Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2194:

Woke up to thick fog. Visibility was probably 100 feet or less. Interestingly enough, I think this freaked out the drivers enough that today was one of the easier rides I've had as far as interacting with traffic. There were fewer cars on the road than normal, and those that were out drove much more cautiously. When I was waiting at stop signs I had at least five different instances where drivers came to a stop when they clearly had the right of way, just to allow me to cross the street or pull out and merge into traffic. I would make sure to give them a friendly wave of thanks.

The temp was 56°F, and there was an extremely light wind. I had a coagulation appointment at the hospital before work, so I rode there first. When I arrived I realized how damp I had gotten. There wasn't any rain falling and the pavement was dry, but the humidity was so high my clothes were pretty wet.

After my appointment I rewarded myself for a successful blood thinness check by stopping at a local Mexican taco shop for their shrimp and egg breakfast burrito. It was muy bueno.

2nd day with no lap.

Tuesday, I had a suspended kiddo. Same one as my post last spring. First time this school year. He has definitely taken the behavior crown from the former champion.

Today was school picture day and I ferried the kids to preserve their hairdos.

Which reminded me how much easier guys have it with regards to personal appearance. Women pretty much have to do hair and makeup, and if they want to ride they have to do it at the office, and there might be rules or informal pressure not to

No bike commuting since Monday; I'm climbing out of my skin here.

Tuesday: visitor at work, had to drive to go out to lunch
Yesterday: I had to leave work for early lunch to go to an appointment, so didn't want to spend the extra time going across town on an eBike. I rode the scooter in. I guess I could've ridden in.
Today: The visitor from Tuesday is back, same deal

Gonna try hard to ride in tomorrow; watch me get rained out now. I have my daughter this weekend, so I won't get any long club rides in.

Hey all, just popping in to say hi. I rode today! First time bike commuting since school started. I pass through three school zones on my route. The first couple close to home were relatively quiet because it wasn't quite drop-off time yet. The last one near work was very busy, and I took advantage of my small size and nimbleness to (safely and unobtrusively) finagle my way around traffic. This past spring, the city installed some "traffic calming" barriers on the road near the school, but I think that made the traffic problem much worse. Two lanes now merge into one, and I often see drivers doing stupid maneuvers to try to claim their place in line.

Anyway, have a great day everyone, and I hope to pop in again soon. I still lurk around occasionally to catch up on how your commutes were, living vicariously through y'all.

lol "traffic calming" doesn't make drivers calmer of course. It slows them down. It's easy to say this is good for other people but from your own driver's seat it's infuriating.

I did a lap last night to pub quiz another this morning to work. Cool and clammy this morning. Still a weird summer.

My afternoon is blown up. I have an optometrist appointment at 4 - that I knew. Chemo kid needs a blood draw - SWMBO said "When are you taking him?" She gets to do this because she's a psychopath psychologist with scheduled clients. I said I'd come home at 3. She said "but SWMBO junior and I have appointments at 3 and 330, aren't you coming?" Then the nanny called out - gotta be in the house at 1:45. A meeting spawned at 2, which I can do WFH, but I can't take the chemo kid til 3 anyhow after all

I think this business of dropping off and picking up in cars has gotten out of hand. I'd like to see it change. There's my unpopular opinion.

Wednesday I slept through my alarm and was late. I saw that there was a chance of rain in the morning and decided to go ahead on the bike anyway. The rain started after I headed out, and it got progressively heavier. I wasn't wearing rain gear. I thought I would look like a drowned rat after I arrived, but it wasn't so bad, and I dried off a while after arriving.

Yesterday (Thursday) was the first day I didn't commute by bike in a long time, so long I couldn't remember. There was no compelling reason for my decision. My alternate mode is the subway. I had a doctors appointment after work, and the doctor said I'm doing well. I've had some small scares, and it was very reassuring.

On the way home from the doctor, I took a subway route that didn't take me all the way home. Exiting the subway, I treated myself to a take-out dinner of middle-eastern lamb over rice from a pushcart. These push carts are even more popular now in NYC than they were in earlier times. I walked a mile home.

Drove Wednesday as I usually do for post work group meeting up north, but I ended up working late. Work has been busy so I have been taking my big 'everything' commute bag and my most reliable fendered and racked commuters; the 2015 Charge Plug, and the 1997 Specialized RockHopper.

Yesterday (Thurs) I didn't want to have to think so I again grabbed the big bag and the Charge Plug. I didn't want to deal with traffic or other bikes, pedestrians and the homeless, so I rode my mostly quiet side street "Colorado College" route. Across the street from the office I had the longest encounter with a "nice-hole" I can remember. The set up is too complicated, but I was behind a car at a stop sign and the car began waving me around. I wanted to turn right, but the car was too close to the tall curb to squeeze by on the right and I didn't want to pull up on the left because her left turn signal was on. Finally I pulled up on her left and swung around in front of her, after which she immediately gunned it and turned left.

I ended up working late again. It was falling dark and misting. My everything bag had my headlight and rain gear, but I held off on that. However it started raining lightly after a mile. At the two mile mark I stopped and covered my bag and phone and pulled out my rain cape/poncho, but held off putting it on. Within the next mile the rain returned to mist and then ceased. I arrived home dry and cool. The extra weight of the everything bag is worth it.

Before changing to ride home I ran into a new 25-year-old co-worker outside my office. We were talking when he saw the bike and said, "Oh, wow!...are you biking home!?" Earlier that day another new young co-worker stopped in to say she finally realized the bike rider she kept seeing in the parking lot was me. Those kind of encounters help keep me riding.

Also, the inexpensive Walmart, Blackburn tires I bought a couple of weeks ago for the Charge Plug are still super grippy and comfortable.

Whenever new people start at our company, I always introduce myself by saying, "You know how every company has that one weird guy? Hi. I'm him."

Since the school year started, I haven't been riding so early, and so I've missed the shortening of the days. But today I had a 7am meeting. Rode out into the morning twilight around 6:30. Needed a light sweater - wore my rainbow/black Baja hoodie, which makes me happy. This is my 2nd ride in the dark this week after pub quiz. Note to self, charge lights!

Speaking of being the weird person who commutes to work by bike, it has become so common in NYC that it no longer raises eyebrows. This is both good and bad. It's good in the sense that I'd like to see more people do it. But I'm not interesting anymore.

One adjacent building is a residence tower for New York University, and there are bike racks that seem pretty secure. I've used it every day except for one. My principal said it's fine to bring my bike into the building, but my room is on the 4th floor. I did bring it up one day this week and leaned it against my desk. But there is no (working) elevator, and my bike is heavy. I might end up doing it most of the time, but it's not a task I relish, especially after riding. Another teacher rides in, and she brings her bike up to the 4th floor, but her bike is a lightweight fixie with no accessories, not even a front brake. She's one of those hardcore New Yorkers, no helmet, etc. I predict she'll get older and develop a new view on safety, but what do I know.

The elevator has been out of order for A YEAR! On the one hand, I should complain, because that's the proper thing to do to get administration to notice that these things matter. On the other hand, I'm new, and I need to conserve my complaints. Now I'm wishing for a student in a wheelchair.

Speaking of lights, I ride with a steady headlight and a blinky taillight, day or night. This summer I bought fairy lights for use at night only. I put the string in my rear wheel. I rode home at night on Tuesday and forgot to try them, so I've yet to use them. The first time might be Tuesday of next week.

Commuted by bike 3 times this week with two of the commutes being rather weird. The first was when I had to leave my car at the tire shop overnight unexpectedly. Thankfully, I hadn't taken my recently acquired vintage Nishiki back home yet so my brother gave me a lift back to work and then I rode the Nishiki back home. Not the way I planned on taking a bike on its first test ride after sitting for 30 years but thankfully no surprises, it worked just fine.

The following morning, I had to bike in so I could pick up my car and drive it home. It had drizzled overnight (highly unusual this time of year for this area) but had stopped a couple hours before I woke up. I took the regular fendered bike and it was a good thing because a block after leaving the house, the rain returned. Not heavy, but enough to get me fairly damp 3 miles later when I arrived at work. I left work around 10:30 to get my car, again on the bike and like that morning, it began to rain again soon as I got going. Very light and intermittent so I barely got wet.

I then got a flat in the rear of the commuter and figured that was a good time to install the new tire I had waiting to go on, old one was was pretty worn out. I patched the old tube and reused it but I discovered this morning that there were apparently two holes and I only patched one. The second leak was minor enough that I was able to get away with pumping up the tire right before leaving and it only lost about 10psi on the ride to work. Patched the second hole at work and it's been holding air all day.

Yesterday I "rode" the stationary recumbent in the basement. Events conspired and I've been missing more bike commutes and weekend rides than usual. I figured an hour riding nowhere was better than nothing or a shorter ride outdoors.

I hadn't been on the stationary bike since an unusually cold and snowy stretch last winter when I discovered that the detachable tablet/screen portion of my laptop fits perfectly on on the shelf
between the forward handles. Back then I would watch SAFA Brian bike descent videos. Yesterday I watched dashcam videos of bad driving. The videos I like favor near misses and minor fender benders. I find them oddly entertaining and I feel I may learn to spot trouble for when cycling.

The first 30-35 minutes, equivalent to my current commute went by in the blink of an eye. Then I grew bored, and then at the 45 minute mark my tailbone started to bother me. And when I finished both knees were slightly aggravated.

In the end the indoor stationary bike was better than nothing, but it reminded me how much more visceral real-world cycling is.

"Cycling season" is winding down for my club. People are not showing up any more for the club rides, because it's sometimes below 70°F. This is the time I switch to riding for any local rides I can to keep SOME kind of fitness over the winter.

No bike commute this morning. I rode every day since Friday at least 17 miles; giving my legs a break before tonight's club ride. Took the scooter, which needs to have its gas burned before it turns to varnish in the fuel system.

I found one of those rubber tow straps on the road yesterday. Turns out it's the perfect length to use the bungee hooks grooves near the rear dropouts in my ZiZZO Forte folding bike.

***************
Tom,

You said your bike is heavy. What does that mean, 40 lbs.? ZiZZO is working on their new version of the Liberté folder. 23 lbs. Maybe add fenders and a nice carry bag with cross shoulder strap to hump it up the stairs.

Hauling a bike up stairs is exercise, but not the pleasant kind, like RIDING the bike.

Or lock it somewhere secure with a really good lock?

Fair weather riders indeed. Below 70 is perfect for riding as far as I'm concerned, maybe even a bit cooler than that. I like upper 50's. Cool enough to keep you cool on a strenuous ride but warm enough that you don't have to wear long sleeves or full finger gloves.

I am blessed in my neck of the woods with good year round riding conditions. In the winter, unless it's actively raining (heavily), it's good fun to go out for a ride. High temps in the dead of winter will still usually get up into the mid-50's. No snow to worry about, just damp pavement and runoff from the hills to make a filthy mess of the bike if a big storm has rolled through recently.

Smell of smoke in the air. No fires nearby today.

Going home early to WFH; girlie is sick

I know, right!? To me, 60s is perfect. I ride in shorts top and bottom. Start a bit cold, warm up and don't sweat much.
50s is great too. I need long sleeve top, but the bugs are gone. Toe covers or booties in the lower 50s.
40s is fine. Long sleeves top and bottom. Booties and thicker gloves.
30s and I'm off the road bike and onto bikes with flat pedals. Thin fleece or something under a windbreaker. Ski helmet and goggles. Ski mittens. Electric socks with hiking boots or just snow boots.
20s and below and I only do short rides and start really losing fitness fast.

I'm fairly similar though I find I don't need long sleeves until the temps are somewhere in the 40's. I've never biked in anything below the upper 20's and that's only for brief periods as it warms up quick when the sun comes up so I have no idea what I'd wear for sub-20. For those occasional frosty morning commutes, I find that regular shoes with wool socks, long pants, a fleece and thin fleece-type gloves are good enough for my 12 minute ride to work. With the collar up on the fleece, it's enough to keep my neck warm so no balaclava needed.

It's funny that I'm the "hot place" rider on this thread as there ought to be someone from Phoenix or Houston where it's really hot

I was inspired to ride the heavy, but comfortable '97 drop-bar RockHopper yesterday.

I took my Willamette Street route downtown. The first half of this route used to be the first third of one of my routes to the old job. For over 25 years I have always cut through a parking to get from Bonfoy Avenue to Platte Avenue. About 10 years ago a cajun food truck set up residence in the lot with a seating area and a power cord across the lot, covered by a small, but pronounced "speed bump". Even when the truck was away, the bump remained. Not as annoying as a loud gas-powered electric generator, just a minor annoyance in the greater scheme of things, but for ten years I wished it gone. Well, sometime last spring it disappeared, and while I don't miss the bump, I started worrying about the owner...is he well?, is the business okay?...did he find a new spot? I just now looked up the food truck, and the website still lists the same location and has a note saying his vacation is over and the permits for a remodel have been granted...so I don't know what any of this means. I suppose I could call and ask.

On the way out from work I ran into a yet another young co-worker in the parking lot who was excited by my bike and the lights...but then, the youngsters are excited about everything...life, work, friends...everything is fresh and new to them...one of the things I like about this job.

My knees hurt a couple of times during the day, but luckily not during the load in/ load out at a morning video shoot. I worked a little late again and over-caffeinated a little bit. I felt strong and fast going home, even though its uphill and the RockHopper weighs almost as much as my two lightest bikes combined...I wondered if the caffeine contributed to feeling strong.

Yesterday I also realized I will be back on drop-bars for snow riding this winter after a year's absence, as I didn't convert the Rockhopper to drops till after snow season.

TLDR: Too many random thoughts.

I started thinking about what temps dictate what clothing choices for me, and realized that as I've aged my cold tolerance has decreased. A decade ago I would have lowered each of these temps by 10 degrees for most (not all) of these clothing choices:

Above 60°F: Shorts and a t-shirt.
Below 60°F: Long sleeve shirt, headband (over ears) and cycling gloves.
Below 50°F: Back to t-shirt, but throw a sweatshirt on over it.
Below 40°F: Toe covers. Switch to long pants. Remove the sweatshirt and replace it with my cycling jacket. Switch to winter gloves.
Below 30°F: Change out the headband for my balaclava. Boots start making an appearance around this point, depending on if I'm riding a platformed pedal bike (snow or ice on the ground) or a clipless bike.
Below 20°F: Add my ski goggles. Add a sweatshirt under my jacket.
Below 10°F: Add long underwear under my long pants. If I'm still in ventilated cycling shoes I might add a second layer of socks depending on my mood. At this point if I'm wearing clipless shoes my feet are going to be extremely cold no matter how many socks I put on.
Below 0°F: Add long underwear top under my shirt/sweatshirt/jacket sandwich. Add a neck gator to cover my mount/lower cheeks, but only for the first few miles until I get warmed up. Having my mouth covered just speeds up the rate at which my goggles ice over.
Below -10°F: No further changes. At these temps you're going to have certain body parts cold no matter what you do. And adding additional layers in the other spots just increases how much I sweat.

*All of these choices depend on the foretasted temp for the ride home. If it's going to be cold in the morning but nicer weather for the ride home I may dress for the nicer weather and suffer through the morning ride without some of these items just so I don't have to haul them home in my backpack that evening.

** My two winter bikes have bar mitts installed on them. If the weather dictates that I ride one of them (again, snow or ice on the ground) then I will back off a layer or two on my hands. The bar mitts are incredibly warm so I often can ride down to 20 degrees without wearing anything additional on my hands, and down to 0°F with just cycling gloves,

*** Reading this list I'm also reminded why my work-to-cycling clothing change time (and vice-versa) is about 5 minutes in the summer and 15 minutes in the winter.

Brrrr!

Below 50 is freezing to me. OTOH our season is just starting. Lows in the 70s, highs in the 90s or low 100s.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2198:

Very pleasant morning. 64°F and a light cross wind.

High temp today is supposed to be 89°F, so summer hasn't completely left us.

Dropped my chain twice switching from the small ring to the big ring. That's annoying and I haven't figured out how to solve this issue. Some days I have no problems, and others (like today) it plagues me. When this happens the chain likes to hang up between the lower ring and the bottom bracket, preventing the pedals from turning. That makes it so I can't use the old trick of moving the front derailleur to a higher gear and pedaling the chain back on to the ring. Thankfully on my road bike I use wax for lubricant so when I stop and fix it my hands don't turn into a greasy mess. I've also fixed it so many times that once I'm off the bike it's literally 10 seconds or less to get the chain back on the ring.

After today it's supposed to rain the rest of the week, so I may be on my hybrid bike with fenders for the first time since June 3rd.

Waiting for the dryer to finish so I can wear pants today - early start blown. Being a "smart" dryer, it has led me to believe 11 minutes remaining for the last half hour. With the extra time I made a huge breakfast burrito I have been imagining for a week, ever since I saw my wife mistakenly bought the "grande" tortillas. But having made it, find myself not hungry. I stuffed it in the laptop bag. House is waking up. SWMBO Jr still has her cough. SWMBO promised last night to medicate her and send her to school. Thought it wasn't serious enough, and inconvenient for us, when I kept her home yesterday. Pando is really over, back on that grindset!

Edit: At 7:10 the dryer had increased its time remaining from 11 to 50 minutes. I pulled out a pair of pants and put them on damp, and left. They were dry by a mile into the ride

I may have mentioned this, but for those really cold days, I sure do love my Mobile Warming socks from Costco:
https://fieldsheer.com/products/powe...8NksyK7-MoYRBi

You probably already look for this, but are your sprockets in good shape? Between the teeth are not elongated, are they?

When it's time to change, you might want to go to a skip tooth design, where each tooth is not ground the same.

My chain's been acting up on my Level.2. I measured the chain and it is past the 0.75% wear setting on the chain tool. No problem, time for a new chain after only 2300 miles. However, I notice the sprockets are wallered out a bit too. I let it go way too long without lube last winter and now I'm paying the price.