Hot and humid - but it was great. Hotter and humider won't be as great, and that's what I've got to look forward to.

I found out a very good friend of mine died in Atlanta this weekend. Went home early. Nice ride though.

making, that sucks about your friend! :(

I biked about 10 km into work from my boyfriend's place, well, I stopped off at home first to change into office clothes/check on my dog. Biked back from work, too.

Another perfect morning commute. 52 degrees and cloudy but most of the pavement was dry.

Somehow I ended up with all four of my bikes at work, so I pushed my longboard in. Oops, maybe I'm in the wrong forum now...naw, I took the bike lane most of the way.

Hmmmm... there is an amazing number of us that leave early in the morning (4:30-6am). Great ride today, it was even toasty up here in Minnesota.

A road in my neighborhood was recently "repaved". It's the type of pavement where they spray a coat of oil/tar on the road and then they spread gravel around. Initially it was hard to ride on because the gravel was loose. Now it's better because the cars have compressed the gravel into the oil/tar.

I saw a skunk today. They walk with a silly waddle!

A few portions of my commute have been repaved with real paving, and the ride is now super sweet. There used to be a real nasty downhill section that was so fun this morning. The kids are out of school, (I think) and there was no traffic there and I flew! The weather wasn't too bad 60s I think and misty with some wet roads, but mostly dry. I packed pants and a jacket just in case the ride home isn't so pleasant.

COME ON SUN ..... !!!!! (where are you!)

Could barely peel myself off the bed this morning. Even though I slept well I was totally exhausted. Quick shower, a glass of water, kiss wife/son and I'm finally off. Almost. Walk my bike out the back yard, into the alley, mount and ride for 30 ft. before I realize I've got a flat. Thought about Metro (then, re-considered) walked back to my yard and casually changed the tube (pulled a nice, little tack out of the tire). It was nice to do it there as opposed to trail-side. I've got a nice work surface, floor pump, and soap and water to wash up when done. Got back on the bike and tried to make up some time. Ended up catching a guy on a tri bike and pulled him along at 20 until the 14 th Street Bridge. We both had the creakiest wheels out there, mine's rough but I don't know how he put up with his. I joked about how insane it would make me. Gotta re-stock on tubes this afternoon, that was my last and patches never seem to hold for me.

I really can't feel sorry for the people suffering in the heat down south. While you were riding in January, February and most of March, I was shovelling snow.
Great ride in today, no wind, 17* C, (62 * F) with a high today of 27* C, (80* F).

Going to be hot again today. Rode to work, I was the 1st one there. Once there I realized I had forgotten my keys. It was a good ride, though. Hopefully that will be the trend for the day, not the forgetting the keys to the office portion of the story.

My liesurely rides seem to be getting faster,i dont need to apply as much power to sustain a reasonable speed. This morning some dude hitched a ride in my draft. I was ok about it but on an uphill I laid down the hammer and gave him The Lance Look. I felt all-powerful as I pulled away.

I decided to look back again and he was standing up hammering at his pedals as he approached me but then shot thru red lights as I stopped (I always stop on red).

Man all this sunshine is great huh?

Got up early for work (too much work to do), I really hate that I only have a 15 minute commute where I live right now - can't wait to move in a month or so so I'm a good 20km away from the office, Toronto has an amazing waterfront trail, not a single stop most of the way and only a few patches of less than perfect pavement.

the ride was warm and windy...it felt really good to ride today...didn't do any riding over the weekend

Fixed the flat last night and swapped tires while I was at it - I had an old set of Hutchison Gold slicks (150 psi) I used on my Klein Adept Pro for commuting in Vegas. I do miss that bike..........
Anywhoo,
I Pumped them up to pehaps 120 to minimize the "boneshaker" effect - I can't wait till I'm back on a steel frame!

Anyway, I absolutely flew this morning. Man, what a difference - 1.5 inch slicks at 120 psi are wayyyyyyyy different than 2 inch slicks at 65-70 psi.

60-ish degrees (F) and beautifully clear skies this morning.

Today was my first ever commute to work by bike. It's a very short commute, only 2.5 miles through DC, and it takes me about 15-20 minutes. The riding part seemed to be the easy part. It was the figuring out a decent way to lock up and then getting myself relatively clean and changed into work clothes that seemed more annoying.

Looking forward to doing this almost every day. Feels great.

Cool, actually. It was in the mid-70s, but things have heated up enough that temps like that are very pleasant to ride in. I drove yesterday (had to make a large purchase at a store near the office), but an office mate rode. His wife rode from home to meet him in the afternoon, then they rode home together. She didn't make it; the heat got to her and their son SAG'ed her home. (She's okay now).

So I'll be doing my minimal-hill/maximum-shade ride home this afternoon. This may be my first 100+ commute this year.

canyoneagle - those tires sound interesting - you got a link to them somewhere? Are they 26"?

Chip seal is pure evil!

New route; 10 miles, 85 minutes. 45 min riding 3.5 miles w/ nearly-8-yr-old to his camp, and 40 min to get him settled and ride to work, including stop at strawberry stand. Nice and sunny; fixed gear.

Last night was awesome. Randomly ended up in a group of about 5 commuters going home. Lots of mirrors and backpacks! :D We were all content going the same speed for the most part. A few times I felt like passing, but the MUP was a bit crowded, so I couldn't find the space. Just sat in line at a slightly slower pace than I would have maybe wanted otherwise, but still an acceptable speed. Good tailwind. After a couple miles, finally got a chance to pull out and dropped most of the group, except for one guy who eventually passed me. Fast forward a few miles and a red light shortly after leaving the MUP brought three of us together again, though we all quickly went separate directions.

Girl in front of me in that pack had some sort of cool sound setup for her bike and was cranking out some tunes. Didn't see any speakers or anything, but am curious what she was using. Worked well.

This morning was not as fun. The afternoon's tailwind was the morning's headwind. Only got about 5 hours of sleep last night, too, so the legs weren't what they usually are. Still enjoyed the ride, though, and was still bathing in the happiness that comes with your wife realizing you're serious about cycling and agreeing that some of the money saved by cyclying commute can be used to buy cycling accessories/clothinbg/necessities. :D

I finally bit the bullet and purchased a Brooks saddle(B17) and some clipless pedals(m520 and some Specialized MTB Shoes)this week.

Wow. Nothing like being able to efficiently pedal and be comfortable on the bike.
I was a bit timid to shell out all the cash for the set up, but man, talk about a change in my morning commute. The difference is immediate and wonderful. All of those thinking of either, just do it.

+1 for the right gear for the job!

This looks like the current iteration of the tire I have - folding bead. These are 1" but I'm pretty sure the 1.5's are out there. I bought mine in '03 or '04.

Hope this helps!

Woops! here's the link:

http://www.bikesonline.com/Hutchinso...ack-Silver.htm

sorry for not "editing" the post, but I can't access the edit function from my office :mad:

Nice Ride Home
 

This afternoon, we had a rain storm that cooled things off, a little. North Florida is very hot and muggy these days. I had a good ride home and got good opportunity to really blend into traffic to make a left-hand turn. There are two lights closely spaced and usually when I approach them there's a good line of traffic in both lanes. Today, there was enough of a gap (and traffic was moving slowly enough) to let me move out of the bike lane cross two lanes and get into the LH turn lane.

I'm trying to build confidence moving out into traffic for lane changes. The morning's ride in was not as good in that respect. I got too close to a traffic light with too much on-coming traffic to blend in. So, I just had to stop and wait for traffic to clear. No big deal really.

I biked to and from work but it was very unpleasant. You don't want me to go into detail, trust me.

At least I saw a red-winged blackbird singing on an wire, haven't seen one of them in a long while.

Hot and sunny, at least for some of the ride. This in a month of all rain!

Folding bikes are truly conversation starters. A cyclist who rides to the station and locks his bike up there asked me about my Dahin Curve; he's strongly considering getting a folding bike. We ended up boarding the wrong train together, and having to wait for a connection in Rahway. It turns out he lives in the next town; we exchanged emails, intending to ride together.

canyoneagle - thanks!

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

Hot! Well, for these parts. High 60s. :p

Is there some sort of "ride your bicycle" event that I don't know about? I lost track of how many cyclists I passed, and several more were going the other way. Roadies, MTBs, hybrids, comforts. They were all out this morning, and it was my job to pass them. :) The weather is really nice, which would explain it.