bike stolen from the rack today.

person with wire cutters cut in and rode away ... police involved ... feed from 4 CCTV cameras (this is the UK) being look at.

u-lock and close to the door should be enough

Oh no! That ends your experiment, eh?

not mine ... a different bike. only need to stay ahead of the weakest member of the herd (between 20 and 50 chained up at once.)

:(What a lousy thing to have happen. :(

My commute this morning was pleasant enough. Overcast and though not much rain expected. I rode a four minute mile this am. Which is on the fast side for me. I miss to much scenery when trying to chase that time. There is no point in it for me. I must remind myself of that the next time I try that game. The four minutes I gained where not worth missing the ride. I guess for me its all about the scenery and enjoyment of riding at my typical pace.

Phew. You had us worried there for a bit.

I try to slow my commute down but haven't been very successful at that. Maybe I should drop down to the smaller chainring at the front to force the issue.

I helped a turtle off of a road this morning. I wasn't sure which way to take him though as he was kind of headed down the middle of the street. It was in a neighborhood with slower traffic, but he was a dark green with no other markings and could easily have been mistaken for a wet spot in the road and squashed. Both sides of the street have ponds close by, so I just put him on the side I thought he was slightly more angled toward.

Good 15 miles this morning. Plenty warm and humid, but I think I'm getting used to it.

I managed to make it home yesterday before the storms but then the real fun began. It rained so hard, so fast it filled a basement window well and then blew out the window. Needless to say I'm tired of being wet! Pleasant this morning and the 90 degree temps are gone for a day or two.

You need the right bike! When you have a "fast" bike and a "slow" bike, it's a lot easier to chill out and relax when your'e riding the slow one. Dress the slow one up with all the commuter paraphernalia, keeping the fast one unsullied from that stuff. Works for me.

Humidity off the charts.. sweat more than I did the last few mornings. Got over 10 miles in this morning which is a good thing since I had to two cinnamon rolls after arriving!

I thought there are only slow and fast riders ;)

Jokes apart, I have only one working bike, and it has front and rear fenders, lights, one bag under the seat post and one on the top tube. It weighs 30 pounds.

Maybe I should get myself a faster bike :innocent: I wonder how that conversation will go with the wife. "Honey, I need to get myself a fast lightweight bike so that I can enjoy the commute on my other bike"

That's the issue, right there! I've been there, commuting on a 30 pound bike plus rack and other stuff, pushing for faster commutes, no pressing need for anything else.

But, seriously, it is very useful for a full-time bike commuter to have a backup bike, for a number of reasons. You might be taking your bike out for recreation or workouts. I'd hate for my bike commuting to get stalled because something happened to my bike during training - it would feel irresponsible. So if you did get a backup bike, with the commuter already set, it might as well be a light nimble road bike that's fun for unencumbered longer rides. "Light" from your perspective might be 22 or 23 pounds, which isn't that hard to come by pretty cheaply.


Yeh the safety angle probably doesn't work either, but if it was so you could take your fitness and health to the next level, being more responsible to have a backup or foul weather bike, and maybe have the option to put on better grip, bigger more puncture proof tires that you wouldn't want on your only bike, that might work.

When I got a #2 bike, it was a drop bar road frame that I set up initially as a pure commuter. 1x7, downtube shifters, rack etc, with some parts I had on hand it was a "new" bike without much outlay. I "evolved" it eventually to a bona fide road bike with new wheels, new drive train, everything but the frame set and brakes actually. I don't necessarily recommend that approach over just buying one. but it's worth thinking about different ways to get there.

*thinking about it ... "so I can enjoy the commute more" also seems like an awfully good reason for a new bike.

Four bike commutes this week, for the first time this year. Pretty pathetic that it took this long to reach that little milestone. My legs don't feel tired, but it was tougher on the hills today. Nice riding weather.

Those are some good points and they agree with what I am about to embark upon. I do have another bike waiting in the wings which is much lighter (22-23 pounds in fact!) and has drop bars. I intend to build it out for longer rides over the weekends!

Had a few raindrops hit me as I left the parking lot last night. Weird, because there were light, fluffy clouds all around, but nothing that looked either medium gray or dark. It must have blown in from somewhere, or those drops took half an hour or more to fall while the clouds blew on over.


Today? Not a cloud in the sky this morning, but there's cumulus clouds all around at lunch. This afternoon may be ... interesting.

Phooey, missed my alarm again and had to drive. But I suppose it was divine intervention because I had a 9 AM project site meeting and the usual company car wasn't at work, so I had to drive my own car to the meeting. Would have been embarrassing if I had no car, I guess.

E-bike ride home was fast and uneventful, and HOT!!!

Maybe it was slightly cooler and slightly less humid this morning. Or maybe I'm just getting more used to it. Good ride though. I've been taking the newer MUP home more often lately because it is nicely shaded. It only goes for the first two miles of my 13+ mile commute, but it is nice to start out in that.

I have generally gone with the one faster/lighter road bike. My commute is 13 miles on back roads and through neighborhoods, but all street and or paved trail, so it works well for that. I only have a seat post mounted trunk that attaches with a quick release, so I can simply remove that (and it's 5+ pounds) and head out for a recreational ride. I occasionally wish I had fenders for rain and/or panniers for more storage, but am fine with what I have 99% of the time.

This morning's ride felt much cooler, but NWS says it was only down to 74 from 76? last week. Fog was only clouds a couple hundred feet above the road, but it was enough to get droplets on my glasses. :/

Smooth one today. Dropped of kiddo and his seat at daycare, he nattered amiably all the way there. Then cruise on to work. Warm morning will make a hot afternoon.

A pretty good rain storm popped up just before 5 yesterday. My wife was in the area but I told her I could ride part way and meet her in a grocery store parking lot. It was raining hard enough I had kind of a tough time getting there. I had to take corners slower and anticipate braking earlier. And water/sweat was getting in my eyes. I removed my sunglasses just so I could more easily wipe them. I needed swim goggles.

And then jsut before I got to the meeting place it stopped raining. I could have ridden on home and not had her wait on me. Oh well.

This morning I saw a lady on the MUP walking her dog and pushing a stroller with a cat in it. The stroller seemed to be made for the task, not a regular baby stroller. Can't say I've seen that before.
http://img.chewy.com/is/image/catalo...492801070_.jpg

So humid this morning that my sunglasses never really cleared. Today is supposed to be the least humid of the week!

A little more humid in the NYC area as well. But the temps should be good and be around 84F this afternoon. I rode from home today. So will take it easy going home and try to leave some in the tank. I did some bike maitenance over the weekend. Replaced brake pads, cleaned and shortened the chain, raised the handlebar by flipping the stem, and put teflon tape on the BB threads. Was a bit of a PITA getting the NDS cup in. Also the teflon shredded a bit but I hope it will stop the squeaking. Will see...

It's warm and humid but not crazy. I wore cycling clothes and my backpack which made me sweaty, but I wasn't uncomfortable at all.

Last night, I changed the handlebars and stem on my Lemond (road racing bike). The new stem is much taller and has a shorter extension. Now it's clear to an observer that the bike is too small for me. It felt weird, and the handlebars felt too high and too close compared with what I'm used to. But maybe this is the way things will be for me from now on. I was able to adjust, though it was weird having my knees almost hit the handlebar ends when I stood up. I was unusually comfortable on the ride. I made one of my fastest times, and it also felt like one of my lowest effort rides, so I should take this as a good sign. Even the saddle felt better than ever. This is a Specialized Riva which I just started using. Previously, I felt I liked it 90% as much as a Brooks B17, but today, it felt 100%.

Before leaving, I did some dead lifts and some overhead presses with my barbell, because that often helps my comfort in the saddle. I didn't feel the effect today, and I attribute that to the new position on the bike. I think I'm really onto something.

We might get thunderstorms later today, and there's a small chance I'll be in one on the way home, but that's fine. I'll just change clothes at home. We're going out to dinner to celebrate my lovely wife's birthday.

I pushed hard yesterday afternoon and this morning. This morning especially I felt great, no ticker problems. I made it in 25:39, I think I've never done under 27 before. Trying to figure out how to hang onto it, because it's a lot better than angina and sugar crashes of my normal day.

My dh and I were sitting at a restaurant that had outside seating two Sunday ago, and a couple left the area of the restaurant pushing one of those dog carriages. We just smiled at them.

Anyway it was a pleasant commute this morning, though there was some fog and damp air, there was no rain.

The commute home last night was interesting to me as I learned that the grocery store I stop at has a nice overhang to park my bike under. It looked like a storm was passing through as I went in the store so I locked my bike under the overhang and put a plastic bag on the seat. When I came out of the store my bike was dry and yet a street over from the store the roads were wet.

This mornings commute was pleasant. I saw a rabbit two different times and each one runs into the bush when they see me. As if I am the one going to harm them.

First commute this week. Already 80 degrees.. going to be another hot one this afternoon!

A cool and misty ride in to work this morning. Even stopped to take a couple of pics with my scratched up phone camera. For some reason, these lines were stuck in my head the whole way

Misty mornings, clouds in the sky
Without a warning
A wizard walks by

Attachment 572600

[MENTION=439013]Amitoj[/MENTION] - cool shot with the sun lighting up the fog.

On the way home yesterday I saw a snake on the MUP. He had his head up like was checking things out. When I approached he did a quick 180 and slithered into the grass.

Late last night somebody dropped a large glass pitcher and it shattered on the street. I got up early to go for a run, but decided to sweep it up first. It could have easily spread out and caused punctures for me and/or cars.

Nice ride in. At mile 9 I have a choice to go left or straight and still get to the start of a MUP that finishes the last two miles of my commute. I hadn't really tried to compare the distances before but yesterday I went straight at it was 15 miles even to my office. Today I went left and found that it is also 15 miles even. There's actually another option I could if I go left and then later take another turn. Maybe I'll try that soon.

Humidity is higher than yesterday if that's possible. I tried the 'spit on the lens' trick learned from diving for fogging - it worked!