Devster

What is your best commuting/general biking moment ever?
<p>Last summer on my regular 8mile hilly route to driver's education I was standing up. Pumping my legs as hard as I could, as I (rocketed) up this semi steep hill, just feeling like superman. BTW-its a straight section of road with 5 steep hills, and then at the very beginning theres a monster, or atleast it seems like it when your at the base looking up, but I was going up that hill-at about 13mph, on my mountain bike. Suddenly it evened out, got some gs' as I hit the peak, and I shot towards the base of the next hill, maybe 150yards downhill to the base. I would say that I got about 35-40mph on that, but right when I hit the peak it was amazing. The sun was coming up and it had just suddenly lit up the succession of hills. The wind rushing through me as I sped up, and started passing the cars again. 25mph speed limit, O It was just one of those magical moments as that pretty much everyone in this room shares. The reason we all love bicycles so much. With every hill you go up, you must go down it too. In my opinion the climbing is the best part though. I've learned to love hills. Don't be shy, share your stories.

Chris L

February 2001, Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia, around 6.30pm. Riding in a torrential downpour, watching a massive storm roll in across the Pacific (seeing a spectacular light show), yet to the west it was clear, I could see a gorgeous sunset behind a rainbow. I only wish I had a camera for that one.

Paul L.

Road closed due to accident. Dismount, walk the 50 ft on the sidewalk to get past the accident. Smile at all the cars that have to take the 4 mile detour!

2nd best-
rode past 6 mile traffic backup. Beat many of my car trapped co-workers in to work by some margin.

3rd best-
Wierd fog one morning (desert doesn't get fog very often). Made everything that I knew look different. very exciting ride.

Andy Dreisch

Several rides stand out: Riding during an eclipse. Riding at the extreme high temps in summer. Coldest, wettest in winter. Riding home last year with the Croy fire going full blast. Making the 20-mile trek in 55 minutes once (courtesy of a pretty serious tailwind).

Over 5 years, quite a few commutes stand out.

Chris L

Speaking of tailwinds, why has it been so windy here lately? A couple of weeks ago I was able to clock 65km/h without even touching the pedals.

splat

Mine Comes about 10 years ago , Riding to work during a snow storm , The cars wer not moving , I was ! Passed a co-worker in a car 8 miles from the office. They got in 1 1/2 hours after me.

Inkwolf

The one that comes to mind is the first time I got caught in a major thunderstorm. The bike just seemed to float down the road, there were no cars, and it was wonderful. It was the end of a long, hot week, and the rain felt wonderful.

mtessmer

I've had many but what comes to mind is cruising along on a hot summer day enjoying my commute home when this car full of kids go cruising by and chuckled out loud at me. Well, a short distance later I passed them in stacked up traffic and returned their chuckle... they just stared dumbfoundedly.
--Mark
PS Devster, that was in New Hope, I figured you'd know where that is being from Wayzata.

Devster

Off topic-best name for a liqour store "New Hope Liqours". Some good biking in Minnesota for sure though.

Fireman Phil

This is one of my most amusing moments....... as my user name states I am a firefighter. On many of my rides I will bring along my dalmation who runs along side of me. well one evening we were rideing through our local university, as we rode past one of the dorms a fire alarm had just sounded and students were fileing out of the building. When I ride I wear my duty jacket that has a large reflective "MARYVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENT" on the back.

Well anyway here we where a firefighter and his dalmation on a bike, I am sure the students thought that the city must have made some drastic budget cuts. The students got a kick out of it.

Guess maybe I should load some fire hose on my rack so that I am always prepared.

OsoGuevara

I have had many wonderful moments on the commute.

Watching the sun rise behind Mt. Hood and seeing the mist rise off of the Wilamette is breathtaking.

Burning off office stresses while mounting huge hills is another.

but my favorite come in the middle of of driving rain, either before 6am or after 9pm, depending on my schedule. The realizatioin that it is cold, dark, and raining like crazy, yet I am ever so happy, those are my best commuting moments.

Journeys

[ but my favorite come in the middle of of driving rain, either before 6am or after 9pm, depending on my schedule. The realizatioin that it is cold, dark, and raining like crazy, yet I am ever so happy, those are my best commuting moments. [/B][/QUOTE]

Strangly......there is something about what you have said that appeals to me too (although not time specific)

Waldo

One of the other guys at our shop lives near me so our commute gets to be a pretty spirited ride, usually averaging in the low to mid-twenties. It's great fun and only takes 5 more minutes than driving. Besides that, every now and then we see people that we actually beat door-to-door if traffic gets to be particularly bad.

Ouch !

Looking down and seeing 14.05 mins on the clock for a 4.5 mile commute, still my fastest time.

ken cummings

Offering to jump-start a stalled car with the big 12 volt battery I was using. It could have too, it was one of the Hawker/Gates batteries.

scottmorrison99

One morning I had a driver slow down to let me pass, then he revved his engine and honked, trying to startle me. I caught up to him at the next light and started knocking on his driver's side window.."HELLO, I know you can hear me. Looking away does not make you invisible...Sir, are you OK? Are you having some sort of seizure?" at the top of my lungs. Several other drivers were laughing their butts off because they had seen the whole thing. The offending driver kept ducking down in his seat til the light changed. I laughed all the rest of the way to work, to the point my belly hurt.

JOHN J

keeping pace with 2 young deer for about 60 yards on a bike trail, and getting challenged by a 10 point buck on the same trail during a commute back home in late fall (sun down at 5pm)

lots of critters along my ride sunrises and sunsets in fall /early winter.

"John"

squeakywheel

Car full of girls waving at me. Hey, I'm 42 years old. That doesn't happen very often.

Diamond

Riding home at a cold clear winter night. Deserted road with just me and my very bright HID light. Felt like I owned the the whole county.

Frankie Fixed

I know it's juvenile, but my finest moment by far was definitely the day I caught up with the carfull of teenagers who'd sprayed me with the Supersquirter and doused the "shooter" with my water bottle while the car was stacked up in traffic. Her screams were like the wail of the Wicked Witch of the West as I sped away, leaving her to rail against her just deserts.

DataJunkie

The first time I rode from home to work and back. Considering that I was completely out of shape, 70 miles in one day was quite an accomplishment.

jimmuter

That's really a good one.

I took an alternate route one morning. A group of kids were standing out in their front yard. They saw me coming up the hill and started cheering. Now I know how Lance feels.

rule

Mine would be a tie.

It's either climbing out of the saddle for a long stretch and noting in my helmet mirror that a car load of hotties following me were clapping; or

sprinting a long four-lane stretch with a slight downgrade and massive tail wind. A guy pulls up beside me in the left lane, rolls down his passenger window and shouts at the top of his lungs with even a hint of alarm in his voice, "Do you know that you are going 40 miles per hour?" I shouted back, "Well hey, so are you!" The look on his face was priceless. It was a cross between 'yeah but I'm in a frikkin car' and 'no frikkin way that I could ever do that on a bicycle.'

truman

This comment brought back one of mine.

Spinning down the residential part of the ride under the autum leaves at sunset, passing a man raking leaves and his 6 or so year old daughter, who looks up from the leaf pile, points and says, "Daddy - he's FAAAAST!

penanaut

Many here but the best was when I was in the bike lane in a not-so-nice-part of South Minneapolis. I rode over the contents of a wallet - credit cards, library cards, checks, no ID. I stopped to pick them up and I called the number on the checks which belonged to a woman in the neighborhood in which I also live. I did not know her. She was happy that I found them and wanted to meet for the drop. I suggested a coffee shop near our houses after work. I was sitting outside on the sidewalk in my commuter garb looking dorky as all heck, hot and sweaty (summertime). Up the sidewalk were four of the hottest young women you have ever seen! The other people at the shop saw them too. All of us (females too) were slack jawed and they were a block and a half away! You guessed it. One of them (the one with glistening abs and a belly button ring) was the one belonging to the wallet. She brought friends in case I was some creep. The wallet was stolen from her house early that morning and her German Shepard chased the thief off. She was grateful and I got to meet a new neighbor. Plus I got to hang out with four incredible women. I told my wife that I was returning a wallet I found and would be late getting home but she heard about how hot these women were from other neighbors! "Since when is Paul hanging with Playmates and why hasn't he been letting me hang with him?" Gotta keep my woman on her toes! :-)