Don't know about you, but our odd Kansas summer is starting to make me fear a ripping cold winter...

I'm about 2 hours out from my ride home, and it will be interesting to see what unfolds.
Right now the weather is looking ominous in advance of an approaching storm. It's in the mid 90's but the high tomorrow is supposed to be in the 70's. Big front.
So, as this storm approaches from the north (still a long way away), all of the air is rushing to it from the south. The wind is a sustained 20+mph right now, anticipated to be at 28 with gusts to 45 by ride time.

My ride is Southeast, primarily on due east and due south streets, soooooo, I'll be riding in stiff crosswinds and headwinds all the way home, which, by the way, is right at the base of the mountains and about 700' higher than downtown, so it tends to be MUCH windier up there.

Fun fun.

Local advisory:

... WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM MDT THIS EVENING...

A WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM MDT THIS EVENING.

STRONG SOUTHERLY WINDS WILL CONTINUE TO INCREASE THIS AFTERNOON WITH SUSTAINED WINDS BETWEEN 25 TO 35 MPH. GUSTS ARE ALREADY EXCEEDING 45 MPH IN PORTIONS OF THE ADVISORY AREA. THE STRONGEST WINDS ARE EXPECTED ACROSS THE VALLEY AREAS OF WESTERN UTAH FROM ST GEORGE NORTH THROUGH THE SALT FLATS IN NORTHWEST UTAH. THE URBAN AREAS OF THE CENTRAL AND NORTHERN WASATCH FRONT AND THE TOOELE VALLEY ARE ALSO INCLUDED IN THIS ADVISORY.

STRONG WINDS WILL IMPACT TRAVEL ON MAJOR HIGHWAYS OVER THE ADVISORY AREA. TRAVELERS ON EAST WEST ORIENTED ROADWAYS SUCH AS ROUTES 6 AND 50 THROUGH WEST CENTRAL UTAH WILL BE ESPECIALLY IMPACTED. DRIVERS SHOULD PREPARE FOR THE LIKELIHOOD OF STRONG AND ERRATIC CROSSWINDS AND THE POTENTIAL FOR BLOWING DUST CAUSING LOCALLY REDUCED VISIBILITIES.

WINDS WILL DIMINISH BEHIND THE COLD FRONT LATER TONIGHT.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WIND ADVISORY MEANS THAT WINDS GUSTS OF 45 MPH ARE EXPECTED. WINDS THIS STRONG CAN MAKE DRIVING DIFFICULT... ESPECIALLY FOR HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES. USE EXTRA CAUTION.

80 going in, 102 going home. Please don't let me fall on the asphalt.

70F going home felt positively brisk after the triple digits last week. No kid duty so just straight no thought zip from work to home. 2 min of peace before everyone else tumbled in through the door...

What kind of place do I live in where 94° feels cool? Put in an extra 15 miles on the way in for fun.

Heh. When I was 6 my parents sent me to spend part of the summer with my cousins in Wisconsin. I was dumbfounded when it rained in July. I thought that it wasn't possible to rain between Easter and Thanksgiving.

No rain for me, it seems to have bypassed Sactown.

On my way home tonight I yelled at a driver to put away his blackberry. And he did, at least as far as I could see. It always helps to use my Dad Voice.

Great ride in this morning. It was cool enough when I left that I stopped and pulled arm warmers on. After about 5 miles I pushed them down to my wrists. Cool (guessing upper 50's or 60, dry, moon was bright). Nice.

Dark as always and already hot! I'm riding the Motobecane Nomad and she's in need of a tune up. I can't adjust the derailleur just right and get this ghost shifting when under pressure. I'll stop by the LBS on the way home. Nothing else to report.
Ernest

I finally got a good nights sleep. The ride in was good but the bike was b*tchy again. It needs some work cuz I've been working it hard. I think I got stung by a bee because I saw and heard a giant buzzing winged bug fly at and land on my chest. I swatted at it and got it off but then felt that horrible sharp stinging pain of a bee sting. It doesn't hurt now so maybe I didn't get any venom. Then I had some dog sh*t thrown at me off a car tire. I saw a big dark glob fly and land on my leg and thinking it might be another bug I swiped it away with the back of my hand and then realized what it was. I'm gonna have to start carrying a washcloth or something since I'm wearing really shorts socks now. I think I hit my fastest MAX (& avg) speed for a morning commute this year.

STATs:
13.34 miles
33.2 mph MAX speed
16.7 mph avergae speed
48 minutes saddle time

Nice ride this morning. Low 60s. Almost a direct crosswind but it was shifty. Saw a black and white cat and amused it with squeaky noises.

Last night I tried to get my rear caliper to loosen up. The pistons just wont retract fully. I think I need an overhaul. I took the pads out, blew compressed air around, and re-installed with two thin plastic squares between the pads and the rotor. When I removed the plastic, there was loads of clearance, but the minute I pumped the brake, it clamped down and started rubbing again. I improved it a little bit though, so I quit while I was ahead. (If anyone has any ideas, let me know... Hayes hydraulic.)

Absolutely perfect weather today. Mid/upper 50s, sunny, dry, not humid, barely a wind to be found. I experimented and did a first singlespeed commute this morning. To my surprise, I made it up both short, steep hills on my morning ride without hopping off. Amusingly, I was 30 seconds faster this morning on the SS than yesterday on my normal 14-speed commuter.

Here's the SS in question. '84 Schwinn Le Tour, geared 40/16, 700x25 Conti GP4000 tires.

vtjim - disassemble - clean/lube/adjust - reassemble

Almost a bit cool this AM. Had to run errands for work this AM, infact I left home about 0525 and just now got to work. Had to stop several times and got an extra probably 10 miles in. Whole different world on the way in. On one street I had never rode on before I was tooling along thinking what a nice road it was, looking for chuckholes and traffic, I just happened to look up. A stick about 1.5 inches in was hanging down from a tree (storm a couple of days ago) it had the bark beat off of it from cars and stuff hitting it. It would have clobbered me if it was dark. Some guy at the coffee shop while I was grading papers started asking me questions about my cross check, says he is building a LHT. Nice guy seemed like. Almost to work I stopped at a light and some lady on a road bike came sliding up behind me. I said hi but she did not speak. Seemed very intense like she was racing the old guy (me) or late for class. Anyway she passed me at the light and looked much nicer than she acted. One of my co workers is mad cause I forgot a meeting this AM. Oh well.

Rain started about 2 miles into the ride and continued until I finished when it finally let up. Sang Indigenous' "Let it Rain" to myself most of the way in

Perfect riding weather this morning.
This has been a stellar week.

Listened to some Beastie Boys on the ride, that made it fun.
Time to clean the drive and put my new rear tire on.

making - that will teach you for trying to figure out a woman ...

Take it to your LBS. You've already gone way beyond my hardware capabilities. About all I can handle is changing a tire. Thank goodness I can afford a good bike mechanic, because if I had to depend on my own capabilities, my bikes would be in pretty poor shape.

That's what I'm thinking, but I've never dealt with hydraulic discs beyond pad-changing. I'm on vacation all next week so maybe I'll see if I can do it without digging myself too deeply into a hole.

First commute in about 3 weeks. First commute in Boston. Loved it. I was tired, and slow, but I had a great time. 6.35 miles in 30:45 of saddle time. I would love to have fewer stops on the the last half of the commute, but now that I'm getting familiar with it, I'll look to avoid traffic stops.

Got off night shift, saw my dad and his new trike (he blames me for making riding look fun...ha!), rode fast (for me anyway) and all was going good. Headed off to my bank and took a fast turn thru some water in a gutter at bank and Wham! Looks like I got in a scuffle with 60 grit. I'm fine, tattoos are fine, bike is good. Scrapped the heck out of my RD and B-17. Bag has some new tears and such. Gonna bruise up pretty!

A good morning when all is said and done, really...

Ouch! Heal fast.

2nd commute this week. Got dropped by a spandexed-up roadie and a guy with loaded panniers, but the humidity was so low it barely mattered to me. Always fun riding thru the national mall on the way to work.

Ran way late, today. Last night, extended the commute a bit, took my time coming home.

High 50s, brisk. 8 yr old wanted his sweatshirt so we turned back early for that.