2 bike ninjas when I hardly come across any riders at all. Traffic where I didn't expect it. A train! And my legs felt like noodles after doing so many hard rides this week. But I still had fun. :)

Today is Friday. After 4 days of no commuting, today I was determined to get to work on my bike and what a glorious day it was. Nice relaxed pace. The weather was great (slightly cool but sunny) and reminded me of the begining days of spring.

46F is bearable, but it's a portent of weather to come. - I did a 34F in May and won't be doing that again without proper booties and gloves.

Problem is, I can't justify the cost for said gear since 1) only extends riding season another month or so 2) I only ride in once a week (It's 59 miles RT)


This spring I passed on some cold weather gear marked down big time at REI - thinking I should have pulled the trigger then.

I have not posted for a while. This has been some of the greatest bike commuting weather in Centeral Indiana ever this summer. Ride after ride is nice and pleasant. I love it.

:rolleyes: Yeah the one time I had someone try to take me out, I was on foot in a crosswalk, and the woman was yakking on her cell phone. I mean she stopped at the stop sign while I was in the crosswalk. No problem there. Then as I'm almost in front of the car, she goes. :notamused: She stopped short, and I made a "telephone" with my pinkie and thumb, mimed hanging it up, and mouthed, "Hang up the phone!" (Teaching moment: Lines, signs, and lights will not protect you from the stupid. Pay attention!)

Anyhow, my ride today alternated between sprinkles and dry, with a gnarly 25-30MPH headwind blowing off Lake Champlain. Dark and dreary. Low 50s.

Cool, mostly dry (finally). I copped a flat tire as I rolled up the the train station. Fixed it when I got off at the other end and rolled on to work. Interesting to note that I had not replaced some CO2 carts since my last flat in March. I had two emptys and two full ones. I used a full one and topped off with the Morph.

Since yesterday's ride in, I've developed a nasty creak in the seat tube or BB. Yesterday it was a single 'tik' as the drive side pedal passed 3 o'clock. Today, it's a deep croak. TGIF, so I can get on top of that before it drives me nuts.

Friday. Legs felt a bit heavy - I've had a few 'hammer' commutes this week and I'm feeling it today. I struggled to maintain my normal pace, but ended up taking things back a notch and enjoyed the ride in.

I look forward to sleeping in tomorrow. It has been fabulous sleeping weather - 50's (12-13C) at night - we open all of the windows in our little brick bungalow and let the evening winds rip through the house as they charge down off the mountains.

Good
Fun

Cool this morning, but not so cool as to justify the long sleeve shirt I wore-I was pretty warm by the time I reached DC. I packed a short sleeved shirt for the ride home, should be nice. My new bottom bracket arrived Wednesday night and I'll put it in tonight or sometime this weekend-the old one (only 2 months old) has been squeeling and clicking and driving me crazy. I can't believe I've had such bad luck with a Race Face component, probably just a lemon. I rode home yesterday in a cool drizzle, Fall is coming...

Great journey this morning, and Mrs H said I should take a long ride home as there will be no rides next week.

Short trip today, just to school w/ 8 yr old and back. And 4 yr old on t-a-b along for the ride.

Rode in the new CX bike. Still haven't gotten the FD dialed in correctly. I don't know what it is about Shimano, I always seem to have problems. With Campy and SRAM, it's been a matter of pulling the cable finger-taut, tightening the bolt, and away we go. With Shimano, it's been a hassle.

I brought in some tools in my backpack and I'll see if I can get it done at lunch time.

Hope to be able to take it on the dirt this afternoon.

smelled pizza! yum. I go by a Pizza hut.

Cross posted from foo...

What a morning... I am so going to regret missing physio and it might be a suffer fest until Monday's appointment but it was all worth it

I dropped the girls off and was on my way to physio with plenty of time to spare and saw an older gentleman at the side of the road with his bike so stopped to make sure things were okay.

He said he "was from German" and had only been here a few days and thought it was a nice day to go for a tour... he knew very little English.

Language issues aside... He was lost and I knew immediately there was a serious problem when he wasn't sure which bike was his, didn't know who his backpack belonged to, and could not give me his address, a phone number, and struggled with giving me his daughter's and son in law's name so I could call them.

He did not recognize his identification as being his either but I did get his son in law's name and made a call and reached his wife (who also spoke little to no English) who gave me their daughter's phone number.

I called the daughter and stayed with him until she came to meet him and I told her that she needed to get him to the emergency immediately as I suspect that he had a mild stroke... if I had not reached her I would have been calling 911.

She was only a few minutes away at her workplace...

He did not know how I got his daughter's name and phone number when I wrote it down for him, could not remember the address I kept giving him, and asked how I knew his wife... he also asked if I was a policeman and kept asking why I stopped.

He kept saying, "I was okay and now I am crazy..."



He was very sweet and did not seem unduly distressed but it was evident something had happened as he could not remember anything I had told him regarding where he was or how far it was to his daughters... which was about 12 km away on the south east side of the city.

I kept telling him things and there was no short term memory recall at all... he kept asking "can you help me?"

When we parted he took my hands in his (he seemed very strong physically) and thanked me for my help and said if I ever come to Germany I must come and see him.

The daughter did not quite understand the urgency of my call until she arrived to meet her dad and as she speaks fluent German she was better able to communicate with him.

I told her that if nothing was seriously wrong and it was just a language issue I would be happy to serve as a guide if her dad wanted to go touring while he was here but I think that things are much more serious... I stressed that she needed to get him to a hospital immediately.

I really hope he is going to be okay and that it wasn't a stroke... there are other things that could cause memory loss like insulin shock, medication issues, etc.

I can't feel my legs very well and will need to get that "I am not drunk t-shirt" and think that it is going to be a long haul between now and Monday at 1:00 pm when I go back for physio.

I may have to get a little stoned myself.

But that is what it is.

So... when you see a cyclist stopped at the side of the road... do stop and make sure things are okay.

The bike might be fine but the rider may not be.

I got home today and decided to give the bike a good cleaning. Along with cleaning the drivetrain. I gave the brakes and the rims a good scrubbing. I usually just clean the bottom of the bike cause I like the rest to look grungy and junky looking. Out of sight, out of mind. I try to clean the chain at least twice a month. Some Simple Green and a good chain-cleaning tool is a good investment. In winter, I'll clean the chain 3 or 4 times a month. Sometimes everyday if its real sloppy out. And when I do that I'll usually just dump a bucket of hot water on it to quickly melt the snow off of it.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3597/...d4eb7bbd8c.jpg

I got my first bike (let's say a "serious" first bike beyond my bike when I was ten), and I'm getting very excited with everything, accessories, advocacy, registering, learning lock techniques, how to change a flat, etc, etc.

So tonight it was my first night ride, from Harvard Square to my home 10 minutes away. I just bought a Planet Bike Beamer 3. It's not a huge light but it helps being seen. Next week I'm receiving in the mail a reflective vest. Wow, I feel I'm ten again :)

Thanks everybody for answering all my posts in the past two weeks.

Why in the mail? You can get them at Home Depot for less than $10.

Haahah, I bought it with the U-Lock in Amazon.

This was such a sweet and fantastic story. You are definitely an example. This week another cyclist asked me in a light if I knew a bike shop around the area. I invited him to stop in the corner and I searched for one in the iPhone. He was thankful and I felt great. Of course it's a tiny story compared to the German story, but it's definitely worth it to help people in the road...

within 1 hour of arriving at the house for the weekend, I was greeted by this.......


http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._8222296_n.jpg

....Then this.....

http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._5346935_n.jpg


Have a nice weekend. everyone....

....then the light faded......
http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._6866790_n.jpg

It's that time of year again, temps falling then rising, 48 F ( 8 C) this morning. The first down hill was chilly. Oh well, this time next month, I will be clamoring for anything above 30 F ( -1 C). Easy ride in, and lots of dark.

Good ride today. I had to start my shift early today 0500, I need to get a light since I don’t have the Castro anymore.

44 degrees this morning - cold and dark. My ride starts with a huge downhill, so these days I've started taking laps through the development before I slide down the hill, just to warm up a bit. 44 degrees? I look at that now ... only 12 more to go before morning ice.

Uggh.... not my best ride but, at least, I rode. My son brought home a cold last week so we all ended up sick this weekend. On top of that, no sleep last night, he was coughing and waking up all night. It feels like I'm over the worst of it but, I'm pretty wiped out. I was listless and winded for most of the ride, sniffling and coughing too. The upside: no more creaking/squeeling/pinging bottom bracket-that was replaced on Friday and, the rear tire didn't flat (it flatted on Friday's ride home, then the patch gave out on Saturday forcing me to replace the tube yesterday). Hopefully, I'll perk up a little by this afternoon (plan on taking a lot of Advil Cold and Sinus-a miracle drug :-) ).

Nice ride in. Was taking it as a recovery ride since we logged in 140mi this weekend so poked along about 14mph. See a whopping four cyclists, cool mornings are starting to make them dwindle. Of course there had to be two of them doing the ninja imitation. Oh well.

Still trying to get my Edge all tweaked out, I think I'm getting there. Tempermental little bastiid it is.. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13736848

Clear, calm, and 42F. Very pleasant. Only "MUP regulars" are out riding any more, it seems.

Passed a guy with a mountain bike who was stopped taking a picture of Rock Point. It was being bathed in the morning sun.

A very vanilla ride into work, weather-wise.

On my street, a car pulled out of its driveway in front of me (didn't see my light I guess.... or didn't care). When the car came to a stop and got out of reverse, I went around the back end and passed it (I was probably doing 15 mph to the car's "0" at that point. I came up to a stop sign a few houses later. One more block before the main road, with a car parked on the right about halfway down, so I took the lane (i.e., ran down the middle of my residential street), planning to pull over to the right after getting past the parked car. I didn't have to; the car that had pulled out of the driveway in front of me STOMPED on the gas after the stop sign and flew by at a pretty good rate of speed, engine still revving, and swerved all the way to the left curb to pass me just as I was alongside the parked car. As she went by, she said somethng at me which I couldn't hear over the roar of the engine.

Now.... I know where this motorist lives; any good ideas for one of those passive-agressive little notes I can leave on her car?

At daybreak I also encountered a bike commuter with no lights who was alternating between being a gutter bunny and using sidewalks (on both sides of the road, as available). Little chance of encountering pedestrians there in the morning but still. I tried to talk to him, "Hey, good morning" kind of thing, but he just road on without acknowledging me after we traveled the same road for about a mile. I think he was putting himself at risk more by jogging back and forth across the traffic lanes to get to the sidewalks than if he had just stayed consistently in the traffic lane.

doohickie - I'd report the driver for aggressive driving. You can easily get her name and address info, and license plate (if she parks outside or leaves her garage open). Unacceptable behavior -road rage- IMO.

Nice and cool this morning. 45F (7C), clear and dark at 6:30 when I rolled out. It will soon be time to wear long pants and full-finger gloves............

The new (arrived Friday) P7 "Nova 900" (aka magicshine) headlight did not disappoint. What a fabulous light for the money!. No dead spots, no hot spots, ample illumination with a good blend of focused light ahead and diffuse light to the sides. Phenominal light for under 100 bucks shipped. I'll post more as tome goes on over in the electronics thread.

Uneventful ride in. I saw perhaps 4 other commuters (with lights) and one ninja.