otherwise though.

Colder this morning but it is forecast to be milder mornings over the next few days or so. Air temp was 3C/37F but the wind chill, colder because I was riding into the wind, was -3C/27F. After the first 3km/2mi, my gloved fingers were beginning to feel cold but I forgot about that a bit further down the road so I must have warmed up more. Nice easy 8km/5mi ride.

That's what I figure. It's just water. As long as you have fenders, it's relatively clean water too.

As long as I have dry clothes to change into when I reach my destination then I don't get too uptight about getting wet on the way there.

I definitely see the validity of that school of thought, but it wasn't very warm that evening and I was wearing a rather thin dress shirt, which very quickly got soaked by the water coming off the back tire and up the inside of the poncho.

It was in the 60's on the way home last night so a bit cooler than it has been, but I was still fine in a t-shirt. Rather than fight to take my place in the traffic lanes going through the one major highway intersection on my commute route, I just wussed out and sidewalk rode through the area.

This morning was around 59 and fairly darkly overcast and misty. I did a quick adjustment on the rear brakes before I left, to just get the slack out of the cable, and that helped a lot. They still need a good cleaning and readjustment though, because the one arm is still sticking a bit, and I'm getting uneven (angular) pad wear.

I still need to get fenders

Yesterday morning, I had a mild headwind which was no bother. I feel as if I fare better in headwinds than I did a year ago when I found them debilitating. In the evening, I guess overall I had a mild tailwind, but it was pretty shifty, too. The evening commute was rainy. I'm making an effort to be more tolerant of rain. It was really no big deal, as it wasn't cold.

Today was the first day I headed out while it was raining. Often I let rain happen if by chance but I never went out in it deliberately in the morning. Again, it was perfectly fine, and I had fewer joggers and cyclists on the route because of the weather. Still, there are plenty there compared with routes that most here on BF encounter, as this is New York City. Headwinds were pretty strong this morning, but again, I seem to be coping with them better nowadays. I wore shorts and jersey and cycling jacket. The jacket is nicely designed to let me adjust the amount of warmth I get from it. I pushed the sleeves up a bit and opened the zipper almost all the way, because it isn't really that cold. I brought an extra pair of socks in case I got very wet, but the rain never got heavy. I did get stripes up my shorts and jersey. I really must finish building this bike by installing fenders on it. One of these days. Interestingly, overall, my clothes are dryer than normal, because some water is from rain, but I sweated less than normal.

Yesterday I had to make a stop at a store on the way home, so I finished my commute using a different route - the same route I use when grocery shopping by bike, actually. So I'm going along, bike lane starts, but the pavement up ahead is just horrible. Broken up pavement and glass everywhere. I moved out of the bike lane into the travel lane, and a few seconds later there was a loud HONK followed by a woman in an SUV using the bike lane to pass me on my right! The bike lanes my town has installed are just ridiculous. I emailed the mayor and city planner about them last night, about how bad the pavement is, and how the bike lanes do not meed federal MUTCD standards by dropping the solid line for a dashed line at least 100 feet from intersections and side streets. I also sent them a couple of still shots from my GoPro.

Road bike commute this morning, first ride with new Grand Prix 4000S II 25c front tire. Also first ride with my newly serviced PD-A530 pedals with fresh new bearings and fresh new grease. Everything felt really smooth and quiet, it was just slow! 80 minutes elapsed time to go 15 miles.

Ahhh... then yes I can see the frustration. Fenders make an unbelievable difference in rain riding. Much more moisture gets sprayed up from your wheels than falls down from the sky. And what comes up isn't clean and just makes you and everything else a sloppy mess.

I would recommend putting fenders ahead of upgraded rain gear on your shopping list. You may even find that once you have fenders your current rain gear is more than sufficient.

Nice ride in this morning. Even though there was a pretty heavy overcast and it was chilly, it was dry and little wind. I didn't feel like stopping for a traffic light so took the cut-off (and ended up stopped for even longer at the end of that!) and then back streets I rarely use. Light traffic except for a couple blocks, so it turned out fine and I got to see something different than the usual commute.

Sounds slow, yes, but then I remembered my average riding speed drops 10-15% while commuting because of stop signs and traffic lights.


And fresh grease on bearings -- smooooooth!

45F, drizzle.

Last night was fun; there was a storm moving from SE to NW right at quitting time, so rather than my 6 mile straight shot west, I took a 12 mile route south into the headwind, then west, then north, hoping to miss the storm. Well, I went south faster than it went west, so I stayed dry there, but I also went south faster than it went north so my entire westbound leg I got pounded, my shoes hadn't even dried out when I put them back on this morning. However, at that point, it had gone east far enough and my northbound like was beautiful blue skies and that tailwind. Adventure!

Rain this morning. Not very cold, not very heavy; I just put on a rain jacket and rode to the station, knowing full well I would get wet. And sure enough, I was pretty wet on the train. It wasn't much fun, but I dried.

For full disclosure, yes, I thought about taking the day off, just because of the rain, but I quickly rejected that idea. I took two days off last week so I could do a four day bike tour with three friends; and then I took Columbus day off as well, because my building is closed on holidays. So when I woke up this morning to find it raining, I didn't feel justified to take another day off.