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2018! The ?How was your commute?? thread!

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2018! The “How was your commute?” thread!

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Old 05-16-18 | 09:14 AM
  #1001  
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We had a deluge yesterday afternoon starting about 3:00, that then moderated to a downpour that lasted two hours. I thought I would drive home, until I stood up, looked over the cube wall, and it had stopped raining. Yay! Temperature had come down, too, although it was creeping up by the time I made it home.

Paid for it this morning. Low 70s, but it was steamy. I'm surprised my glasses didn't fog up when I walked outside.
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Old 05-16-18 | 09:37 AM
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From: south Puget Sound
54F, gray. Never got to 70 yesterday after pushing 90 the day before. Not likely to hit 70 today either.
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Old 05-16-18 | 01:03 PM
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A little cooler this morning but was a great ride. It seems that commuters are doubling every year. I've never seen this many! Some are awfully timid.
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Old 05-17-18 | 05:21 AM
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From: Merrimac , MA
A very pleasant ride in this am with the temp at 53 f degrees and cloudy skies. A rabbit ran in front of me to cross the street and is now safe on the other side. Yay to him! The lilacs are smelling so nice!
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Old 05-17-18 | 06:17 AM
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From: Mooresville, NC (Charlotte suburb)

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Originally Posted by Amitoj
Pleasant 50 degrees in the morning. No leg or arm warmers. Commute back home will be in 60 degrees.
I like these 50-60 degree commutes. I don't have to deal with sweat getting into my eyes!
That's my favorite temp range too. 70F and quite humid here this morning. A bit sweaty.

Originally Posted by arsprod
... I want to know who people are talking to that early in the morning
They probably call some kind of hotline that connects them to people who are also driving. "I'm about to make a left turn without looking left. how's your drive going?" "I'm about to see if I can make this yellow light by flooring it."
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Old 05-17-18 | 06:21 AM
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Originally Posted by mgw4jc
They probably call some kind of hotline that connects them to people who are also driving. "I'm about to make a left turn without looking left. how's your drive going?" "I'm about to see if I can make this yellow light by flooring it."
Brilliant! Working from home today, pleasant commute from bedroom to home office!
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Old 05-17-18 | 07:15 AM
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I woke up to the sound of heavy rain. Really heavy rain. I reached for my phone to check the time, hoping it was not near time to get up; no luck, the alarm was going to go off in another minute or two. I always wake up just before the alarm goes off, so this wasn't a surprise. I suspended the alarm and went back to sleep. Two hours later I woke up to silence; so I got on my bike and came to work after all. Only a little bit wet!
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Old 05-17-18 | 08:32 AM
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From: Sioux Falls, SD

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Haven't posted for a couple of days as I wasn't seeing the text entry box. Turns out my ad blocker was getting over zealous and preventing it from being displayed. Just got that figured out so....

This being "bike to work week" there are a lot of extra things going on sponsored by area businesses and cycling clubs.

Yesterday morning: beautiful. I swung by a church near the client's office as they were offering ride-through snacks and prayer for anyone commuting. I figured I could benefit from both. As I rode up the pastor looked at me and said, "Hi Terry!" He looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place who he was. He reintroduced himself and it turns out I went to middle school and high school with him. I hadn't seen him in more than 30 years. That was pretty wild. We spent a few minutes catching up.

Over lunch I rode to the south end of the city to an LBS that was hosting a free lunch for cycle commuters. Last year I rode to the same lunch in the middle of a deluge and got soaked to the bone. This year the weather was perfect. Oddly enough, they had a bigger turnout last year.

Last night was the "ride of silence" to remember those cyclists who have been killed while riding. They listed all of the fatalities in our city over the last 15 years. There were five of them. While that's five too many, I was also surprised the list was that low (not that I'm complaining.) It was a somber ride. One of the five listed was a friend of mine so I rode in his memory.

This morning I left the house early to take the long way to work in order to grab more photos for the scavenger hunt. It was another extremely beautiful morning: 59°F, sunny and a light wind. I wound up logging 19 miles before I arrived at the office.
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Old 05-17-18 | 08:42 AM
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Low 60s, and sunny.
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Old 05-17-18 | 10:17 AM
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From: south Puget Sound
58F, gray. Today is bike-to-work day, and schedule does not permit a roundtrip, so I took a 23 mile route into the office.
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Old 05-17-18 | 09:40 PM
  #1011  
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Originally Posted by Tundra_Man
Haven't posted for a couple of days as I wasn't seeing the text entry box. Turns out my ad blocker was getting over zealous and preventing it from being displayed. Just got that figured out so....
That happened to me, too. I wonder what changed. Are you using ublock? That's what I use.
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Old 05-18-18 | 05:28 AM
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From: Merrimac , MA
A very pleasant commute this morning with the temp at 58 f degrees and cloudy skies and its Friday. So its all good. We are heading to Michigan for a 3 day weekend. I will get to spend the weekend with my 4 mos old granddaughter. Maybe take a ride with my son on his tandem bike. Enjoy your weekend!
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Old 05-18-18 | 05:34 AM
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From: Thornton, CO

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I’ve been off the bike for the whole week, unfortunately. The first two days were with an upper respiratory infection and working a different site for DR testing. Wed an Thu were a little worse with coughing up yellow goo and working from home. Today is a train ride in and hopefully less coughing. I hope this doesn’t turn into bronchitis. But I’m feeling better so should be good to go next week.

Looks like I missed a good storm driving back on Tuesday. I saw the wind pick up quickly. Glad I wasn’t on the bike. Had to dodge a few downed tree limbs and take a few detours on the way home. I hope no one got caught in that....

Last edited by ptempel; 05-18-18 at 05:39 AM.
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Old 05-18-18 | 06:45 AM
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From: Mooresville, NC (Charlotte suburb)

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Yesterday after work I took the MUP from my office to a highway. The MUP doesn't connect directly to the road, but to a sidewalk paralleling it. I usually stay on that for a bit until I can safely merge into the road. But yesterday the northbound traffic was bumper to bumper and barely moving. I stayed on the sidewalk passing all the cars. About a half-mile up the road I found the reason for the clog. A school bus was broken down and being worked on, blocking about half of a lane. Police were doing the one lane at a time traffic management. So once I got passed that spot, the northbound was moving again, but southbound was stopped. At the next stoplight I was able to cross over to the northbound lane and cruise right along.

A warm and humid 70F this morning.
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Old 05-18-18 | 07:23 AM
  #1015  
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From: Upstate New York

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I'm feeling really good today. In all the years I've been bike commuting, this is only the 2nd time I've actually commuted on Bike To Work Day. Something always seems to get in the way, like this day is cursed, but not today.

To cap it off, when I get home today, this will be a 150-mile bike week. I haven't had a 150-mile week in several years. The difference is definitely the change in bike, moving from a single speed to a ten-speed.

Here's a shot from earlier this week.

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Old 05-18-18 | 07:31 AM
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Originally Posted by noglider
That happened to me, too. I wonder what changed. Are you using ublock? That's what I use.
Yes, I'm using uBlock. I happened to stumble across this thread which is where I figured out what was going on: Text entry box doesn't show up unless I disable ublock origin
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Old 05-18-18 | 07:38 AM
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Wound up riding 42 miles yesterday. Most I've ridden in a single day since before the snow flew last fall. I'm kind of feeling it this morning.

Today is bike to work day. Stopped by my favorite LBS where the owner was making crepes for everyone who stopped in on their way to work. He made me his "special" which was Nutella, strawberries and banana. Yum!

Then I swung by a local coffee house/bakery that was giving away free food to anyone riding their bike to work. Picked up a large mocha espresso and a bagel.

Two blocks from the office I was waiting in a left turn lane when a garbage truck pulled up next to me on my right. There were two young guys in the cab. The driver started making fun of me for riding my bike. I looked over at him, smiled, and then looked back ahead without saying a word. I decided not to give him the satisfaction of getting me riled up.
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Old 05-18-18 | 07:38 AM
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From: Windham, NH

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It was a pleasant commute on the way back home yesterday. I have to learn to breathe through the nose when riding my bike. Getting tired of swallowing/spitting out bugs.

No bike commute today, as I am heading to Freeport ME for a Dart tomorrow.
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Old 05-18-18 | 08:13 AM
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From: The Le Grande HQ

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Nice ride this morning! Cool weather, overcast, misty starting out...lovely. I rode on some new handlebars today - cut down beach cruiser type. Experimenting with more upright positions. I think I like drops better - but more upright drops. Still, a fun ride! Looking forward to this afternoon riding back home.


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Old 05-18-18 | 08:14 AM
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Originally Posted by Amitoj
Getting tired of swallowing/spitting out bugs.
Yep. The gnat swarms along the banks of the canals where I ride are severe sometimes. You really have to close your mouth, and if you forget your sunglasses...
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Old 05-18-18 | 08:55 AM
  #1021  
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Bike to Work day which automatically means it will either rain or threaten rain... today threatened rain. Also means I have to leave early to be part of the festivities. For that past 5 years I've got to be part of "blessing of the bikes" with a priest and minister friends both of whom are commuters. It's tongue in cheek but fun for us and they keep asking us back!
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Old 05-18-18 | 09:00 AM
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Originally Posted by Amitoj
I have to learn to breathe through the nose when riding my bike. Getting tired of swallowing/spitting out bugs.
Remember Thomas Voekler, from the TdF/Lance heydays? Great big grin all the time -- I figure he was using his shiny bright white teeth to filter the gnats.

Last night I waited until the shower stopped, rode home, and then had to do some work outside while it started raining again. Makes me nervous about getting tools wet; my wife tolerated them being spread all over the house to dry off.

I missed the group for bike to work day, but I did it anyway. Nice day so far, although it looks like the showers may pick up before the 3:00 they've hit the last three days in a row.
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Old 05-18-18 | 09:17 AM
  #1023  
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Rough morning, beginning with missing my wake-up alarm. Trying to save time wearing office clothes for the ride, as soon as I got out the door I headed back in to change, and get a different bag. Raining mist. Then of course it stopped and I was dry the whole ride, taking the streets instead of the Greenway for the extra speed, but still about 20 minutes late to my desk
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Old 05-18-18 | 09:27 AM
  #1024  
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From: south Puget Sound
54F, gray
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Old 05-18-18 | 10:09 AM
  #1025  
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I had a hearing test appointment at Costco in East Harlem this morning. I took Citi Bike. The wind was strongly against me. It was about 70F and cloudy. Then I rode Citi Bike from there to work which is near West Harlem. The wind was with me. Both times, I got a bike with a NuVinci hub which has a continuously variable ratio.
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