I was tempted to drive this morning because my body was tired after cycling 60 miles on Saturday in 90-degree temps and kayaking 5 hours on Sunday. However, I rode because the weather was perfect this morning after a week of high temps, high humidity and afternoon thunderstorms. Last week was terrible here weatherwise. On Mon-Wedns, we had waves of showers one after another although the temperatures were cooler. Then the weather flipped on Thurs and Fri, with high temperatures in the 90s and high humidity. Today the temperatures and humidity are finally back to sane levels and it felt great. Glad that I rode.

Gorgeous morning. perfectly clear sies, 50 degrees, ahhhh, this is PERFECT SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! Damn! pinch flat! Ugh.

At least I was less than a mile from the house. I walked it home gave it a look, and wasn't in the mood to mess with the whole "Nexus" factor this morning. I'll fix it this evening, after I take a nice trail run to get the daily dose of exercise.



Drove the car today. D'OH!
At least I get 50mpg

It was clean chain day today. I also pumped up my tires. I was literally flying this morning despite the blustery headwind. At one point in my commute I moved off the road to let a police car by. I saw a collection of flashing lights up ahead. Emergency vehicles of every description, fire, ambulance and police. The vehicular traffic had to slow to a crawl as 2 lanes squeezed into one and was further slowed by the inevitable rubber necking. I gleefully blew past the almost frozen traffic. As I passed the accident scene I stole a glance. The only thing I saw was the frame of a mountain bike, twisted like a gruesome pretzel. I think I'm going to be sick.

Pig chaser - if you get details about the accident - share it with us in a separate thread. I think it's important for us to know details about bike accidents to help us avoid them our self.

I know the feeling of a clean drivetrain and pumped tires. Makes all the difference.

My commute was horribly wet but I was ready for it. I took it slow and was careful to avoid hidden potholes under puddles. There's no bad weather, only bad clothes, right?

I got a late start today, because of a doctors appt, which was along the way to work. It is so nice today, Sunny and 60 F ( 16 C) something. I love riding in the light. It's far different from riding out at 5am.
I will have light until the 2nd week in Aug, then it will be noticably darker. The month of July will be nice, then that long slide into that period of dark and cold, when you look at the thermometer outside and wonder how possibly it can be that cold.

Great ride today; beautiful weather. No rain, for a change. Taking a week off to heal my knee was a good idea -- it felt great. I did walk up two very short, very steep hills, just to be safe.

For all the folks who think August in DC is just horrible, as a southerner, I have to say August is a relief from July. The temperatures are a little lower, and the humidity is not as bad. August thru October can be nicer than April - June. Drier weather, less pollen, cool evenings. I love autumn!

Humid, as it has been all month. I arrived at the train station dripping, despite the ride there being nearly all downhill.

Who says it doesn't pay to bike commute? This morning I found a $20 bill in the bike lane. Woot!

One word: headwind. Straight into a 15-20 mph headwind most of the way. Gusts higher. There are times (like this) when I wish my commute didn't go right along the river. There's NOTHING to break the wind. Oh well, better workout, I guess.

Knowing my luck, by the time I leave at 5, the wind will have shifted 180 degrees and I won't even get the benefit of a tailwind for my struggles this morning.

Still had fun, though!

Other random, thought... Some people look forward to the weekend so they can go bike riding. I didn't ride all weekend. But I was, in a very perverse way, looking forward to the week so I could get riding again!

just looked at the radar...gonna be an interesting ride home this evening.

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.