Ride was nice today. Cool morning and I got to use my new rack. No bag on my back was refreshing.
On the ride home I made good time but lost my rear blinkie when I bunnyhopped a pothole. Also, my foot slipped off the pedal when starting at a light and I bashed my shin. Glad it wasn't a steel MTB claw pedal.

Sweet! Built the year I was born!

I have as yet to land anything with Rod brakes.

I had no flippin' idea what rod brakes where when I got the bike. The bike is only a few years younger than I am. I think my next bike is gonna be a 1962 or older Schwinn, preferably with a 2-speed kick-back hub... then I can say I have a bike older than me.

Part of the reason I got pulled into BikeForums was because I was trying to find out what kind of weird brakes those were. BF C&V forum had all the answers.

Weather was nice here again, commute to and fro College was pretty ok.

That is sublime!

They still make bikes with rod brakes in the middle east/India. I am still kicking myself for not buying one of the bikes when I lived in Saudi.

Gorgeous bike!

5 commutes today... rode nearly 80 km.

Fixed.

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikepics/uav1.jpg

Ok commute today. The weather was good and no traffic.
Unfortunately I am developing a creaking noise from my handlebar stem:mad:. Hopefully it just needs to be tightened.
The weather is calling for rain later today (the time I ride home) so I left the new bike home and rode the bad weather commuter in.

Here's a long post describing my commute home yesterday, without a doubt the weirdest commute home I've ever had: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...42#post9741042

Didn't bike commute in this AM as I'm going to a concert after work tonight and plan on meeting up with my wife, so it was a day for Metro. First time in over a month, and, man, I realize more and more each time I'm stuck taking the train why I prefer the bike commute... ugh.

Anyway, the real story was my commute home last night. I met up with a friend who's moving out of town for a couple happy hour drinks and a burger. Happy hour was fun, and I got headed home around 8. I haven't invested in a headlight yet, since I haven't had occasion to ride in the dark. So I instead did a trial run with a camping LED headlamp we have, which I wore under my helmet. I learned two things. I need a better lighting system for when it's dark when I go home, but secondly, I LOVE RIDING IN THE DARK!!! I had enough light to light up reflective signs, etc., and if the pavement markings on the MUP were reflective, too, the headlamp may have been enough. On streets with streetlights, it was plenty bright enough to see w/o the light, so it was just on so I wasn't a ninja. I just took it slower to make sure I didn't run myself off the darker sections of the path.

The night riding was truly delifghtful, though. Cooler temps, which is nice, and a whole new perspective on a route that I take everyday and cycling generally. I think with a good headlight system, I would consider recreational riding at night. Very cool.

this morning was not fun- i had to transport 2 brake rotors for my car, in my panniers
along with spark plugs and brake pads. trying to keep my bike balanced on gravel
like walking a tightrope. on top of that i underdressed and froze on the way in

It was a little crisp on the ride out... after I had my morning coffee it had warmed up considerably.

We're in that season where the mornings warrant layers and by the afternoon you want to be wearing as little as possible due to the heat.

But I am still not wearing pants.

We're in that in between time now. I could have done with some armwarmers this morning for the first half hour and then was dripping sweat as I rolled into the parking structure.

Other than that minor issue, it was a wonderful ride in this morning: I took the fixed gear out into the country on a long loop I like to do.

Nice ride! That reminds me a lot of this bike I just saw.

http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/bik/1391540300.html

If I wanted a 26" SS commutourer, I'd be all up in this.

2 days in a row the tupperware w/ my salad for lunch opened. Could do w/o onion juice coating the apples (breakfast, not another part of the salad)...

Dropped my son at school, caught my wife trailering my daughter, took the trailer, dropped her, caught my wife, and on we went. Next I think will try having my wife drop my son and see if she can catch me if I pull the trailer from home. The idea was that I would leave earlier than her so she would take the trailer, but it turns out I'm leaving later than I want and she's leaving, I guess, earlier than she wants so there's no real reason for me not to take the trailer too.

Dig those tires.

Schwalbe Hurricanes... those things have at least 10,000 km on them and still look as good as new.

It's my Urban Assault Vehicle... U.A.V.

With this setup I could ride in the dark with my eyes closed and never worry about the road... this things eats potholes for breakfast...curbs are a non issue... and I can ride it at 30 kmh all day.

Windy
I am hoping it will be behind me on the ride home.

Nearly lost it to a steel grate with bike tire sized gaps. Whew, was lucky on that one. I'll remember that area now. Got a flat on the front shortly after, I'm thinking pinchflat although it must have taken a while to bleed down.

Arrived to aork on time but grumpy.

Not today (I am telecommuting today), but yesterday. There must have been an accident on the highway because my surface street commute home was bumper to bumper cars.

Passed about 2 miles of cars (all not moving) while going 20-21 mph on my bike. It felt really good to be on a bike.

Had some rain possibility predicted by the weather guessers for the ride home. Normally I would take the T700 or the M400 with fenders but I had so much fun riding the 77 Super LeTour yesterday I decided to ride it again today.

Ride in was nice and I am getting better at the shifting. Didn't have nearly as much chain skate on the hill. I am missing my SPD's on the hills though. No rack on the bike for shoes and I really don't like bags or back packs but I may just have to go back to that. I have no intentions of putting racks on that bike and trying to travel lite these days.

Rain came in as predicted but I managed to get home between the storms. Wet streets in places but no biggie. Definitely was a good ride despite that.

Think I need to finish servicing the 84 Fuji this weekend and ride that some next week. :)

Buddies are talking about doing a lunch ride 40 again this weekend but I think the Silver comet is still closed from storm damage on the part we usually start at. May have to change launch points. I may have to ride the LeTour if we still manage a ride and be the odd man out with a $45 CL Schwinn in a group of high end road bikes. Not really new to being the odd man out as I ride Touring bikes mostly but I still ride one of two nice T700 C-Dales I have (one is set up more like a cyclocross and the other is full on touring with fenders). The Le Tour is more road bike then what I normally ride. :lol:

Well, I figure I might as well post about this week's happenings.

My sister drops me and my bike off at my college because it's early in the morning and we need to be at schools at similar times anyway (carpooling!) and I ride home. It's about three miles and this was the first week where I rode home every day. It was... interesting.

On monday it had rained early in the morning, around 4:30am (it woke me up) and the ground was all wet and my fenders were able to be put to use for the first time and it rained a little on my way home. A raindrop went right in my eye despite my glasses.

On my ride home tuesday, a couple of guys shouted "Whoa! Retro!" at me. I was riding a '73 Schwinn so I took it as a compliment.

On wednesday it was incredibly foggy (made for a fun marching band rehearsal) and a bunch of water condensated on my on the car ride from my house to the school. I was riding to the bike rack to lock up my bike and went to brake and I didn't stop and nearly crashed my bike when I went off the sidewalk into the grass. There was water on the wheel rims ~___~ I'm okay though, didn't fall over.

On thursday I nearly got hit by a school bus. I was passing an elementary school and they had just gotten out so there were a lot of kids around. I head to an intersection where bus was waiting at a stop sign and I didn't have one. I was about 5 yards away from the intersection when the bus started turning. I had scooted all the way to the curb and nearly got hit, and then one of the little ****s on the bus stuck his head out the window and was yelling "move! move!" I hate little kids. I even knew the bus driver, too. He was the driver sometimes for my high school/middle school buses, I think he was driving the middle schoolers. I wish I had thought to write down the bus number.

On friday I managed to get up all three hills on my route without getting off my bike. Yaay! And the weather was really nice.

If commuting is always this eventful, I don't ever want to drive again. XDD

I rode into an "interesting" part of town this evening. There was a Parents Association meeting at the small college my son is attending. I didn't know about it until I was leaving for work and my wife mentioned it. It started at 5:30. I told my wife I probably wouldn't go, then decided I would. The school itself is surrounded by a very run down neighborhood; there really isn't a good way to get there by bike. So I gritted my teeth, picked what I thought was the least bad route, and went.

The route included riding through some very heavy urban traffic. At one point I just decided to bag the vehicular cycling thing and ride the sidewalk over two railroad bridges. I think the cars appreciated not having to wait for my pokey butt to make up up the hills. Then across the freeway that bisects the city from north to south. On the east side of the freeway the neighborhood goes down really fast. The traffic thinned out a bit though, so I was back to the vehicular cycling thing. I was thinking I would make it no problem. For the last little bit I decided to cut through the neighborhood just south of the college and pop out opposite it so I could just cross the busy road it's on and head in. That was almost a mistake.

My biggest worry when riding through run down areas is not so much the people. I have an average looking bike and even though I run lights and a hi viz vest, I don't think most people would give me a second look (although I am a cautious when I see groups of youths). Anyway, my big fear is dogs.

So here I am cutting through this neighborhood and there she is- a pit bull in the front yard of a house. I think she saw me about the same time I saw her, and she stood up to greet me. She wasn't acting particularly aggressively but I didn't want to take a chance. I hopped off the bike and got it between me and the dog. Once I stopped moving fast and started to look human, she seemed to lose interest mostly, although she still kept an eye on me. I walked the bike back a couple houses to the last corner, and turned and jogged over a block. Maybe the dog wouldn't have chased me but I didn't want to find out. I don't think the locals bore me any ill will, but they may have enjoyed seeing a dog attack a pasty white boy.

After that it was just a few more blocks to campus. I stayed on the lookout for more dogs, just in case. But that was pretty much it. I was willing to try the ride during daylight but when the meeting let out after dark, I let my lovely wife sag me home with my bike in the trunk of her car.

Today felt like the first day of fall. The baked-earth afternoon warmth of summer is gone. Now it's almost cool. Still, beautiful and sunny, and I passed a lot of cars by the roadwork bottleneck. Call it a 6/10.

Todays commute was great. My legs are still in pain. :cry::thumb: I passed a roadie going uphill stayed in my saddle will he was pumping out of the saddle. This as on the 12sp Volkscycle with two panniers and fenders. Great day for this stuff. Perfect weather for a ride.

Great commute this morning! I rode my new bike into work for the first time and it was awsome:love:
I don't know if I'm sold on the drop handlebars though (it's a Bianchi Pista track drops.) I'm thinking I may throw on my Bullhorn bars.

http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._7065540_n.jpg
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...y/DSCN4712.jpg



6:48am~ 8:55am , 23 miles. not too bad i guess. climbing hills were nearly impossible. nearly fainted for 10 minutes on the tennis court floor. fixed conversion.

Man looks like you are running some big gear on that. What is that a 52/16 combo? Hilly where I live and 40/18 was a LOT of work.