45F, rain all night but just high clouds this am. Rain supposed to resume later. Seasonal metabolism equilibration is happening, only need a shortsleeve shirt under raincoat now, though still full gloves.

Nice weather... nice to ride in. Rode 2.5 miles to lunch with a friend. Took my main commuter, the 2015 Charge Plug 2x9 709x35.

Chose a seldom used route to work...and took it the one as well. the wind was against me and the route has a miles-long gradual up hill...but even with the wind it is seemed too tough. I had adjusted the cable to the rear disk brake this morning to to comensate for pad wear. I checked a few times and the wheel rotated just fine. when I got home I checked the front brake and it was dragging ever so slightly...but that must be have been it. It seems like the wheel was not centered in the fork. I don't know if I'm I hit a pothole or what but I unclamped the wheel and reclamped it and all was fine.

You adjusted the cable? not the dial behind the pad?

I always hated that zing-zing noise. But I always adjusted them really close because that's how I liked it, so I was always on the edge of it. It was especially bad on my few months on the tadpole because it had large side loads on the wheel unlike a bike which is always loaded nearly straight.

The hydraulic ones don't do it. This is called "self adjusting" but it's clever use of what's there, and not an adjustment device. The piston seals are square in cross section and twist into a parallelogram when the lever is applied. Nominally the action is all twist and the pistons don't slide in the seals at all. The pad retraction comes from the seals un-twisting when the lever is released. As the pads and disc wear, the piston does slide out a little in the seals - that's the "self adjusting." In the master cylinder, a little oil comes down from the reservoir into the line through the timing port to compensate the volume. So the distance to the bite point remains the same

I have looked, and I can't find a route to work that I like other than the one I take. What might I ask myself to notice another route? I suppose one idea is to take a much longer route.

I will give you a modified version of my motivation mantra. Instead of "The motivation is out there."... I will say, "The route is out there." ... Meaning, that you only have to Begin an alternate route far enough that it's more trouble to return to the original route and by that time you're already on an alternate route. Once you're on that alternate route you should be presented with differences in traffic patterns scenery and specifics that will make it entertaining And enjoyable enough. Don't forget those alternate routes can be modified as well.

I realized that in Manhattan you have fewer alternatives but they are there. Perhaps the tomfoolery involved Is as simple as giving yourself the task Taking a picture of a landmark or location that is not on your regular route. Once you have bicycled there pulled out your phone and taking quick photo you have to get to work so you are already on an alternate route.

(Please excuse any weird typos I'm actually on the Windows laptop slash tablet on the indoor bicycle and the voice to text even crazier than the one on my Google Phone.)

Errands, logistics and other things have gotten in the way of cycling today and tomorrow. so this was my faux commute this morning.

Still sick. Day 28, today. Went to dr on Friday and got a scrip for Amoxicillin and a strep test. Dr said my lungs sound fine, it's all nose gunk going down to the lungs. The strep test has not reported out in MyChart yet, I'm sure because it was done last thing on Friday. But it seems improbable. Three days on the Amoxicillin has so far done nothing. Have eaten boxes of generic DayQuil and other meds, and this guy gave me a scrip for tesselon perles, but I bet they don't do anything either. This is my life now, I guess.

It felt hot this morning; mid-70s and very high humidity; just sticky. No wind to speak of though, so I made good time, even on the folder. "Good time" for that bike is 12.5 mph average over 2 miles with 2 stop lights and 2 stop signs.

We're supposed to have thunderstorms for the new few hours, but they should be done by the time I head home. I brought my rain jacket just in case.

45F, supposed to get to 65F, no real rain forecast, so back to no coat or fenders. Haven't had a mountain view riding in for a while.

Darth Lefty this won't be your life from now on, but it's bad enough it's gone on this long. I imagine you'll be telling the doctor to guess again. Just kidding, I know they don't like to be seen as guessing.

BobbyG thanks for the thoughts. I'll give it a try.

My daughter in law went into labor yesterday and gave birth this morning to my grandson, my second grandchild. No name yet, so we're calling him Sparkles as a placeholder.

Congratulations, NoGlider (even though your DiL did all the work!). My kids aren't married yet, although one is working on it.

Nothing to report on the commute. Misjudged whether I was getting the obsequious courtesy from a a driver at a 4-way stop today. It was a huge pickup, so I should have known. It was OK, no real danger or anything. I just like to be a little more smooth at intersections.

Yay for baby photos!

We always talk about longer routes like a detour. You could just take off in the wrong direction for a bit. Then go back past home on the way. My home and work are both more or less near a long skinny lake with a bike trail, so I can make it ten miles instead of <4 just by going the other way around. Or I can go further down river. Or, for a short, sharp add-on, I can go past the US 50 overpass, up the bridge to the Nimbus Overlook above the dam and back. Mileage like 6

Yesterday I took the subway. I had wanted to fix up my fixie to commute on but didn't get around to it. On the way home, I got off the subway and got on a Citi Bike bike and went to the bike shop. I picked up my wheel which I had left for repair. I didn't let the shop owner see what I was riding though I doubt we would have been hurt. I strapped the wheel onto the the basket and rode home.

This morning I put the wheel on and rode to work. I modified my route only slightly to see why I no longer take Chambers St to the Brooklyn Bridge. Well, traffic is heavy but it's not that bad if you have your wits about you. It moves so slowly that I ride in the middle of the lane, and I'm OK with that. It's 89º as I write this, and the weather service predicts that it will hit 96º. And it's May.

Eek, those are some temps for May in New York! We're still looking at 50s/60s in the morning out here in SoCal. I thought about just going shorts and jersey today, but decided that I'm old and don't care so I put on the tights and jacket. Stopped and took the jacket off after about 15 minutes, but I'm glad I had it on for my cold descent. Whatever layer of fat that I had has dissipated since the beginning of the year.

This morning was interesting. There's one bad intersection that I have to cross with a series of 2"-3" pavement bumps. Today there was a tow truck next to me as I entered the intersection, and he slowed down as we went through ... I worried that I had missed seeing a car coming or some road hazard, but it was clear and I kept going. Then it dawned on me that he had slowed down to give me space. After this intersection the two lanes open up to a third right-turn lane that I take and have to be watchful for cars that try to take it at the same time. This tow truck was also turning right, and it was really nice of him to follow at a decent distance and give me space. As he passed me a hundred yards later I gave him a nice wave to acknowledge him and he honked in return.

This morning it was 34F and raining. I took the wife's car to the shop 1 mile from my office. It snowed on the way there. Nothing stuck. Then it stopped raining/snowing. A 20 minute walk to the office. Then 20 Minutes back at lunch...still only 43F.

I will also have to drive tomorrow, so maybe another indoor "ride" tonight or tomorrow morning.

I know Colorado as having a climate with widely changing weather but I don't have perspective. Does your current weather feel like a result of climate change?

As I sometimes say, I can enjoy the weather while being unhappy about the climate. I typically say it when it's warm in winter.

During my ride home, it was about 95º. One of my coworkers told me she's sorry that I have to ride home on my bike. She has no idea how grateful I am for the privilege. I did not get hot. I'm glad I didn't have to ride the subway. And while a hypothetical air-conditioned car would be comfortable, I wouldn't be happy about the heat it would generate to make me comfortable.

The A/C in one of our classrooms failed today, and we had many unhappy people.

No. Because the air is thinner up here at 6500 feet there has always been a wide swing in daily and even hourly weather. What air there is heats and cools more quickly. The difference between the air temp in the sun and in the shade is pronounced. So I assume it is the same with day to day weather changes.

Like anywhere else each year's weather is different with seasons varying back and forth in temperature and precipitation year to year. Statistics show a general trend towards warmer summers that start slightly earlier and end slightly later as winters shrink and loose a little frigidity, but there will be summers and winters that buck that trend with summers starting later, or being more mild, same for winter with moisture also varying year to year. And with the greater temperature and weather swings at altitude it is difficult to feel slight changes in the the overall climate.

And as people get older they become less resilient to weather extremes. I do worse in the heat than I used to with temps in the 80s affecting me more like temps in the 90s did 30 years ago. Although I do better in the cold than I used to.

TL/DR...Whatever the statistics say about climate change locally I don't feel it over the wider, more sever weather swings at altitude.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2355:

Life has been erratic lately. My son has had a cough for a few weeks that has progressively gotten worse. It finally got to the point last Friday where he agreed to go in and have it checked out. They discovered he has an abscess the size of a baseball in his lung. They admitted him to the hospital, told him surgery would likely be needed to remove the abscess and/or part of the lung, and to expect to be in the hospital for four to six weeks. 72 hours later he was home. He still has the abscess and the terrible cough and feels awful, but they think they can take care of it with a couple of months of IV antibiotics rather than surgery. He will have to make daily trips to the hospital for his infusions, but at least he doesn't have to sit miserable in a hospital room. He would rather sit miserable at home.

With all that going on, my work schedule has been erratic. I stayed home (well, stayed at the hospital) on Monday because my son was supposed to have a biopsy procedure and I would just sit unproductive at work wondering what was happening. Turns out they were able to get a sample of the abscess in a much less invasive way, so the biopsy never happened. I went back to work yesterday morning, but at lunch time my son texted me that they were discharging him. So I left work early to go bring him home.

My son coughed violently all night, which kept me awake so I didn't sleep very well. My alarm went off at 5:30 AM and I got up and went for a 2.3 mile walk. Then I hopped on the bike and rode to work.

The temp was 36°F, and I could see my breath. So far it hasn't felt much like May here in South Dakota. Thankfully, the wind was light so once I got warmed up the cool weather wasn't an issue. I traveled to a client downtown, so the day's round trip is only going to be 9 miles.

I'm still waiting on the replacement wheel for my Kestrel road bike to be built, so I took the vintage Panasonic again. There are things I like about the Panasonic, and things I do not. As I've mentioned before, the frame has gotten too large for me so it's not very comfortable to ride. However, I absolutely love how smooth the front derailleur shifts. The lever moves easily (friction shift) and I can barely hear the chain switching from ring to ring, and it works every single time. My Kestrel's modern 105 front derailleur takes a fair amount of effort to force the brifter to move the cable, and it's a crap shoot on whether the chain will move to the larger cog or just drop and fall off.

Outside of the front derailleur however, the Kestrel is a better bike in every other facet. Today is supposed to be the build date for my replacement wheel. I hope it happens and I can get the Kestrel back on the road soon.

I rode with the club again last night, (25 miles) so even though it was a slower ride, my legs are cooked today. Wound up averaging high 14 mph range, but that was not quite slow enough for my legs to be strong again today. Probably shouldn't have done that last 10 miles either.

I took an eBike for the commute today and it was marvelous. I'm thinking tonight whether to go for another club ride tonight or go to the Turntable Wednesday at a local pub.

It's low 50s today, since we have the wind off of the lake. Sunny and going to be windy again.

50F low cloud ceiling supposed to hit 70 today (80 tomorrow! then back down to 50s by Monday)

I felt like I left late today but there was less oncoming traffic on the MUP than I would have expected

BobbyG, good explanation. This week in Earth and Space Science class, we are teaching the students about air density though we didn't touch on how less-dense air goes through bigger temperature changes. It's a NY State curriculum, so maybe the writers don't think much about life at high elevation.

Tundra_Man these are rough times. I wish your family peace and strength.

Darth Lefty any better today?

Today's ride was easy. I start out riding alongside the Hudson River. It's a hot day, and an extremely cool breeze is blowing off the river. It's a blissful feeling.

The tandem team I almost always see on the Brooklyn Bridge was there as usual. The girl rides recumbent in the front, and I saw she was talking on the phone. Cute.

stick in chain took a turn for the worse


derailer off

hanger bent & threads stripped

Tundra man, wishing your kid a good recovery. That's quite a large problem.

Hardy, hope the frame is ok

Well now I feel small for complaining about a mere cough, but no. Day 29

HardyWeinberg That doesn't look good. Sorry.

Tundra Man, I wish the best for your son. Hoping it's "just an abscess" and not something more sinister.

It has been windy all week, and this morning was no exception. 10-20 mph wind. I was not in the mood for it, so I took an eBike. I reckon I'll ride it HOME unpowered, with the tailwind, hehehe. Colder yesterday and today, as the wind is off the lake. High of only 51 is forecasted.