My first day back to work after volunteering and riding with cycle MA since Saturday. The commute was a pleasant uneventful ride with the temp at 64f degrees and clear skies.

Rode in from home today. Its a good day for the longer ride and not too humid. Will take it easy for the ride home and might stop for a watter bottle refill in Rutherford. I still have 2 new Michelin Pro4 Service Course tires waiting for me to put them on. A review is here:

http://road.cc/content/review/82468-...service-course

http://road.cc/sites/default/files/s...?itok=gQKh_A0X

Would like to say that I'll do it when I get home. But knowing me, I'll be too damn tired to get to it... Probably will have to wait for the weekend.

I just didn't feel like riding hard this morning, so I didn't. Need to adjust to keeping my sister's (energetic) dog for a while. Hard to get a good night's sleep with her bouncing around.


The rain stopped before time to leave the house, but it's a steamy mess. Humidity must be 105%. Before you ask how there can be more moisture in the air than it can hold, remember relative humidity is based on stable air. When the water continues to condense and fall out, that air isn't stable!

That's a nice clear and crisp shot, [MENTION=152773]noglider[/MENTION] Is it from phone camera?

Today is my third day of the week for commuting. I plan to take it easy on the way back. And won't be commuting tomorrow. I need to rest for the overnight 200K this weekend, starting from Lexington MA. Here's the link if anyone is interested:

MA Overnight 200k – August 12th, 2017

55F, treetop cloud ceiling.

I am losing my voice, I assume due to smog from BC fires, but having fewer breathing problems than other people. Possibly because in general I am already doped to the max on asthma Rx

Yesterday morning I almost got right hooked and also I almost got backed into by an inattentive driver. This morning I decided to take my alternate route which bypasses the segment with the worst traffic. This route goes through Inwood Hill Park, involves an extremely steep climb, and takes me over the Henry Hudson Bridge which offers a spectacular view. In the park I encountered a sign that said my path was closed and I should take the lower path. I didn't know that route nor how to use it to get to the bridge. I ended up doing an even harder climb and getting lost. And near the summit, my rear tire went flat. Funny, I was just thinking it was a long time since I've had a flat. So I stopped to fix it. The park was a virgin forest until the 1930s and hasn't been changed much since then. It's also very empty, and I wondered how safe I was alone in the woods, fixing a flat. Well I didn't see anyone good or bad. Sweat was dripping off my face as I did the repair. I found my way back to the street and continued on my normal route with the bad traffic. Total time lost for getting lost and fixing the flat was 30 minutes.

Another lovely (and quiet!) ride in, with perfect riding weather. I should have taken the long way.

Oh, no problem getting home, but I kept it reasonably slow. The tire was shot, of course, but it was a Gatorskin. I imagine I could ride those for a 100 miles even if no rubber was left on them at all.

It was still a nice feeling to ride the next day with a nice brand new tire though. :)

The problem with my plan is that there are some climbs on my route that make it quite easy to forget to go easy.
But my legs reminded me of my plan when they started showing signs of cramping up.

So, today is a rest day. I could afford to sleep for 1.5 hours more.:o

High humidity (98%), but otherwise a beautiful morning with clear skies, 58°F and no wind. Along with my usual t-shirt and shorts, I wore gloves which was just enough to keep the rest of me from getting chilly in the damp air. When I left the house I headed in the opposite direction and stopped at a grocery store to pick up some food for our company pot luck today.

Got to work and discovered that I'd forgotten to pack my shaving kit. So I showered and got dressed, but that's as far as my personal hygiene is going to go today.

Last few days, people wanting to Cat-6 me. It's weird - long grey hair, cargo shorts t-shirt and tennis shoes on a heavy fixed gear with a big pack strapped on back, handlebars way up high, how would it prove something by "racing" me on a MUP? It's not like I rigged up that way to go fast :roflmao2:

I don't pay much attention - I figure Cat 6 on a MUP mainly proves that you don't race, nor ever ride with fast people in general. But yesterday a guy passes me after I'm waiting on a pedestrian, and actually twists back and hollers "come on, Let's go", waving his arm, and then stands on his pedals! 3,100 commutes on the Greenway, and I think that's a first.

56F overcast. Wind supposed to come in and blow the smog back to BC this afternoon. Wait and see I guess.

Dark, damp, muggy, slow.


There's about half a mile of converted rail bed / running and bike path near work on my route. A jogger ahead of me was enjoying his lonely run until I dinged my bell from 10 years back. He jumped and twisted as though he'd hit an electric wire. I apologized for scaring him, and rode the next quarter mile trying not to giggle out loud.

Yesterday, after riding my daily 4 miles of NYC traffic and the Queensboro Bridge, I was on my usual Long Island Railroad train heading east.

But at Oakdale the train stopped, the doors opened, and they announced that the train was being held "for an undetermined period of time" pending police activity ahead, between Sayville and Patchogue. I was about 15 or 17 miles from home and figured oh heck, I'll just ride it.

So I got on my folding bike and rode. It was hot and sunny, and i had a bit of a tailwind, so I made pretty good time. Not my favorite roads; it's not a route I'd have chosen, but not terrible. I saw a few inlets with boats and sea birds etc, and I saw the Great South Bay at one point, with a view of Fire Island in the distance. When I got to Patchogue, for no particular reason, I took a small detour to see what they were announcing at the station. Before I got there, I saw (in the distance) the gates come down, and a train go through the crossing, and the gates come up again. SO I rode like hell and managed to get to the station before the train left.

I assumed I was back on my usual train. I worried that they would make me pay another fare (but they didn't).

It wasn't until I got to my destination that I realized, I was not on my usual train. My 8 mile bike ride from Oakdale to Patchogue got me on the earlier train. So I saved myself fifteen minutes or so.

Cool (but not cold), calm, sunny, pretty much a repeat of yesterday and Tuesday. I'm loving this weather.

Had a few tense moments on the ride home yesterday. Going downhill on a MUP and rounding a long bend maybe a bit too fast, suddenly some manner of flying bug got caught in my helmet strap and started stinging or biting just in front of my ear. It was enough to distract me while I frantically tried to brush it away, and suddenly I found myself on the far side of the path and almost in the bushes. Luckily there was no oncoming traffic. Got myself righted without a wipeout. The sting hurt like a ****** for the next several minutes.

Well, at least you discovered a new route? :) At first I was thinking of the hill area that the Metropolitan Museum Cloisters is on. But looking up the Inwood area shows that you were at the very northern tip of Manhattan.

https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/inwood-hill-park

Sounds like an interesting area/park to explore. Never knew that there was a salt marsh there.

I kind of had the opposite happen thing happen today. I was riding from our company's location to a client about 10 miles away. I had a meeting scheduled and while I left early enough to arrive at the meeting on time, I wasn't going to have a lot of extra minutes to change clothes.

As I hit the MUP I noticed a guy coming up about 100 yards behind me. He was tucked down on aero bars and moving at a decent clip. I decided that as long as I was a bit pressed for time, I'd use this guy as an excuse to pick up my pace. I set a goal to not let him pass me.

We weren't really racing. He probably wasn't even paying much attention to me. But I managed to stay ahead of him for over 8 miles before I turned off the MUP to head towards the client's building. We averaged just a couple ticks below 20 mph the whole time. The closest he ever got was about 20 yards behind me.

I made it to the client's office 10 minutes quicker than normal, so I was left with plenty of time to change my clothes. The only problem was I'd ridden so hard that I needed that extra 10 minutes to sit and catch my breath. :lol:

Drafting, or playing rabbit is another thing, a game I like to play also. But overtly, with agitated demeanor, challenging me to race with him? I don't get the point of it, an old Fred type on a loaded down single speed, on the MUP, why?

Glad I have never had that happen, that is crazy.

Wow. good luck [MENTION=190611]joeyduck[/MENTION] with the upcoming surgery. You seem to be very self-aware: stagnant recovery, general health, etc.

Commutes are still smoky as heck. It's supposed to rain Sunday which should push some of this smoke down into the ground. I've never been so happy for a rainy summer weekend!

I really enjoyed walking around the Cloisters. My sister lived near Audubon and 190th for years and it was nice to walk about there.

Thanks for the words of support; but don't fret I am getting along fine and it takes a lot to take me down.

Last night the smoke finally cleared here on the coast and our view was restored. It also rained in the evening which worked perfectly since it waited to being until after we fed the kids on the patio at the island pub. But the air smelled so fresh and it was so cool relative to the previous few weeks.

Have a great week riding friends.

A very nice uneventful commute this am with mostly clear skies and the sun coming up.

First time commuting by bike this morning in a month. Work and the weather has just been too much, but things seem to be settling down now from the summer rush and I realized this weekend a.) how much of a bad mood I've been in lately and b.) what I should be doing to rectify that. I didn't seem to lose any time or find the commute particularly difficult. There was one instance when a merging car onto the highway did not appear to see me approaching on the shoulder, but there wasn't anyone behind me so I took the lane (hoping that the movement would go further to announce my presence than evidently the two headlights, headlamp, and white jersey had done so far) and that worked out. I also had a completely clear ride through the sketchiest part of my route- a three-lane highway was empty while I had to ride the 0.7 miles to turn off to work.
Hopefully I can get three rides in this week, as the weekend is shaping up to be particularly stressful.

Foggy, very humid and 59 degrees this morning, but not a bad commute for number 352 in a row. Took my road bike. Rolled past the 4k mile mark on the odometer on the way in. Only took 24.5 months to put that many miles on it, which is more miles than I put on my previous road bike in 6 years. I really like my (not so) new (anymore) road bike.

Said "hi" to the mayor this morning despite the fact that on Friday he slashed a project for a MUP expansion from the 2018 budget.

I am back to work after a week off. No riding while I was gone save for a trip to return a RedBox movie last night - a whopping 2+ miles.

Warm and humid this morning, but a good ride. Except I did have a slow motion fall. I needed to get on the sidewalk to access the MUP. A truck was blocking the sidewalk ramp. I thought I could squeeze beside the truck but couldn't make the turn due to the curb still being too high. I didn't get a foot unclipped and just fell over. It was more of a roll and didn't hurt at all. I then had to unclip while laying down, got back up onto the sidewalk, and rode off. The driver of the truck probably never saw me do it as he would have been looking the other way for a break in traffic.

Welcome back to the bike commute.

Two clear, sunny, not-too-hot days this weekend. I saw some evidence of the flash floods we had Thursday-Friday. Now it's back to overcast, humid, and generally blah for the work week. Suits my mood this morning. Still, I beat the rain to work (except for half a dozen drops, what's up with that!).

Very foggy and muggy this morning. The weather guessers have been calling for all-day rain the last 4 days, but it always seems to miss us. We'll see if I get wet going home today!

Back on the bike after a week's vacation. Great to be back on the bike - be greater if it wasn't riding to work!

Howdy
 

Hola, I recently (beginning of June) returned to bike commuting to work after being away from cycling since 2009 following an injury. My daily commute is 5.3 miles each way.

This morning was overcast and a bit damp (it was drizzling) but still a nice quiet ride to start out the week with.

Chilly enough for long sleeves (about 10C/50F), and a bit hazy from the BC fires (but not nearly as bad as others are getting). Really quiet on the roads thanks to summer holidays. There's a couple lights where I sometimes have to cross on a red because my bike doesn't trigger the sensor, and there's no cars around to trigger it for me.