I've encountered a salmon 2 of the last 3 commutes. Self-centered jackasses.

Yesterday I did my 40 km round trip commute then went for kickboxing class. This morning my legs were tired from the previous day's effort. Since it was a sunny day however, I rode to work anyways. Otherwise, how can I fight the zombies in the apocalypse like Will Smith in I am Legend?

The night before I had raised my handlebars to ease the pressure on my neck. So back to raised flat bars with bar ends ( 2 inches higher than the seat), no fairing with 8 derailleur gears. I wondered whether this would affect my commuting time since I would be sitting more upright than before. The weather was sunny & warm this morning as I headed out.

Chased a rabbit going uphill on Cambie from Marine to 41st. Then caught another guy on a mountain bike whom I passed. Flew down the hill from King Edward keeping up with car traffic with gear 7 & 8 heading towards the Cambie Bridge going into downtown. A regular time for me is between 51:30 to 52:00. Today was 48:25. The higher handlebars did not affect my time as much as working harder to chase rabbits.

They are doing another controlled burn near town today. The wind died down overnight (although my old friend the morning head wind came out to keep me company on the way in hehe), so this morning I could see a layer of smoke sitting down in the trees. It didn't smell real strong, but I could feel it in my lungs. I have asthma, so I'm a little sensitive. And of course one of my meds was empty this morning Let's hope I'm not setting up a perfect storm that leads to an attack!

The ride in was, as always, better than driving ever was.

I've been commuting to my new college since Monday (although I took a ride over on Sunday to fix the route in my head as I'm in a new city) so far it's not been too bad, though the traffic jams are amusing and annoying in equal measure.
This mornings ride was fine, although I did raise eyebrows at college for not wearing a jumper or a coat, but the ride kept me warm enough. This evening though was horrendous, heavy rain started falling about 10 minutes before college ended and continued for about 20 minutes after I got home, I had my coat which kept the upper half of me dry, but my combats got soaked along with my trainers. So today I went and picked up a cheap pair of waterproof over-trousers ready for next time.
I've also discovered a problem with my hood on my jacket, if I keep it up to keep my hearing aids dry I lose a load of my visual range when checking behind me for cars, if I don't use my hood I have to put my hearing aids in a waterproof pocket to keep them dry leaving me less able to hear traffic behind.. Half way back I decided I'd rather see the car behind me before I pull over for a right turn than hear them and not know where they were exactly, but it's still not ideal.

We got our first "cool" snap this morning, when I left at 6:45 it was around 70 F... hasn't been this cool in months! I'm loving it. Most mornings it has been 80+ and by afternoon it's in the mid 90's. I cannot wait till temps drop below 80 in the afternoons and my electricity bill will be cut in half.

Oh yeah, the bike ride was nice, too.

Another nice vacation day taking my son to Kindergarten on the TAB. It was really wobbly to begin with until I figured out he was trying to signal to all the cars around us! Once I got that stopped, the ride was stable. Unhitched the TAB and went over to do Hill repeats on Royal Oak while I waited for his class to finish and then hooked him up and rolled home. Spoke to the guys at Jubilee Cycles about a fender and they recommended a front fender from a mountain bike and it looks like it would work pretty good to keep him dry.

Today I left a couple of minutes late for work so i was pumping the whole way. Once I got to work it was all gravy i was even early. ha Great day after all that.

Apologies to those of you who just can't wait to see how my ride in was, I haven't posted since last week. The usual exciting ride in both Monday and Tuesday; meaning another suicide squirrel running under my bike and equally arrogant caterpillar all decked out in fur on both days and in almost exactly the same place. Nice weather, love the cool.

Good ride in, and still cool. Downhills make me feel like I should be wearing long sleeves, but I just can't do that yet.

The weather lately has been my ideal for commuting -- sunny, low humidity, mild temperatures and very little wind. You can't ask for much more than that. My commute times have been much faster than usual because it is so pleasant outside. The only downside has been our persistently hot afternoon temperatures, 90+ every day. We should tie the all-time record for 90-degree days (83) in summer today and should easily smash it over the next week if the forecast proves accurate.

51F / 10C this morning. Sunny. Tailwind. Was a nice ride. Someone on a hybrid turned around behind me and followed me for a very short while. Once I got up to normal cruise, he fell further and further back until he was gone. Then I caught a rather fit-looking woman on a very squeaky road bike. I was following her trying to figure out what was making the noise. It wasn't related to her cadence. I gave up and passed her. I swear she pedaled harder when she heard my bell. She almost caught me at a red light but it turned green and I went all Lance and dropped her on the hill before my office.

Good commute this morning at 55F and sunny with winds from the WNW @ 13mph, giving me headwinds. I took a different road that leads to my school. At first, I turned onto the wrong one, so I did a u-turn. As soon as I was back on the main road, the next road was my turn. Now I'll know for next time.

Took the road bike instead of the Cypress for the first time. A quicker and easier ride than usual.

High possibility of thunderstors this afternoon so I may get wet. Still better than 113° heat index.

5C/41F and grey this morning. First cycle-commute since Thursday. Having ridden two weeks' worth of commuting in one day (310 km brevet on Saturday), I felt justified in taking a couple days off cycling and ride the bus.

53F w/ some thin spots here and there in the cloudcover.

My wife biked to school w/ the kids today and then caught me when I left home, so we rode in together, which is always nice. We caught both of the big traffic lights in green that will routinely slow the morning down, so that was also nice.

Also, we ran into a pretty big and pretty crazy looking guy mumbling and gesturing to himself and to me w/ this 17" macbook, his only accessory, I couldn't make out if he wanted to sell it to me or hit me with it or what. When my wife caught up w/ me (boy did it take her a while to climb that one short steep hill) and come into his view he started making these backing off gestures and mumblings so we went on by.

Yesterday's commute was just about perfect, both ways Fastest time ever for that route, but only because I hit most of the lights on green ;-)

Today's ride fulfilled an objective -- I rode all the way from home to work for the first time (I usually ride to and from the Metro). Google Maps set the distance as 18 miles, but because of a couple of missed turns and some re-routing, the total was a hair under 22. I could probably bring the total down tonight on the way home, as I'm less likely to get misdirected, but I'll probably take a less traffic-laden route, as it is likely to be getting dark by the time I get to the end of the ride.

Definitely no speed record, but I felt pretty darn good when I got to my destination. I definitely need to work on my city riding and navigation skills, though :-) In addition to this being my longest ever commuting ride, it was my longest ever single bike ride.

Riding the mtb this week while I try to figure out the cause of a series of slow flats on my road bike. Just a completely different experience, like pedalling through treacle, but on the upside I don't need to worry about bumps and cracks in the road, and I can utilise pleasant wooded trails for sections of my route. Slower of course.

I can't complain about the weather, but I can complain about all the sidewalk riders this afternoon. The best one was a father pulling his kid in a trailer. He was wearing a helmet with the straps flapping in the breeze. *sigh*

Also, the sidewalks around here are in terrible shape, all bumpy with tree roots and cracks. Well, even more so than the road. Just seems like a terrible choice to me for that alone if it wasn't for the safety factor. These are slow moving city streets, btw.

My son has come to realize that the streets are better for riding than the sidewalks. So in the neighborhood at least he's on the street. Outside the neighborhood he's in the bike lanes where they have them.

64F and sunny with winds from the NW @ 9mph. Definitely encountered heavy traffic heading home, but the weird thing was, it was kinda fun. The traffic made sense because of the time that I was commuting. I may try one more route on Friday, but I'm thinking this one I took today will be the one that I stick with. It doesn't have too many lights and even though the traffic can be heavy, everyone seems mainly courteous to me.

Three for three excellent rides this week. Little chilly in the morning just how I like it and mid 80's with very low humidity for the ride home.

I have been making it in with just my 1/2watt PB headlamp in the morning just before sunrise but I think after this week I am going to have to dig out the headlight if I continue to leave much before 7am. Sun has been up by the time I get to work.

I am on vacation next week but looking at the sunrise times of 7:30 when I go back to work I think it will be too dark for the little light. little bummed by that.

I've had the same route to work for 23 years and have bike commuted for 19 years, 75% of the time - I take public transit the rest. Today for the first time I walked the whole 8 km to work. It took 90 minutes and was a beautiful, slightly cool but sunny day. You see a lot more on a bike than in a car, and even more on foot. I noticed some new details on a route I have biked several thousand times.

I took the subway home since my legs were sore. Not just from the walk. but from taking up running this year and doing 5 k Monday.

No running tonight!

They are all good...some are just better than others.

Ride safe,

Jeff

I had to work a 2pm and it was a beautiful day, my wife went to the beach so I decided not to waste it and went for a very long detour on my way to work. I guess it was about 30 miles, traveling over two bridges that are the closest thing to a hill or mountain in these parts. On one of the bridges the decent was so steep I didn't have a gear high enough to pedal and didn't want to either. I was going so fast visions of a flat flashed before my eyes, with me all twisted on the road. It was a lot of fun and a beautiful day for a ride. The ride home was a bit chilly, it's getting close to gloves with fingers and a hat to cover my ears time. Probably the best time of the year for riding or any other out door activity. I had one regret, it took the bike path for one stretch and was reminded why I avoid them, too many cross streets and stop signs. I could have stayed on the road and made much better time.