45 and sunny, calm, today in Vermont. I decided to pump up my tires this morning after procrastinating all last week, was surprised to find that tires I normally keep at 110 were down to 60.

Vermont? Eh? Where?

(I ride Colchester-to-Burlington along the lake. Big heavy dualie MTB.)

Nice ride today (definitely into bonus days). I rode to work after dropping off my Kia at the dealership. Last Friday, the transmission was replaced at 80,000 miles at no charge to me (100,000 mile warranty). Suddenly the car now has a tie rod issue. I guess this would be the week to get all of this done while the weather cooperates. The service manager could not believe I would cycle. They do provide free shuttle service but that takes the challenge out it. Hope everyone else had a nice cycle day.

5:00 pm got out of work in a rainy afternoon...no one in my workplace understood why i was so cheerfull about riding under such nasty conditions! lol

i went out .... weird thing happened! at least 6 people took photos from the cars!! cars slowing down on my lap, and when i look, they are taking a pic with the cell phone!! lol not sure if i should worry about this, found it funny for now.

very very wet, one car splashed on my shoes...and another stupid driver accelerated way too fast honking the horn (i know they live around here , hope to find them soon enough!)

it was cool, felt how drivers were left confused at my cycling routine.

LETS KEEP IT UP GUYS!

Last week, just down the street from where I work, a child on a bike crossing a 6 lane highway through a red light got hit by three cars and dragged along the road because he had no lights, no reflectors and crossed an intersection through a red light into oncomming traffic. I've been mulling over that tragedy on my ride so the experience I had on my commute home was that much more meaningful.

I was going through a dark section of road on a fairly busy side street when in the lights of the cars I could see 3 young people, preteens, riding the wrong way down the street, completely devoid of reflector, light or helmet. As I went past, I called out to them as nicely as possible, "Hey, you guys gotta get some lights!". I continued down the street, when a quick shadow passed in front of me - it was one of the kids, a boy, maybe 11 or 12 years old, on a tiny beat up bmx bike, fixed gear, no brakes. I saw him look back at me as he past and assumed he was just asserting his coolness to his friends by smoking the old head with two headlights, taillight, reflective ansi vest, reflective panniers, stickers, etc... To my horror, he proceded instead to wail past me and turn onto a very dangerous, busy road that has no shoulder and blind corners. I guess whatever maternal instinct I have surfaced, because I flipped it into high gear and started to chase him down. I decided that I was not going to let this kid go through what I call, -the log flume- by himself. Its a busy street with no shoulder that twists and turns before finally ascending this steep narrow train bridge. On the other side, a screaming downhill screeches to a halt just before a 6 lane highway. I caught up to him and rode the log flume about 2 feet behind him and slightly to the left to sheild him from traffic, illuminate him from behind, as well as light his path. Once he realized I was on his wheel, he started to gun it. After the log flume, he found a chance to get to the other side of the road (the wrong side) and I called out to him across rush-hour traffic, "Hey, you are going to get yourself killed! I'm following you so you don't get hit, why don't you come back and ride in my lights? I'll ride with you to your house!"

Surprisingly, he said "okay". I honestly think he was a little afraid of the whole situation. I put my arm out to slow down traffic and he crossed back over. We rode alot slower since I identified that I wasn't some crazy nutjob chasing him down on my bike. Once we turned into his residential neighborhood, I introduced myself, told him that I rode my bike everywhere too. We talked for a bit, and I gently admonished him for not having lights, reflectors and a helmet. Once we arrived at his (huge) house, I asked him to hang on, which I detached my 1-watt planet bike LED headlight. I secured it to his bike and showed him the blinking and steady modes. He seem genuinely surprised that I would give up my headlight but thanked me. I reminded him about the helmet and reflective elements, said goodnight, and got on my way home. I don't know if I saved his life, but I did get someone's baby home safely and I feel darn good about that.

I have decided that I would like to carry spare blinkies around to hand out; there are far too many invisible kids on bicycles around here.

Minerva, that was a very generous thing you did. I'm truly impressed!

That's about how my ride home yesterday was. I had a tailwind instead of the usual headwind, my lights were aimed just right, and I was comfortably dressed. woho!

Actually didn't ride today (had to take daughter to Dr) but I was amazed at all the people who asked me if I did. Mainly because it was snowing and drizzling.
But I WILL ride tomorrow!

33 mph on flat road today.

40 degrees going in at 3pm and 31 coming home this AM. The stars were great on my country ride home. I enjoy leaving my frost covered co-workers in the parking lot scraping their windows while I exit.

45 degrees on the way in this morning. Trying to break in a new pair of Shimano shoes... they ain't working for me..

The ride in was nice and smooth at 38 F ( 3 C ). No wind, and no rain, so it was relaxing, regardless of the intermittent interaction with vehicles.

Upper 20sF. Calm wind. Sunrise. Didn't see a single other cyclist.

A woman was walking an adorable fluffy puppy, and it recoiled as I approached and hid behind the woman's legs, peeking around them to see if the scary creature was going to attack. Soooo cute.

Coldest it's been so far here. 34ºF. I need better gloves.

After raining nearly every day last week (5" total), the weather is sunny and mild this week in NC. I spent an hour last weekend cleaning all of the crud off my bike from riding on wet streets. My legs were very tired while commuting yesterday due to riding 57 miles on Sunday and hiking 6-7 miles on Saturday. This morning they felt much better.

Minerva, kudos to you. That was a nice thing you did. I like the idea of giving out blinkies too.

commute was cool this morning, could have used a neck gator.

Rough commute today. Spend the previous week on vacation kiteboarding in NC and no room for the bike in the car. First commute into work was a bit slower. 12.6 miles in 52 minutes, my best was 47 minutes. My excuse is the head-wind today.

Nice ride today. Mid 30's so I was able to try out some of my new winter gear. Took a different route that added about a mile to my ride.

42F, wet, but all from below. We're in the midst of receiving what's supposed to be 3+" of rain in 24-36 hrs but not much of it was falling on my ride in today. Certainly not compared to both legs yesterday. No murders en route so traffic was lighter than yesterday.

Super fast! Sounds like a fun ride.

Cool morning 31deg, slight headwind, and sunny. Went from work to the dealership last night to pickup my car. Really got a lot of looks. Not too many people in suburban/rural WNY ride bikes apparently and certainly not to a car dealership and not in the dark with an array of lights. Fun ride getting there.

Today was great. No rain, tail wind, only one vehicle blocked my path. Funny how drivers can totally block an intersection at the same time render a cyclist invisible in their minds as they hide in their 360 degree buble of glass, "...crap, if I don't look at or react to cyclist they will not bother me...lalalalalala..." as I manouever between cars glaring at the offender. There may be thundershowers later this afternoon right on time for commute home though as a cold front moves in.

Yesterday was insane. Horrible rain. Wind started kicking up in the evening too. Drivers were going crazy and trying to run over people in crosswalks (!!). I saved one poor ped by yelling bloody murder at the driver until she finally stopped. On driver's side visibility was terrible, lights were reflecting everywhere. I rode very conservatively. A good portion of my ride was 6" underwater with water flowing over the curbs and onto the sidewalk where I chose to ride for a bit - it was so deep and there was so much debris riding in the water was not an option and the sidewalk was pretty much unbroken by cross-traffic. Got home and my DH said, "You look terrible!" as I stood in garage with water streaming off of me. I was warm however! Everything dried but for jacket which I had accidentally left in garage (thanks to "extra" just-in-case jacket I rode dry today). Forgot to dry chain so there was some rust this morning which I'll have to clean and scrub off tonight.

Good commute this morning. The weather couldn’t have been nicer for riding – temps in the upper 40s, very sunny and bright. This morning marked my first commuting drafting experience.

A guy pulled up behind me at the last traffic light before we hit the MUPs about ½ mile up the road. Didn’t think much of it. I take off, he falls back a bit. Eventually though, he’s pretty close and just following along behind me, not right on my wheel, but close enough to get a bit of a draft. This goes for a good 3-5 minutes. He pulled up alongside me to pass and asked if I wanted to draft <i>him</i> for a while. I gladly accepted and jumped onto his wheel. He was pushing it a little harder than I normally would, but I stuck with him. After another 3 minutes or so of steady slight uphill riding, a couple little hills, and an overpass, I was about pegged. I was getting ready to apologize and let him know I wasn't going to be able to take a turn at the front and back off to a more sustainable pace when he turns and lets me know he’s turning off ahead. Allowed me to save face We wished each other a good day, said thanks, and were on our separate ways.

It was a cool experience, though, and it was the first time I really, really felt the sustained effect of the draft, even though it was a struggle by the end to stay in it. And, I’m allowing myself to take it as some small recognition, even if it's my own, of my improved fitness... A year ago I was smoking almost a pack a day and not really doing any exercise. Now look at me!!! Smoke-free and hammer down on the bike pretty good. Still have plenty of pounds to shed, but I'm feeling much better.

Good for you...! I also was addicted before beginning to exercise and get healthy, and I know what a victory it is to quit for good. Keep it up!

I'm on vacation this week but I agreed to go in today for a meeting. I managed to put in a 30 mile "commute" before.