Thunderstorms threatened all day yesterday -- I was rooting for one to cool things off. Temperatures here jumped 15 degees last week from the previous week, and it's been getting progressively tougher with each successive ride.


Rain finally came sometime early this morning. What a difference! 70 degrees at the start of my commute, man that's a lot cooler than 76-80! Low traffic on the roads -- there's lots of people enjoying the last week off before school starts back next week.

Today was a great reminder as to why panniers and winds are a bad combination

Heavy rain coming down when I woke up. Still raining at 4:45 when I should have got on the bike. But by 5:30 it had stopped, so I headed on my way. Remarkably dark! Ended up catching a train about an hour later than usual, which is no big deal. Got there dry, which is a big deal.

Soaked, soaked, soaked in NY this morning. Tried out a new bike poncho thing and not sure if I was any dryer for it. I don't know if it's even possible with a 5 mile hilly commute in 70 degree weather. Oh well, at least I biked!

Several Mfr's make helmets with "bee netting" over the vent holes, and I never buy one without it.

Excellent ride in to daycare and work today. No flats, no 3yo pee stops, no bum ticker trouble. Although so much of my life is uncertain or in flux, it's nice to feel like I've got one thing figured out.

On the way home, though, I did have a flat, close enough to home that I walked it in. I figured I'd gotten some FOD from a home in our neighborhood we call "the meth house" because, well, you can guess. It's a constant source of crap in the street due to the guy piling junk on his trailer. I talked to my wife about it and then she went off to her bunko game. Then I fixed the flat, and it was just a thorn. I felt pretty guilty for being uncharitable.

I do not understand this. I love riding my bike and can get behind that, but this?

Anyway it was a nice commute even with gray cloudy skies, and no rain.

It was a cool light breeze this morning, beautiful for riding. Today is the 2nd anniversary of my full time bike commuting.


I saw a skunk foraging by the side of the road in a mowed grass strip. It made me glad when I passed with the skunk taking little notice of me...

I suppose it is hard to tell on the forum, but it was written with sarcasm. I guess the lack of an exclamation mark is the only clue here. :) While biking makes it better, I'm not very excited for Mondays either.

So on to Tuesday. I'm only working a half day as it is my wife's birthday and I'm taking off the afternoon to party it up with her and the kids.

Still warm and humid here, but they say a break in the heat is coming tomorrow. We shall see.

A nice 22km/14mi commute to work. However, it started at 8C/46F and I was reluctant to go out as it was also dewy so the moisture in the air made it feel much cooler (TheWeatherNetwork also indicated that it "Feels Like" 6C/43F). Amazingly, it is forecast to go up to 26C/79F ("Feels Like" 29C/84F) which is quite a large swing in temperatures. At least the ride in was mostly sunny, the only sun I missed was the first km or so where I was shaded by a hill and large trees from the low sun.

Have a great day everyone!

Consecutive commute number 340.

Today was a day where it would have been easy to throw in the towel and drive: 20+ mph headwinds, 97 degrees, humid and a chance for 2" hail later today. Have to work at our company's office during the morning and ride across town to a client for the afternoon, so I'll be putting in about 21 miles total.

One advantage to having a long consecutive streak going is I wasn't even tempted to not ride. I just did it out of routine and when I was halfway to work fighting the wind I remembered the weather forecast, but by that time I had committed myself.

Was a nice and cool ride in at 60F htis morning from home. There was a slight drizzle but that didn't last long. I'll take this cool weather any day over 90F and humid. In my rush to get on the road, I parked my car on the street on my side. Only problem with that is I risk getting a ticket on Tuesdays. The boss called to remind me of this. :( I think next time I'll just park 50 to 100 ft down the block in the next town which doesn't have that restriction.

Whoa, 59F when I left the house. Is summer over already?

Yeah the weather is unseasonably cool today. It's very overcast, and the weather forecast said 20% chance of rain or showers, but I decided to risk it. I stayed off the bike yesterday, and judging from yesterday's posts in this thread, that may have saved me some aggravation. I did beat the rain today. I had a headwind which made a lot of noise in my ears but didn't seem to make pedaling hard for some reason. I think I'm feeling very strong on the bike lately. My speed is up, and my usual hills have become much easier. I made my second-fastest time on the steep climb segment. Gotta see if I can match or beat my record, though. Since it's cool, I didn't sweat much and stink up my clothes.

My GPS tracks

60F, hazy

Beat the rain!

Checked the radar yesterday afternoon about 3:30, a thunderstorm had popped up about 45 miles SW and was just twinkling on the radar loop. No worries. At 4:30, it looked very dark, and the radar showed a storm moving this way from not far off.


Changed in a hurry, scooted out to the bike shed, and the metal roof made it sound like a full-fledged deluge. Funny thing, though, the sidewalk didn't look all that wet. No thunder I could hear, despite the dark clouds and the rain sprinkles. So I decided to race the storm home.


Is it possible to time trial on a commute with a set of panniers hanging off the back of the bike? I felt like that's what I was riding for the first six miles, and by mile 7 I was clear of the darkest clouds. Cruised home, and ... the shower never made it to the house.


Funny thing is, that thunderstorm that never hit did cool things down nicely. This morning's ride was pleasant all the way in.

Nice weather, and I wasn't surprised when the BMW station wagon turned into the same driveway as the older woman who scared me last night did. Neither one of them used a turn signal or made me think they knew what they were doing.

Not a commute but Sunday I tried riding over to my parents' house to cut their grass, but was faced with cloud-ground lightning right in front of me and VERY close! I said NOPE NOPE NOPE and turned around and high-tailed it home. Got it done yesterday evening instead.

99% humidity this morning. It was sunny but might as well have been raining. Few A-holes out this morning, including an impatient pickup driver, and an oncoming Mustang (or something) with loud exhaust that was behind 2 other cars, and I guess honked at me for having to wait to be able to pass the other cars. I was mashing up a hill at the time. Shortly after in the distance I could hear a pretty awesome sounding exhaust note as he downshifted and floored it to pass the other cars. Probably doing 70+ MPH in a 35. :rolleyes:

2 years ago I had a bad wreck on a MTB commute, road rash and bruised ribs. I resolved then to buy some armor, but I never did. It would have come in handy today :lol: I had a much less severe wreck but still some scrapes and bruises on the same arm. On the plus side I tried two of the three jumps along the route. Not enough speed for the first one. I chickened out on a big ramp feature, it was beyond my confidence.

Slogging up a hill I was passed by a young woman jogging on the sidewalk with a smallish dog. It looked like a border collie mix. The dog was pulling on the leash from behind and had a slight limp. After cresting the hill I was able to catch up with her. I pulled in front of her and admonished her to slow down because her dog was struggling to keep up.

"He's fine" was her petulant reply.

What could I do? Just hope that when she got home a more compassionate family member would notice the dog's distress and speak out.

I do not object to people jogging, even biking, with dogs, as long as the dog is liking it. Some dogs are runners and the only way to keep up is on a bike (though this is difficult and requires training).

Still warm and humid this morning, but the high is only supposed to be 86 instead of 90+ we've every day for two weeks now.

I noticed a new water fountain had been added at the entrance to a MUP I often use. How exciting!
https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/t5...78292992_n.jpg


About 2 miles after the new water fountain, I saw a car backing up in a long driveway, somewhat quickly. Whenever I see a vehicle moving steadily like that I anticipate that they will probably not slow down much and pull out into my path. Often they will come to a quick stop once they see me or decide they should look both ways.

This guy didn't. He had to have seen my bright orange shirt, but either way, he didn't stop or slow. I did slow down or else I would have run into his front right door/fender. I just shook my head as he put it in drive and sped away.

Today was my first third-straight commute day that I can remember in a long time. Weather has just not been on my side. Last week, I only rode twice. Ain't that a bummer?

Anyway, looks like storms come back into the area tomorrow. But, Friday looks good. So, it will be my first 4-day commute week all year. Last year I had about a dozen of those and several 5-day commuting weeks.

Another low 60's morning and that's it for the cool down - back to 90's this afternoon

Stormy day. I managed to ride to work between gaps in the rain, so I didn't get wet.

Yesterday afternoon, as I rode from our office to a client location, I encountered something new. As I came down the MUP just on the edge of downtown I passed a guy standing on the side of the path. Completely naked.

Coincidentally, he was about 200 yards across the river from a replica of Michelangelo's statue of David. The dude wasn't in bad shape, but I think I prefer Michelangelo's version better.

I considered calling the police. However this looked less like a pervert and more like a homeless guy who could no longer take the 97 degree heat and humidity. In fact, I'm wondering if he was getting ready to jump in the river to cool off. In any event, I decided the guy probably had a hard enough life without getting the cops involved.

Yesterday evening's ride home was my fastest ever since starting this job two and a half years ago. I made it in 52:10 including 1:20 of stopped time. There is an 8-mile segment where I recently made it to rank #20 on ridewithgps. Now I rank #14. No one in my direction passed me except for a guy with whom I played a little leapfrog.

Over the past couple of years, I spent a lot of time at 13 mph and little above it. Now I'm spending a lot of time between 17 and 19 mph, and it doesn't even seem hard. I guess I should consider myself a cat6 commuter. Well, it's entertaining for me.

The weather has been fine, and no major aggravations on the route lately, so there's more to be grateful for.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/qA...Q=w725-h230-no

What do I get for bragging about beating the rain the other day? A nice little shower last night. It only lasted a mile, with clear sky right overhead, and the black cloud off to the east, but the rushing lasted longer since the black cloud almost reached to the house.


Hot and humid this morning. It's July.

A somewhat discombobulated day today. I was not prepared to ride my bike this morning. The weather called for rain this morning and lo and behold there was none. Also I had a phone meeting at 8pm that lasted till 9pm so I did not get my clothes and work things put together like I usually do. So very unprepared to ride yet somehow I managed to get it all together this am and ride. Yay me! Though I only rode the 8 mile ride to work not the 10 mile ride.

Yesterday on my way home I stopped at the garden center and picked up an echinacea plant. I carried it home in my pannier. It fared very well and shall be planted this weekend.

Moved everything over to the fender bike this morning. I didn't get to ride in any water.. I'm bit saddened by that fact.

I was not going to let the entire week go by without commuting to work by bike at least once, so I rode in to work today, even though rain is predicted in the evening. BUT, I am prepared for that with my booties and a windcheater in my backpack.
As for the commute today, it was in the high 50s to low 60s with a little bit of rain here and there. I think this is my ideal weather for bike rides. I start off feeling a little cold but soon warm up to a quite comfortable level.

That's quite impressive. I have managed to increase my average speed from low 16s to somewhere between 17.5 to 18 mph. But this effort does leave me with not much gas left in the tank.

Cloudy all day yesterday with chances of rain, but nothing ever materialized. It stayed below 90, but is still quite humid. Today looks to be the same. We need the rain though.

I left an hour early this morning and went to the gym on the way in. They let me park my bike inside there which is nice since I don't carry a lock with me. And there is not a good place to lock it up outside anyway.