Last night's ride home:


Lots of rain. I told the wife, I'm picking up a new headlight today - I can't keep riding in these conditions without one. So I need to find something good under $30 USD.

This morning 62°F w/ 100% humidity and the roads are still pretty wet from yesterday. 5.4 miles (stopped at a corner store for Gatorade) 26 min avg spd 12.3 mph

Finally a dry ride and actually a bit warmer. Supposed to be in the mid 70's this afternoon - let's hold off Fall a bit longer! On the ride in yesterday I removed my nice Gore helmet cover and put it in my jacket pocket. I realized last night that it was gone (how'd it fall out of a velcroed pocket?!). I HATE losing stuff so was eagle-eyed this morning, fully expecting to see it laying on the road waiting for me. It wasn't :cry:

commuting lessons learned today
 

A few minutes in to my commute this morning I realized my front brake was completely disengaged. Talk about something to get your heart rate going! I had taken the wheel off yesterday to change a flat and I guess I just didn't connect the brake properly afterward. Seems to be fine now. the roads were still wet from yesterday so you can imagine what braking with only the rear brake was like!

Another thing: normally for commutes I will wear some sort of athletic shirt and mountain bike shorts, along with my bike shoes for the clipless pedals. But I've been watching a lot of youtube videos lately on dutch commutes / riding style. I guess there is something about just getting on the bike and riding without much fuss that appeals to me. So today I just work jeans, a button up casual shirt and running shoes. No meetings today so I figured I could pull that off at work today. My pedals are the kind that have platform style on the reverse side and clips on the others.

Big mistake! For one thing, even though it wasn't raining, my pedals were a little wet from yesterday's rain and from the bottom of my shoes. They slipped off the pedals more than once, which was annoying. Can't imagine what it would have been like if I'd tried wearing dress shoes with slick soles, ala The Netherlands. For me I guess clipless is the way to go, even in the city. I never have much trouble getting in and out of them quickly anyway, and I learned today that I like the stability. I guess I'll go back to keeping a nice pair of shoes at work so I don't have to carry them.

Then there is the weather factor. It was a very cool morning, and I have a reasonably short ride of about 4 miles each way. So my thinking was that if I took it easy I wouldn't get very sweaty and would be fine without a change of clothes. I hadn't thought about how hilly it is here. I guess I never realized that until I tried riding and not sweating in non-bike clothes! I will just make good use of my panniers next time! Quite a few lessons learned today. I'm just getting back into commuting, or biking at all, very recently. So it's like I have to learn this all over again. haha.

Chilly (6C/43F when I left the house), overcast, calm. Uneventful ride, except for dodging puddles. I probably should have ridden a bike with fenders today.

As soon as I got home, my wife told me that our son at his university had gotten a stick in his chain and needed help with it. I figured that the DR was jammed up so I grabbed a few tools and rolled back out. As it turned out, he'd snapped his DR hanger somehow. So cutting his chain for single speed operation, I got it a hair too short for the right chain line which was a little annoying in practice but good enough to ride home with.

50F, partly cloudy, long sleeves again.

Yesterday morning, I was following the arrow in the below picture (which is the MUP around the parking lot/between the parking lot and the freeway). In the parking lot they often have motorcycle training classes (to get the endorsement for your licenese). Yesterday morning there was a firetruck and ambulance in the parking lot and guys tending to a wiped out motorcycle where the X on my picture is, which is pretty far out of the lot and onto the MUP. Guy was getting put onto backboard in his helmet to keep him immobilized. Can't really imagine how he got there. It wasn't one of those 125cc trail riders. It also wasn't bad enough to make the newspaper so at least there was that.

If you get the vintage rattrap style pedals, it seems to take care of a lot of the slipping. Also I highly recommend: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A9WNVR2...=24HA51ADSC6LP For sweat in uncomfortable areas

[MENTION=207028]phx1973[/MENTION], always do an ABC Quick Check before pedaling away. It's now an engrained habit for me.

Yesterday's commute told a motorist, who had their window down, to please use their turn signals. First time in my life I got a "Sorry, you're right" and not an FU. I'm still amazed!

Wow!!!

lol I've yelled a few times at motorists "Turn signal would help!!" but usually get no response at all, that I can hear anyway.

Once again I missed a day of great commuting weather because I couldn't get my butt out of bed even with THREE alarms at 5 AM, and didn't even wake up until 7! :mad::mad::crash:

80 and muggy! Sweated like a pig. Otherwise it was a nice commute. Third and final day of commuting by bike for the week.

Today, ~4 miles east of there (I was heading west to go home) I passed 3 motorcycles heading east on the MUP! It's motorcycle week on that trail I guess. I called the police non-emergency line and I assume they did nothing about it. But I am curious how the motorcycles did with the family with dog and toddler on balance bike that I had passed a minute or 2 before I got to them.

A nice commute again this morning though there were sprinkles the last mile or so. It was a warm 65 f degrees this morning with cloudy dark skies. Its Friday!!:)

Short commute after dropping the car off for some new oil and a tire rotation. The drive there was stop and go; stop and go. Why are some stoplights so short? Anyway, I'm glad I don't have to drive that regularly and I'm glad the route from there to work is not my normal route.

Low 70's F on the way home last night and DRY!!!! Jumping for joy for dry weather.

This morning 61 F with 96% humidity and foggy, I'm quite glad I picked up a new headlight yesterday even if it was a cheap ass dept store Bell model.

This is the light set I grabbed from Walmart: Bell High Lumen Premium

I've been at this job for two years and nine months. I have finally turned a corner where I prefer to ride over taking the subway. I've enjoyed nearly every ride but had to push myself to start every time. Now this month, it is the assumed mode of commuting. I'm not sure what made the difference. Maybe it's the fact that I've passed a hump in my strength.

My new goal is to get so rain doesn't stop me from heading out. Twice this week, rain was in the forecast but I decided to take a chance. I was rewarded both times. The rain missed me except for some very light rain.

Nice, uneventful 15 mile ride to work. Little foggy but nothing bad.

Same here especially with my e-bike added to the arsenal. Before I could only handle 2 30-mile round trip rides per week on my road bike commuter. Now I can easily commute 3 times a week with both road and e-bikes. I've tried to get to 4 times a week but haven't been able to yet. I have this problem with missing alarms. It's so hard for me to get out of bed in the morning no matter what day it is. It's been a problem for at least 20 years or so, since I was in architecture school.

This morning's commute was special. I work in the IT department at a college. We had to do maintenance on a server, so that has to be out of hours. My cow-orker and I agreed to start work at 7:30. I normally get in between 9:30 and 10:00, so this is a big stretch for me. It would have been fine if I rode in gently, but as I'm training for an event, and as I was feeling strong, I went hard. And that went well. I'm happy with my time and average speed.

And since it was earlier than normal, the light was different, and I enjoyed the views.

https://ridewithgps.com/photos/3013416/large.jpg

https://ridewithgps.com/photos/3013417/large.jpg

https://ridewithgps.com/photos/3013418/large.jpg

https://ridewithgps.com/photos/3013419/large.jpg

Edit: can you see my pictures? Because I can't.

Wow +1! The other 'stupid car trick' that bugs me (happened today) is when I start to roll out slowly into the street expecting the car to my left to maintain their speed so I will easily pass behind - and then they slam on their brakes. This woman literally screeched to a halt - I passed in front of her with my best 'wtf' look.

Nice pics man. [MENTION=152773]noglider[/MENTION]

Yeah I hate that, or slowly moving forward about to turn left behind an oncoming car, then they slow down and/or stop so then I have to stop and put my foot down. I've yelled at a few people to move along. One woman was like "I was trying to let you go" or something like that, to which I said "but you had the right of way!" :rolleyes:

I've been leaving earlier in the mornings this week, this morning a bit before 6AM. Wow, 15 minutes makes a big difference in car traffic. It was almost as if I had the roads to myself. I think I was passed by only one car during my 7 mile urban commute!

Guy on the radio said it was 2C, but the thermometer on my house said 0C (32F), so I'm going with that. Jacket, leg warmers, toe covers, warm gloves, bandana today. Clear, except for thick fog in the valley. Uneventful.