Rain. Rain. Rain, and more rain. Hit some deep puddles today, more than 10 cm deep. This is dangerous in China, as manhole covers are often missing. I try not to ride through a puddle that I cant see the bottom of.

I did try out one of my Ortlieb front panniers today, and everything is dry. :)

At one stage the water was skimming the bottom of the pannier, and I wondered what would happen if I hit a deeper puddle at speed, and the pannier was submerged. How quickly would it stop me? Quickly enough for an endo?

On the down side of the water, my bike is now all cleaned of all the mud from the last tour.

z

Nice save! :thumb:

Stupid cagers.

No bike commute for me today. Hiked 2.5 miles/4km to the bus. I have after-work plans. ;)
:beer:

I've had a lot of bad interactions with drivers this week. I had about 4 near accidents in 3 days of commuting (40ish miles). The worst part was that two of those incidents involved drivers who looked me right in the eyes, then cut me off. Sometimes it's really hard not to let myself stay angry for hours, even days after these incidents occur. I know it's better to just let things go or think about all the drivers who treated me with courtesy that day instead, but I have trouble doing that. When I feel like the next person who cuts me off is going to get the finger (or worse), I know it's time to take a break for a day, for my own safety/sanity. As such, I decided to take today off and use the subway instead.

:Beautiful weather again, but traffic was heavy. Schools back in session so lots of buses and traffic. Flat tire at exactly the same spot as Monday.:notamused:

I walked back up the road and found a small rock perfectly camoflaged against the asphault. It was a bit wider then my tires, about 2 inhches high with a sharp edge across the top. I don't think you could design a better shape for pinch flats if you tried.

Hopefully return ride will be better.

Could not ride yesterday, had to go to Purdue, home of Tom. Today was absolutely beautiful.

Stopped by the organic grocer on the way home to pick up some produce. Still amazes me how much I can squeeze into the fold down panniers of my Topeak trunk sometimes... I was worried it wouldn't all fit, but it did!

Both last night's ride home and this morning's rides were nice. No more rain, temps in the 70s to low 80s. Hard to beat that this time of year around here. I keep thinking how it's going to be EVEN nicer in a couple months. October and November are the best months of the year IMHO and they're right around the corner. :-)

Dropped a bunch of kitted-out roadies on the way home today. Yeah, I know, they'd probably just finished a double century, but it was still fun to do in my work clothes with a loaded pannier :D

Another cool ride in this morning. Why is it that the zipper always breaks on cycling jerseys? They don't get holes or wear out, the zipper breaks. I had a nice cool mist as I got to the top of the mountain this morning too. Overall a good ride in.

Slower ride this morning, im rocking the MTB today and tomorrow so of course i was jumping up and down curbs over islands and anything that resembled a lip i forgot how much fun MTB's can be with road tires

58F, grey

Got followed by a squad car on part of rhe MUP (they hung way back of me, but it still felt weird to look in the mirror and see a squad car behind me) and then later on saw the top half of what looked like an inflatable sex doll sticking up out of a trashcan. Other than that, everything was normal.

Got stuck late at work last night, didn't have a light or blinkie, so I had my wife pick me up. Which meant that when I rode to work this morning I had no helmet or patch kit. Made it to work without a head injury or flat, but I probably won't make a habit of it.

I've had similar problems with drivers only it's because they think they think they helping me or are just being careful. For instance, they yield to me when they have the right of way at intersections and slow down when driving by me would server them and me better, like when I want to make a left hand turn at night. I don't like to get into the center of the road at night if I think they will over take me before my turn, I usually have to stop on such occasions.

Enjoyable morning to ride, mid 70s, moderate humidity, the newly re-paved roads are a pleasure to ride. This AM, the lines were getting painted and the paint crew had a "Do Not Pass" truck to stop traffic as they worked. I rode past on the shoulder and had about 1.5 miles of clear road all to myself until the paint crew pulled over to let the cars pass.
All was going well until I was climbing when my rear derailer shifted my chain off the smallest cog on the freewheel. The chain got trapped between the cog and the frame forcing me to come to a stop, flip the bike over and take the wheel off to free the chain. Once everything was tightened back up, got back on the road without a problem. Guess I gotta adjust the RD soon. Kinda considering going to an IGH to eliminate this type problem, but then again I need to commit to riding through the winter for that to make sense.

On the Hudson River Greenway this evening commuting home... beautiful weather and breathtaking water views. Made it up the nasty hill at the GWB. Have ridden home from work every day this week so far, hope to do so again tomorrow.

Okay, it's definitely getting closer to the end of summer. Mid 50sF with a northwesterly (tail) wind. Overcast.

I reeled in a guy on a hybrid. He was doing about 14 on the flats, 12 up any sort of up-incline, and 16 on down-inclines. So I let him pace me to avoid breaking a sweat. Or breathing hard. :P Eventually a roadie with a pannier caught us and passed but he wasn't much faster.

In summary: No-exercise commute + tailwind + Friday = Win! :)

Nice commute this morning with the humidity a little lower than it has been lately. We've had a bunch of rain the past two days and it finally quit. Roads were still a little wet but the air was drier. I rode at an easy pace to save my legs for a century this weekend, but I made good time because I had a tailwind much of the way. I've been commuting on my Merckx Corsa the past few weeks and really enjoying it. My commute times are generally 5-10 minutes faster than on my touring bike and it's just more fun to ride. Ironically, I put some Crud fenders on it so I could use it more for commuting, but I haven't been caught in any rain yet since I put them, although I have ridden on wet roads a few times.

Scariest commute yet. Dense fog this morning that really tested my faith in my tail light.

First commute in 6 weeks so taking it a bit slow. My knee feels almost normal. Nice day - 70 and humid. It is great to be back on the bike!

Had a day off yesterday, and good thing - a stiff wind blew in forest fire smoke (from 500 miles away!) engulfing the city in a thick haze. Anyone with asthma was suffering yesterday. There's still plenty of smoke around today, but it's not as bad, at least not this morning. Still, I dialed it back a little to avoid any problems. I'm not asthmatic, but I still don't want to be huffing and puffing in this smoke. I wish I had brought my camera along to take a picture of the sunrise through the smoke - the sun was just a dim, red orb hanging in the sky...looked like a harvest moon. 10C/50F, light winds. I wished I had worn full-finger gloves.

I did a practice run today for the new job I start Monday. I forgot how much I love riding before dawn.

I took the regional bus for part of it because I'm just not ready to do 30 miles each way. Then I rode around in Winston-Salem. It's actually quite a bit hillier than Greensboro. If any of you are in Winston and see someone pushing and panting her way through the West End, please don't make fun of me. :o

50F and grey. Fall is definitely here.

Found a new route to drop my daughter at this week's summer camp, saved 1.25 miles and 9 minutes over Wednesday. Although I don't see myself going to that location again after today until the 9 yr old starts middle school in 2 yrs... hope I don't forget the route!

Spotted my wife a couple minutes head start, a 2 mile longer route, and 70 pounds of cargo (5 yr old + trail-a-bike) but caught her a couple hundred yards from her office. 400 watts baby!

the humidity is back in chicago. it was a wet sticky ride this morning, though i did have a bit of a tailwind.

can't wait for fall!

Smooth
 

Slow, easy commute today. No real traffic issues. I got to ride with a fellow commuter today - it's the first time that's happened in two weeks or so. It was nice to have the company for a few miles. It's funny, but the slight chill in the air really did remind me that fall is creeping in. It's time to rummage around and find the winter gear - not to wear it, but to know where it is.

I start teaching in three weeks, and I must say that I'm not looking forward to driving again. But there's no way I can log 100 miles a day and shuffle two jobs. Looks like I'll need to start feeding the metal and glass beast again. Bummer ...

Annoying. Chain kept skipping under load. I was hoping to get a few more hundred miles out an old cassette. Bah.

My, uh, engine ran out of gas (probably didn't eat enough earlier) and that combined with tired leg muscles caused me to stop twice, sit on a bench, and stare at the water. Thankfully, it's a beautiful bike path and was a gorgeous evening.

Thursday nights ride was great, I don't know where I got the energy but I flew home; no traffic at 2am. I had some errands to run today before work and was a few minutes late getting started so I pushed it a bit and although I had to stop and wait at almost every possible intersection I still made it to work in what may be my fastest time. Home at 10pm and made good time too. Heat and humidity are making a comeback but soon I'll be missing it.

Brutal... the province is blanketed in smoke, it is humid as hell, and I had a 60km ride back from the frame shop.

On the other hand... fitted a new 7 speed block which gave me that extra step I wanted and completed a bunch more work on the folder which is a great long haul bike.

Weighed it when I got home and with all my gear and a few litres of water it was 52 pounds... still managed to keep up a good pace and averaged 27 kmh with a mix of highway and urban riding.

Heat and humidity is finally breaking and I can get back to commuting. It has been so nasty with humidity in the mornings and no shower at work so I have been driving. Just sucks walking in the door soaking wet and never drying out for the rest of the day. Then the ride home with heat indexes well into the 100's, add in the local College just started and all the stupid freshmen driving like idiots because they think they can get there an parked in 5 minutes, I just parked it the last 2 weeks.

Good news is next year if my office stays put I will have 2 new routes to work one being a MUP that runs through the back of my hood and with a little hope there will be a bridge over the creek giving access to it and the other being a new 4lane with bike lanes that will totally bypass the worst of the College area.
If my office does move it will be 2.5 miles closer to home and cut out all the big traffic I deal with.

Getting some rides in after work and on the weekends but way off my typical miles.

wet.

but that's OK, so long as the thermometer stays on the right side of 60 degrees.