Another week of dodging thunderstorms in NC. Fortunately I had to drive yesterday due to a dentist appointment, because we had some tremendous storms with lots of lightning late in the afternoon. I rode again today but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. For the past two weeks, commuting has been like here dodgeball here with all of the afternoon storms. Amazingly I haven't been caught in a storm yet, although I've come close.

Commuted fixed today, 1st time. Great fun, same time as geared (door-to-door). I had been shaking it down w/in a few miles of home since the weekend, had time to settle the following concerns:

1-could I go as slow as my son - yes, more easily than freewheeling it turns out
2-maybe I need a bigger gear for the hills I have? - nah, except for the 2 downhills that end in red lights most of them I can push as hard as I care to just to build up some momentum for the coming ascent, which I wouldn't really want to tackle w/ any bigger gear than the 42/17 I chose.
3-will this tight turn offroad thgrough a mudtrap at the peak of a hill circumventing a gate prove a problem? - no, basically for the reasons outlined in 1&2, going uphill will scrub enough speed to take any tight turn and in fact it's easier maintaining s-l-o-w speed anyway.

Three other things: I really dig a rear brake so my legs don't have to do all the work of slowing the rear wheel, I love these tektro dropbar v-brake levers, and I can't believe I went for 32mm tires I need to shop for some 40+ ones.

Finally, I managed to jam a days' worth of crap (food, clothes) into a bookbag/satchel thingy w/ a shoulder strap that is a bit too long, so I think I will continue to resist a rack, but I need a bottle cage to carry that coffee cup.

edit: my soon-to-be 8 yr old is extremly conservative, doesn't like change, still loves the 16" bike he outgrew last year and regrets giving it to a 4 yr old friend, but this morning he yelled out 'I love this bike' about the 20"er he's had since last summer, he was surfing root heaves in the pavement and trying to catch air, he was definitely thrilled.

I also rode the fixed gear today. I put on a smaller cog (2 tooth difference), just for fun, and I felt like I was just flying.

Noticed a couple of other fixed gears: one guy had aerobars and huge gearing (he sailed by me and it looked like his pedals were turning so slowly); another guy had a backpack and a bright yellow jacket.

Nice for the most part, high 50's going downtown this morning, mid 60's coming home, did break a spoke though, hadn't hit a pot hole or anything, just pop. Of course it was on the freewheel side.....

Well today was my first commute to work. 9 miles of drizzle. 40 minutes to get there... 15 min clean up and dress time, all of that with 5 minutes to spare before the official start time for work.

Reading throughout these postings has been a great help. So much useful information from people with years of experience... Thanks!

So I'm checking out tomorrow's forecast (North New Jersey)...
Cloudy. A chance of showers in the morning...then showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Patchy fog in the morning. Some thunderstorms may produce gusty winds...small hail and heavy rainfall in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 70s. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80 percent.

Just great!!!!! Timing is everything. My Showers Pass Elite 2.0 Jacket, Pants and Hood all arrived today. Hopefully they will be true to their promising accolades and great reviews!!

Enjoy riding everyone!!

Nice ride home. I took a long way home and went around the park before heading in.
Ernest

I took the scenic route in today- the one with the ocean view. No rain- I think that's coming tomorrow... I took the main drag home- not much to see at night, anyway...

Easy ride into work, did a 16 km roundtrip (ballpark) to and fro the bike shop where I got my "baby." I had creeping popping in easy gears coming from the crank.

Was loose bolts, bike is just over 2 weeks old. All tightened up, wheels needed air (already!?) and I headed home. I dragged my roommates' Miyata 912 outta the basement, did my uneducated inspection, checked to see how "she" fits me and then bought it off my roommate. MINE ALL MINE.

Weather was great. Roundtrip 34.03 miles (2:08:25). In 16.66. Out 17.37. Mostly on the bike path by the river. I got a trunk for my road bike 2 weeks ago and it's made commuting more enjoyable and easier to commute more often. I am building to completing the whole commute on a bike by the end of July (27mi each way).

2 months ago 18.92 miles took 1:27:40 - 71 Cad
1 months ago 28.14 miles took 2:06.15 - 73 Cad
0 months ago 34.03 miles took 2:08:25 - 77 Cad

Someone seems to have declared it "Open your car door in the bike lane" Day today. Otherwise a nice commute through LA's "June gloom."

Foggy morning, supposed to be a gully washer this afternoon, so we'll see. Was feeling particularly froggy and the route was deserted so decided to give it my all on the way in. I was humping, had to take a shower when I hit the office. 18.2 mph average on the commute (25mi one way)... and that's on a commuterized MTB. Don't think I'm going to try to break that record soon... i'm pooped and my quads are screaming bad things at me

The forecasters are calling for widespread thunderstorms this afternoon but I rode anyway. I almost decided to drive, but after watching the weather on two different TV stations I decided there was enough uncertainty in the forecast to ride. Around here in summer, if you drive every time the forecast calls for afternoon thunderstoms, you might as well park your bike for the summer. The weather was beautiful this morning, although I did hit some patches of fog. Yesterday I rode my singlespeed and that is always fun. I typically average about 1.5-2 mph faster on the SS, mainly because I have to charge all the hills, and there are lots of them on my route.

Sweet as ever. I took it easy and made it in just about the same amount of time as when I go nuts. So there ya go - it don't matta ...

Dry, with some sun. No wind. Low 60sF. I saw a guy on a recumbent.

Warm and humid this morning, fortunately though, no rain, felt pretty good but my allergies have really started to wear me down. Yesterday's ride home was delayed somewhat as I had to detour north to the Memorial Bridge as opposed to taking my normal route whichs goes right past the Holocaust Museum, on 15th. This, of course, was due to the shooting there-sorry to hear of the guard's passing. While picking my way through the throngs of tourists by the WWII and Lincoln Memorials I got intense dry mouth for some reason. I had recently removed my water cages (as I rarely need to drink on my short trip home and prefer the cleaner look of a bottle-less frame) but decided to put them back on last night and carry a "just in case" bottle with me. I figure that, should I be delayed, for any reason, it would be better to have something with me, especially in this heat (I usually have a power bar stuffed somewhere in the bag and an emergancy $20 as well). Hopefully, this afternoon's ride will be uneventful.

Humid! like swimming for 8 miles.

Warm and humid for sure here in the DC area, but a nice low cloud deck obscuring the view of the top of the Washington Monunment and the Capitol Dome as I rode up the Potomac.

Just got some new wheels put on my bike the other day. Hadn't been commuting for about a month before b/c I couldn't (spoke problems on old wheels, which are now finally resolved). Long story short, new wheels and tires are a little wider than the original ones. Also ended up with new rear gears in the switch. My commute yesterday was the first one back and I felt slow, but I didn't time it and took a detour or, so I wouldn't have been able to compare anyway (no cyclocomputer here). I was thinking it was because I'm a little out of shape after a month off and that the wider tires (which turned out to be less inflated than I thought, too) were slowing me down...

On the ride in this morning I also felt slower and sluggish compared to before. Then I got to work and realized that my time was just about as good as it's ever been (7+ish miles in 32 minutes with a few traffic lights along the way and a slight headwind). Maybe I've got higher gearing than before? I know from my indexed shifting which cog I'm on, it's actually yielding a higher speed. I didn't count old rear gear teeth and haven't on this one, so who knows...

Regardless, I was glad to realize I'm still making good time and I can't wait to get back into the kind of shape I was starting to get into before my (forced) time away from commuting!

Wet. It rained pretty much the whole way.

warm a little bit of rain. ride home will either be really muggy or a down pour.

Beat the rain in this morning - and it looks like I'll ride home under clear skies. Sometimes it all works out!

almost got right turn squashed by a car, going into the parking lot, without even looking what was on his/her right hand side.

no signaling what so ever, the guys just decided to "oh i want to park here" and swif... turns his damn corolla into the public parking with no warning.



i made me waste quite a bit of rubber on that sudden break, almost lost control, good thing i was used to skidding the bikes way back when i did BMX

Was supposed to be an easy ride in this morning. Then I saw another commuter. I chased. He won, but I did get to the office in 29 minutes vs the normal 34 or 35.

Great ride, all except the attempted murder thing, but other than that a wonderful ride.

Yesterday had one of those 'powerful' days where I just wanted to go pretty fast. Everything was working out well until about 1 minute away from work, I over took a cyclist wearing a suit and saw another cyclist going round a 90 deg left corner (the same corner I had to take). He was on the left side, so I over took him on the right side. Mid corner, and I'm right next to him, but he decides out of the blue he wants to go right. Crash.

But I managed to stay upright, it wasn't too bad a blow, just our shoulders hit. So I wondered why he went down. I later realized as I asked if he was ok (and he was apologizing) that he had a cup of coffee in the other hand (and he was riding a race bike, I didn't think race bike riders do that kinda stuff).

Anyway, no one hurt, all was well.

Today, I had anotehr one of those 'power to work' days. So that was good also.

How I added 5 minutes to my commute this morning. 1) Decided to install RaceBlade fenders just before I left home because the forecast (as usual) was calling for afternoon showers (+1 min). 2) Stick got caught in said fenders one mile from home, forcing me to stop and unwedge it (+1 min). 3) Missed traffic signal by mere seconds, forcing me to wait at the longest red light on my route (+3 min).