Not a good start to my commuting week. The roads were still wet from showers we had all weekend, but fortunately the rain had finally quit. I left 5 minutes early, but got about 1/2 mile from my house and realized that I had forgotten to put my helmet on. I had put on a skullcap because it was pretty chilly, and it felt just like a helmet -- a mistake I have made several times in the past. So I had to turn around and go back home for my helmet. After that, I caught every single red light on my route, with the two longest lights turning red just as I approached. At the final light, there had been a fender bender and the tow truck pulled up just as the light was finally turning green for me. The tow truck totally blocked the intersection, so I had to weaver around it and barely made it through on green. I ended up getting to work 5 minutes later than usual, after leaving 5 minutes early. That's a Monday for you.

Cool but OK. I got my homemade headsweat to cover my ear tips and that made them comfortable. I rode a new bike that I put together this weekend - it's a heavy 40 yr old Varsity dinosaur but I had what might be my best time so far. 45 min for 13 miles.

Not bad today. Light tailwind. Low 40sF. Passed a woman with an interesting rear rack. :p It was a milk crate-sized open box but it was attached to a frame through some sort of mechanism. Looked like it would slide on and off.

I felt energetic. At one point I was bopping along at 25MPH, keeping up with traffic, more or less.

That looks a lot like a Varsity I picked up last month. I plan I setting it up as a backup commuter.

It was cool this morning- windbreaker weather. This is a nice time of year to commute in the DFW area- lots of different kinds of weather, many of which are rather pleasant to ride in.

More about the Varsity. I should figure out what year it was made - this is an old one. I'm digging old steel bikes for commuting. Each one is different - the levers and finding the right gear, but if you have any amount of road time with them (I grew up on them) then it's not too bad getting into a groove with it. Go for the rebuild. I grabbed some good wheels from an old continental that I found this weekend too - had to do the bearings and grease - they really needed it. Glad I bought some cone wrenches this winter.

These are the things I replaced:

• Handlebars
• Wheels
• Tires
• Cables
• Housings
• Seat

I also cleaned the chain and derailers and added bottle cages.

It’s a heavy old dinosaur but I had a nice 13 mile ride to work on it today! Frankly with better wheels and expensive tires I didn’t even notice the weight!

Nice Ride In
 

40° F this morning here in CT. Came upon an indecisive raccoon in the middle of the road. He couldn't decide left or right. I "hissed" at him and he chose left. Funny! Broke a personal best record on this AM's commute 20 miles in 1 hour. The "green traffic light" gods shone upon me today.

Beautiful pic! Waved it off, today. Did a 60 mile event, yesterday, and I'm cooked.

Mine is a 1973. You can find out the year based on serial number (which is on the lower right head tube) here.

Mine is 100% original except tires right now. I plan on converting it from a Varsity Sport to a Varsity Tourist (i.e. put upright bars on it). There wasn't any such model as a Varsity Tourist; mine will be unique. I plan to leave the rest of the bike as is but will be adding baskets to it. The only thing I need to do the conversion is some old-timey brake levers.

It was a disappointing 42 F ( 5 C) this morning, but it felt better than it could have. It was an easy ride in on another patched tube. On friday, I picked up a very small triangular shaped piece of glass, which
went trhrough tire and tube. This is my 4th flat in 5 months and it is getting old. It is getting difficult scanning the road in front of me, while trying to keep track of cars behind me. Up until last week, it was still very dark at 5:10, and I made it to work, but coming home seems to be where I am picking up
glass and nails. One of the flats was a burst seam, so that was related to tire quality. Bring on the warmer temps.

50F and sunny; felt very warm still after a hot weekend

I hadn't gone 20 ft before I was right hooked by some jackass in an SUV pulling into a parking lot w/o signaling. If I were king, I'd put him in front of a firing squad.

No arm warmers, no knee warmers, no gloves. Nice.

It was a chilly morning for mid-May in NC, about 52F when I left.

No exaggeration, in the last 2 weeks every time I've put my winter commuting gear away, within a day the weather's changed and temps have dropped again. I hope I can keep this streak alive all summer. :) I like hot weather, but temps >100F are just no fun in this humidity.

chilly ride this morning at 45º
it would have been a good morning for gloves
should be warmer for the commute home

the rest of the week looks sunny!

Damp roads, and 40 degrees out meant that "Mr. Creaky Knees" was in full effect. Took a break at the halfway point to eat a banana and dose the Tylenol. Head winds the last 3 miles or so, but it was sunny out so no worries. Approached by 2 large dogs today. They never left their yard .... thank you thank you thank you. Switched the M-bars out for drops last night, gotta say, they are much better on this bike.

Oh yeah, nice talking with you. We should get the RTP riders together once a month, or every couple of months. Maybe a neutral coffee spot everyone can get to. What ya think? It was good to hear the routes other riders take and the dangers / warnings of each route.

Funny, I had the exact same thought as I rode to work from the breakfast. :thumb: I'll send out an email to the listserve sometime soon.

Got to watch part of a parade with my son on the way into work today..... now that's a good commute.

http://bl141w.blu141.mail.live.com/a...BA6183B864D90|

On my way home this evening, 2 roadies passed me along with the line of cars they were holding up. Not only selfish, but dangerous as well. :wtf:

crazyass headwind all the way home; some relief that tomorrow is not a trailer-the-4-yr-old day... (but it's supposed to be rainy, which is generally not so windy)

hooked and hit? or hooked and unscathed? I hope it's the latter. Even if they signal it's still dangerous if they could have let you go by without cutting you off. grrrrrr.....

Fortunately, my day was better. A nice roll along the Charles River. I'm thinking about taking a day and riding my usual commute and taking some pictures. I realized today it's been almost 30 years since I moved to Boston and I've been commuting at least partially on the bike path ever since. 30 years ago the Charles River was just emerging from decades as a putrid, disgusting open drain of a river. Made somewhat famous by the Standell's in the song "Dirty Water" way back in the '60's.

I remember going to the Science Museum as a kid and sitting outside to eat our lunches and the smell of the river being so bad we threw them all away- probably into the river.

When I moved here in 1980 a lot of my bike racer friends rowed crew in the off season. If they fell in the water they were advised to go immediately to an emergency room and get a series of shots to prevent infections.

It's been an amazing transformation over the 30 years to watch it's inspiring recovery. There are turtles basking on logs, cormorants, hawks, egrets, owls, foxes and huge carp abound. There was nothing like that when I first rode along it's banks. And the bike path is finally getting some much needed attention with repaving, guard rails and widening.

So, how was my commute today? Better than it would have been 30 years ago.;)

Yesterdays ride was unseasonably cool and very wet. I left home with a North Face jacket on and wore it a third of the way ( I took it off at about 5 miles). I left work early into a thick rain and brutal headwind, my jacket wet from the morning. The WX people were calling for 30 knots, I don't think it was quite that but enough to set me back a bit certainly.
My new Nashbar panniers were fixed to the bike and performed flawlessly. I gave them a coat of scotch guard the night before to ward off rain karma and it seemed to work. Very pleased for 22.00-
I also attached a mirror to the bike and I realized that I should have done that long ago.
Listened to the Ipod and am settling on thinking its a good thing most of the time. Playlist this morning- Indigo girls, Ryan Bingham, Vitamin strings, WSP. (It was a hippy morning)

Be safe,
DB

Like most of eastern North America, unusually cool @ 41F/5C, according to BWI (Baltimore-Washington International) at 5:00AM. I think their record for the date is 39F.

For some reason, I just didn't have "it" this morning. I don't think it was the cool temps; otherwise I wouldn't have had "it" all winter.

Oh wait, maybe I didn't...:D

I had a big bowl of oatmeal right before I left this morning. Wont be doing that again, very sick. I was very miserable the entire ride. but did not slow me down much. About 1 hour and 2 min, little faster than usual.

Another chilly morning in NC, about 45 F when I rode to work. Had a tailwind much of the way, which means it will be a tough ride home unless the wind changes. I rode into a stiff N headwind all the way home yesterday afternoon, and it was my slowest commute in quite a while. My legs were also tired from lots of riding over the weekend. I'm getting plenty of use from my cool-weather gear this week. Last weekend I bought some new long-finger gloves on sale at REI (Pearl Cyclones), and they are performing well. My previous LF gloves (Pearl Gels) were my favorite pair of gloves but they were starting to fall apart and Pearl doesn't make that style any more (actually, they changed them so much that the new style doesn't suit my purposes).

Nice rides yesterday, chilly AM but nice PM - though a strong headwind and a belly full of gyros slowed the home trip. Had to drive because of a PM appointment today.

Geeze, the weather guy on the local NPR station forcast stated "Sunny until at least Sunday". Surely I did not hear it right.

Sunny. Light headwind. ~40F. I was riding on the street. I reeled in a woman riding on the sidewalk, and she got all snarled up at an intersection trying to cross the entrance to a high school then having to negotiate the main intersection which has a traffic light, a right-turn lane, etc. She dismounted and walked. I wondered why she wasn't just using the road, in the straight-ahead lane, like I was. :rolleyes:

Sunny but chilly. 36 degrees when I got on the bike. No legs today for some reason, maybe the cold, so I just didn't try to kill myself. Took 10 minutes longer than normal to get in..

Cold wind in my face all the way in this morning but I arrived dry. Yesterday was a Provincial Holiday here in Ontario and I went for a motorbike ride to the country to check out possible bicycle rides because it was kind of cold. To my surprise I saw many cyclist riding the back rural roads. Many in tights but some braved the chill and wore shorts. Is it just me or is there a resurgence of our two wheeled sport? Is it the same in your area? Has this something to do with Lance coming out of retirement?