PatrickGSR94

I'm sure you're careful but just please be super cautious when passing cars on the right when you're right at those side streets. I've seen too many videos of a car making a sudden right turn with no signal and the cyclist is right there and gets mowed down. And with traffic like that it's probably more likely to happen because someone will get impatient and try to make a quick exit from the line of traffic by going down a side street. Passing that much traffic moving that slowly, it might actually be better to pass along the center line of the road to avoid potential right hooks.

caloso

Thanks. I know that neighborhood. I suppose it's a possibility but it would be a dumb move because a right turn takes you into a neighborhood where there's a stop sign every block for many blocks until you get to the next N-S thoroughfare.

noglider 

@PatrickGSR94, I enjoyed your video. Traffic is light there, from my perspective. It looks relatively relaxed.

esmith2039

Started out good... seat bolt decided I had to much awesomeness in my trunk. Quite the walk this morning!

mgw4jc

@caloso - the placement of that one blue trash bin seemed to be the biggest hazard. Fun to watch the cars go by.

A nice ride in this morning. I left a good 5 minutes earlier than normal, got in an extra couple of miles and had time to swing by the ATM.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

ptempel

^ Happy Firday indeed! 64F, nice crisp and clear morning. Rode and chatted with a fellow commuter peep over the bridge and downtown. What's not to like? Mixed it up with two guys in a paceline going down Riverside Dr yesterday. I took a turn on the front when a slight upgrade came. Tried to keep the pace but had to peel off. Got back on for a while and then was dropped like a bad habit. Good workout yesterday morning. I miss the group rides I used to do on the weekend in the past...

liampboyle

69 degrees with 96% Humidity - first day of fall so the sun was rising directly in the east right as I was heading out the door, and I commute eastbound. (Note to self always move so that you have a westbound AM commute).

Skipjacks

I'm having a rough week after a full summer of not even the remote hint of danger.

I had the school bus thing on Wedensday I described a page or 2 back.

Then today I had THREE near death experiences on my commute. 1 of them was TOTALLY my fault.

The ride started out with me misjudging the distance to traffic when I made a left hand turn onto a road I use. I approached the road from a cross street with a stop sign. I looked right and saw the traffic stopped 100 yards to my right at a stop light. No problem. Gives me time to get onto that major road and get up to speed.

Except the cars weren't stopped. I just didn't look at them long enough to realize they were moving at 45 mph. At a glance they looked stopped. At a second glance, they looked 10 feet away. I wasn't even across the road to the right side of the lane when I realized I was about to get smooshed. Rather than continue the left turn into the lane I just kept going across and hopped onto the sidewalk and went into the grass on the other side. MAJOR "I'm an idiot" moment.

The moral...look both ways before you cross...but look for more than a 1/4 of a second. Take the time to process what you see.

But I wasn't the only moron out there today.

A half mile later I hear a car pulling up behind me to pass on my left as I approach a stop sign. He doesn't stop at the sign, but instead makes a hard right turn in front of me. Moron goes around me to the left to cut in front of me going right. My front tire is about 3 inches from his passenger door as he does this. I scream obscenities at him but he rolls up the window and I'm still rattled from nearly killing myself cross the last road so I let it go and ride away.

A quarter mile later I'm approaching a large store. I go behind it because it's a long run with no traffic and nothing is ever going on back there. Again, I'm approaching a stop sign where I make my left turn to go behind the store. An 18 wheeler delivery truck is coming from my right to the same intersection. He's slowing down and stopping so I start making the left. Then the 18 wheeler doesn't stop but instead guns it and barrels into the intersection that I'm already in at this point, presumably so the driver doesn't have to be 'stuck behind a bike' for the next 100 feet until I cut behind the store.

I wasn't in the mood to let anything go at this point. This driver and I had words. I'm still trying to figure out how in the hell he felt like he had any right to argue about how he wasn't wrong for nearly running me over with a truck.

A half mile later I lost traction going around a turn and nearly went down but I saved it. It wasn't even a fast turn. I just got into that gravely stuff that piles up on the side of the road and the rear tire slipped. At that point I was about a 1/4 mile from my office so I decided to quit pissing off the bicycle gods and I just walked the rest of the way.

In that last 1/4 mile I got passed by another biker.....who had him helmet hanging from his rear rack. So I spent a 5 minute walk pushing a bike wondering why he bothered to pay for the helmet and carry it...but not use it.

I may leave the bike at work and walk home. It's a nice day.

Tundra_Man 

This morning was 76 degrees, a full 20 degrees above normal. One of the warmest September mornings we've ever had in South Dakota. Humid to boot, so it was a sticky ride to work. Tomorrow morning is supposed to be back into the 40s.

Yesterday afternoon I had a near-rage incident on the MUP. I'm usually a pretty even keel kind of guy that doesn't get worked up too often, but I had a guy really push my button.

I was riding down a pretty quiet branch of our MUP, the kind where you can see a mile in both directions. I was cruising along enjoying the tailwind when I saw two guys ahead on skateboards riding two abreast. I could also see a woman on a bike coming in the opposite direction up ahead of them. The skateboard guys saw me coming for quite a while before I actually got there.

As the woman approached, the skateboard guys slid over from riding two abreast into single file to give the woman room. I realized that the oncoming woman on the bike was going to reach the skateboard guys the same time I was going to overtake them, so I slowed down and waited for the woman to go by so I could make a safe pass. No problem. This was all working as it should.

I called out "passing" to the skateboard guys and pulled to the left side of the path to overtake. The skateboard guy at the rear stayed right, but the one in front purposefully pulled to the left side of the path and blocked me. I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he didn't hear me, and announced "passing" again. He stayed put and gave no acknowledgement that I was behind him.

So I rode slowly behind him waiting for him to get a clue and move to the right so I could pass. Finally he looked back at his friend and said, "I guess this guy doesn't know how to make his bike go on the right side." He moved slightly to the right and I passed him on the left side.

It took every bit of restraint within me not to knock him on his butt as I went by, and somehow limited myself to give him a stern "you are a jerk" glare. Man, was I angry. Once past him I dialed up the watts (the few I have) and got out of there. I needed to put as much distance between him and me as possible less I be tempted to turn around and demonstrate how physically fit I am.

Wow that one got me riled up. I'm better now.

HardyWeinberg

Crisp equinox 45F and dry

mgw4jc

Dang @Skipjacks and @Tundra_Man, couple of irritating encounters there.

I just came back to say I forgot to mention that I rode past a Verizon store this morning. There were about 6 or 7 people waiting for it to open. At first I wondered if that was normal, and then I figured it must be the iPhone 8 release day. I wonder if they'll all be back in a month for the iPhone 10?

arsprod 

This morning was uneventful, pleasant 72. At 2p it's already in the 90's... Happy Fall!

Skipjacks

With that $1000 price tag?

I'm thinking 'no'.

Also I can' fathom why a company would release a product they intend to replace in 60 days, nor why anyone would buy the phone that's going to get replaced in 60 days and as such will have a SIGNIFICANT price drop in 61 days.

Skipjacks

The commute home was much safer but MUCH weirder!

At a stop light a guy pulls up next to me and tries to have a conversation about how brave I am for riding on a road. I'm thinking "Yeah..its super dangerous. Can I concentrate on the traffic now instead of explaining this process to you?" He was nice, but its like "Really dude? You are insinuating that this isn't safe but feel like distracting me is okay?"

Then later on the way home some guy starts SCREAMING at me from a parking lot. Waiving his fist and everything yelling "Our endurance has ended!!!" At least that's what I think he was screaming. That one left me baffled. I didn't even slow down for that one. I'd had my fill of strange stuff today by that point.

Maybe it's the equinox bringing out the crazies.

NewATBikeComute

Friday as I drove to my car/bike swap point it was raining, but the radar promised that it would be dry; it was, so I had a dry ride. Still wore my heavy rain coat, so was a slower ride.

For the PM commute, it was raining a bit as I walked from the office to the warehouse (where I stash my bike), but in 10 minutes it stopped, and the ride back to the car was dry-ish.

Overall, a win, under the circumstances, as I skipped 2 days because of the threat of heavy rain.

Also have tripled last year's total bike mileage (rookie year for commuting), total is over 1300 miles (commute+other) so far. A pittance compared to some, but I am really pleased.

essiemyra

A very pleasant uneventful commute in as the temp was 65 f degrees with dark clear skies.

acidfast7

Damn British weather

mgw4jc

Decent Monday ride. I left an hour early and stopped at the gym for a bit. The owner there was back after having gone to the Bahamas for a vacation and getting slammed by Hurricane Irma. She was stuck there and couldn't leave for a while.

A warm, dry week here until Friday they say, then a bit of a cool down but still nice for the weekend.

Skipjacks

No near crashes or other death causing incidents today! Big improvement from Friday!

Though suddenly in late September it's hotter and muggier in the morning than it's been in July. Go figure.

locolobo13 

54 F this morning. After the lows being in the mid 70s to 80s felt chilly.

Tundra_Man 

53 degrees this morning, moderate headwind and rain. Took the hybrid with fenders and packed my work clothes in my waterproof pannier. All in all, it was a pretty easy commute.

arsprod 

I know this isn't a weather forum but it's hard not to focus on it. 60F on the ride in - forecast is for 90 this afternoon. That's a 30 degree change in one day.

I changed a gear on my cluster and went the wrong way adding a bigger space in the sweet spot rather than smaller. Argh... and I have ride home with it now!

jrickards

Are others experiencing unseasonably warm temperatures these last 10 days or so?

I went on a charity bike ride, Bike for United Way (Bike for United Way) from Sept 14-17 and the weather was quite warm for September, 22-27C/71-80F and sunny and rainless which was fortunate because the route was 4 Centuries in 4 days. However, now it has just become stupid, 4 days in a row of 30C+/87F+ of intense sun and humidity and although this morning's ride in at 17C/64F felt much better, the humidity was still high and this afternoon's ride home will be in the heat and humidity again. I hear the Toronto, 4hrs drive south of me, is going to suffer worse. However, the forecast is that today is the last day of this and over the next 3-4 days, seasonal temperatures will be with us again.

Anyway, it was a relaxed commute in today although I was starving on the bike (don't normally feel that way, even though I rarely have breakfast before the commute) so I bought a dozen donuts/muffins (but I shared them with my co-workers at our Monday Morning Huddle, I had the Pumpkin Spice muffin that I was looking for, the rest are now gone).

Have a great day and keep cool!!

jrickards

I'm actually thinking of downgrading my phone (I guess that would mean buying a second, unlocked phone to keep my family's data plan going) to just a plain phone like a flip phone. I like my smart phone for many reasons but I want to try to get away from the temptation of looking at it so much.

HardyWeinberg

54F, overcast, sprinkling. Opted for long sleeve shirt and no coat. And, shoes/socks instead of sandals.