I have been known to yell at guys who pass me uphill "Yeah, but I only have ONE GEAR"


LOL

Today is Friday, and the last time I rode to work was Monday. I rode to work today, and it felt so good! I'm having a happy day as a result. I also did some lifting before I left for work, and I feel it doing good things for my posture. The wind was light, and I think it might have been from behind, so I went pretty fast. A tailwind makes me feel strong, even though it's an illusion.

I just checked the wind map, and it looks like the wind has picked up and turned around, in my favor, so I'll have a nice ride home, too.

I only have one gear as well. My bike has 24.

I did that with an Ultegra 6500 pedal last year, but it was probably 14 or 15 years old and had literally millions of revolutions. I definitely got my money's worth.

Luckily I was only about a mile from my house when it happened.

30 mph headwind on the way home with rain. Woohoo!

Tuesday, after endless rain-outs, will finally be kiddo's first T-ball game. Half the season is over and the only day they've played has been opening day, which he missed. I wonder what I'd have done if I were the coach. I might have tried to hold some get-togethers. Not really to do anything baseball related, just to get the kids in the same place. If it weren't for that I'd have a full five days of riding, because the weather has cleared right out. My favorite Tahoe snow forecaster says the next possible storm isn't coming until the 5-8th, and he sounds like he's doing some wishful thinking.

yesterday AM was cold and wet. The gear was still cold and wet when i put it on for the ride home. :(

This AM had just enough rain to wake me up proper. I had a headwind this AM but I should have a tailwind on the way home.

Trouble with the vehicle means I'll probably have to drop it off which means I'll probably have to drive it. Not sure yet how things are going to shake out.

No cycle commute for me today, unfortunately. I’m still waiting for new pedals and cannot remove another pedal from a crank. I sprayed pb blaster on both sides to see if it will help. Sucks but can’t do much without a vise and a pipe or cheater bar.

32F this morning. Rained all night and projected to rain/snow all day depending on which direction the temp goes. Given that the temp is right on the edge, the ride in varied between wet pavement and areas of sheet ice. I took the winter bike with studs.

It's still cold and windy but not prohibitively so. I had a stiff headwind, which is normal for me in the morning. The one slightly unusual thing is that it was not shifty or gusty; it was uncharacteristically steady. I guess that's a good thing. I made good time, considering the challenge. The folks riding in the opposite direction were smiling. Did I look funny to them? More likely, they were enjoying the tailwind.

Cool, overcast, and windy this morning. Gusts between 25-30 mph. Front must be coming in. I managed my route so most of the south let was sheltered a bit, then rode strong (surely not a tailwind!) on the last leg. Like an idiot, I was rolling slow coming into the parking lot, checking out the drainage pond for interesting birds, and a gust nearly blew me over. :/


Week before Easter, it's time for the dogwoods to start blooming. Ours is just budding, but some of the ones with a good southern exposure were almost full today.

40F, misting, farm animals loose at MUP intersection

Olympia

Where is the northern Deep South? You in Gerorgia? SC?
Anyway, Easter is early this year so the dogwoods up here (Charlotte) will be sometime after.
It has stayed cool longer than normal too, but that looks to be changing tomorrow.

43F for the ride in this morning. High is only supposed to be 48 due to clouds and some expected rain. But tomorrow's high will be over 70F.

A good ride in this morning. I have needed to drive a lot more often lately and definitely miss the rides.

Steady rain, 12+mph headwind, but 49F. If this is Spring I'll take it!

Huh. Had to check my table of sunrise and sunset to make sure the sun rose this morning, and allegedly did it before I started riding. Overcast is like the midwest in winter, a dark blanket.


School's out for spring break around here, which makes it nice for light traffic. I could even find a parking place if I drove the car, which I might have to do if the TV weather people are right about later this week.

33°F this morning. Above freezing! Woohoo!

Took my hybrid today even though there were still icy spots. Today's route has me riding about 21 miles and I really didn't want to do that on studded tires. Plus I wanted to try out the new stem extension I installed on the bike last night. The new handlebars I installed a few weeks ago (Jones H Loop) provide a wide variety of hand positions. Some of them were just a little bit too much of a reach to be comfortable enough to use. My bike came with the steerer cut low and no spacers above the stem to allow me to raise it. I debated between an adjustable angle stem or an extension. I decided to go the extension route. It was only $15 so I wouldn't be out much if I decided I didn't like it.

So far I do like the slightly more upright position. The extension provides for up to 4" of extra height, but I didn't need that much. I mounted the bars as low as I could get them with the extension installed, which raised the bars about 1 3/4" from where they were. I have a stack of three spacers on top of the stem which looks kind of goofy to me. I'll ride it this way for a while and if I feel I don't need any additional height I'll take the extension apart and hacksaw the excess off the top.

Ran into (figuratively) a guy in my neighborhood who was commuting to work. He pulled off a side street in front of me and I followed 50 yards behind him. After 1/2 mile he slowed down and let me catch up to talk. We introduced ourselves. He said that my headlight was so bright that at first he thought I was a motorcycle. We compared computing notes for a short distance until our destinations took us in opposite directions. But it's always nice to make a new friend.

[MENTION=175954]Tundra_Man[/MENTION], that is nice. There seems to be a rule here in NYC that you do not talk to other people on bikes. Yesterday would have been a good time. I played leapfrog with a guy who left the university at the same time I did and took the same route. We had a headwind, and he seemed to be drafting me for a while. He eventually passed me. As he did, I turned to open a conversation, but his gaze was ahead, and he seemed uninterested in talking. My opening line would have been that we had a headwind both morning and evening. He was riding a Waterford, a very fancy bike. I'm pretty sure I've seen it on campus. I was riding my McLean which has no decals, but anyone with a trained eye can tell it's a high-end bike. We were both wearing street clothes.

Every time I commute, ridewithgps tells me I rode the segment that goes from 14th St to 42nd St. That's 1.4 miles. Yesterday, I did that segment in 6:00. So just for fun today, I tried to see how I could do. I pushed hard. Unfortunately, I had to stop twice, once for a truck exiting a driveway, and once for a traffic light. I made it in 5:10. This is good. I was against a headwind. I've done this segment 170 times, and this ties with 9th place of all the times I've done the segment. Maybe I'll push myself there more in the future, just for fun.

45F heavy mist

Secure facility stickers received yesterday - I am legit now.

My phone doesn't take good photos ever since it got run over by a car.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d3...=w576-h1024-no

I must have stayed in bed a couple minutes too long this morning. While sipping my tea I realized it was time to go; tossed my stuff into my bag AFAP and ran out the door maybe five minutes late. Rode as fast as I could the whole way. Got to the station a minute ahead of the train's scheduled departure :thumb: but the train was fifteen minutes late :foo:.

Did my yearly Spring maintenance on my FG commuter this weekend and it was like a new ride. Almost. Well not really, but quieter. On that bike it just consisted of hosing mud off, greasing wheel bearings and squirting some oil on the chain. I'm hoping when I do my road bike later it will feel more fulfilling.

33F with a noticeable headwind in the morning. My first commute without studded tires since mid December. Sooo much nicer. Still a few icy spots, but most of the commute is clear now.

Upper 40s F with strong crosswinds. Haven't ridden since last Wednesday due to not wanting to dirty my just-washed bikes in the rain, but yesterday there was 80-100% chance of rain forecast and none landed at all while I rode the bus so I went out today when 80% chance of rain resulted in zero drops.