Hot & sticky this morning; will probably be blazing in the afternoon.

74 and humid -- now it feels like summer! Bike fit continues to baffle me. One day my knee hurts, the next day it is fine. Today it was my bum. I'm doing the Goldilocks thing with saddles and I think I'll go back to my original saddle. Aside from saddle issues, a very pleasant ride however I probably need to rethink my ride down a one-way street (my one renegade act) going in the wrong direction. Normally, I never see a car. Today there were about 5 cars. I jumped on the sidewalk, just to be safe.

Yesterday's ride home was very nice. Low 90's and dry. I stopped by the Lone Peak Packs workshop on the way home (a small 2-mile side trip), checked out their panniers, and bought a set of their "King's Peak" panniers. https://www.lonepeakpacks.com/
Mark was very accommodating and gave me a walkthrough of their very cool workshop where they make all of their packs. It's a very modest little workshop, chock full of materials, benches and inventory, but it is very functional, and their products look to be very well made. I prefer to buy locally when possible, so it is a boon to have a well-regarded packmaker in town.

This morning's ride started cool and windy up on the bench, cool and still on the valley floor. Got a bit of a chill bottoming out in a hollow below I-80, where a golf course holds the cold air.
The panniers were rock solid, and the lower weight balance was remarkable (much better) than with the loaded trunk bag. No heel strike, either.

Did the ride in at what felt to be an easy pace, but had the lights mostly in my favor and ended up with a 36 minute door to door (about 19 mph). Sweet.

High 90's in the forecast today, 100 tomorrow. Summer's here!

No bike commute today. Wife's early meeting meant I had to get the kids to preschool. Kids' show-and-tell day meant there was way too much to carry on my rackless trailerbike. So, we drove the minivan instead.

finally no rain on the forecast today. Got a nice quick ride in on the roadie.

Humid as haellllll. Wore the heart rate monitor for kicks, never got up over 133 on the downhill commute in. Will report back for the way home.

Humid and hot. Cager threw a chicken bone at me.... yes, a chicken bone. Later gears hung up while shifting standing up. Slipped off pedals and cracked my jewels on the top tube. Pretty normal day in Cincinnati.

Horrible
Riding along queens boulevard,3-4 feet to the right of the curb nonetheless
2+ full lanes for anyone to pass.
mini van comes around the corner behind me,doesn't see me at all,drives alongside the lane I'm in(parking lane) out of nowhere before I could react,my front wheel goes under the van,fortunately I didn't.I went flying and off to my right.
Potato chip front wheel,fork snapped.road rash galore,but it couldve been worse

Commute was actually chilly this morning. Very abnormal for July in KS.

60F. Dry but overcast. No wind.

Big storms late yesterday. I sat one out in the vestibule of our office building, watching the torrential rain and the flash & instant-boom lightning. Surprising we didn't lose power.

This morning I saw a tree on a house. The bulk of it missed the house, but there were branches and a lot of debris on the roof. The back wall of the building was invisible behind the leaves.

Great ride yesterday, sweated my arse off.

Things cooled down this morning, only mid-70s, but very humid, as it rained last night and the ground was wet when I set out. By the time I got to work I was a slimy mess; I'm just now starting to feel civilized again.

Like a wet blanket the morning, though warmer toward the mid 60s. Heavy fog all 10 miles in, worst crossing the bridge at Great Bay.

Figured out how to clip my Superflash high on my Carradice seatpost bag so that it won't slip and aim at the ground. Feeling like Joe Cool now.

The ride back home yesterday was nice and warm - 96F, but 12% humidity. On one of my favorite "high gear" sections of the route, I passed a fellow commuter who was hammering on a road bike. He drafted me for a while but dropped back after 1/4 mile or so, right before one of the 6% grades on the route. I guess I'm getting my old legs back

Pretty uneventful ride in. Noticeably warmer in the valley, nearly 70F.

This is my first 5/5 week since returning to the bike

Ride to work today was brisk and windy (65 degrees in MSP today).

Holy crap. Glad you're alive.

Mine was really, really quiet today. Then I realized that it's Furlough Friday. Most state workers are furloughed today so downtown Sac'to was completely dead.

I've been extremely fortunate since I begain cycling again. I have 4 used bikes that I've come across that ranged in price from free to $100, and they all fit me pretty well. I just haven't seen the issues so many other people have, knock wood.

Ah. Now I know why I don't live in Cincy.

Congrats!

Last night, humid/fetid air, still. Had the good luck to run across a roadie who looked like he was training, it was on. Chased him past another roadie who was weaving all over the place, he looked back at me on my rigid 26 mtb hauling panniers and kicked it up a notch, heart rate monitor said 154, he couldn't drop me. Was fun, and I peeled off. Today, started to rain, a bit.

With a slight tailwind and freshly re-inflated tires, it was a pretty good ride in; fastest time I can remember for quite a while - perhaps the fastest time I've put in since I got my new wheels with 700x40 tires.

It definitely feels like summer now, even in the mornings - heat and humidity are abundant. Some rejoice at this. I curse. Bring back the 30 degree mornings of March. I stay plenty warm on my own without it being 80 degrees with a 70 degree dewpoint at 8 AM, thank you! :-) Oh well, like they say, what doesn't kill ya...

Still daydream about the Jamis Aurora bike I saw on Craigslist a couple weeks ago. Would have made a nice addition to the stable (even if my current (only) bike had to go as a result). If only I'd had a couple hundred dollars burning a hole in my pocket; alas, it'll be a while before that happens - bills, bills, bills. At least I have my daydreams and a decent bike to ride on for now.

Looking forward to a good ride home and maybe some riding this weekend, if I can squeeze it in among household chores and watching the Tour.

En tout cas, vive le commute!

Friday....casual day so I am in shorts and pink polo...instead of khakis and the dork band on my right leg.

Beautiful day Sunny and close to 70 expected to be close to 90 for way home

Slowly getting in better shape....judged by my average speed......which hit a whopping 12 today

There a TGIF party on my block tonight...so I can just ride up to a neighbors house and have a beer at the end of the commute.

Life is good

Hi
My first post
I just started commuting (18 miles round trip) a few weeks ago and today on my ride home I 'weathered' my first major rain. All the way. It was kind of scary actually as I had to see above my glasses as the rain was blowing into my face and kind of cold (60 ish degrees). Then hit a section of the road that was freshly (during the day as it wasn't there in the morning) laid gravel/oil. Came up suddenly and for a short distance, no where to go but on it VERY SLOWLY. Finally got on a side walk just far enough to get off of it but it left my legs covered in oil and grit. Nasty. And all I could think about was my chain and stuff.

Well it all worked out and I learned some lessons but I much prefer sunny days.

Thanks for all the great tips here for a new biker/commuter

Rode my bike today to work just got off. Really nice day, traffic wasn't to bad.

Commute was ok yesterday except some stupid cager didn't respect my right-of-way and got a faceful of my middle finger and my commentary on his dubious lineage. He was trying to turn left from an alley onto a residential street and tried to go for it even though I was THERE and going downhill at at least 25 km/h. I slowed down because I anticipated he would do something stupid, darned if I wasn't totally right. I hate cagers.

It was a good ride, weather is wonderful 60 F ( 15 C). We could use some rain, and riding in traffic in the rain is no fun, but we could use it. Only one silly driver this morning. I was coming down hill from an interchange overpass, in the right turn lane, and some driver decided to try to beat me to the red light
making a right. I was going down hill, so I had a decent speed even for a 21 year old steel pipe bike, but
as he got parallel to me, he figured out that it probably was not a good idea and got in behind me.

It was so foggy I almost stopped. Very cool for this time of here, 54 degrees at the high school I pass on the way in. Fog cleared about half way so the rest of the ride in was very nice.

Today was the eighth time I've ridden in to work.

It was warmer (57) with just enough of a sprinkle now and then to notice.

The one annoying thing was some jack@$$ in a dodgy Durango who laid on his horn. I'm on Michigan avenue at 5:30 am - four freaking lanes and he wants to be in MY lane RIGHT NOW.

I gave him a dirty look but was tempted to yell enough obscenities to turn his hair blue. The rest of the ride I aggressively defended my territory - if I noticed a car in my lane far back I'd make sure I took up the WHOLE lane so there wasn't any misunderstanding.

Other than that, very enjoyable. Averaged 20.3 mph, just off my record of 20.5 (Straight flat course with net 250 foot drop)

Here's my route: https://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3020851