Very comfortable this morning. 59F with a slight quartering headwind that didn't slow me down. I didn't see a single cyclist going my way, but saw several going the other way. More runners out than I usually see.

This morning the odometer on my bike computer clicked over to 2000 miles total (still a bit shy in terms of pure commuter miles) for the year when I was about half a mile from work. Happy about my milestone.

First ride w/ anything strapped onto my "new" (new for me, that is) lowrider front rack. I have a bunch of extra dressier clothes here at work that I had brought in to wear for some meetings at my organization's recent membership conference. So I used my Topeak rack trunk/pannier set on the rear rack like I usually do, but tossed my two Axiom Lasalle panniers on the front to fill up and take everything home. Experiment successful so far. I was able to appreciate how even the weight of the mostly empty panniers up front seemed to add to the stability of the bike.

Still loving my new rigid fork, too. Oh man, what a nice change from the stock POS suspension fork I had!

All that plus another day of cooler AM temps than we've been having made for a wonderful morning. Another one of those days that make me wish my commute were 15 miles (or more) and not 7. :)

50F, grey. Sigh.

65F and a wicked headwind. I have a headwind most mornings (and many evenings), but today's seemed to be really pushing against the bike. oh well, I still enjoyed the ride and it was definitely better than driving!

That route sure sounds like it's worth the extra 8 minutes!

Woke up late this morning and set a new record for this bike on the short route in to work. It's a lot cheaper to trim the weight off of me than off the bike!

Weird summer. Apparently it's the hottest year on record globally, but it's been an unusually cool spring and summer here in Sactown. I'm still wearing armwarmers and a windvest most mornings.

I was recently pulled over on 8th and Pine at 8:30 in the morning. The previous morning I saw Officer Mulkey pulling over two commuters in the same spot around the same time. I saw him again patrolling 8th yesterday. He sits and hides on 7th and 8th in between Pike and Pine catching the morning commuters coming down Pine all morning long. The fine is much too high and we need to request that it be lowered to it's original amount and that Mulkey do something more constructive with his time besides pulling over TAX PAYING citizens on the way to work who pay these officer's salaries. Here's an idea...serve and protect your citizens instead of reducing them to dollar signs. More specifically he could park on 2nd and Pike where people are skipping school and have tried to mug/threaten/sell me drugs/aggressively panhandle me and others I know on a many different occasions. Instead he chooses to waste our taxpayer money and time as a glorified meter maid. I think Mulkey needs to grow a pair and focus on criminal activity instead of civil infractions and bothering us!

What is he ticketing cyclists for?

I bought new panniers this weekend. Today was my first ride in this week. I can put all my uniforms in them and my lunch and still have room. I loved them the entire way in and about 3 miles back. I was getting into the 3rd turn lane and suddenly stopped. I mean my back wheel locked up. Of course it was my drive side pannier turn back up between the tire and rack. I picked up the bike and carried it accross 3 or 4 lanes of traffic. I planned to remove the rack, get the pannier out while I waited for a ride. However the tool was in the bag and I was starting to get po'd. So I pushed the bike backward and the bag popped out. Wow too easy. So I gave the wheel a spin. Looked perfect to me. The Blackburn rack was busted, I have had it for 4 or 5 years. I couldnt find any busted spokes. So I thought I would ride a little bit, next thing I knew I had rode back to the Y near my home where I was suppose to meet someone, and my ride had only taken 5 minutes more than usual. I took it out to my favorite shop, they checked it out tightened a coupld of spokes and pronounced it ready to ride. He said the rack has a lifetime warranty and gave me another one, I have alread changed out my old one and will take it back to the shop tomrrow. I have the panniers back on and they do not look like they could get back into the spokes but I lack confidence at this point. BUt man, it could have been so much worse. The rack and the wheel did not cost me a dime, then panniers are scuffed up but look fine. The wrench chagned my brakes while we were shooting the bull. Damn good bike shop by the way.

rant. :twitchy:

I'm seriously considering not using a left-turn hand signal any more. I'm getting effing sick and tired of oncoming motorists stopping to let me turn left in front of them. Frigging morons. It's more dangerous than when they stop for me when I have a stop sign.

I know I need to let traffic behind me know I'm not just stopped in the road like an idiot, though. It's quite a conundrum.

I took the woods & fields paths home today. Dang the corn has gotten tall.

Sorry, kid. I know you're straight up THUG LYFE and all, but when you walk in the middle of the MUP like you own it, I just don't feel the need to warn you that I'm passing on your right.

I try to ride as safely as possible at all times, I very rarely use signals because I try to ride so they could not hit me if they wanted to. If I am in the left turn lane they ought to know I am turning and I need both hands most of the time. Yea, I think when they try to help us it is almost always more dangerous.

20+ MPH headwind blasting up Lake Champlain. Slowed me down a little bit. Nice weather though. 70F & sunny.

I saw some ducklings. :o Also had to dismount and carry the bike over a big tree that had fallen completely across the MUP during the night.

I passed 6 cyclists going my way today. That might be a morning record. One guy went down on his drops as I was passing and tried to keep up with me. He was unsuccessful. (I pushed it up to 20MPH, and with the headwind... Pretty tough.)

good commute this morning

Good commutes last night and this AM. Managed to stretch my normally 7 miles of pretty flat into almost 15 miles w/ fully loaded panniers and a few good sized hills last night. And this morning, since I couldn't sleep after about 6:30 (very strange for me), I left for work early and took a scenic 12+ mile trip instead of my normal 7 mile route. Nice to put in the extra miles and take different routes than usual...

I'm having a heck of a run with flats these days. Woke up to another flat tire this morning, changed it, and then the valve stem tore as I finished pumping the tire. Changed it again and need to stop by Canadian Tire on the way home. Good thing I figured out how to get there on my long ride home last night. Nice short commute today otherwise. I'm making good time these days.

50F and gray. Biking over to give blood at lunchtime.

Felt a little sluggish today, and the commute took a couple minutes longer than usual. However, I did clock my 1000th commute mile for 2010 on the way in today.

The ride in was great today. Last night I put on my first bullhorn handlebar (Easton aluminum Delta Force with Tektro RX 4.1 brake levers) and tested it out this morning (love it). I took my favorite route to work (1300 West in Salt Lake City, little traffic and wide shoulders) and discovered that it was blocked off, sidewalks included, about halfway through, where concrete was being poured and road repairs were being done. A construction worker saw me and walked me through the work area so I wouldn't have to take a detour, which was pretty swell of him. I love the new horns and plan on taking the long way home today.

Do you check your tire and wheel for sharp things before putting the tube in, or are you just having bad luck with different punctures?

I had the innards of a presta valve shoot out of the stem once after I fixed a flat. That was not my day. :rolleyes:

Overslept and had to drive, kinda funny since I was up late working on my bike so I could ride it in. Oh well, least it is fixed.

I had that happen last weekend when I was adding some air to the tires after doing some other maintenance. Kinda surprised me, because I didn't realize that the tubes I've been picking up for $4 new at the bike co-op had removable valve cores. Now I know, I've tightened up the cores and have been a little extra careful to make sure that only the very tip on the valve gets unscrewed the last couple times I've topped off the air in the tires.

A very nice ride in this morning. I did have an interesting happening while cutting through the local college today. Normally, the campus police in the
front and back parking lots, and they never bother me on way through the campus. Today however they did follow me out throught the campus, rather
strange. Headiing out now, looks great out.

Worst Commute Ever!

90ish degrees, 71% humidity. Wind out of the north, making all of my climbs into the wind.
And then...... The Crash.....

So here's the story. I was a half mile from home in the neighborhood behind my house. It's still under construction, and so it doesn't have the top coat of pavement in place yet.
I was doing about 18 miles an hour, when an oncoming car swerves to his left across the center line to avoid a parked car.

This forced me to swerve to the right or get hit head on. When I went to the right, my tires hit the 1-2" lip between the unfinished road, and the shoulder. The tires stopped going to the right, but my body didn't.

I managed to get my foot... out of the right SPD pedal which saved me from some wicked road rash, but left me with a very sprained ankle instead.

My left knee must have gone over the handle bars as it's got a good abrasion on it, and the headlight on the bike is all twisted. And the bar tape under the right brake handle got chewed up. No other injuries which is good I guess

The driver who nearly hit me didn't even slow down. As I was finally getting back up, and moving around another person from my neighborhood came by and stopped to see if I was ok. I thanked her, but said I'd be fine. I was only 2-3 blocks (was a half mile) from home.

Here's a photo I took on my phone while in the ER waiting to find out if I broke anything
http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/phot...gRzIm8c4Yho%3D

Guess I'll be driving for a week or two. :(

Ahhhh bad luck Absenth. I'm glad though that you're basically ok. Really sucks that the driver didn't even stop. Good news that you were close to home and that you got yourself checked out in the ER.

Hope your healing time goes by fast and you're back in the saddle real soon.

Oh wow, after reading the above, my commute was basically uneventful except I got my first honk from a motorist. I obviously wasn't pedaling fast enought even though I was on the extreme right hand side of the street. She had more than enough room to pass but she wouldn't pass me but obviously wanted me to hurry up.

I didn't. I gnored her. When she honked I was about to make a right turn and I sure wasn't going to speed up while making a turn. I guess she didn't see my signal or just plain ignored it. My guess is #2.

Just got back from my 3-mile commute in pouring rain, not a single spot of my clothes remained dry. The highlight was riding through 8" of water on the road. Thankfully I love riding in the rain and that's not sarcasm :)

Some *blankity blank* tried to kill me with his SUV.. even though I was going at least 30mph.. floored it with about 3 inches to spare so he could beat me to a red light a half a block away. I still won because he had to stop behind other cars. I wish I could've socked him in the jaw..

Absenth - here's to a quick recovery.

For the last two days it looks like many had a bad ride in. Car drivers do need to get used to bicycles on the road, unfortunatley we have to be the trainers, as we are the ones out there now. I don't know how many times I have used the right turn hand signal, left hand turned up, but few
ever understand what the signal means. But that is ok, because they usually just sit there until I make my turn. It was a good ride in, and the weather is staying good. This is a good thing, since I am riding up to Baltimore on Saturday evening for a Manchester United vs. Milan game.

Had another one stop to let me turn left in front of her yesterday. :rolleyes:

Also yesterday, I had an interesting interaction with a beat-up Subaru Outback on the road, too. I was coming to a red light with 3 or 4 cars stopped. Braking from ~20MPH. Outback woman decides she just can't be behind me. Speeds around me, cuts me off to get back fully into the lane, and brakes hard to avoid rear-ending the stopped cars. I purposely got so close to her back bumper that if I straightened out my bars, my tire would hit it. Then I leaned down over the bars and glared at her in her mirror. :D She was pretending to be interested in something else, of course.

As it happened all the cars ahead of her were turning right. When the light turned green, the delay caused by the turners gave me the time I needed to pass the Outback (on her left) and get back into the lane ahead of her. :p Vengeance was mine!

This morning... A bit humid, low 70s, overcast with an angry-looking sky. Hardly any cyclists out.