In NYC, long commutes are common. For a long time, I've thought that 45 minutes is reasonable. An hour is long in my view, but I know people who commute over two hours each way. I hear that in your part of the country, it's uncommon to have long commutes. An hour is quite a burden for a high school kid. But they do it. I commuted 45 minutes each way to middle school and about 30 minutes to high school. The middle school commute required a subway and a bus. For high school, I could choose between a subway and a bus.

Yes, bike share bikes do have those advantages. They're really huge. I know some people who gave up their own bikes and use only Citi Bike for those reasons. One friend uses Velib' in Paris, their equivalent thing. And imagine choosing your mode on your return trip! You can ride Citi Bike to work and then at the end of the day see it's raining and say "skip it" and take the subway back home.

I'd say 30-40 minutes is typical here, but hour-long commutes are common too. People rationalize "it's no big deal" when they're job searching, and find out later that it adds up to years in the car, by the end of the career. Two people in my group of about 20 at work commute over 3 hours per day.

I'd say 99% driving though.

This was a utility ride, not a commute, but I reckon it belongs here.

Friday night, I went out to get a new coffee brewer. The Keurig Dual brewers are on sale at Kohl's (department store) now for $100, instead of $180-190, as they usually are. I took the Vektron, figuring I'd strap it to the rear rack with a bungee net. Kohl's is a 3 mile ride. I set out and it started raining halfway there. Damn.

I bought the machine and was strapping it onto the rack. It was too big in the box, but I was trying to stretch it that last inch. It slipped in my wet hand and the bungee hook blasted me right in the lip. Blood everywhere. It stopped quickly, saliva has a clotting effect, and I was controlling it with my tongue.

I took the machine out of the box and tried again. This time, a hook broke and the opposite one hit me in the eye. Luckily I blinked in time. No blood, and surprisingly I don't have a black eye either, 3 days later. Cat-like reflexes, apparently. I almost gave up and called for a rescue ride, but decided to give it one more try. Success!

I rode a couple blocks and the snap-off base fell off on the road. I heard it and went back for it, and put it in the big back pocket of my cycling jacket. I rode home the rest of the way in the rain, half blind without issue. When I got home and my wife asked "How was your ride?" I replied: "Not my most successful mission."

I checked myself out in the mirror. My lip was pretty messed up. There was a deep, 1/2" long cut on the outside, and a puncture on the inside, from the hook smashing it into the tip of my canine tooth. Wife asked me to go to Urgent Care, which I resisted, but finally did when I saw that the cut opened up every time I moved the lip. It would've taken forever to heal. I got one stitch and a penicillin script. It's a lot better now. Kind of fat and lumpy.

Lesson learned: When strapping things down with bungees, don't position yourself in the line of fire if something should slip. There's a lot of stored energy in those things we don't usually think of.

*************

No commute today or tomorrow. I'll leave for Green Bay in a bit here to embark on my 83 mile trail ride tomorrow. We got about 8" of snow last night, but it's lake effect, so will not have affected Wausau, 225 miles NNW from here. I should be to the hotel in Wausau tonight in time to see the Packers get smoked by the Eagles. This will be my Gran Fondo for November. The trail is 83 miles, but there's a detour and riding to/from the trail head on each end, so I may end up with a century. If so, it'll be my first on a folder.

35 years ago before I was married, my roommate and I were moving to a different apartment. We had his truck loaded full of furniture, and were working to strap it all down. He was pulling on a bungee cord draped over the top that was just an inch or two short. He gave it all the muscle he had, and pulled so hard the metal hook on the opposite side straightened out and the cord came loose. It flew over the top of the furniture and hit him in the head.

He went down writhing in pain, but surprisingly enough never made a sound. I just stood there helpless witnessing the situation. After a minute he got up with tears streaming down his face. Surprisingly there was no blood. We proceeded to continue strapping down the load, only this time ganging two bungee cords together over the top. He was a tough guy. I've known him since high school and that was the only time I remember seeing him cry.

To this day whenever I use a bungee cord I remember the hollow sound of that "thud" as the cord hit his skull.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2235:

Going into this last weekend they were predicting a cold, rainy Saturday. By Friday night they had posted a winter weather advisory for the morning. When I got up on Saturday morning it was snowing. They then updated the forecast to include two inches of snow. It snowed throughout the day and we wound up getting 4.5" total.

Interestingly enough, the temp had dropped quickly enough that all the pavement/concrete was still above freezing. By Saturday night it looked like everyone had shoveled/plowed, as the paved areas had all melted off and the roads and sidewalks were clear. There was still plenty of snow on the grass, though.

Yesterday (Sunday) the temp dropped into the teens, and the wind came up. This blew the snow off of the grassy areas and back onto the pavement, which by then had cooled down and was no longer melting the snow. Instead it created sheets of ice under the snow drifts.

This morning I woke up to a morning temp of 18°F, making it my first "real" cold weather ride of the season. The humidity was above 90% which made the cold feel that much chillier. I was a bit apprehensive about the ride as I put all my cold weather gear on.

I have been extremely busy these last few months, and haven't yet had time to pull my winter bikes out of storage and service them. I'm sure the chains are rusted solid from last winter's riding. The chemical de-icer they spray on the road does a good job keeping the roads clear, at the expense of rotting our cars (and my bicycles) at an alarmingly quick rate.

A wise man would have taken the hybrid bike with wider tires. So is that what I did? No. For some weird reason I was compelled to take the road bike.

The first mile was fine, as I rode through our neighborhood back roads. There was the occasional patch of ice, but they were easy enough to ride around. When I reached the MUP, however, I found that the snow drifts there were much worse than the streets. There were many places that would have been treacherous on a studded-tire winter bike, and here I was on a road bike with 23c tires. Not smart.

I went slow. The wooden bridges were especially bad as the 4.5" of snow hadn't melted off of them and now had turned into solid chunks of ice. There were many places where the entire width of the MUP was covered in ice. There was one stretch of solid sheet ice more than 100 yards long. In these spots I would unclip my bike shoes and put my feet down just a hair above the ground and coast across the ice. I reasoned that by doing this if my tires went out from under me I would have my feet right there which would hopefully save me from hitting the ground. Much to my surprise, I made it the 4.5 miles to the client's office without going down.

The good news is, I was so focused on keeping the bike upright that I didn't have time to notice how cold it was. When I made it safely inside the office I realized that parts of my body were pretty chilly, but while I was riding I was oblivious to the temp.

Tundra man, good to hear from you. It has been a couple of weeks, I was wondering. Traffic on this forum has slowed, so whenever someone familiar disappears for a while, I start to wonder if they've packed it in. Either with posting or with riding. It would certainly be reasonable to do so and no explanation is owed.

I configured my 2017 hardtail 27.5+ tire MTB for behavior kid to start riding. Sweepy bar (same one chemo kid had at first on his 24") and slammed seat and shorter Shimano Zee cranks. He teetered on it for a few feet and rejected it. He has done this with every new bike since the first one with pedals. I anticipated it but still I was irritable. He says he'd like it better with smaller tires, which is fair, and planned. Part of this project was retrieving the matching orange grips that I had temporarily transplanted to the c3po bike. So when I went to ride today, that bike was gripless. I need to get some gum colored ones that match the tire sidewalls and the frame.

After a moment of laughing at myself I traded out bikes for the full squish pink bike dot com. This bike is the one that had the short cranks, which are part of Canfield's whole thing. I never really liked them, though. They just didn't feel good to pedal, and furthermore the Zee crank did not properly clear the more recent frame very well. It needed something that was true Boost with a direct mount ring. So - I'd put the NX 11 cranks from the 2017 bike on it. It hurt my aerospace engineer bike nerd heart a little to put bottom-lineup cranks with a solid spindle BB on this bike, but after doing that and lowering the seat post to match, it certainly feels a lot better.

I had fun riding it. I always do. It's such a big fun smash-anything bike (despite being the shortest of four FS bikes in their lineup). I have not ridden this bike a lot and never really dialed in the fit, but I'm going to now. The longer crank and lowered post make it feel normal now. I have the handlebar from the 2017 bike and a longer stem, that is going to help some more.

Meanwhile in other family bike news, SWMBO Junior finally got her 24in bike. I picked it up for twenty bucks about a month ago and she and I finally put in the cleanup time. I put the Snyper tires on it that chemo kid once had, fast and cool-looking, and she went over it with a rag. I wish I could right now afford her a bike like her 20in Spawn but that's not in the budget this year, and she is just happy to have a bike with cool graphics that fits. It's a bike store model, so it's like the cheapest bike store bikes. I won't tell her but it's everything I hate, all the solved design problems still present so they can sell a cheap one and an expensive one that didn't cost them a cent more to make. Grip shifters that feel like mush to pull cable and breaking something to release it, plastic brake levers that just bend instead of putting squeeze on the wheel, 7 speed freewheel not freehub in the rear, triple front that grinds in most combinations, swaged on chain rings that can't be changed, nutted axles, steel stanchion fork w coil springs, steel handlebar, steel hubs. Weight like where did they even put it all?

It was 32F when I got ready to leave. I decided to pack the light bag and take the 700x23 2006 Felt 2x10. The integrated shifters weren't letting the cable wind out for upshifts in the rear or up front. I was going to run inside to grab the 3-in-one dry lock lube which fixes the cold weather shifter issue, but I just worked the shifters for a minute and everything worked after that.

Seeing as how I have been more impervious to the cold this year I dressed how I'd dress for the 40s...wicking tee, long sleeve poly shirt that magically keeps warm enough in the cold and cool enough when it warms up...an the hi-viz windbreaker shell. ANd long poly pants. No balaclava, just pulled my Halo headband over the tips of my ears.

I donned my light full-finger work gloves and forgot to pack the next heavier pair.

The shorter-easier hill to the trails was open to traffic again. About a mile from the house I was quite comfortable temperature wise, except my hands, which were getting uncomfortably cold. Another mile later, at the 11 minute mark they warmed up, although the ambient temperature was now down to 30F.

The trail was fairly empty with only a very few walkers, joggers and other cyclists which was nice.

About a mile from the office I rolled up my sleeves, it was now 36F.

It was a good ride with a bright sky and fresh air, and the bike which can feel a little harsh was more comfortable than usual. It was a very uplifting commute!

I thought the tires were 700x25, but I just looked and they are 23s, and I had pumped them up to 90psi, so I was very surprised at the comfort, and for the stability on the 20 yards of gravel.

I got up this morning thinking about what I should wear since the temperature dropped a lot. Then I realized that school is closed today for Veteran's Day.

I forgot where I read it (here or elsewhere) but some one recently described a bike saying that it's slow and heavy but pedals easily. That applies to my 1997 RockHopper. I rode it to work and back yesterday, and while it's not slow, it's not as fast as the super light 2006 Felt I rode the day before.

It was a little warmer than the past few days with temps in the low 40s on the way to work.

I worked a little late (again!) and rode home after dark. I encountered one ninja-salmon in a bike lane. Next to him on the parked cars he was riding next to I could see the reflection of the red blinkie on the rear of his seatpost...but he was dressed in all black with a dark non-reflective bike.

The RockHopper's very low gearing makes even the steepest hills easy, but slow. While the custom high-range gears makes it a fast bike on more level streets, and especially the downhills. And the big, 26x2.125 lightweight smoothies yield, comfort and grip especially on some of the broken pavement of some streets.

Both ways I listened to the "Version HIstory" podcast (in one ear) They discussed the failed Amazon Fire Phone. In the previous episode they discussed the Microsoft Zune MP3 player.

Now that I'm more familiar with my 3-year-old commute routes, and it's dark on the rides home and the scenery is limited to what my helmet light and head light show me, I think I'll be listening to more podcasts (in one ear).

BobbyG Have you seen those bone conduction earphones? I'm thinking about a set of those maybe for the bike.

I did the Mountain-Bay State Trail yesterday. Came up to 93 miles on my folder. It was hard work! I incurred a lot of speed penalties on myself for this trip:

• 20" folder instead of 70c gravel bike: 2 mph cost
• Gravel instead of pavement: 1-2 mph cost, depending on the gravel
• Blankets of leaves or pine needles on the trail: 1-2 mph cost, depending on the thickness
• Loaded-down bike: 1/2 mph? (it's pretty flat)

Pix from the ride are here:
WI: Mountain-Bay State Trail Ride - Nov. 11, 2025

I took that same folder this morning; it sure felt nice & light without the extra two bags.

We got a foot of snow overnight Sunday and into Monday morning, and now it is warmer again. Going to hit mid-50s, so that snow is packed down and icy in places. Hopefully will all melt away in a day or two. It's now officially salt season.

I re-lubed the chain on the ZiZZO before the trip with White Lightning Clean Ride. I was not impressed after the first application, but what they say on the bottle turned out to be true, that it takes two applications to start working well. It was great for the 93 miles, seems to be shedding trail dust well.

Yesterday was colder than in a long time, hinting at what winter is like. It was windy, too. I didn't ride, but I mentally braced myself for riding in winter.

Today is a little less cold, and I did commute in. I was fine, of course.

On the bike path, I heard a bell from behind and to my left. I made sure I was far to the right and turned my head for an instant to show I knew the cyclist was there. As he passed, he turned his back and said, "that taillight is so bright it hurts." I said, "OK I'm sorry." I think I have it at the lowest setting but I'll check. It was daytime. Wouldn't he need to keep his gaze on my light for it to hurt? Still, I don't want to hurt anyone so I'll do what I can. It's a Cygolite Hotshot 350 so yes it can get very bright.

Easygoing ride today. Might be the last commute for a while -

• tomorrow is weather,
• this Friday is off
• Saturday my wife is encouraging me to go do something on my own, take a break from the house and the kids. I'm gonna. Don't know if it will be bike related at all.
• Sun-Weds is work travel
• Thurs next week is chemo clinic (the last one! sort of, the last one where he gets pills)
• next Friday ??
• The kids have the whole week of Thanksgiving off so likely M-T-W WFH

On the way home, I saw a white and orange house cat at the site of a former homeless camp. I don’t know why the camp was cleared out. It just happens from time to time. How the truce with the government and the cops works, I don’t know. It accumulates for months until one day it’s all gone. And then it starts again in a few weeks or a month. But there is another camp about 100 yards away and it’s just better concealed from highway and footbridge traffic. So I don’t know if the cat is missing its owner or just visiting from the other camp.

In theory bone-conduction phones would allow more ambient sound. But I've been happy with one earbud in my curbside ear. But another big factor in hearing and perceiving the surrounding environment is limiting the audio content to spoken-word.

In my personal, non-scientific experience, it seems easier to perceive and separate ambient sound, like traffic, from spoken word contend, than from more abstract sounds as found in music. BAck when I listened moAnd of course volume level matters as well. And keeping one ear "free" helps.

With one earbud I still seem to be able to locate sounds around me.

Also, I've found interview, conversation or round-table podcasts work better for me than narration, especially audio books. In live conversation, speakers optimally will make sure they are being understood, adding repetitions, rephrasings, helper words and helper phrases and other conversational devices that monologists sometimes overlook, and are considered extraneous in written pieces since readers can rescan previous sentences, etc. I cannot enjoy audio books if I can't rewind, or skip around.

However, when I drive, music seems like less of a hinderance, since driving with the windows up tends to significantly mute most traffic cues except horns and louder vehicles.

It was 41F when I walked out to the shed, but as soon as the sun rose above the trees it warmed to 55F about 5min into the ride. 60F when I got to work.

I rode the RockHopper and deployed one of the Wald folding baskets to carry a couple of kilos of Yerba Mate to the office.

Here's a photo of Pikes Peak with my bike at the corner of San Miguel and Iowa Avenue. There is an "Iowa/Kiowa" intersection a couple miles south. Unfortunately still no "Schmiowa" Street.

Rainy day, supposed to be a few inches. No ride. We are going into the dark and rainy season with a lot of vacations. I have to go home for the kids anyhow since our nanny can't make it for early release, so I'm thinking of asking SWMBO to make Thursdays a drop-off and not a ride until maybe after Presidents / ski week. It requires a little more of her to drop them off rather than kick them out.

I bought a part that's supposed to fix my truck's electrical problem. There's a switch in the shifter assembly (which is really just a bunch of switches anyhow) that goes bad and fails to register that the truck in in Park. The symptoms, which I've got, are that the battery drains, and the P does not light up orange on the instrument panel. The truck is still on, even though the interior shuts down. I was loath to bring it to work today but then realized - I can just disconnect the battery when I park. In fact I could have been doing this all along. Dummy! The part is coming tomorrow.

Yesterday I had an event to attend after work, at Queens College (QC), a remote location. So I took the subway into work. Easy.

Getting from Brooklyn to Queens (which are separated by a legal border, not a natural boundary) involves taking a subway through Manhattan. QC isn't near any subway, so I took a bus from the subway to the college and got lost. QC is a wonderful college but every time I go for any reason, the trip is hellish. The bus driver berated me for paying in the wrong manner. Jeez, the City is all up in arms about people who evade the fares, and I PAID. He just didn't want me to insert my card in the box designed for it. There's a new procedure which I just didn't know about. He kept ranting at me, even after I said I didn't know and will do it right next time. "You could get a $100 ticket if you don't have a ticket." All right Buddy, I get it. But I'm sure driving a city bus has got to be one of the most irritating jobs there is.

Going home was even worse. On the first bus, the driver just stopped and said LAST STOP! I didn't know where I was. I did my best to figure out what bus to take next, all in an unfamiliar neighborhood. Lots of walking. Google Maps misled me to the wrong stop. I missed the bus that goes directly to Manhattan (where I live). Then while I was at the wrong stop, the bus to Manhattan stopped at a red light, right where I was. I waved to the driver who shook his head and pointed to I-don't-know-where. He refused to open the door just to hear me, and then he moved on. A woman there said that that bus comes only once an hour. I ain't waiting another hour for that. The woman helped me find a bus that would take me to a subway. I ended up walking several miles as reported by my digital gadgets. These bus drivers and confusing systems are probably why people think of New York City as a rude place. And they are why I generally avoid buses. The subway is complicated, too, but it's better documented, and I know it well.

So how was my commute? I'd say hellish. But I'm healthy, and I got some exercise.

Stitched together bits and pieces of other routes for a unique southern route this morning, including a new-to-me quarter mile.

I included Memorial Park (Colorado Springs) so I enjoyed sunrise over the Olympic Velodrome and Prospect Lake.

Previously, for nostalgia's sake, I've taken an alley from a route to my old job which deposits me next to a busy highway interchange which holds nostalgic significance, but is a noisy, slightly dangerous mess.

So I chose to ride further west down Las Vegas Street which took me past the city's largest homeless shelter and the associated homeless service centers there. It is just heart-breaking. My wife and I donate funds and cast-offs to the shelter, and support their mission. It is so saddening to see people in need, many without the ability to help themselves, and plagued by addiction and/or mental illness.

This and the second-largest shelter, two miles north in downtown, are both adjacent to the Greenway Trail. And since the city's interconnected trails follow waterways and wooded areas, there are an abundance of homeless camps along the trails including in the dark shelters of underpasses and even darker tunnels which make the occupants invisible to speeding cyclists, especially at night, and even more so to cyclists without headlights.

In fact, on the way home, I took a different route and encountered two dark-clad, unlit cyclists coming at me fast, and no-handed, shooting out from the blackness of an underpass that is often pinched down and sometimes blocked by tents, scavenged junk, sleeping bags, or just people passed out on the pavement...between the shadowy encampments and the unlit cyclists somebody's sure to get injured.

Then, a couple miles after that I crossed the pedestrian bridge over the highway into the park by Colorado College where I encountered two e-bike cyclists, headlights and tail-lights ablaze with reflective clothing and tires. They saw me and signaled their turns. By the way they kept swiveling their heads to look back, so it's possible they had no mirrors, or inadequate mirrors...or just better neck mobility than I do.

The ride in to work was against a stiff breeze, but being mostly downhill it wasn't an issue. For the ride home the wind was calm and my legs felt strong. The '84 Nishiki 12-speed isn't quite as light and quick as the 2006 Felt 2x10, but the Nishiki has such a beautiful ride with its skinny steel frame that seems to flex in rhythm to the road and rider inputs...a rhythm that obviates the need for listening to podcasts or any other distraction. It's a rhythm, and blissful contentment I wish I could donate to the homeless, and to anyone with mental anguish.

I took a long ride today. About thirty miles, much longer than normal! That should atone for all the outages for the week

It has been a few days. I rode the gravel bike Friday, still in the honeymoon phase of the new Topeak Beamrack. It's great, but I have a center kickstand on that bike, which I cut a bit too short, and if I have anything in the trunk, the bike falls over.

I took the Aventon Level.2 eBike for the commute today. I have a lunch errand to do (meeting my wife and getting our will & trust done) and I don't want to take the extra time or sweat to do it all on a muggle bike. I'll already be stretching lunch hour quite a bit... It was cold, about 37 °F. Colder since I took the eBike; not as much heat generated and higher wind speed. It's supposed to get up to 45 today though, which will feel warm enough with the sun.

I found it at 25% charge, which is kinda low. Enough for the day's activities probably, but no need to risk it or leave it low, since I brought an extra charger into the office. I brought the battery in and it's merrily charging on my desk. I brought a cable lock too, which I don't use out in public any more, but it's enough for on work property if I forget a lock. People still leave bikes unlocked here on the property and they don't get stolen. Having a security camera right by the bike rack/door is probably part of it, and people being "Wisconsinice" is another part.

Now, we're in the season when I don't get club rides in any more, so I relish the commute and errands; it's where I get most of my exercise. Believe it or not, I look forward to riding the gravel bike more this winter. We'll see if the IGH will shift OK in the cold, now that I've changed its oil this summer. It was iffy last winter.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2241:

It rained yesterday afternoon, and into the evening. I got wet on the way home from work last night. But the rain was supposed to stop during the night and today was predicted to be dry.

When I got up at 5:45 AM, the pavement outside was dry as predicted. I did all my preparation, but as I was getting ready to leave the house I looked outside and it was raining again. That was not what I was expecting.

I had already packed everything to take the road bike. I didn't have the motivation to re-pack so I could take the hybrid with fenders. Plus I had a 22 mile route today, and would prefer to do it on the faster road bike. I decided I was just going to get wet and grimy from the road spray rather than switching bikes.

The temp was 38°F with steady rain falling. This is almost my least favorite weather. I say "almost" because this morning I had a tail wind. Had it been a head wind it definitely would qualify as my least favorite weather.

I only saw two other people riding on the MUP this morning, both riding e-bikes. With the tail wind I was moving along at a decent clip, between 16 and 17 mph. One guy on one of those little 16" fat tire class 3 e-bikes passed me like I was standing still, and looked like he was exerting hardly any effort. He was moving at least 10 mph faster than me.

I guess it's good that people on e-bikes are removing larger vehicles from the road, but as I pedaled along I couldn't help but wonder if all these e-bikes aren't doing much to combat our country's obesity problem? People used to get exercise riding their bike, and now they're pedaling just hard enough to get the assist to kick in (if their bike even requires pedaling for assist.) I have friends whose kids now refuse to ride their traditional bikes and are asking for e-bikes.

At the same time when my thoughts start going down this path I need to check my attitude. Thinking of myself as a superior person for riding unassisted is just as reprehensible, if not more so. Riding my bicycle to work gives me a lot of time to think, but sometimes those thoughts are unhealthy.

About half way to work, two things happened. First, the battery on my headlight went into low battery mode. The button on the Niterider headlights I've been using for the last decade glow red when the battery gets low. My previous Niterider headlight would glow red for quite a while before it reduced illumination. This current headlight reduces illumination almost immediately once the low battery indicator lights.

The second thing that happened was the rain reduced from a steady fall to just a slight drizzle. It was nice to not have the extra moisture coming down on me, and only have the road spray soaking me. By the time I got to work the back of my pants, jacket and backpack were quite soaked and dirty.

Today the theater production I'm involved in moves from our rehearsal space to the theater downtown. That means after work I'm riding from the office directly to the theater, and then not riding home until 10 PM or later. We've got another week and a half of practices nearly every day (Thanksgiving off) until opening night on 11/29. This show is doing 10 performances spread across three weekends, so I'm going to be doing a lot of late-evening riding for the next month.

Yesterday I left home late for work. I don't like that feeling. I didn't push myself to ride really hard because it wouldn't have made much difference. I managed to get there in time because I skipped a step upon arrival. I usually go to my office, put my coat and things down, and grab my needed things for the classroom. Instead, I just brought everything to the classroom and started there. Phew!

On the way home, I tried an alternative route home. After getting off the Brooklyn Bridge (which crosses the East River), crossing over to the Hudson River involves going through very heavy traffic made worse by construction. My alternate route took me down Broadway, passing Trinity Church to the very end of Broadway. Trinity Church, at the corner of Broadway and Wall St is very historic, founded in 1697, site of Alexander Hamilton's grave and others, also a gathering place for the nation's first leaders. I've always loved the sense of history in downtown Manhattan, and yet everyone is just going about their business as if it doesn't matter. After reaching the "bottom" of the island, I moved through Battery Park and connected to the beginning of the Hudson River Greenway which is also the beginning of the Empire State Trail. People travel from many places to ride these trails.

Well that route was interesting but it was also very trafficky, and other than the historical significance, did not save any trouble at all. I think there are really no good ways to get through the sticky part of town in the afternoon.

Here is my GPS track for anyone interested.

I also try not to think of myself as superior for riding unassisted, but on those cold winter mornings and cold, dark winter rides home the warmth of smug self-satisfaction comes in handy. And when it's raining and I'm dry with my long fenders and rain cape I just can't help myself...I am superior... Except when I am caught out on one of the fenderless bikes without the rain cape... Then I just feel wet.

I am also on my 2nd NiteRider headlamp, and mine is also 10 years old and starting to kick into low power mode before I get home.

I drove yesterday... For the first time in 20 years I made a dentist appointment that wasn't for first thing in the morning...but for 4pm. I've biked to the new dentist which is just over a mile from the office. But there's no good locking option outside, so I've ridden the folders and brought 'em in with me. I've been so busy at work I drove In case I got caught up in a last minute emergency...and I was, making it to the dentist with only one minute to spare.

I rode today and it was nice and uneventful both ways except for the morning temp. It was 31F when I left the house and 48F when I arrived 33 min later. Had to strip off some layers

Well, as someone who used to car commute 2 miles, I remember feeling GREAT after getting an eBike and commuting like that for the first winter. It's a lot better than car commuting, even if only a bit of effort is put in. That bike had only a cadence sensor, so would accelerate me to a speed correlating to the PAS setting as soon as it detected pedaling. If I set it high, I would hardly do any work and I'd be going 25 mph. If I set it low, I would do most of the work; it would kick in only in nasty hills or headwinds.I liked to set it at about 13 mph and I would add some of my own juice to go 14 or 15. (no small feat on a folding eFatty with knobbies) Most people do take the lazy way though and just let 'er rip.

When I commented "...but then you don't get any exercise." on Read It eBike sub, a few of them laid into me, reminding me that for many, it is about cheap transportation and getting to work fast, not exercise.

Make no mistake, you ARE a superior person for riding unassisted, especially 22 miles. Strava even says so! (you're elibigle for awards and Local Legends for riding unassisted)
On the serious side, we choose to leave earlier and work harder so as to get around by our own power and I think there's a certain elegance and pride that's deserved.

I do eBike commute sometimes and I feel a bit dirty for it. That guilty conscience is what keeps me active, so I'm going to use that, as well as the pride after an un-powered bike commute to keep me fit into my older years.