Seems like summer finally decided to come to Sacramento, about 2 months late. Very pleasant in the mornings (mid 50sF), but mid 90s in the afternoon. Well, better late than never.

High 40s. Shorts, but long sleeves, alas.

Reeled in a woman and decided to let her pace me. 12MPH for 4 miles. Very relaxing. Amazingly, no one caught up to us.

Attack squirrels are in rare form now. I saw one carrying a little cluster of 5 or 6 acorns on a stick. Very comical.

Nice ride. Foggy. Caught up w/ an ex-neighbor, and he was flying, 25mph. Then passed a coworker so I hopped off the express and rode w/ him the rest of the way. My wife saw a coyote last night in a place I've seen them over the years. Nothing this morning though.

Left the house a bit later than I prefer, so school traffic, etc. was in full swing, and the sky was light enough to see without needing a big light up front (though I always ride with a blinkie).

I passed 3 beautiful women on road bikes and we exchanged pleasantries. I'm a married guy, but I can still acknowledge beauty, can't I?

As of lunchtime it is muggy (for here) - low 80s F and almost 40% humidity. It is amazing how wet the air feels with the slightest humidity when one is accustomed to 10-15%.

niiiiiiiice. 91 degrees, 18% humidity. I do believe I saw a new/recent commuter today. never seen him before. ride on!

Took 5 bottles of water in my bag to restock the fridge here at work. It made for a bit more annoying ride with the weight on my back. I hit a large hidden pothole and knocked my rear wheel out of true, I'll have to fix that before I leave today.

Wow and I complain about it being cold? Much better than the hot muggy weather. I'm in Toronto so it's a very cool 11 degrees (low 50's). Needless to say, quite cold even in pants this morning but by the time I go home it's nearly 70F.

nice and sunny on the ride home. Stopped at house for trail-a-bike before proceeding on to retrieve 8 yr old from his school.

The crazies were out for the afternoon ride home.

Everyone seemed to be in a HUGE hurry for sume reason...... and WTF is up with these ADD text and drive people********************?/ arrrgh! They were everywhere today.

I damn near got nailed by a woman in an SUV when I was walking my bike across a designated pedestrian crossing along a particularly busy 2-way street. I've started using this crossing as a relatively sane way to cross an otherwise ridiculous street. The traffic along the main road had stopped (there's a button that engages yellow flashing lights, at which point traffic must stop). This lady was waiting across the street from me (at an intersecting street next to the pedestrian crossing) to turn left- where I was crossing. She saw stopped traffic, and without even bothering to look left she floored it and was gunning straight for me. I ran and had to yank my bicycle forward to avoid it being crushed. I yelled "JESUS !!!!!!!" at the top of my lungs - adrenaline - she slammed on her brakes and gave a very sincere "I'm so sorry". She wasn't texting, but she WAS on here cellphone. UGH!
I was shaking. She came within inches of me.

Anyway, I finished crossing the street, gathered myself, mounted up and kept riding.

The crazies continued to plague my ride, but more as an annoyance (driving too fast on otherwise quiet streets, etc).

We'll see how Friday goes.

Anybody got a link to bike pontoons? We are building arks here and the rain is forecast completely through next week.

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.

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. 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.