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-   -   2018! The “How was your commute?” thread! (https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/1131947-2018-ihow-your-commute-n-thread.html)

ptempel 06-25-18 09:07 AM

Another great morning riding in from home. Was around 68F in my home town so it felt like I had a little AC on during the ride. Great temps! :thumb: I didn't get as much sleep as I should have last night. So am taking it easy today to not burn myself out..

essiemyra 06-26-18 05:05 AM

A very nice commute in this am regarding the weather and the ride. I was on the circle that leads to the road that the building that I work at is on. A guy in a gold mini-van rides so close I could reach out and touch the vehicle. This road has has very little traffic and there is no reason he could not have moved over a few feet. I saw the mini-van pull into the parking lot of where I work. I parked my bike and waited to see who drove the mini-van. I walked up to the guy and asked him if he drove the mini-van. He told me he does not speak English. I walked him to a translator and had them translate for me and him. He told me he did not see me. Which scared me even more. He did apologize though so that was nice.

Jadesfire 06-26-18 05:56 AM

I haven't commuted by bike in about a month or so. Apparently sometime during this, the powers that be decided to completely close off the building where I store my bike and take a shower? Fair enough, I suppose, as I wasn't assigned to that locker room and everyone else had moved out. But there was some improvising and adapting to deal with this morning. Now I have to track down a Facilities guy in order to retrieve my shower stuff and change of clothes.
Otherwise, beautiful morning. I switched up bikes and that made it a fun ride. With the heat index, temps should be around 105 or so this afternoon. Goal: try to avoid heat stroke.

Amitoj 06-26-18 06:20 AM

Was a little more chilly this morning than I expected it to be.
Also, tried a new route which is a mile longer than my usual route but avoids a busy road for most part. Will try the same route on the way back and see how it goes.

mgw4jc 06-26-18 06:25 AM

I left a few minutes late and so took the shorter route to work. That got me to work early and so I had extra time to change and such.

A late evening thunderstorm littered the MUP with branches, twigs and leaves. I was dodging a lot of debris there.

Nate1991 06-26-18 06:56 AM

Yesterday was uneventful. Was bucking a headwind for half the ride home, felt great once I made the turn and it was at my back though. This morning was a little more eventful, we had storms pass through last night. So roads were a little wet, but little did I know the storm messed up one of the wooded shortcuts I take. It had a broken branch across the path just low enough to hit me in the chest/face. Luckily it was a small branch full of leaves. It caused my feet to fall off the pedals, soak me from all the water in it, and knock my earbuds to the ground. Cleat from the pedal caught the back of my leg but that's about it. No damage to my bike or anything. Woke me up better than coffee.

Tundra_Man 06-26-18 07:26 AM

There was a break in the rain, so I scampered to work between the last storm and the next one rolling in. Wore rain clothes and really didn't need to, but it sound like I might get wet on the way home so I guess it's good to have them with me.

Supposed to rain all week. The flooding in our city has subsided, but the river is right at the banks so it won't take much to get it to overflow again. Lots of nearby communities in low areas are dealing with water problems though, so hopefully the forecast changes and we don't get the additional moisture that they're predicting.

I have two sump holes in the basement of my house. Generally one is always dry, and the other keeps a couple inches of water in it but the pump may only cycle every six months or so. By the end of last week's rain the pumps in both were running about every four minutes. We had a fairly dry weekend so by Sunday night they were down to about 11 minute intervals. After yesterday's rain I timed them this morning and they're back up to 7 minutes between pumping sessions.

I'm lucky. Some people in our city have pumps that run once per minute during dry periods. When we have lots of rain their pumps rarely shut off and they live in fear of a power outage or pump failure that would cause their basement to flood. When we were house shopping we looked at a few places where the water table was so high that the pump was cycling frequently even without rain, and that was a deal breaker for me. A home is supposed to be a refuge of comfort, not a source of anxiety.

noglider 06-26-18 08:43 AM

I think June is likely to go down as my most pleasant commuting month this year. I've been able to ride every day, and the weather has been fantastic. Every ride has been enjoyable and hasn't presented any annoying challenges. As [MENTION=25132]ptempel[/MENTION] says, it was 68F this morning. The wind direction is the same as yesterday, but it was much less intense.

Yesterday, I had a rehearsal at a church on the upper east side of Manhattan, so I went through Central Park where I rode nearly every day for years, long ago. It was nice to go through my old haunt. Ridewithgps says I did some personal bests on some segments. I rode hard but not super hard. I like to pretend I'm impressing people when I go up those hills, though the better case is that they barely notice me. After rehearsal, I rode home on 5th Ave which is annoying in the day but not bad in the evening. It's nearly all downhill, so that's nice, too.

Now that I've learned the advantages of riding with lower pressure in my tires, I have to inflate them more often, because going from inflation pressure to too-low takes less time. I inflated to 50 psi yesterday, which is slightly more than I need. These are 32mm tires. I weigh 170.

arsprod 06-26-18 08:49 AM

It was a dark and stormy morning... couldn't help myself! Indianapolis now has two scooter rental companies and yesterday I started seeing them on the MUP. The trail clearly says "no motorized vehicles" but apparently people can't or won't read. The e-bikes were annoying but these scooters are downright dangerous. Unfortunately, I doubt anything will happen. When did I become such a grouch?!

pdlamb 06-26-18 09:04 AM

Only 5 degrees cooler this morning, but it was a heckuva whole lot nicer riding! Somehow, even with the three hours of rain yesterday afternoon, it seems to have dried the air out. Wonderful, cool, just a light breeze, not a cloud in the sky today.

Does anybody else notice that all the comments about "you rode yesterday through the rain?!" miss the fact that the rain frequently occurs during work hours, and you can ride to and from work on a "rainy" day without a drop of rain hitting you?

timvan_78 06-26-18 04:29 PM

my bike commute hit 30,000kms since i started (about 5-and-a-bit years ago).

essiemyra 06-27-18 04:58 AM

It was a very nice uneventful commute in today with cloudy skies and the temp at 58 f degrees. This will be my last commute in this week as tomorrow rain storms are expected. I do not need to ride in that.

mgw4jc 06-27-18 06:25 AM


Originally Posted by pdlamb (Post 20413311)
Does anybody else notice that all the comments about "you rode yesterday through the rain?!" miss the fact that the rain frequently occurs during work hours, and you can ride to and from work on a "rainy" day without a drop of rain hitting you?

Yes, we often get rain at some point during the day, but my ride times will be dry.
Not the case yesterday afternoon though. It started raining about 15 minutes before quitting time and continued, although just a light rain, for most of my ride. I even had a friend stop in her Suburban and ask if I wanted her to give me a ride home. It was barely sprinkling and I was only 3 miles away at that point so I thanked her but said no.

My office is doing an Employee Appreciation deal this week. Monday was a continental breakfast, yesterday was ice cream after lunch, and today is a BBQ food truck. Food wins me over pretty easily!

Tundra_Man 06-27-18 07:12 AM

More rain. Imagine that. :)

arsprod 06-27-18 08:02 AM


Originally Posted by pdlamb (Post 20413311)
Does anybody else notice that all the comments about "you rode yesterday through the rain?!" miss the fact that the rain frequently occurs during work hours, and you can ride to and from work on a "rainy" day without a drop of rain hitting you?

I take it as a personal failing if I can't miss the rain on a sporadically raining day! I'll watch the radar and try to time myself. That said, I missed it this morning :) More mist than rain but nothing about it on my weather app

pdlamb 06-27-18 09:03 AM

Lovely day for a bike ride, even if it ends at work. Clear, cool, light breeze, light traffic.

Oh, and a flat tire. :( Noticed the back was bouncy about two miles out; if I can keep going for one more mile, I can get off the highway and out of the sun. Made it, yeah! Next, do I pump and run the last mile, or change the tube? Let me check the tire -- hmm, that looks like it might have caused the. flat. Pump like crazy, and -- HSSSS! I guess I'm going to fix the durn thing.

It wasn't so bad, I'd stopped at a place that rents cabins, and it had a shaded porch with rocking chairs and ceiling fans. I'd still sweated so much while stopped that I tried to wring my jersey out when I got to the shower. It's still going to be damp this afternoon.

noglider 06-27-18 10:02 AM


Originally Posted by pdlamb (Post 20413311)
Only 5 degrees cooler this morning, but it was a heckuva whole lot nicer riding! Somehow, even with the three hours of rain yesterday afternoon, it seems to have dried the air out. Wonderful, cool, just a light breeze, not a cloud in the sky today.

When rain was in the forecast, I would skip riding to work. Recently, I came to realize how silly that is because of exactly what you say. It rarely rains all day. Today is an example. It might rain later. I rode to work without any rain. If it had rained, I would have just changed.

Traffic on the bike path is normally heavy, especially in good weather. I think I noticed it was lighter today than yesterday, perhaps because of the forecast.

I had a tailwind today! I'm so grateful, not because my headwinds are bad but because the tailwind was so much fun. The wind reversed yesterday, so I had a headwind in both directions yesterday, but at least the evening one was milder and shiftier.

[MENTION=322871]arsprod[/MENTION], motors are also not allowed on my route, but they are very common. New York is a fairly lawless place. We also have joggers on the bike-only portion. As long as people behave, I won't get annoyed. The very experienced joggers are great, moving as if the path is an autobahn, with strict lane discipline.

HardyWeinberg 06-27-18 10:35 AM

60F, gray. Lot of construction, lot of broken glass. Aimed for 23 mile route, detoured (to avoid construction) to 21.5 mile route in. Probably just 12 mile route home. Was hoping for more, 1st day riding since week before last. Hope to ride Friday but don't know. Next Tuesday for sure!

ptempel 06-27-18 11:56 AM

Another nice ride in from home today. It shouldn't rain later on but if it does, then I get wet. :) Like [MENTION=60072]HardyWeinberg[/MENTION] above, I also hit some construction in Nutley, NJ on Centre St. I did a little side route through Yanticaw Park and carried the bike up some stairs. I didn't realize that I could have stayed on the path on the second part of the Park. But I'm also used to not being able to ride the paths (its illegal in Central Park). So just took the road as usual. I took off yesterday and worked from home. Also had to work late so it helped to not have to worry about getting home by a certain time.

mgw4jc 06-28-18 06:33 AM

Yesterday around 4pm it got dark, windy, and rainy for about 30 minutes. But by 5, it was just overcast and the roads had mostly dried out. And thus a pretty uneventful ride home.

A breezy ride in this morning - mostly crosswinds that cooled me off a bit.

Nate1991 06-28-18 06:56 AM

Started as a nice ride in till I got to the shortcut I take on my way to work no low hanging trees, but I missed the line I take through it causing me to brake hard in the front sending me ass over teakettle. Got a new little badge to wear around today (see pic). Think I'm going to avoid the shortcut for a bit.

https://i.imgur.com/wCWpvoX.jpg

arsprod 06-28-18 07:22 AM


Originally Posted by Nate1991 (Post 20416886)
(see pic)

I don't think that image will disappear from my memory fast enough! Nice morning ride

wphamilton 06-28-18 07:33 AM

It was hard to get rolling this morning. I woke up to thunder, and the cat was in her "scared of storms" hiding place, checked the forecast and my ears and the cat were right, we expected thunderstorms. After loading up the fenders bike, checked air - flat. Re-packed for the road bike, checked the load twice because I might forget something when my routine is shattered, went back for shoe covers, skipped making lunch, finally rolled out and decided to avoid the water-logged and probably muddy Greenway. After all that it barely even rained.

Nate1991 06-28-18 08:04 AM


Originally Posted by arsprod (Post 20416919)
I don't think that image will disappear from my memory fast enough! Nice morning ride

Sorry about that, I tried resizing it so it's less in your face but it didn't seem to work.

noglider 06-28-18 08:10 AM

I woke up before my alarm to thunder and heavy rain. I went back to sleep, and after my alarm, I still heard heavy rain. I decided to brave it. It was moderate but still steady when I headed out. I went back in for my rain jacket which I really don't like to wear. I wore hiking shorts and a wool t-shirt.

I was not uncomfortable! The temperature was in the low 70s. The wind was mild and at my back. The rain lightened up, so halfway to work, I took my rain jacket off. It's a tough tradeoff, because it prevented the uncomfortable hot sweat, but it allowed more grit to fly onto me. I still haven't put fenders on my bike. I really really really must get around to it.

I met a cow-orker in the elevator at work, and she was so dumbfounded to see me all wet that she could only say, "It's raining out?" even though she knew. I think she meant to say I'm daring to ride in the rain. No offense taken. I smiled and said yes.

Looking at my clothes covered in gritty dirt, I see that most of the water came off my tires, not from the sky. I'm really stupid not to have fenders. I had to wash the back of my neck.

But really, I'm happy I did it. The subway is rarely any fun compared with this. The path was so empty, it was astonishing. I hope to make a video of my commute, because some of you would find it astonishing to see how heavily trafficked this bike path is. It's a wafer-thin slice of Amsterdam. Today's emptiness was such a contrast, and I slowly realized that it looks about the same in winter's coldest days, but that's long enough ago that I forgot about it.

I brought an EXTRA extra set of clothes, because I have two places to go after work, but the rain probably won't persist through the evening, and even if it does, I'm ready.


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