They repaved a crumbling two-plus mile stretch of road on my morning commute. Last year, they repaved the little over a mile long road I ride right after it. So, in the past two years, the bumpiest, most brutal 3 or 4 miles of my route has been transformed into track-quality brand new asphalt. Needless to say, I am happy.

Yesterday evening, I barely pushed for speed on the way home, but it ended up being really fast, and I did not have a tailwind for most of it. Raising the handlebars seems to have been a big gain for me. I don't really understand it, because I'm less aerodynamic. I guess it's because my back and shoulders are more comfortable. With the new position, I have to learn how to stand and pour the power on, because the handlebars are in an awkward place, right in front of my knees. I'll try lowering them a bit.

Ridewithgps sent me a notice saying I made my best time on the Greenway segment, which is 8.6 miles. I now rank #20 among all the people who have recorded their rides on that segment. I notice [MENTION=384048]greg3rd48[/MENTION] ranks #7, and [MENTION=193767]johnlink[/MENTION] ranks #46 and [MENTION=314122]wilfried[/MENTION] ranks #73. Maybe Greg was going for best time, but I wasn't, and I doubt the others were, too. It's a fun little ego boost to get these notices without my looking for my rank.

Normally I ride the road bike on Tuesdays, but I had to rush to work earlier to make an 8 AM jobsite meeting, so I took the e-bike instead. I tried using a higher PAS level for hills instead of just the throttle, which actually made me faster overall AND took less battery. Win-win! :thumb: I usually use PAS level 3 of 9 in the mornings, and 4 in the afternoons, bumping it up as needed for various hills, or throttle for larger hills. This time I just bumped it up to 6 and kept pedaling on the larger hills.

The crazy thing is that I made the 15.1 mile distance in exactly 51 minutes 59 seconds moving time in the morning, and 51 minutes 59 seconds in the afternoon as well! That's really weird!

60F, nice and sunny. First day lack of errands allowed biking since last Thursday. Was getting antsy.

On the way back home, some sort of insect flew into my mouth. I spat it out and I thought I was in the clear. Unfortunately, the realization that it was a bee dawned upon me when the said said insect lodged itself on my thigh and buried its stinger into my skin :cry:

Another pleasant uneventful commute.

A good ride in with a layover at the gym. Hot afternoons again this week. High of 95F today and possibly 97 for Friday and Saturday. Ugh. The worst part is when I first walk outside to go to the bike. Once I get on and start riding it isn't so bad.

Ouch! Really wanted to get the road bike out today but the thought of wearing a backpack in this heat gives me the willies.

Had to ditch the bike today since I am picking up my first road bike later today. Excited!!

It was somewhere around 95 here yesterday. But I had some wind on my back to help me get through.

it was thunderstorming pretty hard this morning in chicago.

i asked my wife if i could take the car. she said she needed it to run errands later on.

but instead of having me walk over to the bus stop in the storm, she offered to just drive me to work!

#sheisakeeper

Survived the ride home last night, hottest day of the year (so far).


This morning I felt like I was doing intervals, but I was just concentrating on spinning the whole way in. I did hit four of my longest five traffic lights on green, so I may have to try that more often!

60F, gray. No rain, but wet; should have gone for the fendered bike after all...

Felt like humidity soup this AM. 77 degrees and 98% humidity. Everything drenched. And I was on my road bike and was extra slow. Over 20 minutes slower than my e-bike commute on Tuesday.

Third day in a row I have asked a driver, politely but firmly, to stop texting and put the phone away.

A very pleasant uneventful commute this Friday morning. TGIF!

Ditto here.

Although I wish I had gotten more than 5 hours of sleep last night. Doesn't impact my commute though. It's the hours in between that become most inconvenient :p

Happy Friday! A good week of commuting almost done. I meant to add some lube before leaving, but instead listened to a squeaky chain on the way to work.

temp his morning: 77 (not terrible)

dew point this morning: 72 (uuuuuugggggggghhhhhhh............)

I waited out morning thunderstorms, would up being pretty nice. Talking about heat index of 100F this afternoon with 300% humidity... summer!

53F. Cool lenticular clouds this morning.

It was hot this morning, and I saw something I haven't seen yet on my way to work - an old guy bicycling to garage sales. I'm not sure how he planned on getting anything home if he bought it, but between being oblivious to his surroundings and not signaling his turns his might not make it home.

97 degrees on the way back! I am roasted.

Could be worse. I took one in a helmet vent a couple of years ago. It hit me just below the hairline. My current helmet (a Limar) has netting over the vents.:thumb:

ona recent commute I took the transit part of the way. it's good if transit systems are bicycle friendly, having bicycle racks makes going far distances without a car rather easily or if you're in an area you're scared of the traffic hitting you or it's an industrial area with lots of huge commercial vehicles like trucks then the safe alternative of transit is good to have and tax money well spent.

Yay it's Monday. A little cooler today with some cloud cover and breezes, but still humid.

Good ride to the office.

Raining today. Took the car to work.
But I did a 20 mile bike ride yesterday that took my total for July to more than 500 miles. That is more than I have ever ridden in a month! Happy about that.

Great! I am still in the phase where one is scared of bees for a few days after getting stung. Now I need to deal with the possibility of one getting stuck in my helmet too :twitchy:

Was on "vacation" all last week. Spent a good chunk of it at home working on my chore list that has been steadily growing. Except for a 2.65 mile ride to the grocery store on Wednesday, I didn't ride at all during my week off.

Back to the grind this morning. The ride in was almost chilly due to the high humidity. Saw a motorcycle cop riding the opposite way on the MUP who wasn't in the mood to return my wave. Outside of that, it was pretty uneventful.

Now I'm fighting the typical post time off "I don't want to be heres." Bleech.

Much less humid today - what a difference! Thunderstorms and 90+ temps taking a break for a few days

Returning from a week off, had to take the car in for service, rode my bike from the shop to work in the rain. Despite my really bright rain jacket and the fact that traffic light was red, as I was making my left turn on my green light I nearly got hit by a motorist who ran the red light making their left turn: the driver mustn't have even noticed it was red despite the fact that 5 lanes (both sides of the road) were stopped. I wasn't far enough into the intersection to be in any danger but, sheesh!. The woman in the adjacent car was wide-eyed when she saw what nearly happened. Had the motorist pulled into the nearby coffee shop, I'd have gone over to talk to the driver but the car continued down the road and I couldn't have caught up.

Last week was sunny, warm/hot and beautiful, this week is looking very rainy so far.

Stay safe people!

55F, clear but hazy