I'm back commuting by mistake!!
It took a mishap to get my lazy ass back on the bike.
Got in the car 2 weeks ago and there was no oil! Complete oil leak - gasket failed.

No option but to get the bike out.....my 18km commute was toughish but nice.
The next day was better!
Then four days this week.
It's bliss being back commuting by bike!

Lorcán / Ireland.

It's fall.. high 40's yesterday - low 50's today. Still wearing bike shorts lol. I get some looks because of it.

Short commute in today. I dropped the car off for service and rode the 4.5 miles from there to work. Much more traffic on that route and little to no shoulder on the road. Glad it isn't a regular road for me. I'll head back to get the car at lunch and then just drive home after work.

Coldest day of fall so far :) at 61F. Still overcast, but it didn't feel like the sky was about to fall, which was nice.

I got lucky last night. Picked up a shard of glass near work yesterday morning (lubricated by the water, no doubt). I waited until afternoon to fix the flat (swapped tubes), pumped it up and rode home. Rolled the bike into the garage, turned around to walk out, and heard a loud hiss. The base of the valve stem had come free of the tube. I'm really glad it did that AFTER I got home!

44F, sunny

Wednesday we had a massive thunderstorm but I had made it home right before the sky dropped out. I saw dark clouds and the wind pushed me some of the way home. Today was a pleasant ride in. No fog/ rain mess. felt good too. I took yesterday off because of football practice and it was supposed to rain. It rained in the afternoon and thought it might interfere with practice but didn't. I am glad I drove because I thought i was going to get stuck at work too. driving just lowers the stress level on Thursdays.

i am debating trying to ride the VA creeper this weekend. 34 miles (68 round trip) crushed gravel might rain/ might not. I don't have fenders on the new bike but really want to try it out on the rail trail. 650bx 47mm seem to be screaming for it.

As is often my routine on Fridays, I'm going from work to the bus terminal, so I can't ride my bike. I could have ridden Citi Bike but I didn't feel like it. I took the subway. Unusually, I took the A train instead of the 1 train. The A train station is farther from campus than the 1 train station. I noticed I could take Citi Bike. It was a 0.4 ride, up a steep hill, better than no ride at all.

Beautiful ride, go for it! IIRC there were only a few low spots just west of Damascus, and some really steep stuff above Green Cove. But since it hasn't rained much up there for a few days, that shouldn't interfere with the ride.

Fall, is that you?
 

Just a quick Citibike ride towards home this afternoon because the morning was a monsoon, but there was a nice crisp feeling in the air. Perhaps we're done with the epic humidity of summer 2018?

A short ride is always better than no ride!

It was actually 6 tornadoes that hit the region in a two hours time frame, ranging from F1 to F3. Crazy! Few got hurt, but luckily, nobody died.

Yes, I was on the phone with someone in Ottawa. I understand tornadoes are very rare there. Crazy stuff. Ottawa and NYC were getting heavy rain at the same time. New York State has had an excess of rain. Meanwhile, Vermont has had a drought.

Yeah, it's not often we get tornadoes here and they are mostly F0. Last recorded F3 to hit here was a lone tornado in 1994. Mind you, in 2016, my cottage was hit by a microburst (nothing micro about it). I was there that day and one of my the storm. The 'burst' lasted less than 10 seconds and leveled over 200 trees, many over 100 years old majestic red and white pine trees :cry: On my 1000 feet private road, I counted 88 trees fell across it. Things are becoming worse, not better. We better get use to it unfortunately.

That's frightful. We had a microburst in Maplewood, NJ, where I lived, in 2008. It was three blocks from my home. The street also had a lot of stately old trees, all destroyed. It looked like a war zone. My understanding is that a micro burst is sort of like an upside down tornado. A tornado goes in and up, whereas a micro burst goes down and out. And no, nothing micro about it.

Yeah, we just got in 30 minutes before the storm after spending the beautiful (until then) day on the lake. It happens so fast that anyone on the road when it started to rain would have been caught within the falling trees!

A cooler morning to start the week in the low 60s. Hopefully fall temps are close behind. I left early to hit the gym on the way to work. And now I'm just hungry.

45 degrees, rain, head wind and an ornery teenager at home made for kind of a miserable morning. Hopefully now that I'm here at work things will calm down.

I had a big tail wind this morning which is fairly unusual. The folks coming the other way didn't look like they were struggling, so maybe I look like that when I get my usual headwind.

These flags are at the midpoint of my route, and they are my best indicator of wind direction.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/YD...=w1216-h912-no

Light overcast, so the temperature was 72F -- 10 degrees warmer than last week but still pleasant riding.

Power outage last night downtown left a couple o flights flashing all red. I was pleasantly surprised how well the traffic was handling it -- just like they told us to back in the last millennium, it's like a four way stop so everybody take turns. I'm guessing the traffic guys will have everything sorted out after their first cup of coffee.

Yeah, they aren't common in that part of the world. I spoke to my friend in Ottawa and he said they missed him by about 100 yards. He suffered some minor damage but all in all, he got lucky.

We got quite a bit of the rain since early September. Thankfully it cleared up for my son's birthday party this weekend.

I have only just started riding again since my June surgery. I am nearly healed but the doctor said he thinks he would want to do another skin graft, one area hasn' taken well, unfortunately.

Other than that my trailer pin came undone and my homemade spring and tubing drawbar broke free and wrapped itself around my hub. I had a trailer load of presents and was able to limp home and was thankful the free edge of the spring did not catch the spoke. So I have another thing to be fixing in the near future.

Today's rides were much like any others, except I inadvertently found a homeless camp in this copse. I have many fewer route options since we moved.

Tandems have been on my mind. This started with a notice from the SFTB that they were going to do their fitness challenge again this year. I asked the organizer if he wanted tandems again and he said yes but then never contacted me with details. I started installing a kidback for my 4yo but ran into difficulties, which I'm working through. I've been fantasizing about a Fandango or an El Conq but can't possibly justify it. Maybe when he's older.

yesterday was a pleasant ride home minus my new bike shifting or clunking or something weird in the drivetrain. Coming in and going home it randomly clunks when I push hard. I am taking it back to the shop tomorrow for them to sort it out. I am not sure if it is because he rebuilt my wheel and something is settling in. Honestly, I am pretty concerned that I bought a lemon or this Salsa has some issues that are not inspiring much confidence. Riding home it was about 75F and less humid and actually pleasant. I came across this guy on the way home. I am not sure copperhead or corn I could not tell so I stayed away to be safe.


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9d464711d7.jpg

copperhead or corn snake you tell me !

On the way home yesterday a helpful motorist alerted me to the fact that, "You can bike at the gym!" Perhaps he was excited that his gym now has a stationary bike. If I had been quick to reply, I think it would have been best to tell him, "The McRib is back!"

A nice sunrise this morning. Sorry for the extra large pics. Seems Instagram has either small or huge.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3b7c34eadc.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0845a3be20.jpg