I just went out to get some groceries, I had to yield to a police car who didn't seem to expect me to and he turned right in front of me. A few yards later he cut me off to park on the sidewalk on our right. Not really a problem because we were both going slow but I had to hit the brakes and steered around his left. I looked to the driver to check if he had seen me at all and the young cop already had his window down and said "Sorry sir". Surprised that he called me 'sir', I'm not that old, I answered "I'll let you of with a warning this time, young man!" and rode on while I heard the cop next to him laughing.

:lol:

Great story! Made my morning.

-Shin

Nice comeback! Love it.

@Berkshire413 - congrats and welcome to the forum. 20 miles one way is a big distance.

I did a little bike clean-up, gear degreasing and chain lubing last night. Riding nice and smooth this morning.
Cool, comfortable ride in this morning. Looking at mid 80s this afternoon though. That's starting to feel like summer a bit early.

High 60's but the wind was starting to blow, going to be windy one on the ride home. With class over debating on a long ride or wait till later this week.. when hopefully it isn't as windy.

58F on the way to 80's today - that's what I'M talkin 'bout!

This week is bike to work week, and our local cycling advocacy group has planned a ton of events and promotions. There's too many for me to hit them all, but I did a couple this morning.

First of which was a bicycle scavenger hunt. They listed clues to 29 different spots in our city. You take a picture of your bike at each of these spots and post them on their Facebook page. Each correct picture posted gets you an entry in a drawing for prizes on Friday evening. Last night I mapped out routes throughout the week that will allow me to get nearly all of them.

I left the house early with the intention of riding about 20 miles and grabbing 9 photos. About 1/3 of the way in it started to rain and the headwind came up pretty strong. I decided to cut my ride a little short, so I came up 3 pictures short of my plan. I'll have to figure out a way to get those pictures another day this week.

For some reason the bugs were extremely thick this morning. I would ride through clouds of them, and they would inadvertently find their way into my eyes and mouth. Some people may find this funny, but it's gnat.

Stopped at a local coffee house. As part of the promotion there are several places in town giving away free coffee to any cycle commuters. Out of guilt of just getting my freebie and splitting I also ordered a scone. So with tip my free coffee cost me $4.

On my way out the door I saw one of the organizers of the week's events riding a couple blocks ahead, so I kicked into high gear to catch up with her and say, "Hi." Caught her right as she was walking into the door of her office building.

Despite the rain, wind and bugs, I saw quite a few other cycle commuters out today. Many more than normal. The promotions must be working.

Did some work on a bike on Saturday, wanted to ride it this morning. Got it out of the shed and found the front tire squishy. Pumped it up and rode off, and then found the left crank was loose! :notamused: so back into the shed with it, and I rode a different bike. Wasted enough time to miss my train.

On the way to the station I saw a fox run across the road, probably not the same one as I saw last week-- a good three miles apart.

Because I'm old, I now have this song running through my head:

Classic!

Not to be confused with the great bluegrass classic of the same name...


edit... no, bluegrass!

45F, clammy.

So, this morning, I was going to turn left onto Kinwood from the turn lane on Pacific (see below), but there were 8 cars stacked up waiting to turn left. Rather than split the lane and go to the front (because every other car in line is too tentative to go into the intersection and wait for an opening for their own left turn, they stay hiding behind the stop line), or wait in line for several light cycles, I just went to the x-walk across Pacific, pushed the button, and beat 5 of those cars onto Kinwood, as well as the additional ones that stacked up behind the first 8.

It is beyond me why so many cars want to take Kinwood from Pacific to the next road up. The city spent millions and something like 18 months making the next road to the west a 4 lane autobahn where people can safely, if not legally, drive 50 (10 over the speed limit), but they prefer bombing down the 2 lane Kinwood at 40mph (15 over)

I just hit 1,000 commuting miles this past Thursday, and 1,500 total miles this year last night! :thumb:

Awesome!! :thumb:

Finally got my Kona Sutra touring bike out and on the road this morning and went for a longer commute into work on it. Felt good to be riding it.

Overcast and comfortably cool (10C/59F) morning ride in to work. Threatening rain later today.

Not happy with the stopping power of my newish (just a couple or a bit more 100km on the bike since they were installed) disc brake pads. I went with organic pads which shouldn't make much of a difference for the type of riding I do but they don't have the grip that my former metallic/sintered pads did (until they wore out). I'll have to take them out, clean the rotor, clean the pads and try again.

Around here I don't like when cars go into the intersection. It seems more often than not, they don't get the opportunity to make the turn, and then they get a red and are sitting in the middle of the intersection.

Did my first ever commute to work today!
https://www.strava.com/activities/989327037
At 17 miles, it is a nice workout too. I was all showered up and ready for a good breakfast by 8.
The shortest route to work is only 10 miles but that takes me through Nashua downtown. Avoiding the downtown and adding some scenic routes adds 7 miles but I dont mind that. The 10 mile route is probably a good backup option for when time is short.
Still have to see how this pans out with meetings in the afternoons and kids' activities in the evenings.

On my ride home yesterday I saw two snakes partially on the road. One was squished, the other was asking for it with about 6 inches of himself sticking out and considering a crossing. I went around him but a car may not see him.

A very nice mid 60s for the morning ride. I left a little early and added a few miles for a total of 16.5. They say we may hit 90F this afternoon. Dang.

today was my first morning commute with temps north of 70 degrees since last summer.

i was a sweaty, sweaty mess upon arrival.

bring back the 50's!

I was taught to pull into the intersection during a left turn yield on green phase (or more recently, flashing yellow arrow), and wait for a safe opportunity to turn. If none presented itself, then when the light turns yellow and the opposing traffic actually stops, make the left turn. It's not hard, and it's not unsafe either. Frankly I get a little ticked when driving when people DON'T pull into the intersection while waiting to make a left.

You just reminded me something I needed to do (and couldn't remember), order brake pads! I hate the organics - if I don't take them off regularly and sand them clean they're useless. Going back to semi metallic!

62F and pretty decent headwind - looking forward to the ride home!

What I've seen happen is that the oncoming traffic is so much that they are blocking the left turn (perhaps not even moving) when the light turns yellow & then red. So the guy in the intersection doesn't get to turn and is stuck in the middle when the other folks get the green. They have "Do Not Block Intersection" signs, but those don't help much.

I would probably be one to make you a little ticked by not pulling out, but be assured I'm going to make the left when I get the opportunity. And actually, because I don't pull out, I feel like I'm able to make a wider turn and accelerate more quickly than having a hard 90 because I'm already lined up with the road I'm turning into.

What forum is this again? :)

Hmmm, sanding, haven't heard of that trick, I'll try that too.

wet!

Works, just a pain!

Nice rides both yesterday and today. Rode from home yesterday on the Orbea. I hosed the rear wheel on the Ridley. So it still needs a replacement. Those Shimano hubs roll pretty nice. Will have to get another set when I wear out the ones I have. It should be warmer today. So short sleeve jersey and bib short for the win!

I saw another tip recently, to get rid of oils in the pad material: put dishsoap on the pads and rub them together, "wash" them, then rinse them well. Also, degreaser on the rotors.

same here, top to bottom.

45F and thundercloudy today. Sun in between the clouds!

Lovely ride again. May is just the best. As I rode up to the Hazel bridge, a red tailed hawk flew in front of me, alighted in this tree, gave me a suspicious look, and flew on. I've been seeing a lot of raptors the last few days, not just the usual vultures.

Rode across town over lunch to a different client. Had an insecure person pass me and scream, "Get on the sidewalk!" It was a four lane road and there were no other vehicles around us. He was already in the opposite lane so he didn't even need to change lanes or slow down. Not sure what his issue was.

Been at least a year since I've been yelled at, so at least I had a good stretch.

Broke up the commute with a stop at the gym. Then took a slightly longer route from there on to work. I should have allowed about 4-5 more minutes though as I got in right at 8 and still had to change clothes. Oh well.

Back in the groove. It's been rough getting up to speed this Spring. Lots of weather issues, a chest cold, and life events interfering with the commute. But, it's been all good for about a week now. Hopefully the good weather is here to stay.