My first commute was Monday! Been going strong all week! Saw a couple other posts from first time commuters lately.. October must be a good month to start.

Sweet morning. In the 50'ish range. Lets hope the showers they're calling for hold off for this evening's commute!

-R

Had my first commute today! 43F with a bit of mist, but I had to start some time. Everything went perfectly until I got to work and realized I forgot to bring underpants... I guess I'll be wearing my leggings all day.

Just lovely

42° and a bit breezy. But no precipitation, so a decent ride to the office.

OH TODAY! listen to this:

yesterday after work i went to the convesion center district, were many many roadies train,to roll with some friends, got there at 5:30 and started going around the circuit...roadies passed me flying, sometimes i gave them a piece of me and they smiled cause my 16" moulton wheels can really move! my friends got there at like 6:40, and i was already tired of going around, but kept up, with one of them for 1.5 laps, this guys are freaking fast!!! IM REALLY TIRED, and my ASS OMG! it hurts!! total of 45 miles all together

got home at 8:45 cooked some dinner, watched a movie and went to sleep when all of the sudden! BOOM! my gf and me woke up with our hearts going mad! went out and nothing special happened, still, it was a very big BOOM! at 2 in the morning a friend call "GULFS REFINERY JUST EXPLODED!"


Went out at 2:30 to see the view, its freaking immpressive, this massive fire is still burning! i saw it from the Old San Juan, coudn't sleep till 4:20.

at 7:30 my GF wakes me up, and my legs are not responding, i feel like crap, and slept till 7:55, got dressed and went out.. mY ASS HURTS! specially the right side glute! if feel as if my seat were made of hard wood!! it feels like the sit is sinking into my glutes. Said to myself "hang on man! you can do this, its nothing, it jusst hurts a bit, you'll be ok" pedaled my way to work and my legs weren't happy! right now i can feel it....

so thats the story...

thats great news Steve!! Have fun, next time have some extras at the workplace! proud of ya man!

38F this morning. Uneventful commute. I think either something is wrong with my bike, or my mind is playing tricks on me. I keep getting the feeling there is some kind of drag in the rear wheel but (like a flat or the brake rubbing) but there is nothing wrong. I'll look more closely at it this weekend.

rhm: Your not the only one. I got a bloody nose on the way home last night. My wife says I should put vaseline in my nose.

Paul

hey you peeps getting bloody noses: if you get them regularly, might I suggest getting the area that bleeds cauterized with NOS? It's a simple procedure, the ear nose throat doc just puts a gun up your nose that shoots the area with NOS and freezes it, which builds up some scar tissue over the micro blood vessels that are too close to the surface. I had it done, and I have not had a bloody nose since (20 years).

High 40's today in Boston/Waltham. Softshell Jacket, Neoprene toe covers. Just right.

The ride Wed. night tested my mettle. Cold, wet and dark. Biggest issue was my glasses, which fogged up fast and I couldn't see well. Guess I could go with goggles but think I'll take the bus or drive next time it snows hard.

Last night I put new full fenders and a rack on the new steed. Not sure if I'm just mechanically challenged but the fenders were a lot more work than I anticipated. Didn't realize I was going to have to cut the metal stays to make the things fit. But it all looks right now. Will be posting a photo.

Today's ride was dandy. Everything is tight on the bike. Feels good to get rid of the backpack and get back to panniers.

Did a 5-day bike commute week, first time in quite a while. Especially neat since we had about 4 inches of rain on Wednesday and I was riding in water up to the bottom bracket in a few places. I hit a Bott's Dot yesterday on the way home and popped a spoke, so my son is going to run the wheel of my normal ride (1994 Nishiki Sport XRS hybrid) to the LBS for a spoke replacement.

This morning I rode my 1973 Varsity to work. The Schwinn touring saddle bag I bought for it is almost as roomy as a pannier; lots of room in there. With the temp in the mid-40s I wore long pants for the first time this season. I over dressed a bit since this was the coolest morning so far, with a long-sleeve t-shirt, a pullover hoodie (with hood pulled up under helmet) and my hi viz windbreaker over that, plus gloves. A little warm but I wasn't in the mood to get chilled this morning.

Wet but good.
I’m excited for tomorrows commute, I’m riding my new bike in to work for the first time (heck I’m going to be riding the bike for the first time at that.)

windy and rainy. Today's the day the leaves fell.

Starting to warm back up again, making commutes a little uncomfortable. Had the wife drop me off today but I brought the bike and am riding home tonight. I'm hoping the weather cools off again.... And quick! I dont like being teased.

I had a strange experience when I was leaving my office complex. Just as I entered the intersection I heard sirens and saw a po-lice car fast approaching the intersection. I slowed about a 1/3 of the way and waved him to go. He slowed & made a ubee in the middle of the intersection and took off. My first reaction was to zip through and beat him across, but didn't think that was a good idea.

Other than that, the only other exciting thing on my ride home was that the wind that made me feel slow and old! Only one is usually the case...

Nice to know that WNYers live in TX. I hail from Lancaster and work at a a long established research facility across from the buffalo airport in Cheektowaga. My line of work is federal crash investigation. It would then follow that I know quite a bit about crashes and distractions. So when I say I am vigilant, what I'm saying is that I envision crashes and understand many of their contributing circumstances and therefore can perhaps perceive things a bit differently and can discern telltale indicators as they develop. Which is why I probably escaped that potential crash scenario.

As to the cell phone phenomenon, I agree that it is a fact of life (and perhaps death). We recently had a crash locally where 5 teen age girls perished after the driver was distracted by her cell phone and crossed the centerlne and struck a truck head-on.

There are so many daily close calls but then again 40,000+ people perish each year on our roads. Can't say what the percentage of cell phone usage is that resulted in these crashes but when you consider roughly 85% of crashes are human induced, no wonder why states and the federal government are desperate to find a way to limit the incursion of these devices into safe driving practices. In the meantime, I agree extra vigilance is essential. The public's desire to insist on using distracting devices (e.g., cell phones, etc.) will ultimately result in the increase in IT system intervention (a cost to be borne by the public...wonder if everyone understands the true cost of cell phones, but then again what is the price of life).

Thanks for your comments...when you visit home again, take a ride along he Niagara River bike path. It has come a long way.

I grew up about 2 miles from Calspan; I think you know where that is. I actually came up with a bike that I hope to bring up north and leave up there for vacations and stuff; maybe I can tool around WNY some time.

I rode by the LBS on the way home and picked up the fixed wheel. In addition to the saddle bag, I have wire baskets on the back. I laid the wheel across them and tied it down with my velcro pant leg straps (I wore them this morning when I wore my long pants, but it was much warmer this afternoon and I changed into shorts). I probably looked like a rolling junk yard riding a '73 Schwinn with an extra wheel attached to the back.

Bit of a late start today - saw how cold, wet, and miserable it was outside. Decided I didn't want to put on the rainsuit and get geared up for a two-hour class so I took the car and parked at a meter. I must have a guilty conscience because after school I did gear up and rode to an LBS downtown to look for some parts. I just put some fenders on my Schwinn and I wanted to try them out. They worked great. I'll never ride in the rain without full-coverage fenders again.

Yep

How long have you been in Texas? As you know, summers up here are quite nice except for this year. Too much rain, wind, and cool temps. Tomato plants suffered tremendously due to the coolness. I think in June we set an unofficial record for thunderstorms. I usually ride about ~2,500 miles during the riding season but am struggling to get to 2k this year. Unless we get a prolonged fall with reasonable climate, I may not make it.

Having a bike here is certainly an advantage over renting one. I used to travel to OKC alot and I tried to rent a bike there. The bike stores laughed at the request and told me that it is illegal for them to rent bikes...something about law suits, guns not a problem though. I thought I would buy a scrapper on Craigslist for $10 and at the end of the week give the bike back to the seller. He'd make 10 bucks and could resell it. Still an option if I start traveling there again.

Let me know if you do, maybe we could hook up for a ride.

Miserable bike week and only was able to ride one day.

Monday: Mom having some heart procedures and had angioplasty scheduled. Drove her in. I work 2 exits from the hospital so I took her car to work for a couple hours while they did the procedure. I get a call earlier then expected. They ended up stenting her (good). Spend the rest of the day with her in the hospital.

Tuesday I take off to take care of her. My Sis came up and staying a couple days with her. Mom doing great but no sleep Monday night and she is falling asleep at Kitchen table and we cannot get her to just go to bed. Sis and I go to town at her house, mow her 3/4 acre yard, house work etc to make sure it is all caught up to keep mom from trying to go do anything for at least a week.

Wednesday I got to ride. Cold in the morning but really nice in the afternoon. I sold my 454 powered Suburban a couple weeks ago and trying to replace it with a Toyota Previa that actually will get 20+mpg on the hwy and will haul bikes standing. Find a new ad for one on CL Shoot to the other side of Atlanta to go look at it. 96 Supercharged LE just like I wanted. Dealer replaced the motor 100k. Dual A/C that blows ice cubes power everything. Only thing it didn't have was the Sunroofs. Listed on CL at $2k. Asked what she would take for it and she comes back with $1500. I try not to look too interested but with the reasonably fresh motor and very clean body an interior it is already sold. Look at it some more point out some flaws and say "can I nickle and dime you some more?". She comes back with $1400. She talked herself down $600 as I never made an actual offer!

Drove Thursday so I could hit insurance agent and get a tag on the way home. I have NEVER had such a easy time at the DMV. Left my office at 4pm. hit my agent at 4:15 to pick up the insurance paperwork. At 4:20 I pull up to the DMV right across the street. No when I walked in. Pull ticket from the machine, number comes up before I even tear it off and I walk right up to a window. Only 2 "Share the road" tags left so if I had waited till Friday when I had a half day off I would not have got one. Do the title paperwork get my new tag and out the door at 4:35. Home on the couch at 4:45pm. Went and checked on Mom after dinner.

Rain Friday drove the van to work got called a Thief by my coworkers for buying the van so cheap.

Today will be spent servicing the van and fixing a few of the minor problems it does have so not getting my Sat Ride in.

GREAT!! I rode my new bike in to work for the first time (and rode the bike for the first time at that) AND I LOVE IT!
2008 Lemond Fillmore

I left Buffalo when I went to college in the 1980s and never lived there again, although the rest of my family lives there. I grew up right by U-Crest Firehall. My mom and brother now live off Reserve Rd. in W. Seneca.

Thank goodness for Center Ice though.... I enjoyed the Sabres win this evening.

Earlier yesterday, I went on what I consider my first commute. It wasn't my first commute to work, but it was the first time I rode around in traffic without the sole purpose of practicing but to actually get some personal errands done. It was fun. It was quite an experience, riding into shopping plazas, locking up my bike in public for the first time (and dismayed to see other bikes locked up in pretty poor ways), and entering familiar local businesses in a way other than the usual car. I rode around with a backpack on and wore my reflective vest both over myself and the backpack. It looked hilarious but seemed to be a simple solution to the concern of my backpack covering most of the reflective vest from behind. I jokingly referred to myself as a reflective hunchback. It just looks ridiculous to see a skinny guy like me with a reflective vest stretched over a backpack and his body.

I found it a bit of a hassle to lock up my bike, remove my bike equipment (helmet, gloves, mirror, lights, vest), put it away in my backpack, perform an errand, and get outfitted for riding again. On one hill (the second one I've ridden as a newbie commuter), I was taking up the rightmost lane and ascending very slowly, eliciting the first honk I've received from a motorist as the car passed. Unless there's an easy sidewalk option, I think I'd rather go around the small block to avoid such a hill. Thankfully, traffic was pretty light that day. One time, when I returned to my locked-up bike, I realized that I'd left the lights on it. I hope that never happens again.

All in all, it was a great experience.

Update: What the heck, I'm already considered a "Senior Member"?