Yesterday morning's commute was mostly uneventful. I was running late, and a couple blocks from home, I realized I had forgotten my wallet. I considered leaving it, as I might not have needed it, but I like to play things safe, so I went back to get it. When I got back home, I saw my phone had alerted me that I left my wallet behind. That's nice, but I'm glad I noticed with my organic brain before my electronic brain notified me. I keep an airtag-compatible card in my wallet for these occasions (made by ugreen). Even with the looping back and heading out late, I got to work only 3 minutes late, so I wasn't late as I had thought. Punctuality is super important in the teaching field. As my professor says, if you're on time, you're late, and if you're early, your on time. You could say I was doubly late but 3 minutes is still not bad, and the professor didn't mention it this time so I'm good.

After work, I made a quick stop at home and then headed to the upper west side for a voice lesson. I'm a singer, and I'm having some new difficulties so it's time to get back into the studio to relearn old skills and add some new ones.

I had hoped to meet a couple of friends for dinner but they ended up being unavailable. I grew up on the upper west side so I decided to find a place to eat alone. I chose an Indian place on Columbus Avenue with outdoor tables. It was so nice to be in my old neighborhood and see the mix of faces walking by. When I was growing up, the neighborhood was very mixed income. It started to gentrify in the 1980s, and now much of it is very wealthy. But New York, being the city it is, still has a lot of mixture of ethnic groups and incomes, even in the wealthy neighborhoods. The mix is different from the one in my neighborhood (the west village) so it was a good change of scenery for me.

Columbus Avenue changes name to 9th Avenue at 59th St but it's the same street. The whole length now has more deliveristas than I have ever seen. The bike lane is packed. They've begun to widen the bike lane, and that is done in certain segments. It's as wide as a regular travel lane. If you ask me, I say give us TWO such lanes and another for fast-moving two-wheelers, and leave only one lane for four-wheel vehicles. That's how much demand we have for two-wheel travel. Enforcement for traffic laws has increased, and now you can be charged with a crime for running a red light. This is too severe, especially for the deliveristas who are immigrants, some without work visas. So at the red lights which most cyclists use as "Idaho stops," the deliveristas wait for the light to change. There is an example of white privilege. Smaug1 asked about the new law, so there you go. I'm able to run the light (but only when it's safe AND it will not startle or annoy anyone) and people of other ethnic backgrounds can't. I guess the new law is having the desired effect, at least for now, but it is too severe and could really wreck some people's lives.

I recorded all of my travels from work to home to uptown and back home. (GPS tracks) It was 12.6 miles, and I think that's the longest I've ever ridden my fixie in one go. Fixed gear is a good way to get exercise when you don't have much time. I use my legs to slow me down but only a little, and I use my front brake for most of the braking. I'm not crazy.

Biked to work for the fifth day in a row...the first time in a long time. With last Sunday's longer ride, that's 6 days in a row...first time in a very long time.

Yesterday I rode my main commuter, the 2015 Charge Plug (not an e-bike). I chose a 6-mile mid-south route through downtown and rode easy...in fact I didn't even break a sweat, and yet only added 5 minutes to my commute time. It was clear, dry and 68F.

For the ride home I chose the 8-mile trail to trail. It was 94F, dry with light haze. I again dialed back slightly due to the heat and added only 5 minutes to the commute.

The trees are very full with leaves and there is lots of green everywhere...even the lawns, thanks to a wet spring and early summer.

I kept forgetting how low the gearing is on the Charge Plug, a mod I made right after buying it. And how high the gearing goes...although not as low as the Rockhopper. I believe the Plug's gearing is even higher than my 2006 Felt F-65.

Despite the construction and human obstacles, I am still getting long enough stretches of pathway for mostly uninterrupted high-speed cruising. The surface street routes can be pleasant and empty, but there are plenty of cross streets and intersections that keep me from flat-out cruising for long distances. Even if there is no cross-traffic, the sight lines are often obscured by homes, bushes and parked vehicles, so I have to slow in case there is traffic coming.

The 700x35 2x8 Charge Plug performed flawlessly. The rear disk brake, which needed constant tightening for ten years hasn't loosened at all since replacing the original Shimano Clarus brifters with the Microshift units, quite a few weeks ago. The shifting is still pretty crisp, but I did have to tweak the rear barrel adjuster last week as the chain wasn't centering on the rear cogs. And I sure am enjoying the Microshift's non-twist shifting where I can shift the long levers with a sweep of my middle fingers, and especially the short lever which works more like a button that I can just nudge with my knuckle.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2173:

Yesterday my wife reminded me that it was my 9.5 year anniversary since the last time I've driven a car to work. It's funny how I hardly think about it anymore. If I didn't have my spreadsheet to track it for me, I wouldn't have any idea on how many consecutive days it's been. Riding my bike to work is so much a part of my normal routine that my wife has to keep track of my riding milestones. Although if and when I hit my 10 year anniversary I'll probably remember that one. I'll probably even bring doughnuts to work that morning to celebrate.

This morning was cooler, in the low 60s, although the humidity was very high. The last month or so has been really steamy and gross. I saw a news article that said we're setting some sort of humidity record. I arrive at work and home very drenched with sweat as the air is so saturated the perspiration can't evaporate. I just keep reminding myself that this is the weather I long for in the middle of February.

I took the road bike as usual. The wind was still and once I got warmed up the temp was pleasant, so I tacked on about three miles extra by riding down the MUP the wrong way before turning around and heading to work.

When I got out the bike this morning the decaying grips were so slimy-sticky gross that I took five minutes to find the tools and spelunk back into the garage to get the grips off my mothballed hardtail MTB. These grips are orange, and dirty, which is another color miss on my commuter bike that was already suffering from one tan wall and one gum wall tire and one black and one gray frame bags. But funny enough they match my latest helmet, which is a dirty orange color to begin with, "sunset" or something.

I do like Ergon grips, the best clamp-ons across the family's bikes, including PNW, Race Face, and several OEM. I prefer skinny grips with a smooth pattern and these are great

Had a very early work appointment, so for the first time at the new job (3 years now) I biked to the office in the dark. It's been at least 5 or 6 years since I did that at the old job. Of course in the winter months most rides home are in the dark. I took my main commuter because it's reliable, fendered and has a rack...and my big everything's in there commute bag in case of afternoon rain.

My spoke light batteries were dead, but I position the front blinkie down on the fork so the front spokes are dazzled anyway. It was a cool-ish 53F. By our old town house across from Middle Shooks Run Park (Colorado Springs) I came across a group of three other pre-dawn riders, all like me with reflective vests, helmet and bike blinkies front and rear, plus bar mounted headlamps.

On the way home it bounced between 78F and 85F with a moderate headwind.

I have to take the car in to a body shop for a window repair tomorrow. It's a mile the opposite direction of work. My first thought was taking the 20" folder, but all my bikes fit in the SUV so I'll see what I feel like in the morning.

Wrong address, wrong turn, frayed wires, loose spokes...and other fun.

Put my bike in the car and took the car to the wrong repair shop yesterday morning. Saw the address and tiny photo online, assumed it was this one shop a half mile from the house, that shop was no longer in business. The actual shop was only a 1/4 mile from the house and would have only added a 1/4 to my bike commute, but I turned right instead of left, forgetting about an alternate route I used to take on my old commute that ended 5 years ago. My mistake added a mile to the commute, so no real big deal.

At lunch I walked to Walmart and picked up fresh batteries for the dead spoke lights on my main commuter. I rode in to work in the dark Monday and noticed the lights were out. I popped in the new batteries and still no light. After 10 years, the cable from the battery housing to the Monkey Light spoke light had frayed where it enters the hard, acrylic protective layer over the circuit board...so no easy DIY fix. So I tossed it, since the front blinkie on the front fork dances off the spokes anyways.

Then, while I was removing the lights I discovered two loose front spokes on the other side of the wheel from the lights. My 2015 Charge Plug (non-electric) has disk brakes, but close-fit fenders, so an out-of-true wheel will rub...but the wheel was still true. It did bring back memories of how the original rear wheel kept breaking spokes and how the spokes kept loosening until I replaced the damn thing after 4 years.

The commute in itself was uneventful, and the ride home was nice as well.

My car, a 2021 Ford Escape will also be fine after a new right, rear passenger window lift and motor are installed and covered under the extended warranty from CarMax....I hope.

About 10 deg cooler and 20% more humid today than typical. Weird weather this summer

Commuting to and from work has been pretty much all the riding I do lately. And I don't mean that like it's a bad thing, I love that part of my cycling life. I've been a nearly every day bike commuter for many years, but the fact that I'm not doing quite a lot more mileage for recreational riding kind of has me feeling down, I just can't seem to get motivated to do the kind of mileage I used to do, just for fun.

My commute to and from work is only 2.5 miles, round trip, and that's been the case for the last eighteen years with my current job, just to put the work-commuting mileage in perspective.

I do love that I get up every day and get on my bike to start my work day. It's been a difficult year so far, with some health problems, hopefully that's all behind me and I can get back to my old self, when cycing for transportation was just one part of my cycling life.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2176:

Last night my wife and I went to a small town county fair about 30 miles from the city where I live. We were walking around when a guy came up to me and said he recognized me from my bicycle posts on Facebook. He introduced me to his friend, calling me the "Tony Hawk of bicycle commuting." I don't know about that. Maybe I'd agree with the "Mr. Bean of bicycle commuting." In any event, that was kind of a weird experience. My wife kind of liked my very brief moment of celebrity however.

This morning I woke up pretty tired from the previous evening at the fair and feeling the after-effects of the fair food. Looking at Google, it said it was currently raining. Rats. I wasn't really in the mood to ride 8 miles to our company office on my hybrid bike with fenders. Plus, there was a 17 mph cross/head wind that would slow that bike down even further. My road bike is significantly faster, and I'm significantly lazy so I much prefer to ride that bike whenever conditions allow.

When I looked at the radar though, it said skies were currently clear. There was a big storm rolling in to the west (the direction I would be heading) but it wasn't supposed to hit for about 45 minutes. I was in a room without windows as I was looking all this up, so I wasn't sure who to believe. I made a decision.

If when I looked out the window it was indeed raining, I would sit down in my chair and take a 45 minute nap, then ride the hybrid with fenders directly to a client's office only 4 miles away. Plus the wind would push me there.

However, if when I looked out the window it was not yet raining, I would hop on my road bike as quickly as possible and try to beat the storm to our company office 8 miles away.

When I walked to the living room and looked out the window, the pavement was dry. So I stuck to my decision and got out the door as quickly as possible on the road bike. The temp was a sticky 71°F and humid. I cranked hard against the wind trying to beat the storm.

At mile five the storm was ahead of schedule and it started to sprinkle. I pressed on. By mile seven the rain was coming down steady.

I arrived at work 35 minutes after I left my garage, which considering the wind wasn't too bad of a pace. However, I was pretty soaked between the sweat and the rain.

The good news is once the storm passes the rest of the day will be clear. I'll have mostly a tail wind for my ten mile noon ride to the client, and then just have to fight the wind for four more miles at the end of the day.

Big commute day yesterday. The car's still in the shop and I had improv practice 12 miles uphill after work.

I took my lightest bike, the 2006 Felt F-65 aluminum/carbon 700x25 2x10. I packed a light backpack but added toiletries, rain gear, reflective vest and headlamp.

First, I took off to work in the morning using the commute route I should have taken yesterday from the car repair shop. While repaved close to the house, the initial street, Chelton, was originally asphalt but now had degraded to cobble-stone status, which was tough with the skinny tires.

Then Bijou, which I had remembered as 2 miles of pleasant downhill going west, was initially uphill for the first third. But it was still low traffic with more bike lanes than I remember.

The rest of the ride in was just fine,

I left work a little early. It was in the low 90s, with high overcast and a little more humid than usual. I must have had a slight tailwind because I didn't notice the mild uphill portions as much. The Greenway trail was not as crowded as I had expected. I did listen to a podcast to help distract from any discomfort, but I had none and the gorgeous, full late-summer foliage and the intermittent glimpses of the spectacular Colorado front-range foothill/mountain vistas kept distracting me from the podcast.

I stopped to eat at the Wendy's I usually eat at before practice. I stayed in my bike clothes and sat away from others. Then it was a very steep 1/3 mile up to the Library where we meet. I arrived early enough to cool off. Then I went in and changed back into my office clothes.

A couple hours later I changed back into my bike clothes, put on the reflective vest, clamped my main headlamp to the bike and took off for the 12-mile downhill home. It was still light when I left and after the first mile I was out away from traffic and picking up speed. It wasn't too long before the headlamp was the man illumination. I've ridden this path after dark before, but this time it seemed like all but two other bikes had any sort of lighting, and none of the pedestrians or dog walkers did. It reminded me of all those years encountering 'bike ninjas' by the college on my old job's commute route...although going downhill, averaging 17mph, often reaching 24mph for long stretches made for some exciting night riding.

I wish I would have packed my neck gaiter as the defining feature of mile 2 through 8 was gnats...gnats, gnats, gnats! I could feel them hitting my legs and arms and see them smacking my glasses. I spit out quite a few, and unfortunately inhaled a couple...one causing great coughing and hacking for a minute or two.

But the gnats subsided and I slipped through the cool-ish night air at speed until I reached home and a can of Maui Coconut Hiwa Porter (so good!).

I had a disorganized tizzy leaving the house, packing up computer, finding badge, doing a few little chores. Weird weather morning again. Clear, but gloomy hazy horizon. About a mile out I realized I hadn't woken up the behavior kid for his meds. I stopped around halfway and called my wife, who would have been up by then, but to no avail. I sat for a minute or three and watched the morning over the lake. When I started up again I just had no drive. I didn't feel tired, just didn't have much will to move the pedals. Winched along til I got to work. Finally got in touch with my wife a bit after the school bell time and everything had gone fine.

Woke up a little stiff and sore yesterday morning after the big, long commute day. Possibility of rain so I wanted to take a bike with fenders...and a back rack for my commute bag. Main commuter had a front flat (grrr!). Grabbed the RockHopper instead. Rode one of the middle routes that swings by our old townhouse in the Shooks Run neighborhood.

The repair shop texted that my car was ready to pick up. They close at 5 so I planned on leaving work by 4 in case riding my heaviest bike uphill took longer than the expected 35 minutes.

I rode Bijou Street in the opposite direction of the day before and it seems to be uphill in both directions. The RockHopper felt slow, but the speedo said I was riding at a good pace....so I fired up the GPS and I was going at a good pace...it just felt slow. The big 26 x 2.125 smooth tires have a way of masking the sensation of speed.

I planned on riding today (Friday) making it two 5-day commute weeks in a row, but we encountered a couple of logistical snags with family and plumbing, so I'm driving.

I can relate very much. The vast majority of my miles are commuting, and now I'm even more grateful for that than before. I also lament that I don't feel like riding recreationally. Last weekend, I was invited to join a monthly full moon ride. It was mostly on the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail and it started before sunset and ended after sunset. I don't remember if I had ever ridden on a trail at night. It turns out my lights which I use for being seen also work well enough for seeing. That was 21 miles. Then on Sunday, I led my student on a ride which also turned out to be 21 miles. It was his biggest ride ever for him, quite hilly and very challenging for him. So 42 miles in one weekend is a nice amount, more than any mileage this year. I think I *might* be ready for the big ride I signed up for next month. I signed up to do 75 miles, and that's questionable.

I'm not sure what the secret to getting motivated. Maybe friends who enjoy the same kind of riding at the same time. That's a tall order, though.

The nice thing about my new job which starts in a couple of weeks is that the commute is only 4 miles each way. That's short enough that I'll be able to do it most of the time. When it was 13 miles each way, I did it less than once a week since it was so damned hard and tiring and required a lot of preparation.

I paged back just now to find my last post where I mentioned feeling good and going fast and pushing hard. It was in June. This summer has just taken the drive out of me. I think it's mostly due to non-exercise stuff impinging on my emotions and not any change to my health. I did manage five laps this week, though

Wednesday night's 12-mile ride home from the library (highlights)...

Don't beat yourself up...life will do that for you.

I had to backtrack a third of the way this morning to get my badge. Mild weather continues. I've found a cheap but good mislabeled bike on local CL that might be appropriate for my 11yo. If no one snags it in the next day or so it'll be ours... if he will accept it.

Uneventful ride. Took the 16-inch folder. The speed was good both ways and the upgraded shifter made gear changes simple, but the bike felt a little squirrelly. I usually find the bike's quirks entertaining, but yesterday they became a little annoying.

^^^ That seat post is impressive.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2179:

Woke up this morning and when I looked out of the windows, they were wet and fogged over. 71°F this morning with 100% humidity. Lots of fog in the low areas, but the sun was shining in the higher parts. There was no wind. It wasn't a bad ride, but it did feel a bit like a swim due to the moisture in the air.

I took the road bike to our company office. About a mile from the building a coworker who also rides caught up with me, so I had a riding companion for the last little bit.

I have my yearly physical scheduled for today at 11. My plan is to ride to the Dr's office (about 3.5 miles), have my appointment, then ride back to our company office and hopefully make it in time for a noon meeting which I just got recruited to help lead. Normally on Tuesday afternoons I ride to a client location and work from there, but with the Dr sucking up a chunk of the day I think I'll just stay at our company office for the afternoon.

I stopped at a picnic table today to enjoy a quiet ten minutes by the lake. It was so placid and the weather clear and morning-cool. I could hear the freeway right behind me but it didn't spoil it. Things have been rough with my kids. My 8yo boy's behavior with hitting kids and coaches got him kicked off the soccer team before even playing a game. My job has been dull this month (it'll pick up near the end of the quarter). We went through a tight money patch and just now made it back to treading water. My insurance company switched the pharmacy for my boutique miracle heart med right in the middle of the year. Last night the 11yo sloshed over the tub and after I sopped that up, the washer wouldn't start to clean the towel because its door lock is half broken. I ordered the part last night but this morning the washer worked. During all the up and down stairs I got a twinge in my knee but forgot about it til this morning on the bike when it's my landing leg and first power stroke. I was just thinking yesterday my knees hadn't bothered me in a while and I could get out the MTB. Welp. Never mind. Went really slow to not aggravate it. So I needed this break. I need more of a break. I should pick up fishing again

Back on the bike today after two weeks off for vacation. I did a lot of walking on my holidays (including one day where my phone tells me I did >28,000 steps over a distance of just over 1/2 a marathon (21km/13mi)), but didn't touch a bike. So I felt it a bit this morning. Otherwise uneventful.

The Roman mile was 1000 paces or 2000 steps. A Roman mile is estimated about 0.92 statute miles. So 28000 steps is 12.8 statute mi... pretty close!

England are the ones who screwed this up with their dumb barleycorn and furlong system

A nice respite.

I took my daughter last week to the Apostle Islands on the south shore of Lake Superior last week. We packed the folding eBikes and had a blast. So no commuting last week. You can find some pix from that little adventure here, if you're interested: Road trip with 13 year-old daughter: Electric or acoustic folders?

This week, I'm back to it.

They're repaving the main street in front of my company, and the parking lots are closed in preparation for our 105th anniversary block party Thursday. Driving in and parking means a two block walk back to the building, so I've got some company at the bike rack now.


A Diamondback full suspension MTB belongs to a colleague in my group, and a Trek Verve hybrid are with me today.