Today my girlfriend showed up at my back gate at 6:30 and rode in with me, just for the fun of it. She had a superlight titanium tri-bike while I was chugging along on my cro-moly touring bike, with fully loaded panniers (laptop, cell phone, business clothes, towel, soap). When we crossed Tampa Bay on the Gandy bridge, we had a headwind, so I asked her to pull. She kept it over 21 MPH all the way across. It was all I could do to stay on her wheel. When we arrived at my office, she gave me a kiss and headed back. She's a keeper!

Your girlfriend sounds like a badass! (I mean that in the best way). ;)

Did anyone notice an increase in riders this morning (9/22) for World Car-Free Day. I think I saw about twice as many as usual, but not as many as on May's Bike-to-work Day.

yeah, hot here today. The good thing about being in the desert is the lack of humidity. This AM ride was nice and cool (not a fan of the dark but oh well). No wind, wore shorts and shirt with yellow vest that made me a little too hot. Unzipped it and let my "cape" fly.

Ride home will be different for sure due to heat. I can't wait for the rear rack to arrive and I'll be done with this messenger bag.

darn delightful. about 90 degrees, low humidity, nice leisurely ride in. 4-5 other riders out and about.

Ride in this morning was nice. Saw and greeted three fellow cyclists all at a red light close to the beginning of my commute. Usually see maybe one up to that point. Thought maybe it was for Car Free Day, but the rest of the ride didn't see a corresponding increase in volume, so just a coincidence, I guess. Took a lunch-break spin over to a Car Free Day event here in downtown DC. Looking forward to a nice ride home soon...

I didn't really see an increase. I thought I would, especially after I saw and exchanged greetings with three other riders at the last traffic light I see before I get on the MVT, but after that there seemed to be no discernible difference. I think I saw more people yesterday to be honest. :-\

Well I hope everyone has had a nice summer of commuting. I'm sure, thanks to this website, that we've had some new commuters as well. Let us know who you are. But anyway, today is the last day of summer and at 5:18pm today we officially go into Fall. Fall is a great time to ride a bike. Nice cool weather. You may have to wear a jacket with those shorts but it still feels good. And the next time your in a UDF pick up a pair of those cheap brown jersey gloves for $1.59. I remember paying 79 cents for those things. They make perfect cool riding gloves. They'll fit over your riding gloves too. And let's not forget. September is "Get ready for Winter" month. Look for those Nokians on sale somewhere and let all of us know about it.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3447/...35bc08bc4b.jpg
It was about 23 degees this day.

Well, the ride in was great. Unfortunately, I got all excited on the way home and decided to try an untested route that I envisioned would bring me down beautiful country lanes with wide shoulders and light traffic; past farms, parks and gardens. It would be an extra 2 miles, but based on the aerial map, it looked worth it. Worst darn mistake ever. Instead of bucolic farms and serenity, I was gripping my handlebars on winding backroads that had no shoulder and traffic that whipped around each corner at 40 mph. 13 miles of nerve-shattering cycling; cars passing within inches, not knowing what was coming around every corner. I passed what must have been the biggest cemetary in history, and at one point, I saw the disturbing remains of what was once someone's blinkie.

When I finally rolled into familiar territory, I had a wizard-of-oz like homesickness for my usual route. There's no place like home... there's no place like home...

Light rain transitioning to sleet/snow in Denver on the ride home today - so much for summer (although it is supposed to be 80 again by the weekend). Still a good ride in the cool weather, plus the bike rack at my office actually had spaces available.

Possible snow tomorrow in Denver, but alas, I have taxi duties tomorrow so I must drive. Helmets off to anyone biking along the Front Range Wednesday!

Wouldn't it be nice if there were a website where you could get real biking information on routes like that before actually riding them?

Not good today. At a traffic light-vehicular style- nicely in line on a residental street crossing a bigger road. And getting cut off by a cab making a left turn from the opposite side. But sees me in the last sec hitting the brakes. I guess the van on my side who was in the left turn lane blocked his view. To add insult to (almost) injury... got buzzed by some kids only moments later.

A very nice ride in at 62 F ( 16 C). It was a surprise, as I packed for rain, but that didn't happen.
Maybe this afternoon, which is fine. A warm rain is never a problem, although mixing it up with traffic
is never fun.

71 F and humid this morning, no rain (yet), I nice ride. I figured the first day of Fall would be a good time to convert my ride back into Fall/Winter mode, I re-installed: full fenders, touring tires, lights, bottle cages, small saddle bag, and may put a handlebar bag on when it gets real cold for emergancy Winter supplies.

Also, saw a raccoon peering out from a strom drain, cute. I hope he doesn't get clobbered by a car this morning. Nearly ran into a runner coming across the Difficult Run bridge at Rt. 1. She was so short that I couldn't see her over the wall as I approached from a path that intersects the bridge at about a 45 deg. angle. Poor thing. All of a sudden my light is in her face as I'm flying toward her out of the dark. She waved both arms wildly and swerved left then right. I did the same while slamming on the brakes. Luckily we both made the right choice and swerved in opposite directions. My back wheel locked up and I fishtailed a little but not too big a deal. Had we collided, my momentum would have thrown me into Rt. 1. Not good. I apologized and we were both on our way. Lesson learned: I'll slow and scan better as I approach this turn. I usually am able to see all pedestrians as I have a good view of this short bridge on my approach-she happened to be much shorter than most and maybe I wasn't paying as much attention to her as I was to maintaining my speed. I, then, nearly ran over a rat near the rugby fields and made it in without further incident.

I hope that my ride home doesn't come with the trauma that my morning ride did, although they're calling for T-storms.

Ugh. I'm melting. It was raining when I left. Low 60sF. I put on my rain gear. Top and bottom. 5 minutes after I left, the rain stopped, leaving me in my own personal sauna. Could I have stopped to remove the gear? Probably. Did I? No. :p

Other than that... Nice ride.

Oh and a woman thanked me for stopping (at a stop sign) as she was crossing (in a crosswalk.) :rolleyes:

NYC: 70 degrees and a noticeable headwind as I headed south down the Hudson River. Rain forecast for the afternoon.

Yesterday's ride home was stunning. Mid 60's F and brilliant sunshine. I felt strong and pushed the pace the whole way home (more than usual, that is :) ). sucked in a bug - see "b u g" thread for gory details.


Nice and cool this morning mid-40's F (7-8C) and beautiful pre-dawn halo over the mountains. Generally a quiet ride in. I almost ran over a <<fully unrolled>> condom in the bike lane. ewwww.
Nice time to have fenders :twitchy: ;)

WTF is with the weather in the States? It will be pushing 90 here today. Didn't need a jacket for the second straight morning.

I got something yesterday on the way home that I've never received before: an apology from a motorist. She cut me off, I gave her the WTF shrug. She rolled her window down and apologized that she hadn't seen me. I was so stunned I had no reply, I just nodded my head. It took 7 years and 20,000km, but I finally got a motorist to admit fault. Wow.

nice sunny ride, fixed

Supposed to be 31 C here today but it's still only 9 in the AM. Ridiculous. New guy on the commute - well, perhaps not new, but I haven't seen him before - blasts by us all the time. He's standing up on the pedals the entire time, just giving 'er. We set a pretty respectable pace - around 35 km/h on touring bikes, but I find it galling to be schooled by some guy on a Jamis comfort hybrid. Guess I need to stop being so sensitive....

Traffic is ridiculous now that university is back in session - have to wait twice as long to get across arterials. Oddly enough I get cut off more on campus than on the street. I almost fell over last night when a car opted to stay behind me instead of blasting around me in the opposite lane on a blind corner.

Third day in a row of 40-50F degree weather in Colorado. My new jacket that I paid way too much for worked great.

Ran red lights in front of cops all the way to work. They could care less cuz they're managing traffic for the UN General Assembly.

Pushing 100F on the first full day of autumn here in Sactown. Rode the Bianchi today with a jersey and bibs in the pack, hoping to get a long hot ride home.

nice, cool, quite a wind out there though. reminded once again how important tire pressure is--rear tire feeling a little low, pumped back up to 120 psi-- what a difference! weird smell from the KFC. didn't smell like chicken. saw three other riders.

Maybe that email rumor is true...they aren't really chickens! ;)

50's... brrr.

No commute today (off work:)) but I did however buy a new bike:D 2008 Bianchi Pista. It's going to be used as my fitness commuter bike.

We have some unbelievably warm weather here. 25 deg C (77 deg F). Tomorrow is going to be cooler, and then it's all downhill from there, into the yucky grey skies, cold wind, cold rain and heaps of slippery brown leaves... So I tried to savour it today. Went slow and easy, and took in the last few moments of the fading summer...

It was so nice that the weather Finally broke. Ride was a bit smelly in areas. :wtf:

I was on vacation second week of the month. I managed one day of decent weather the week I got back. It has rained ever since. Today was the first clear day. So in the past 3 weeks I have managed 2 days of commuting and I normally commute 4-5 days most weeks.

If you don't peak outside your world we have been getting hammered with rain in North GA. Lake Allatoona to the north of me rose 8feet in one day. This is no small lake. It's water shed is 1,110square miles including the area I live. It covers 12,000 acres and has 270 miles of shore line.

6 flags amusement park was under water. The Mind Benders main loop had water half way up it (about 40ft), I 20, I 285, I 75 were all closed at some point. I 20 has been closed for days. The little creek behind my neighborhood that is normally about 12ft wide and knee deep flood to the point of shutting down I 575, Chastain road (the road that I travel the most when riding) and several other roads.

Some of my neighbors were actually jet skiing IN my neighborhood Monday. The creek was at least 25ft OVER flood stage. I think it is a new record. Can't find any information as to how high because the automated measuring devices mounted to bridges that collect the water depth were 5-10 feet UNDER water. LOL.

This brings me to why the ride was smelly. All that sediment from the creek over flowing also included the sewer system overflow that runs beside the creek. :(