Here are the highlights from monday's ride in to work...the first since the trail was re-opened after more paving. There is now only 100 yards of gravel on this 8 mile route between me and work (and one stoplight).
This is on the lightweight aluminum/carbon 2006 Felt F-85.

Someone has probably asked this before but are you using some automatic editing software to do this? (At your job?)

Nice scenery. The music makes it fun, but the shaking is a bit hard to take. Better than I could do, for sure. I don't have any way to take videos. I wish I could, because I think my scenery is interesting, too.

Nope, just manual edits at home.

I've tried video stabilization and it often introduces weird artifacts. I've also tried different camera mounts, but the main purpose of the helmet cam is to document the ride in case of collisions or trouble, and the helmet mount works best for that.

My camera is a Ghost XL (1080) which is not friendly to a chest mount which may be smoother. In the past I've used a handle-bar mount, but that won't record where I look, and I'm more interested in getting license plates and documenting peripheral threats.

I suppose I could buy a different camera just for smooth bike vids.

Oh, the weather has been PERFECT in SE Wisconsin lately. I got 60 miles in this weekend on eBikes. (plenty of exercise each time)

• Saturday, I drove up 66 miles to the "local" Yamaha dealer to pick up my electric gravel bike, a Wabash RT. It had been having an electronic fault in which it shut down at around 10 miles into a ride, leaving me to pedal that 47 lb. beast home unpowered. I got 25 miles in with no shut-down, so I'm hoping it's fixed now and I can start depending on it a bit more. It was mid-30s to mid-40s up there, ~30 miles north of Milwaukee. (Port Washington and Belgium, WI)
  https://www.strava.com/activities/13827224803
• Yesterday, I arranged a party pace ride up to the next town north of us with my wife and one other club rider joined us. All on eBikes, to keep it chill. (and to save my legs for tonight's ride) 36 miles. Was glad to have the assist for the ride back, as it was a tough headwind for the second half of the ride. It's my commuter eBike and I have a phone holder on the handlebar, which is nice because it allows the use of Google Maps, which has a cycle-specific routing option and is so intuitive. Temps got into the upper 50s; and it was sunny.
  https://www.strava.com/activities/13837843525
• This morning I took the gravel eBike again, to save my legs. Just 2 miles with "ECO" assistance.
• Tonight's ride is "Moderate Monday", a weekly ride for my club that I started last year, which is moderate for a stronger rider, but near 100% effort for me. Best I've done is 17.4 mph average. More usual is 16 mph average. Tonight will probably be more like 15, as it's early season and there is one new rider and one seasoned rider who isn't as fast coming. It's supposed to be well into the 60s today and sunny. 10-20 mph winds though, which will surely cause some complaining.

Swerved my front wheel out of the way of a pothole I definitely didn't want to hit only for my back wheel to hit it anyways and go flat. I was late to work. But I swapped my tube out in record time.

Late ride in today. There was a possibility we'd sell our RV today, and I needed go get a new battery to put in it to feel like I wasn't swindling the buyer. Buyer may now fall through, perhaps in part because SWMBO didn't have the registration up to date. But at least I feel like my end is held up. Ride wasn't very memorable. I saw a vulture on the offramp just totally refuse to get out of the way of a truck as he was chewing on a rabbit or something. After the truck passed I saw why; there was a raven horning in on it

Spring-like weather along with DST! Love it. I had a nice ride (not a commute, just a ride) yesterday, longest ride I've done in at least a month. Had a nice ride to work today, and might do what I call my "long way commute" this evening, adding several miles to my ride home to celebrate DST and warmish weather.

Well, gee, don't do that just because I complained. Your camera has your purpose. My (lack of a) camera has my purpose.

Lovely commute yesterday. Mild winds in my favor both ways. With the time change the sun came up just before I set out, so it was only 35F, but 42F a half hour later when I arrived. The ride home was sunny and 72F when I set out and 65F when I arrived home,

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2076:

Last night on my way home the temp was 69°F. It was glorious, and the first time this year I've ridden without a jacket. This morning the temp was 25°F with a chilly north wind. It's amazing how quickly the winter skin fades. Three weeks ago 25°F would have felt like picnic weather.

Today's high temp is supposed to be in the 40s, and no precipitation was in the forecast so I took the road bike. My backpack was jammed full with refills of supplies that I keep at work. It should be a lot lighter on the way home.

A section of the MUP is closed this week while they're doing some utility work in the area. So I took a different way to work through residential streets for the first three miles, then rejoined the MUP after I had passed the portion of the trail that was closed. The residential route was about the same distance as the MUP, but was a lot hillier.

With daylight savings time, the mornings are dark again. About 1/4 mile into my ride my headlight button glowed red, indicating it was due for a charge. Uh oh. I still had a long way to go to get to work. A few miles down the road it switched into low power mode, and got rather dim. Then about two miles from the office it shut off altogether. By this time I was on the MUP and it was suddenly pitch black. Thankfully I keep a backup light strapped to my helmet, so I reached up and turned that on and used it for the remainder of the ride.

In the dim light before my headlight went completely dark I managed to hit two large items on the pavement that I didn't see. Both of them made a terrible sound when I hit them. In both cases I was sure I would have a flat tire within 1/4 mile. In both cases I was wrong, as the tires stayed inflated. I don't mind being wrong in this situation.

I got to work and proceeded to lock my bike on the rack. For about 15 years I've kept a cable lock attached to the rack in front of our office. I just leave it there to save me the hassle of hauling it back and forth. I've noticed it's been getting rattier and rattier over the years with the plastic sheathing cracking and completely falling off in places. This morning as I stretched it out to run it through my bike frame it snapped in two. I guess fifteen years of exposure to the elements finally rusted it in half. I just kind of looped it through the bike so it would appear to be locked to anyone who glances at it.

The lock at our office is mostly a formality. I'm not too worried about theft as our building is at the very end of a cul-de-sac that butts up against an interstate interchange. Anyone who makes it all the way to our parking lot probably did so intentionally, and pedestrian traffic in the area is pretty much non-existent. It'll be fine and I'll purchase a new lock to leave attached to the rack for the next 15 years (or more than likely less as I hope I'm retired long before then.)

As long as you're buying a new lock Tundra Man, buy a decent one this time. I hear you on not having much of a need to lock there; my workplace rack is the same situation: right by a camera, security patrol, pretty deep onto private property... But it's every day. One day there will be a bold thief who sees he has a few minutes before security comes back and boom. Free bike.

How about a Kryptonite chain lock? (weight doesn't matter much, since it'll mostly live on that rack) I like those because they can be carried cross-shoulder if needed.

The commute this morning was TOUGH, even with the Yamaha Class 3 eBike. It was a 20-30 mph wind gusting to at least 40. I had the assist on STANDARD (only TURBO is higher) but was barely managing 12 mph into that wind. With no wind, it would have been an easy 25 mph ride on that stretch with that much assistance. It would've been AWFUL on a muggle bike.

Fruitless trip to the DMV today that blocked off my ride time. Still about the RV

Today would have been beautiful to ride and the rest of the week is full of weather

Terrific commuting weather Monday and yesterday. It's great for the mood.

Did not ride today. We were promised rain, but there hasn't been much. At one point they were promising over an inch but now we are down in the quarter inch range, I think. Tons of wind, though. Riding home at 2:30 would have been exciting

I almost biked today. On Wednesdays I have a group meeting an hour after work 12 miles north. It's 633 feet higher in altitude Which doesn't seem like much but I've ridden it before and you really feel the drag going up hill. It takes an hour so I have to leave early if I'm going to bike first to change into my writing gear and then to cool off and change back into something people friendly.

But even though I didn't write today there is some bike commute related happenings at work. At least for me. This morning they poured the concrete for the new rear steps leading up to the rear door by my office. It's 4 concrete steps. I don't know how long it will take to dry and be usable but when it is it will save me the trouble of carrying my bike up and down a full flight of stairs every time I ride to work.

With all the extra walking carrying equipment that I've had to do since the rear entry was blocked off 2 months ago it's funny that the first thing I thought of was oh this will make my commute easier.

My legs are sore; too much riding and some of it hard.

• Yesterday, I rode the gravel bike in and back. It was still windy, but I took it easy, as my legs were still sore and I haven't been resting them properly.
• After the commute home, I grabbed a quick bite (Triscuits with chicken salad) and hopped on the commuter eBike to go across town to my bike club's March board meeting. I have some homework to do here soon. That was all uphill, and I had used Google Maps to get me a bike route. It chose back streets, which is good for low traffic, but they are SO bad in my city. Even with a suspension fork and suspension seatpost. On the way back, I took busier roads. They are smoother and since it was all downhill, I was just cruising along at 20-25 mph most of the ride.
• Today, I took the cage to work, as I have to leave early to pick up my daughter 20 miles away and take her to her first game of her school's volleyball tournament. My legs will get a proper rest today.
• Tomorrow, I'll probably commute on the belt drive gravel bike again. We're going to a show tomorrow night; a couple who does folk music in an intimate local place.

Dry this morning but I gotta meet our RV buyer at a bank that's too far from the office to spend the time. I could dump the truck off at the house after that but they are still promising weather. Feel like I keep missing the window this week. I'll have to watch the forecast and see if it clears up

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2078:

Left work at lunch to run an errand. The sun was out, the temp was 70 and it was a beautiful day. I was on the road bike.

A little more than a mile from the office I felt a wobble. By the 1.5 mile mark the wobble was getting pronounced, so I looked down and saw it was coming from the rear rim. I thought maybe I had a spoke get loose, so I pulled over to investigate. I reached down and sure enough there was a spoke that was very loose. Then I looked at the nipple end and saw a gaping hole nearly 1/4" wide where their used to be rim. Well, that's not good.

I decided to make a routing change, and headed for home. I opened up my rear brake caliper to keep the rim from rubbing as I rode. The wheel didn't seem to be getting any worse, but I kept the speed pretty low. It was about six more miles to get home.

Coincidentally on my way to the house I passed within a block of my LBS where I had purchased this wheel 18 months ago. I figured at minimum they would enjoy seeing the carnage I had created. I was right: they were fascinated that the nipple didn't pull free, but the entire chunk of rim let loose. They're calling the manufacturer to talk to them about a possible warranty claim. Against their advice, I finished my ride home on the compromised wheel.

At home I pulled out my vintage Panasonic road bike that hasn't been ridden in at least five years. It had lots of dust and cobwebs, and two flat tires. I pumped up the tires and they held air, so I left my carbon road bike at home and took the Panasonic to finish the ride.

Suddenly changing from indexed brifters to friction bar-end shifting was a little awkward. Going from 22 speeds to 10 was also a change. And the brakes on the Panasonic are definitely not as good as my Kestrel. But I made it, and I didn't have to make the "call of shame" to get a ride.

it hailed on my poor wife while she was gardening an hour ago but the forecast now shows middling chance of 0 inches of rain. Might risk it after the RV sale

Uplifting commute yesterday! Two-thirds nostalgia, one-quarter unscripted. I was going to take the 7-mile route through Motor City via the Pikes peak Avenue underpass, but ended up going through Memorial Park past the velodrome and lake. It was sunny, clear and 35F, but felt warmer.

I seldom ride this far south anymore and as I entered the wide open expanse of Memorial Park I was engulfed in nostaligia. The white inflatable cover of the velodrome was bright in the morning sun. And the surface of Prospect Lake seemed like it was on fire as the sunlight danced on the surface.

But because the sun was low, I realized that even with hi-viz yellow jacket and my helmet and bike flashers, I may not be seen by early morning drivers looking for the service entrances to the car dealerships on Motor City Drive, so I cut west though the south end of downtown, past the police station and over to the new downtown stadium.

A few months ago, across the street from Weidner Field I had seen a paved path heading into America the Beautiful Park, so that's where I headed, just feeling my way past the backside of the Police station and down streets I hadn't biked in many, many years, all with new buildings to see.

Then I was at the stadium and ATB Park. The paved trail dipped down into the park with a series of W's...lotsa fun!

And then I was on familiar ground a quarter mile from the office.

A very busy day at work had me leaving 40 minutes late at 5:40pm. But thanks to the time change it was still sunny, bright and 62F. I had a slight tailwind again and took a low-traffic route and got home weel before the UN set.

Just wonderful!

Still raining on and off today. I picked up a classic Motobecane that was for sale a few miles from work and I'm sure you will start seeing it in my commutes as I give it a tryout

I only got into cycling end of last year. Bought a new bike. I started with recreational rides.

At beginning of 2025, we had to return to office 5 days a week. I decided to use this opportunity to ride to work. Just 1 or 2 days a week. It is a long commute (long for me). 13 miles, 1:10 one way.

Fortunately, I can use trails for majority of the route. So I don't have to deal with cars. And it is beautiful. Sharing photos below taken during my commute.


Morning commute in January


Morning commute in January. My Trek Dual Sport 3 Gen 5 with 650b x 50mm tires are super comfortable, but a bit slow for commute.


Sunrise during commute in March. Bought an used commuter bike with narrower tires: Trek Allant 7.4 with 700c x32mm tires.

Thank you for joining us!

Is that Vallejo? "Bay Area" is very nonspecific