Stupid clouds. I'll kill them for you.

I hit 32 mph today on a downhill riding my Trek 820 :-) At lunch I rode over to a regional park, and on my way home I felt like I had a great stride.

Daft
 

Picture this:
Cars parked all down the opposite side of the road.
A 20 mph speed limit.
Speed cushions all down my side.

So I am making good progress at about 20 in a hi vis t shirt and Peugeot man coming from the opposite direction decides I am invisible and pulls out of his lane into mine and comes right at me.
I waved to tell him to pull back in to a gap on his side which he does but not without gesturing and shouting at me through his steamed up window.

As i approach the roundabout, I turned around to see that he had done a U turn and was coming after me.
Oops. Hop on to the pavemet making for the shortcut to the pedestrian crossing. He then drives past me honking and still waving and shouting but he is now on the main road to Inverness and cant turn around for another mile.

Did he initially take a wrong turn or was he just so road raged that he didnt care and just had to let off some steam?

Maybe I shouldnt have gestured to him in the first place. Maybe he is just an ass.

Easy ride in today, 60 F (15 C). I brought out my MTB today, because my other bike's chain decided to crimp up on me yesterday on the way home. I worked it a little bit with oil last night, but I felt like riding my MTB. I have ridden it since the weather got warmer. This is my last day commuting for a week or so. I am off to the finger lakes for bikiing, camping, and visiting wineries. We probably will do 3 of the lakes, maybe. I don't like schedules during my down time. Last year we did Cayuga, and being 42 miles in length, it was enough to do that lake by itself.

Cool ride in to work this morning. Must be in the lower 90s. Dark as usual. I rode my Diamondback Edgewood hybrid. We're getting some hellacious potholes on my route, I mean to call them into the city. Halfway to work I hear a dog barking in the darkness and this large Akita dog quickly closes the distance between him and me. I circle around to face him since I hate getting chased by dogs. We just look at each other then he goes back to his yard when he was satisfied and I rode on. Got to work without breaking a sweat.
Ernest

:thumb: It's a commute, not a race. :p Your average was faster than mine, and I think it's hard to get faster average speeds if you have to deal with hill climbs and lights and stop signs and what-not.

My commute started off with a huge group of wild turkeys crossing my street. :o At least a dozen little ones, and 3 or 4 adults. Turkeys everywhere! They were having none of me trying to get close enough for an iPhone picture, so I just coasted past them slowly. We live near a large area of protected woodlands and marsh so I guess now we have a population of the birds.

Rain drizzled a little bit. Temps in the low 60sF. No wind.

32 minutes of joy this morning.
Upper 60's and very pleasant. Felt like late a Sept. morning.

My MTB is also a Trek 820. I have been up to 35 mph, but it was on a long hill, about 1/2 mile long.

Took it way easy, today. BPM didn't get up over 124. Cool, slightly humid, but the other commuters were out. Saw 4 going the opposite direction, and one going my direction.

I had to drive today but... I did come across a cycle commuter on the way in. He seemed to be in kind of an odd spot, but then I realized it was just his method for crossing a freeway (popped out of the neighborhood onto the access road, went directly across to the U-turn lane, made the U-turn, then went over to the right and into the neighborhood on the other side). I recognized his thinking; I try to cut through neighborhoods to the greatest extent possible and stay off the main roads too.

After dire weather warnings yesterday, it turned out to be a great day and my bike was at home. So I was determined to ride today, regardless of the weather predictions. Really nice; just a little humid but I love this weather.

Jerry, well done!

================================
Yesterday's ride home was on the warm side, 97F (36C), low humidity. I forgot to fill my water bottle before leaving the office, but had consumed 1L of water about 20 minutes prior to leaving, so I was okay for most of the ride home. I stopped by my local coffee shop (about 1.5 miles and 200 feet of steady grade from my house) to fill my bottle for the last bit home.

It was a gorgeous morning - cool and windy at home. I boiled some eggs for an inexpensive mid morning protein fix. I have been eating at the cafeteria, but I'm one of "those" who prefers organic stuff whenever possible. Egg on.
The ride in was nice, no incidents.

Egg time.

I hate to say it, because stuff happens, but I just had the worst commute I've had in a long time. It started before I even had left the house. I was rushing to change a light bulb and I dropped an antique light globe. It shattered in a milliion pieces.

Than on my commute, I was riding down a pretty steep hill, cruising along at about 34mph when a pick up truck pulls out of a driveway into the traffic lane, right in front of me, and starts putt-putting down the road at about 10mph. I was able to slow to about 23mph, swerved across the white (fog) line onto the shoulder, and zipped by him on right. Apparently my passing him on the right, even though he was barely traveling the minimum legal speed for the road, somehow hurt his ego.

He started to act like he wanted to drag race me and than I realized that he had actually crossed the white line and was drifting towards me. The driver of the truck saw another car approaching from the other direction, laid off of the accelerator, drifted back into his lane and sped off. I guess he didn't want witnesses for whatever he had in mind. Idiot. If you're going to run someone off the road, make sure they don't know where you live.

My co-worker thinks I should have let him hit me, since at the least he would have been charged with failure to stay within a marked lane. I have no desire to be a martyr.

Than, as I was pulling into the parking lot at work I hit the front brakes too hard and locked up the front wheel. Luckily I was able to just stand up and put my feet on the ground, but my bike hit the ground pretty hard.

I'm sure it's on your list, but Watkins Glen gorge is not to be missed! A bit more touristy now, I'm sure, than when I first went there, or even when I was last there, but still a good sight to see.

Ride in was an interesting one. I was running late, so I was kind of in a hurry. Along the way, though, I passed a fisherman pulling in a good-sized fish (caught a glimpse, maybe 8 inches long or so) from the Potomac. Guy was Chinese. Note to self: Don't order the fish from the Chinese place. LOL A crowd of fellow anglers had gathered around to watch him pull it in.

Just a little up the path, a guy passed me going the other way on a road bike. Not a big deal, right? Except he had a prosthetic left arm from the elbow down. Looked like some space age material. Maybe it was carbon? Or maybe he's going Borg? I kid.

Crossing the Mall in DC proper, a goose strayed from his gaggle and stepped into 17th St. as I passed it. I know it stopped traffic in the right lane for at least a few seconds.

So, interesting scenery. Guess it's a good thing I came to work a little later than planned this AM! :D Otherwise I would have missed all the excitement...

How do you know that the guy was Chinese?

Great ride in to work this morning :) Partly cloudy and 75F. Rode the single speed road bike.

How do you know he works in a restaurant? Most of the Asians here are engineers, the Chinese restaurants are staffed by Koreans with lots of Hispanic staffing.

I understand it was a joke, but seems to be playing off stereotypes...

first time in a couple weeks to commute in. I thought I'd wait until it got below 110! took it easy. nice uneventful ride. in the 80s and really humid (for here). only 107 this afternoon.

Well yesterday my friend and I busted a mission to our local bike shop - which isn't so local, seeing how it takes us 30 minutes to get there.
My friend popped his rear brake, so we went to get it fixed.
After all that was said and done, we headed on over to Taco Bell to think outside the bun.
Hooray!

As I was passing a woman coming the other way on the MUP, she pats on her helmet and mouths "helmet" to me. I guess she really wants me to wear a helmet. It happens every once in a while. Seems crazy to me. I'd feel a lot safer if these poor cyclists would keep their hands on their bars as much as possible.

Tiring.
Came back late from work; I was suppose to get out at 9:30p today, but they kept me in until 11:00p.

Fabulous
There is a transport company near where I work and their HGV drivers are notoriously aggressive.
This morning though, one of them stayed behind me at 12 mph for half a mile shielding me from the traffic behind before I turned, grinned, gave him a huge thumbs up and sprinted up the back road to work. Oh and earlier I stopped on the farm to snap something for Commuter Bicycle Pics.

good ride into work today. no trains blocking the route! woop. 71 deg. cloudy but not raining. had my rear wheel rebuilt and changed from 700c / 35 to 700c / 28 a week ago and have noticed my rides are lots faster. have consistenly shaved 5 minutes off the commute both ends. Average speeds have increased by about 1 mph. nice. I also think the engine is getting stronger too. the commute went from 3 miles/ride to 10-11 miles/ride mid May and am starting to see and feel changes on the road. nice! :D

Thunderstorms projected for all day. Wasn't raining, only sprinkling, when I left. Didn't even bother putting on the rain gear. Had the MUP all to myself, again. No one else as far as the eye could see. Desolate, and had Radiohead's "No Surprises" going through my head. Did run into another commuter I know locking up at the rack.

Great weather today -- took the scenic route and went around the lakes on my way DT.

Yesterday's ride home was nice and hot. 98F (37C). caught up with a woman on a fully decked out Surly LHT and shared the bike lane for a few miles. She's leaving soon week for a week of bike touring through the CA wine country with some friends. Nice.
We passed 3 other ladies on bikes, and encountered several other ladies going the other way. I felt like a minority being a man. It was nice.

This morning's ride was exactly what I needed after a late night. We had some friends visiting from Vancouver who insisted on taking us out for sushi and sake. Twist my arm..... Well, that was followed by sipping nicely aged tequila on the front porch till, oh, MIDNIGHT.

The sweat and endorphins were EXACTLY what I needed. It is expected to hit 100 (38C) in the valley today, so I'll sweat the balance of the toxins out on the way home. :)

Pushed myself a little more this morning. I wanted to really get a nice workout so I sprinted a lot and was able to put in a few full sprints in high gear. Got to work a few minutes faster than normal. Definitely a great ride.

Wonderful ride this morning. Cool and calm and bright blue skies. Days like today make me feel sorry for folks who drive.

Beautiful weather this morning. Nice and sunny, blue skies. Great weather.

Remembered why I hate wearing my backpack while riding. Came into work with a huge sweaty back.