It hasn't rained in weeks but there was like an inch of dew this morning, fenders would have been useful

I think that would be a good one-way daily commute. So if your wife has a car, and presumably you have a car, have you considered driving your car to work with the bike on Monday, riding the bike home, then riding in to work Tuesday and drive the car home (with or without the bike, depending on parking security)? You could get two round trip commutes in every week, and a recovery day on Wednesday.

The DOT giveth, the DOT taketh away, and eventual giveth back.

Almost all my commute routes to work end at a short pedestrian bridge over Fountain Creek which deposits me on the sidewalk two doors down from my office. Aside from the week the bridge was closed last year for re-planking last year, I think in the three years at the new job I've not used the bridge four times. And when it was closed I had to cross busy 8th Street at the light, but then take cross back in front of the office, or go two blocks down to another light, and cross back.

But beginning Monday the bridge will be removed as part of a project to widen that portion of 8th Street; a project projected to take up to a year. The result will be a wider traffic bridge with an integral pedestrian/bike side path. I'm expecting this path to be wider than the outgoing bike/ped bridge. And this should fix the problem of the bridge ending at the end of a long exit driveway from a car wash where cars speed back to 8th Street and the view of ped/bikes exiting the bridge has been obscured by trees, bushes and the bridge railing and fencing itself.

I think I will cross 8th Street at the light, take the narrow bike lane or sidewalk down two blocks to the light and cross back. Leaving, I believe I should be able to stay on "my side" of the street and ride in the traffic lane for the half a block down to the trail. Traffic is usually stop and go in the afternoon anyway.
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This will be really inconvenient beyond biking as my job as a commercial producer at a television station has had me and my partner driving to location shoots and client meetings 2-3 times a week over the last year. ANd the poor reporters drive out at least once a day, and often more.

To add insult to injury, the new extension that finally connected the two MUPS I use very often now will be closed for improvements at a street crossing, although I think that is just for a couple of weeks, and it is needed.

Yesterday's ride to and from work (the last on the bridge) was along the Rock Island and Greenway Trails, with cool temps, beautiful scenery, minimal traffic interaction and a helpful tailwind on the way home!

You can see the bridge at :13 in on this video from 2 years ago:

Thanks to everyone who took the time to read my post and offer suggestions. I really hadn't worked out a strategy at all and didn't give this endeavor more than 5 minutes planning. Fact of the matter is, over Memorial Day weekend I watched my son run a half marathon while my son-in-law did the full marathon in the TC Bayshore Marathon. I looked at the 60-64 yo results and saw that an 8-1/2 min/mi pace could get you in the top ten and said to myself, I could do that by next year. Of course, just because I could do that 12 years ago I probably should still be able to do it now, right? Mind you, I get gassed taking the stairs up to my third-floor office.

So, I said to myself, better start riding my bike to work. Now I work from home on Mondays and Fridays so that leaves me with TU-WED-THUR to ride. I have had a chance to think about this while I have been riding and I figure that given the distance and my age, I definitely need a recovery period. So I am probably limited to a round trip at most two days a week. I'm going to start off by riding home on TU-THUR and hopefully after about a month of that, I'll try riding home on TU and doing a round trip on THUR. We'll see how it goes from there.

BTW - My first trip home took me 2 hours and twenty minutes of moving down. I cut that down to 2 hours and 12 minutes of moving time on Thursday and should easily be able to get that down under 2 hours by the 4th.

Here's a post from me back in the day: (where have all the commuters gone?)

2013 Commuting Mileage Thread - End of Year
Mechanova (MI) ______________________ 2165

Just popping my head up to say hi and log my first commute of the year. I have some deja vu because I think it was about this time last year that I logged my first ride, and the Oilers were playing the Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final then too. Go Oilers! A little hazy, a bit breezy, but otherwise a nice, uneventful ride.
Back to driving my kid to school tomorrow, so I'll see you all next at the end of the month. Have a great week, everyone!

I'm back in the office for a week, after two weeks of campouts and work travel with only one lap last Tuesday. Should be four laps this week.

I've been feeling really good the last few months about how many commutes I am getting in but I was forced to realize this weekend it's not enough. My oldest kid recently graduated from Cub to Boy Scouts, and we went on a hike for about six miles in Calaveras Big Trees. I'm accustomed to my kid hiking pretty slowly - he doesn't really want to. So I brought up the rear with him. But I was dismayed how much I also huffed and puffed up the climbs. With a heart surgery behind me and a boutique wonder drug for my condition, I can't really blame my heart for it, at least not completely. I need to push harder on my rides, and do more miles than the 7 mile round trip at no-challenge pace.

Perhaps in part due to the work travel, and the season, I have been waking very early. I decided to try to use this to my commuting advantage and come in to the office early too. I don't need to stay home in order to shoo the kids to school until August. This also helps with most of my coworkers being on Central time, and I can go home earlier without guilt so I can split summer kid management with my wife. So far I haven't made it as early as I'd like. I need to make some changes - not going to bed with anything planned to do in the morning, no badge hunt or shoe hunt, no hot breakfast. Assuming I get good at it, I would like this regime to persist at least through June.

One way of thinking about this is that it's two rides on two days which doesn't sound too bad... but another way is that it's 50 miles within 16 hours on no training, which sounds like a pretty hard start!

See above - I also got shamed by a bunch of kids.

There have been several generations of social media apps come and gone since the heyday of BBS's, unfortunately for our little community here. Some of us are hanging on. But for sure it's dismaying that the entries on the mileage thread used to have like fifty people and now it's five or six

Yes, an eBike is the way to go for this commute. You will build fitness at your own pace. Use electric on the way in and maybe not on the way home. Or use less on the way home. 52 miles a day on an eBike is quite doable, even at 60+. The eBike would quickly pay for itself in saved gas, even 3 days a week. It's so much less complicated than driving or getting rides half the time. Something with decent range, but still smooth-rolling tires.

As it warms up, you'll also appreciate the eBike there, when you don't arrive all sweaty.

1st bike commute in several days, due to rain and after-work commitments.

Last week, I noticed after a ride that the front brake cable on my folder was rubbing against the front tire and had burned right through the plastic down to the metal of the housing. There is a big loop in the cables on this bike to accommodate folding and a front bag. I tried zip-tying it out of the way, but that put a too-sharp bend in the cable. Looking at it again, I think the cable wrap had migrated up. I moved it back down. I gave the front wheel a spin and noticed the front brake was dragging slightly too. I oiled the brake pivots, added a tiny bit of play in the cable, and tightened up one of the centering screws, and it was well again. The commute felt a bit faster on it this morning, but I guess I don't know, as I had a slight tailwind and the commute in is half downhill, half flat.

I'll lead the Moderate Monday bike ride tonight, which is pretty fast for me. The Saturday coffee ride was an easy 33 miles, and my legs feel good, so we'll see how she goes.

I replaced the 15 year old tires on my bike over the weekend, such a nice ride in this morning.

Looking at 90F going home this afternoon.

I had two commutes today!

I've been feeling very tired, and when on the way to the blood center, the forecast had a chance of rain at any old time. So Citi Bike is perfect for that. If it gets too rainy, I can just switch to mass transit. The rain never really came. Since I was so tired, I took a Citi Bike ebike which I like to call Cit-E-Bike. I pay quite a bit extra to ride that, so it was a treat to myself. When docking it, out of curiosity, I lifted it an inch or so. Damn, it's at least 80 lbs. 5 miles round trip.

In the evening, I took my spouse's MTB to the coop. It was sitting in the barn upstate for years, and she wants to outfit it as a shopping bike so we brought it back to the City. It was really dirty. It turns out not to need much. I aligned the derailleur hanger and oiled the chain. It was nice to visit the bike coop where I used to volunteer regularly. I saw some old faces and a lot of new ones. People there have such cool custom-made bikes. 10 miles round trip.

rat count: zero!

Yesterday's commute carried more anticipation than usual. I finally installed the left-hand Microshift brifter to my main commuter, the 2015 Charge Plug after replacing the broken original right brifter last month. THe new left is a 3-speed, but the bike has a compact double. I experimented with using just one and two, and just two and three, and went with one and two as there was less chance for cable slack. I had shifted a few times around the block, but this was to be the first ride with the new shifter. I realized I had no barrel adjuster to trip the shifter (or the rear I installed last month) so I was a little nervous about the ride to work.

Also, construction was scheduled to begin on two points of my MUP to MUP route. The first would be half way where the new trail extension crosses Van Buren Street...a needed safety upgrade to the crossing. Being only 7:25am, nothing had been blocked off or started.

The second project, the removal and replacement of a BIke/Ped bridge two doors down from the office will be more problematic...but they hadn't started or blocked the bridge yet, either.

The new shifter performed flawlessly and I enjoyed that it requires less hand movement (specifically twisting) than the original Shimano unit. So now both shifters operate with just a finger swipe and a knuckle budge.

The weather was sunny and cool-ish, about 50F.

By the ride home, which started an hour late, the bridge was fenced off, but the adjacent right-turn lane was merely coned off, so I rode it for the 50 feet over the river where a curb cut-out puts one right back on the trail. This will probably work until they begin removing the car bridge.

Halfway home Van Buren Street was closed to traffic, but the MUP across it was open. This project is scheduled to take 1-2 weeks. The bridge...a YEAR!

Add a mild tailwind both morning and evening and the day's commute was pleasant, if a little uncertain.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2139:

Today is my birthday. If I were on a rural road, I would officially be speeding.

I unintentionally woke up an hour before my alarm went off and never went back to sleep. My brain turned on thinking about everything I had to do today. Starting off, my wife's car desperately needs new tires, so I threw my bike in the back and drove to the repair shop. I left the car there and rode five miles to our office. At the end of the day I will reverse the process and ride back to the shop, then drive home.

It was a beautiful morning. 53°F with a light head wind, and sunny skies. It's supposed to get into the upper 80s this afternoon, but I should have a tailwind pushing me back to the repair shop.

As I crawled in bed last night I suddenly realized I wasn't wearing my wedding ring. I got out of bed and searched the house, but couldn't find it. This morning on my way to the office I stopped by my gym, and much to my relief they had my ring at the front desk. I must have left it in my locker when I was working out last night. It's weird, because I distinctly remember putting it on as I was changing back into my street clothes. But obviously that was a false memory, which is a little unsettling.

Got to work and discovered I left my breakfast at home. Probably wouldn't kill me to skip breakfast today anyway, as we're going out to eat tonight for a birthday celebration and I will very likely show little restraint when my plate full of food arrives.

I took an eBike for my short 2 mile commute this morning, as my legs are cooked from the club ride last night. I call that a moderate ride, but that is in relation to the fast guys in the club. I work near max to achieve the "moderate" 15-17 mph average pace.

Tonight, is one of the club's easy rides. ~ 15 miles at ~ 12-14 mph. I'm thinking of joining it on Cari's cruiser eBike, just to mix things up a bit.

On a lap today. Tried hard for the last 3 legs and feeling good about it. Riding home at 10am to put away the travel trailer, which received a parking warning ticket yesterday. We were going to be camping this weekend, but cash on hand couldn't support it. Then I'll drive back in.

Happy birthday Tundra Man! It was my birthday a weekend ago. I'm a snake baby and it was my 48th, which feels like it might in truth be more significant than fifty.

Happy birthday, Tundra_Man!

Today I took the subway to class.

I got a couple of small scholarships where the biggest financial reward is an unlimited Metrocard which lets me ride subways and buses for free. I hardly need to use it since I ride most days. But sure, I'll take it. The scholarships offer (and require) extra seminars, and I enjoy them. These scholarships are great deals for me.

Rat count: 0

My wife's "Gazelle" is a fifty-pounder (ironically similar to an actual gazelle and double or triple a roadie bike) and I always groan getting it up over the side of the truck to the tailgate pad for a camping trip. Can't imagine a share bike version, has to be a lot more

The acoustic bikes are about 50 lbs. The ebikes are said to be 80 lbs, I think. I've gotten weaker recently; I'm working on regaining strength. So when I lifted it, it felt like 100 lbs. Let me see if I can find out what they really weigh. It's one reason my spouse doesn't want to take the ebikes. She's afraid she can't handle them. It should be no problem if she just keep it balanced, but hey, stuff happens.

Tundra_Man Happy Birthday!

A couple of falls ago I arrived home after biking from the office minus my wedding ring. I remembered hearing a "ping" while riding and thought it might be a broken spoke. I stopped briefly and inspected the wheels...they were fine. I reviewed the helmet cam video and pinpointed the spot where the ping occured.

The exact part of the bike lane where the "ping" occurred was ankle deep in leaves for two blocks. I spend an hour looking up and down the block.

Over the next three days I rode the same stretch looking for the ring. By this point the leaves had blown away, or had been swept up. On the third subsequent ride home I resolved to give up, but then the air-brakes of a bus two blocks up caught my attention. Behind it I saw a glint of light in the bike lane, beyond where I would have turned the corner.

I rode up...and there was the ring! It's not expensive, my wife has always wanted me to upgrade it...but it has sentimental value for me.

What had happened was some jerk in a car cut me off and I hit my AirZound airhorn a little too hard knocking it off its clip. It fell off and was in danger of getting tangled in the front spokes (happened once before). I tried to re-clip it while riding and caught the ring on something. I now wrap the air horn hose on the bars of the bikes to prevent them falling in the spokes. ANd I try not to adjust things too much while riding.

Just cool enough for my lightest hoodie this morning. Awoke at 4:55, rolled over and didn't awake again til nearly 6, so a little behind compared to M-Tu. Feeling a little hearty since the wonder pill hadn't fully kicked in, took it a little easy

59F this am felt brisk after several days of 80s/90s; supposed to top out at 70F today, lower the next few. No riding after this, heading out of town for elder kid's college graduation. This am was my best ride in I don't know how long. I have had a lung problem and the antibiotic/prednisone are just about done.

After two consecutive evenings with bike club rides*, and with after-work errands off of horrible stroads, I took the scooter today.

I may go for an easy evening ride with my wife. It's hot here today, (90 °F) which my wife likes and I don't. Maybe we'll go for ice cream. She'll take her eBike and I don't know what I'll take; maybe the gravel bike or maybe my folder.


* Monday night was full effort and 35 miles, yesterday was a light effort recovery ride for 20 miles.

I wasn't feeling the commute this morning, but did it on my muggle bike anyway, as I'm trying to hit 800 km (497 miles) riding this month. eBike miles don't count for that particular Strava challenge.

125 miles/week is not easy for me, but since my daughter will be away in Europe with my ex for the 2nd half of the month, I've got a good shot at it.

We're in the Plum Rain season here in Shanghai, so it rained pretty much every day this week. But who cares. It's warm, so I don't mind getting a bit wet. Nice 63km after work Friday ride today.



Only a couple more weeks until I'm off commuting until mid-August.

Another day with tailwinds both ways! And I made almost all the lights on my surface street route. In fact I dang-near set a time record for the ride, without trying.

I took my main commuter again, the 2015 Charge Plug, I was worried that without a cable adjuster, the new left brifter I installed would drift out of adjustment as the new cable stretched. It had "missed" a few shifts on the previous commute day frequiring double clicks to move from one front chain ring to the other, and was really bad on the shakedown runs last weekend. But yesterday it was perfect. I kinda ruined the last couple of inches of the cable with so many re-attachments during installation, so if I do add a barrel adjuster, it will require a new cable.

The shifting has been very crisp compared to the old units, but I think that is due to the new/used Microshift units having less wear than the original 10-year-old Shimanos,

In any case I once again enjoyed not needing such dramatic hand movements to shift.