I didn't even know Jason Aldean played a concert here until you said that, then I had to go back and look it up. Yep, he played at the Premier Center which is our largest arena. Shows you how much attention I pay to country music. lol

He played on Friday night, and I noticed the lack of traffic on Monday morning. That would be one heckuva hangover! :)

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1718:

80°F and humid this morning when I left the house at 6:30 AM. That's unusually warm for a South Dakota morning, even in the summer. Supposed to top out at 104°F this afternoon. Normally on Tuesdays I do a split commute and ride across town to a client office after my lunch meeting. I think today I'm just going to stay put in the office and work for the client remotely. It's going to be toasty enough just riding home at 5 PM.

A little warmer this morning at 15C/59F. Looks like some of that heat from SD will make its way north, but not before a couple more cool and wet days.

Saw this on my commute home yesterday. Just struck me as funny that a mobile tire shop wouldn't readily have a spare tire for their trailer.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f0203ed02b.jpg

Ugh, what's my age again? Had no jam this morning, really struggled up the hills. I was feeling pretty good earlier this week.

Smoky and foggy this morning (so, smoggy?). I think there was a lot more fog than smoke because (1) I could hardly smell any smoke, and (2) my brake levers were slick. A little on the cool side so I wore long sleeves.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

It's the season of cool mornings and hot afternoons. Looks like a nice week for riding. I'm sure the cold mornings and cool afternoons will be here soon enough. Next week, school starts again, so I'll return to driving my kids to school most days.

Had a close encounter with a vehicle on the way home on Friday. A driver was making a right turn off a side street onto a main road as I was passing in front of her. She had a red light, but truth be told, so did I. She had come to a complete stop, and I didn't. I'm pretty sure that if I'd been hit, it would have been deemed my fault. However, this situation illustrates why I don't really like my current, and currently the only viable, route. A long chunk is on a separate, shared path along a busy road. Sounds nice, but there's lots of side streets feeding into the main road, and when drivers are turning onto or off of the main road, they're not watching for a fast moving cyclist, they're only watching for slow moving pedestrians. There have been many times where I've had to dodge vehicles (or lawn mowers) even when I've had the right of way. One solution would be to ride on the road. That would work better in the morning, because there's less traffic. In the afternoon, traffic is pretty thick, and I'd rather take my chances on the path than face the ire of impatient drivers.

Have a good week everyone. Maybe people are on holidays, but I'm missing seeing others' posts on this thread.

A nice uneventful ride in.

On the way home yesterday, I was climbing out of the river valley, when I heard a characteristic humming noise behind me. Quick shoulder check, and yup, a guy on an e-bike with knobby tires went sailing past me like I was standing still. I immediately started thinking disparaging thoughts: "yeah, well, turn off that motor and see how fast you can climb. I bet you think you're getting exercise! My resting heart rate is less than 60, what's yours...90?" Stuff like that.

A few minutes later, I was huffing my way up out of a ravine, when I heard a characteristic "whush whush" noise behind me. Quick shoulder check, and yup, a guy on a carbon-fibre road bike doing a standing climb went sailing past me like I was standing still. This guy had the temerity to look at me as he passed by and give me a smile and a nod. What a jerk. Okay, maybe he was just being friendly, but in the moment, I felt like I was being mocked. I started thinking up excuses: "yeah, well, I'm just about 50 and I'm riding a steel fixie and carrying a 10-pound backpack, and besides it's an off day for me!" Stuff like that.

In all honesty, no, I'm not as fast as I was in my 30's, but even at my peak, with the best possible equipment, I was never that fast, not even close. I don't know why my thoughts go there - it's not at all helpful. Reminds me of that old serenity prayer that most of us have probably seen at our grandma's house: "...grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference...". *sigh*. Serenity now.

Have a good day everyone.

This morning was an epic adventure. I forgot that my campus/beater bike can't shift out of 5th gear currently because of the rear rack setup (a common theme for me, lol). So I was out of commission for about half of the ride to my office. Light rain at that point but extremely humid as I walked the bike the rest of the way to my office. Remembered that the fountain was on so I splashed a bunch of water on my face to cool off. Oh yes and I also managed to spill coffee on my bookbag when the travel mug was in my milk crate (obviously the closure on the cup is crap). It got my laptop a little wet but it's working just fine luckily. Ay ay ay!
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1e8652cb86.jpg

jaxy357 , glad the laptop is still working! I don't know whether to recommend spending money on a new coffee mug or getting the rack and derailer adjusted first...

One of our grad students is on the way with tools to fix my rack (mine are in my other bike bag, FAIL). I plan to throw out the coffee mug. Haha!

In the spring we had a big blow that knocked down many of our dead or weak trees. Tree crews spent a month in the park cleaning up the ones that fell over the trails. Last night… we did not. Guess it’s a straggler.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...13f5442f7.jpeg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1642a0c40.jpeg

Yet another uneventful ride in, a bit warmer this morning.

Yesterday it was hot enough for our national weather service ("Environment and Climate Change Canada") to issue a heat warning for our area. What was this extreme heat? 33C (about 91F). Yeah that's warm for us Northerners, considering most of us don't have air conditioning in our homes, but at this time of year, it cools off nicely at night. I bring it up because a couple of people expressed concern about me riding in such oppressive heat. Good grief. I'm pretty sure most of you south of the 49th parallel are rolling your eyes right about now. I'm happy to report that not only did I have a really nice ride home, I also saw more cyclists out on the trails than I've seen all year.

The heat warning is still in effect for today, with a forecast high of 28C (about 82F). How will I survive the ride home?

Alright, enough of my old man ranting. Have a great day. Nice to see some new posts and pics! :)

The trick is, we're not wearing anything

A wise man once told me, "you can always dress for the cold, but you can never get naked enough for the heat."

Nice day to ride in, 69°F, extended the route by 0.5 mi to 12.0 mi by parking at another trail parking lot. Less driving and more riding, perfect. Though it's on the MUP, the rest is on the road. I had been parking at the trailhead. Knee holding up so far. Need to target once a week to commute until mid-October. Then I run out of daylight.

It was a little chilly this morning, my hands were frozen by the time I got to the bottom of my hill. The rest of the ride was pretty quiet. I left a little early this morning, so there wasn’t much traffic at all. I successfully avoided, then turned around to pick up a Snap On 12 mm 6 point socket that was in the middle of the bike lane. I wish I could find a 10 mm to fill in the for the ones I lost!

A little hazy this morning, could definitely smell smoke. Got away a bit earlier, so I stopped to snap a couple pictures of my bike.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...516994b8d6.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4b7abfac0f.jpg

This second picture overlooks a road that was designed to someday be a freeway, but a few years ago the city said, "screw it, that's too expensive" and just decided to widen it instead. This road is normally part of my commute, but I don't ride the part directly under where this picture is taken. I would jump on at the intersection past the intersection that's barely visible in the photo. That's all been torn up and redesigned, and I'm not sure there's going to be a shoulder there anymore to ride on. That said, I'm still cautiously optimistic because part of the plan for this road is a separate shared path running parallel the whole length of the road. I drove home through the construction yesterday (it was raining in the morning so I didn't ride), and I can see where the path is going. I doubt it will be finished before the snow flies, but maybe next summer?

Long weekend for me, and I think for my American friends too, right? Have a great long weekend, if that applies to you.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1727:

The last few weeks have been unusually warm, with temps most days pushing or even breaking 100°F. That's pretty unusual for South Dakota in late August/early September. Today the high is supposed to be a more reasonable 85°F with the next week's forecast looking more typical for our area. Hopefully the extreme heat has passed.

I have an afternoon of heart tests scheduled. I have to take the afternoon off and ride my bike from the office over to the hospital. One of the tests involves mild sedation, so hopefully I'll be awake enough to ride my bike home afterwards.

I almost felt like I rode in this morning while I was on "pause." Goofy the Garmin was, well, goofy -- no sensors registering. Did the long reboot/reset after I got to work, so maybe that'll clear up going home. Got out of the house late, so traffic was light. Mostly overcast, with thunderstorms forecast for this afternoon. Not sure I want to push "play" in that going home!

Highlight of the morning was mother pulling two tots in a wagon. The older one stared at me, then waved and called "Hi!" I responded in kind and called "good morning" to mom when she turned around and saw me.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1729:

Our heat wave has officially broke. It was actually a bit cool this morning at 48°F. I wore a sweatshirt and was still a bit chilly. The humidity being at 90% probably didn't help.

It's supposed to top out at 77°F today. That should make for a pleasant ride home.

I was supposed to do a split-commute today, riding to a client location over lunch. I had a meeting scheduled this afternoon requiring that I remain at our office. So I'm going to stay here all day. Traffic on this end of town at 5 PM is a bit hairy, so that's the downside to staying at our office all day.

Can anyone confirm this?
Swedish Trains do not allow bikes at all on the trains. They are ok with plastic bags though!
https://i.imgur.com/ROyfNNB.jpg

https://cykelframjandet.se/informati...wedish-trains/

Looks like some trains will, some won't unless packed in "travel" bags.

Full multi-modal commute this morning, as in I wasn't lazy and actually rode to the train station instead of driving (go me!). Stopped at the gym on campus and showered, got in right on time. Light sprinkle of rain as I rode the last leg to my office but nothing I can't handle. (P.S. part of my motivation to ride is that my car registration expired on Saturday and I can't get to the DMV until tomorrow). I do have to drive somewhere tonight so hopefully the police don't catch me "riding dirty".

Yesterday was a routine commute, until I got within a half mile of home. My state apparently issues driver's licenses to the north end of a south-bound horse, and one of them drives a large pickup. Said pickup pulled out right in front of me, stopped in the middle of the lane so the horse could check for traffic, and then proceeded 20 yards to the traffic light. After slamming on my brakes, I followed the truck, hopped on the sidewalk, and pushed the Walk light button. Normally I'd follow the traffic through, but after he was in such a hurry, I thought it only fair he sat waiting for another 35 seconds so I could cross the intersection and get out of his way. :) Fun little bit of passive-aggression, the cager won't ever know if it was malicious payback or just the way I normally ride.

This morning I heard the train coming as I hopped on the bike. There's a different intersection a mile into the ride where all roads are stopped for the track crossing both roads close to the light, so I hustled as much as I can with a couple panniers and got there while the train was still blocking the streets. Across two lanes, down the turn lane, left turn and I've got a clear road. And talk about timing -- the train had cleared the next street in time for all the stopped traffic to get out of my way!

I was a bit surprised to see a tree swallow near the field where I usually see bluebirds in the spring. I didn't think there were that many mosquitoes to eat in the field!

Beat the rain home yesterday -- not hard, since it missed us. :(

Only had about a mile of sunshine this morning, then a high overcast blew in. Kind of cool at 70F, I guess fall's coming.

Bike path had a dog walker this morning who, thankfully, stepped off the path to let me ride by. He was on his side, I was riding right toward a monster ragweed. When did ragweed start growing 8' high?

A little cool, 55F this morning, went with a cheap long sleeve tech shirt. Need to evaluate my cold weather gear. Fingers also were a little cold for first half of ride. Should be in the mid to high 70's for the ride home, perfect 12 miles. The only issue is I forgot my Garmin Edge 510. Used the mapmyride app in, it wouldn't find the HR monitor, and didn't record it as a workout.
Ride home, fairly warm to start, though didn't want to be in the dark. Rear taillight ran out of juice, luckily, I also had a helmet light.

Chilly this morning. Low 70s, high 60s.

May have been slow getting out, but the 54F my phone showed while eating breakfast was 61F on Goofy (the Garmin) when I was on the road. I was comfortable for the entire ride, though I may have been pedaling a bit more and coast less than usual.

Beautiful morning. Early fall, crisp, early leaves like sumac just thinking about turning, blue sky. Then I got to work.

Cool morning, 57F to start, went with yellow shell PI jacket. Gamechanger for the high-speed descent on my ride to work. 85F at start of ride home, south wind directly in my face made for slower going. Need to find my UA fingered gloves, or maybe get some new padded ones.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1739:

Got up this morning and was getting ready. Opened the curtains and... wait... did I just see lightning?

Waited a few seconds and saw it again. Yep. Definitely lightning. That was weird. There was no rain in the forecast for today. Was supposed to be 85°F and sunny.

It wasn't raining yet. I hopped on the internet to look at the radar and saw a huge storm heading for the city from the west. West was the same direction I needed to head to get to the office. Checked the forecast again and it was still saying 85°F and sunny.

I had packed for the road bike. I briefly considered moving everything into my waterproof panniers and taking the hybrid bike with fenders, but I really don't like riding that bike if I don't have to. Instead, I decided to try and beat the storm to the office.

Hit the road as fast as I could. Wound up leaving the house five minutes earlier than usual. Hammered hard and rode the eight miles to the office and arrived 15 minutes earlier than normal. Did the eight miles in a hair less than 30 minutes. But most importantly I beat the rain.

Well, as it turns out I didn't have to ride so hard as it didn't start raining for another hour. But then it rained all morning. Looks like it's stopped for the day, though.

I notice now that the weather forecast has changed to 73°F and cloudy.

Happy International Car Free Day! I rode my bike to the train station (~3 miles) in the dark this morning and managed to drop my chain along the way. Thank goodness for the cell phone light or I'd probably still be fumbling with it on the side of a 50 mph road. Then when I got off the train at work I noticed my front tire was flat on my other bike. After two attempts on two different tire pumps, I figured out that I must have a pinch flat or something. Still managed to get to the gym to shower and get to work on time (in fact my boss was walking behind me from her parking lot) but it was an adventurous morning to say the least. I ended up leaving my bike chained up at the gym and am hoping I can get a lunchtime appointment at my local Bike shop to get it fixed. They're still moving into their new location so...fingers crossed.