37F pea soup

saw one fog ninja, white coat, white panniers, no lights, spooky, glad I was going perpendicular to him.

Left Richmond BC around 7:42am with 8C/46F. Sunny and dry. Arm warmers, black lycra leggings, shorts and two layers of t-shirts. Thought the ears might be cold so wore a toque under the helmet. By 3.5 km into the ride, I took it off. Narrowed the peripheral vision somewhat and I had warmed up. Lubed the chain and cleaned the bike after yesterday's commute which was wet. Bike was SMOOTH and QUIET this morning leading me to renew my faith in folding bikes. :-)

CX bike again today. I really need to take the knobbies off or I'm going to ruin them.

42 as I left the house and had to zip up my jacket on the downhill. But it was a gorgeous morning, dark for real this time, but no wind or rain. Ran into a friend of mine who was all ninja and discussed his lighting/dark clothes issues. He took it seriously. This afternoon is super sunny and hopefully the U.S. Open Cup match tonight puts traffic at a standstill so I can get through it quickly.

My short 11 km commute today. Weather was cool but reasonably dry so I was able to get away with a short sleeved jacket and a shell. Steaming along at a good clip on the MUP about 2/3 the way to work I suddenly realized I had forgotten my lock and since I have no secure place to leave the bike I was forced to return home for it. So my 11 km ride turned into 23. Also, I encountered at one of the trail crossings someone trying to urge cycle commuters to vote for their candidate for regional council.

Go Columbus! (Yes, I'm still bitter abut last year's loss to the Sounders.)

Chilly morning then perfect pm ride home down the National Mall and up the Hill....I can see why you all like Fall riding.

Today was a rough ride...

I rode to a bike shop in the rain here in Toronto, looked at some new tights for the cooling weather, all was fine in the world.

Left the shop and headed the rest of th way home, maybe 6 Km left to the commute, in that space, nearly got clipped by one cargo van, had a taxi pullout for a left turn across the bike lane I was riding (he waved angry arms at me), then got lectured by a guy who blocked my left turn.

The guy who lectured me was the worst, 100 meters from my house, I was riding in the middle of the roadway (residential road) and signalled a left turn, suddenly this bmw or whatever comes up beside me on my left and opens my window and starts with "I don't want to get into it, but I ride to, and my bike is probably worth alot more then yours, you are riding in the middle of the road". I had a few short words with him, "I'm allowed to be here", "you are blocking my left turn", etc, at least the guy wasn't angry or anything, but man, the nerve of some folks....


Thanks for listening, just had to vent, better here then at the kids :-)

Yikes, what fun. I just love bike snobs.... Have a better ride tomorrow and make sure to vote for anyone except Rob Ford

Beautiful! Very jealous here.

rainy. But very nice ride. rode kind of fast on the way home tonight. Stopped for groceries and ended up buying more than I'd planned for but fortunately it all fit in the back milk crate and on the front rack.

Rode home to my parents place to bring in the mail, clean up the dog poo and to walk the dog. Last little bit was riding into a headwind which tired me. At the foot of Cambie Street, the cars have to cross the bike lane on their right to enter the right turn lane as I proceed straight through the intersection. Cars ALWAYS end up blocking the bike lane as a result. Today, a vehicle who knew I was approaching, stopped short of the bike lane to allow me to go straight before entering the right turn lane. That was nice. I waved and said thank you.

Another gorgeous day in Anch, clear and cool. Confronted a motorist today, the first in a long time, after she passed me with maybe two inches to spare between her rearview and and my shoulder. I'll take some of the blame for not having taken a more assertive road position and allowing just enough space (barely enough) for her to squeeze between myself and oncoming traffic, and hopefully the memory of her SUV sliding up alongside me well inside of half a foot will be enough to remind me of my error for some time to come. The "I have no idea what you're talking about" look on her face when I asked her if she was aware that she'd almost hit me was almost as infuriating as nearly being driven off of the road.

Just a string of days with temps stuck at 42 F ( 5 C). A bit more humid this morning, so the temp seemed a tad warmer. Easy ride and no rain, but the road was wet, so it must have rained earlier. I left 5 minutes later and saw runners, dog walkers and of course more cars. It is interesting that 5 min can make the much of a difference. 5 minutes earlier and hardly anyone is around.

A nice cool autumn morning--a little cold, even. I only needed my gloves for the first few miles though. All was well until the last mile, when I got buzzed by a school bus on a narrow street. It was way too close for comfort, scared the crap out of me. I called and filed a complaint with the school's transportation HR department. Sadly this is the 2nd time I've filed a complaint against a school bus driver in the last year.

No ride for me, but I walked 2.5 miles to the bus. (Beer after work, yay!) I saw several cyclists though. 4 on my walk, including one ninja in dim twilight. The bus's bike rack picked up two more bikes, and I saw people riding on the road, too. That's more than I've seen in weeks.

Cool here, too. Had my shortest/fastest commute to work this morning, 19½ minutes @ 18.2 mph. Top speed was 33.1 mph.

Great way to start the day.

Sluggish today. The downhill part of my ride had a nasty headwind. Then I had to turn and climb up the hill to school. Felt very tired today. No sun either... Hiding behind clouds.

6C/43F, breezy. It's supposed to be windy later today, and that usually means a headwind for me going home. It seems to be windier than usual for the rides home these past couple of weeks.

Not sure if it's the cooler weather and/or waning enthusiasm, but I haven't exactly been setting any land speed records these days.

Even with a nice expensive bike, he's still stuck commuting in a cage! You should have offered to put that bike to good use for him. Bikes weren't meant to be clothes racks.

Woke late today so I had to take the short route to work. No ride along the river or through the parks. Water main construction is starting up on my short route again. I bet there won't be any accommodation for cyclists once they shutdown the designated cycling routes either.

Left 10 minutes late.

WOW WHAT A HEADWIND. I so will never believe the weather channel's wind predicitons ever again.

I still made it. And shaved a full minute off my fastest time. 57:09!
Rar.

Excellent commute this morning in the rain. 53F with rain and winds from ENE @ 7mph. I don't know what it is, but I usually enjoy bike commuting in the rain. I hate driving my car in it though.

The ride in was a little better this morning with clear sunshine and little headwind. This guy almost caught up to me on the way to the CanadaLine bridge along River Road. When I got to the bridge I flew up the bridge and crossed over to Vancouver.

Climbed Cambie Street to the Langara Apartments and stopped at the traffic light when the same guy caught up and said, "Good speed on the bridge" (I guess he was trying to catch me). "Good morning," I replied. Then he proceeds to run the red light and pulls away. When the light turned green I tried to catch him on the uphill but he was climbing pretty good along Cambie heading north. Langara golf course to our right. When he got to 49th, he turned right and I lost him.


I kept going north along Cambie. Well at King Ed. another cyclist pulls to the front and proceeds to run red lights as we ride on the busy part of Cambie between King Ed. and Broadway. I caught up with him on the downhill and blew past him. Cyclists who run red lights in busy traffic areas bother me... :-(

Check the weather as usual... tornado warning in Flagstaff! WTF? Really? Sure enough a few touched down to the west and ripped up an RV dealership and a parked freight train. (Google for pics, pretty impressive).

The radar showed all the storms were west of town, so I hopped on the bike wearing shorts and my warm long-sleeve bike shirt and hoped for the best. I made it in with only a couple drops just as I reached downtown. It's been pouring hard off and on since about 30 minutes after I arrived. The weather gods were smiling on me this morning

I'm hoping for the same luck on the way home since I don't have my raingear with me. My little trunk bag couldn't hold everything I needed to bring today. I can't wait until I get my new commuter finished with a real rack that has panniers!

I didn't realize I would have the authority to over other cyclists if I rode a more expensive bike! Should I reconsider the commuter I'm building based on a '92 Hard Rock I got for $15?
Hopefully the next ride made up for that moron.

Almost the exact same thing happened to me on the way in this morning. I tried out riding in the bike lane instead of the urban trail that parallels the road. (much much smoother btw)

At one of the intersections, a car wanting to move into the right turn lane, paused after passing me to let me go by. They were already ahead of me, so I gave them a big smile to show my appreciation for paying attention and waved them across.

Isn't it nice to know not ALL the drivers are out to kill us?

It was surprisingly warm this morning on my commute in, despite the fact I started earlier than I usually do (7:45 am). I was worried it might be cold out, so I had a thin toque on underneath my bike helmet. For no particular reason, other than to do it, I decided to ride in today as if my bike was a single speed (i.e. I didn't allow myself to change gears). I pedalled all the way in at 50x20 without any real difficulty. This was in stark contrast to when I first started bike commuting to work last fall on my first bike (Jamis Citizen 1), where I had to drop use the 28Tx28T to get up some hills. It's amazing what a year (less the winter months) of cycling, a much lighter bike with narrower tires, and clipless pedals will do. It was a pleasant, if mostly uneventful ride in to work. As I rode through the Minnesota Fairgrounds a woman in a Subaru angrily hammered the horn as she went around me. While I wasn't hugging the edge of the pavement, there was no other traffic in sight, and that particular stretch of pavement is easily wide enough for four lanes of traffic, so I don't know what her issue was- other than the fact I was enjoying my commute to work, and she was probably miserable. Despite the fact I was up early, I took a shorter more direct route in to work this morning at 5.5 miles in about 18 minutes, which seemed pretty good to me considering having to stop at lights.

My commute home will be a bit longer- since the weather is so beautiful here right now in Saint Paul, Minnesota, I think I'm going to take a small 30 or so mile detour on my way home. I'm looking forward to it. I'll try not to think about the coming snow and winter too much while I pedal along the Mississippi, and just enjoy the fall colours.

Cheers,
Brad