I managed to NOT properly secure my panniers to the bike again this morning. This happens once every few months, and usually they stay in place even if I forget to secure them properly. However, every once in a while I hit a pothole or something that makes them pop off the rack and land in the street. That's what happened this morning. Luckily I was on a fairly quite street with no cars directly behind me. I stopped quickly so I could run back and grab the pannier that fell, but in my haste, didn't get the bike properly on the kickstand. As I'm running back toward the pannier, I hear a loud crash as the bike falls over in the street. :-( I grab the pannier and head back to the bike. The rear reflector is broken and the wheel won't turn, as the rear mud-guard is bent against the wheel. After some work (it took about 15-min to get the fender straightened back out) ...the rest of my commute was awesome! :-) Still beats sitting in traffic!

Surprisingly nice and quick(er) commute on my (manually powered) road bike this morning. Felt a little cool starting out but I quickly warmed up. I managed to do the commute in 70 minutes flat, as opposed to the 80+ it's been normally taking me in the mornings (52-55 minutes on the e-bike). Encountered fog about halfway so I removed my glasses for the 2nd half of the commute, no big deal.

Today was supposed to be pretty nice, so last night I pulled the road bike down from storage and gave it a service. I got up early this morning so I could take the long way to work.

It was supposed to be about 37°F, but I discovered it was actually 30°F, humid and foggy. The cat tempted me to just stay and play with her for 1/2 an hour, then ride directly to work. Somehow I managed to motivate myself to get out the door.

Rode an extra 12 miles, which should put me around 32 miles total by the end of the day. It was right at that in-between temp where I had a hard time dressing to not be too warm or too cold. I wound up being too warm for everything but my feet, which were painfully cold by the time I arrived at the office.

Oh well, I survived.

We had thunderstorms during the night, but it wasn't really raining when I rode to the station this morning. Kinda foggy, kinda wet, not a big deal. Caught the train with about 15 seconds to spare.

45F and raining. Fingerless gloves still fine.

A weird omen this morning. A turkey carcass on the MUP, clearly a gruesome kill from the dawn hours. Still gory, not picked by the vultures yet. I'm not informed enough to tell if it was coyotes or a cougar. Those seem most likely but we also have eagles and bobcats, who knows? You could see its leg bones, you could see the trail of blood smears where it was dragged across the MUP. And... an egg. An intact egg that had not been eaten, sitting right in its guts. So strange.

[MENTION=190611]joeyduck[/MENTION], lovely pictures, beautiful family. The pictures show how I imagine the Canadian Rockies to look.

Yesterday I kind of have a chill after work evening. Left the office around 5:30 and rode to the gym. Worked out chest and triceps (first time doing that before a ride home... underestimated the impact of "propping" myself on the bars for the ride). After my work out, hit the massage chair. By then, it was close to 7pm, so I rode to Chipotle for dinner and sat out on their patio and enjoyed the sunset. Then rode home for a cool evening 12 mille ride, going past my neighborhood to pick up a few groceries before heading home.

But HERE is the fun part... I'm on a sidewalk/bike path by a stretch of woods. It's pitch black out side and I have my headlight on. I hear something on my left and looked over (scared the crap out of me), but find a deer pacing me in the grass next to the path. She kept pace right next to me for about 75 feet before she turned left and ran into the woods. It was SO COOL!

Raining and a east wind... at least I remember another pair of undies! Don't mind the rain but that driving rain isn't that fun!

Speaking of... Does anyone have any recommendation for rain gear for hot climates? We (Floridians) are about to hit the hot and rainy season. I need something super light weight, breathable (is that possible), and can stow easily.

Comfortably cool, -3C/27F, clear and sunny, which was a bit of a problem at 7:30am as I was riding east directly into the sun as it was coming up over the horizon. I was concerned that I might not be seen by cars behind me, blinded by the sun (a cousin's son, a few years ago, killed a girl who was hitchhiking right at the edge of the road and because she was walking forward, she didn't see his truck approaching too close and he couldn't see her at the edge of the highway as he was blinded by the low evening sun). To this day, he won't travel that section of the highway but will make a detour.

Rain, possibly freezing rain, tomorrow.

The problem with rain gear in warm weather is that, for some of us (me), I get too warm inside it and I'm just as wet, so I don't bother with rain gear in the summer. However, I do carry work clothes in a waterproof bag so it doesn't matter if my cycling clothes are wet. I wear my rain gear in the fall and spring when rain can be really cold at times but really, it is only a jacket, overmitts and helmet cover, I don't worry about my legs unless it is close to freezing (below 5C/40F) and then I might reconsider riding altogether.

Slightly cooler this morning so I wore a long sleeve shirt and light gloves. One impatient driver blew his horn at me. He was upset for having to slow down for like 10-15 seconds until a curve straightened out.

Yeah... that makes sense. It'll easily be 90+ degrees while it's pouring rain here. The rain will actually feel like a relief. And I do have waterproof panniers. So, I'll have dry clothes when I get to work.

Warm or not, wet shoes are not fun so stuff them with paper towel or newspaper and replace every hour or so. They still might not be dry when you're ready to go home but they'll be better than without treatment.

I was on a charity ride last fall, my shoes were outside my tent but under the fly, well, that is, until they fell over and outside of the fly. My dew-soaked shoes, at 7C/45F, were not fun to start the ride in but the day was dry and became very warm within an hour or two so it wasn't a problem for long.

A bit different here but when it gets hot and rains I just wear as little as possible. Sandals, light shorts and maybe a shirt.. pretty horrific but haven't had any close calls! I cover my panniers with trash bags, the fenders keep it out of the tires.

Allergies got worse and worse yesterday, so I left a little early to ride home. Constant nasal drip sucks. As does the idiot passing me on a blind hill. Otherwise nice day for a ride.

I thought I felt better this AM and took the e-bike to work. Got to work, still feel gross.

For shoes, get a small fan under your desk (if possible) and let it blow on the shoes all day. Should be nearly dry in the afternoon.

I actually hope for a rain shower on those hot summer days riding home from work. Always feels nice.

Rain day, sun day, rain day, sun day... whoever said variety is the spice of life didn't commute by bike. Today is a sun day, 45F - tomorrow another rain day

I've given up on waterproof jackets. They're just too uncomfortable for me. In rain, I would rather wear a synthetic jacket that acts like a sponge. Once it's saturated, it won't take any more on, and if it's not cold, I'll be OK. The new synthetics are about as good as wool at staying warm when wet, and they can be breathable as well, even when serving spong duty. Wow, those last three words form a weird phrase.

Uneventful.

A year or more ago I bought some Cannondale panniers from [MENTION=109949]wrk101[/MENTION] which have a logo that matches my head tube, a logo Cannondale only used for a couple of years in the late 90's. Since I finally put a rack on the bike, I can finally use them. Today was the first outing of the left side - right side unneeded and left at home.

I was doing math in my head about changing my gearing from a big road triple and 12-27, to a hybrid triple and 11-34. Should work.

Awesome day for a ride, clear and warm enough for me to start loose. Someone had bumped my KOM on a segment I had made up, that covers the main part of my commute (I called it My Evening Commute), so I decided to try to get it back. Alas, I failed by 23 seconds although I did best my prior recorded effort. My first breathing-hard lactic acid buildup commute of the year, and it felt out of shape But I'll get there by Summer.

ps, in case you peeked it's not actually 19.7 mph as Strava thinks but rather slower in reality. I must have wandered a lot when I first recorded it making Strava think it's a longer distance.

I had the bike packed and I was ready to roll. I heard a strange sound and looked to see what was wrong. It was a flat tire. I did not change the flat tire at 5:30am in the dark and cold (33f degrees). So I put the bike on the car and drove to work. I have plans to get the bike fixed today. I am not the best tire changer so I am going to have someone fix it for me.

Nothing on the radar, but it looks like it is about to start raining. I made it in dry just fine.

I have one stretch of road that is slightly uphill and some flat. Occasionally I'll try to average 20mph for one mile of that. Today I managed to average 22mph for a mile. Probably one of my fastest for there.

Another coolish morning but bright and sunny, -4C/25F with a headwind so it felt cooler but I put lobster-style overmitts over my wool gloves and I was fine. I went a different route to explore a path that I occasionally take but it is on the north side of a rise in some woods and the path was still covered with snow so I continued on the clear dirt road instead.

Earlier in the ride, I was on the road and a city bus was approaching me but very, very slowly. As I got closer, I noticed two Canada geese slowly walking down the road in the middle of the bus's lane so I moved over closer to the centre of the road, which got the geese going and they flew off, the driver thanked me. When I returned to my side of the road, I saw a dead white rabbit on the edge of the grass, awww.

Although it isn't much, I have ridden 75km this March and with the 9km ride home today and tomorrow's cycling, I'll have exceeded last year's record for March of 84km. I'm currently sitting at 152km for the year.

April is #30DaysOfBiking and April 1 is Saturday so I will be out daily for the next 90 days: #30DaysOfBiking in April, the 30x30 David Suzuki challenge in May and then June is Ontario's official Bike Month so I'll try to ride as many days as possible in that month too.

Have a great day people, the weather is getting better and better for cycling.