Was 2 hours late riding in cause bike to work day. Stopped down town on the circle, talked to people then finally went to work. Got there I got sent on a mission I needed my pickup for. So I hopped back on my bike and rode 14 miles back home, 2 minutes off my fastest time of the year. I was not really pushing it. Maybe it was the traffic.

ah yes, the epsom salt
i was just reading about epsom baths the other day...good to know
i like cold showers after an intense ride, feels amazing
actually, i have been ending all my morning showers with ice cold water for about 5 minutes or so

40F and sunny. Bike-to-work-day + 1st sunshine in ages = lots of bike traffic today, pretty cool.

the ride home last night was a little cold. i had the gear to protect me so it was not too bad. can't wait to ride in today!

Yesterday was a rain ride, but it was a warm rain so I enjoyed it muchly. The ride home was unremarkable. The ride in this morning was also fairly unremarkable, except that it was preceded by a good chain lube session to quiet the machine after yesterday's slog. Hopefully tonight's ride home will involve a stop at the LBS to pick up the new back wheel for my road bike so I can go have some fun tonight.

Great weather this morning.

I hit my 50th commuting mile this morning. woot.

Pleasant ride in, 59F and hardly any breeze. As expected, rain has hit the area and will likely remain for trip home. In anticipation I wore my lawn-mowing shoes and old orthotics, and a windbreaker instead of a long sleeved T. Hat with brim ready to keep rain from face. Life is good.

Dude! I should have introduced myself. I was the guy in the hi-viz long sleeve jersey. We were standing and facing each other most of the time I was there.

In addition to the free food and the good company, the BtWW breakfast also gave me a great idea. One of the guys there had a waist pack that was ideal for my commute. The model he had isn't made anymore, but the same company makes a similar model now:

https://www.ospreypacks.com/detail.ph...ab=description

I currently ride wearing a full backpack, but I'm not crazy about the reduced visibility (it covers my hi-viz jerseys) and I'm not looking forward to having a backpack when the temps here get to the upper 90s. Since all I carry on a typical day is my lunch (an Ensure, a banana, a yogurt, and maybe another snack) and my cell, wallet, and keys, I think a pack like this would work well for me.

Rained every day this week. I don't mind it really. Kind of peaceful in the rain. Very few commuters and nobody walking on the bike paths.

Next month is bike to work month here in Switzerland. Companies form teams of 4 people and the goal is to commute by bike as often as you can. There are prizes at the end. It'll be fun. The last time I drove to work was some snowy day in January.

Awesome day for BTW, and I convinced my wife to ride with me. She had about 3 miles farther to go, into DC. Just called her to rendevous and bike home later, and she said she's going to do this again. WIN!

Today good, Yesterday bad. Two flats. Front tire on the way in and rear tire on the ride home. Bought new tires today. Continental ultra gatorskins in case anyone has any comments on them.

No ride today. I had to run some errands before work and wimped out.

It was a spectacular ride in today
Today, I took the longer commute in. Normally I have about a 12 mile ride with a lot of it climbing up into the mountains to get to work. Today I took a different route; it is about 18 miles and starts with about 10 miles of very steep narrow climbing.
After that the route rewards you with a wickedly fast, steep, technical down hill that has close to 100 changes of direction in about 4 ½ miles. Here is a shot looking down at the beginning of the down hill part, it is not very steep at this point.

That is followed by a few more miles of rolling hills then I’m at my office.

wet, but it was nice to ride in a spring rain.

I rode an extra 4 miles to be with the BTW group, but there were only about 10 people. Kinda dissapointing, given that they say there were 4000 total in town. Nice morning, but just before I started home a storm came in with 40mph winds, heavy rain, etc. I hid out in a bus shelter until it passed and rode home in the sun on wet roads. Pretty good day altogether.

beautiful picture Con! Looks like a nice ride.

My commute today was an evening commute- I didn't have to be in until 6:30pm. So I did a 41 mile loop on my road bike before I had to head downtown. It was a gorgeous day and I rode pretty hard doing the 40 miles in 2:05 and given the number of stop signs and lights on the route that's a good run for me.

As I waited at one light about 8 miles from the end of the ride another rider pulled up behind me and we rode the next 4 miles at a good pace. I'd pulled away from the light pretty quickly and it's a slow climb out of there and as I crested I noticed him on my wheel- not something I normally appreciate but we'd exchanged hello's at the light and he was riding smooth and well so I was less annoyed than I might otherwise have been. He came around me on the descent and I asked if I could sit in and off we went.

Turned it he was a real good rider and it was a pleasure to power along with him. We split off and I finished up, took a shower, changed into street clothes, jumped on the commuter and headed downtown.

It was on the MUP that I had an almost opposite experience. About 1/2 way in I noticed a rider hammering along in too high a gear, weaving in and out of the walkers and joggers and ringing his bell like a maniac who just stole an ice cream truck. Unfortunately, he was going just a mile or two slower than I was so I was slowly gaining on him and since I was running a bit late I couldn't really afford to hold back and so it meant I would have to pass him. I knew it would be ugly.

Just before I caught up to him he had just startled yet another pedestrian cutting way too close. Part of me wanted to get by him because he was such an embarrassment with that stupid bell. I use a bell but far more judiciously. As I approached I gave a light ding to my bell and went round him. There was a short quick rise after I passed and that allowed me to leave him a bit more in my dust but sure enough, as I suspected, I could hear him pounding away to catch up.

I rode as smoothly as possible. Nice straight line. Politely moving around joggers etc. but I could hear him like a bull in a china shop behind me. As I approached one of the few intersections on the MUP (at the Harvard Bridge) I slowed a bit for some pedestrians and in order to negotiate my cross when suddenly I realize he has jumped the curb and is scrambling up the road against traffic in order to cut me off as I'm crossing the road. Given we're both aiming for the same curb cut I found this particularly discourteous and gave him a look that let him know I would be going through first. This seemed to have snapped him to a bit but just to insure I wouldn't have to deal with him. I pushed just a bit harder to the next intersection. He seemed to have turned off somewhere or dropped dead or something but what pain in the butt!

The ride home in the dark was lovely and I was on my own.

Good bike to work day in NOVA. Great weather, free t-shirts.

Nice wet ride home in steady light rain. A hot shower felt good afterward.

passed a gorgeous bike-girl on the way home going the other way... hope she's a commuter! rest of the ride had that James Blunt hit spinning through my head

Bit of a cool start to the week (Bike to Work week 19 for this year, I think): 50/10 with some light winds out of the north. I think that's below average for the time of year--tomorrow's low is supposed to be close to a record.

I really like riding when it's like this, and I think this is my favorite time of year to commute. In the autumn I always seem to be thinking ahead to winter tights, glove liners, and balaclavas...

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. 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!