billyymc

Had an interesting commute last evening. Started out strong, legs felt great (after two weeks of easy riding with the family while on vacation).

About 1/3 of the way through my ride (13.5 miles each way), I pass through a small cluster of homes that must have been built long ago, because they are very close to the road. At one particular house there is an elderly man who is often sitting on his front porch, and waves every time I ride by. Weeks ago I told myself I should stop and say hello, but he hadn't been out for a while, probably due to the hot muggy weather. I was starting to think he may have died, and felt bad for never stopping.

But he was there last night. And I stopped, said hello and introduced myself. His name is Ralph. I'd guess he's in his 80's. He's hard of hearing, and appears to have some kind of nervous system disease - ALS maybe - as his hand was shaky in mine. We chatted for just a few moments. He said he used to ride a lot, and likes to watch "you young fellas" going by. He seemed truly delighted that I'd stopped.

I rode on, deep in thought, feeling good, hammering a bit because it felt right.

I stopped for a moment to switch my computer over to the cumulative odometer (it won't switch to that while moving, but will to all other modes), because I know I'm only a couple miles from 1,000 for the year on my road bike (which I got in May...so really my first big milestone on it). 997. 998. 999.

Suddenly I hear a loud SNAP paired with my seat falling off, followed by jingling of seat parts on the road as I'm cruising down a slight grade at about 25 or so.

At first I thought my carbon seat post broke under my 220 pounds of Clyde mass. But it didn't. The bolt for the seat clamp snapped clean in half. As i was walking around looking for the parts which had scattered, a guy in an SUV pulls up to ask if I need help. I said no, but thanks for stopping. Found all my parts, but had no bolt. LBS is only a few miles away, but I call my wife to come get me instead of riding without my seat. It didn't seem right to click my first 1K miles without a seat!!

Stopped by the LBS, five minutes of searching for the right bolt and I'm back in business.

With only about 1/2 mile to go to my 1K, I went out around 9:30 and rode around the neighborhood with my kids. They were happy to be part of my milestone : )

All commutes are good. Some are more memorable than others.

One more thought -- twice in the past few weeks I've had motorists stop to see if I needed help. Last night, and a few weeks ago when fixing a flat. That's pretty cool. Maybe next time it'll be a cute girl. Oh wait...married : )

canyoneagle

Grats on you milestone! Also, great post about the old man.

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My ride home yesterday was good, with the exception of an over-zealous cop who tonguelashed me for going around some railroad arms (the had just started coming down when I went through - I stopped, looked both ways, nothing for 200 yards, then I rode across the tracks). The lights had just started blinking, and there was no sign of anything coming yet, so I felt like I had done my due diligence. Anyway, the cop was parked at the tracks on the other side, and he jumped out and immediately started yelling at me. Ugh. A bit over the top. About A MINUTE later (while he was still yelling at me) I could see the commuter train slowly coming down the tracks 200 yards away, perhaps another 20 seconds from the crossing at the rate it was going.
I was polite to the cop, despite his over the top response. I could understand his reaction if I had willfully bolted across with a fast moving train in sight or something (or if the arms were fully down when I arrived), but geez, pick your fights, fella.

About a mile later, at a light, one of the 'regulars' pulled up next to me on his fixie, and we rode for a couple of miles together until he needed to turn off. It is nice to see some familiar faces in the bike lane.

On a general note, the traffic is noticeably heavier and more stressful now that school is in session. I might need to consider some alternate routes.

Another nice ride in this morning.

Sixty Fiver

Great commute this morning... it was bright and sunny and the girls had the hammer down for most of their 6km ride so we made it to school in 25 minutes.

As we were riding along my daughter asked, "where's your helmet"... oops !

The ride back was great and after I grab my lid and a few things will be ready for my second of three scheduled commutes of the day.

twentysixtwo

Chilly this morning - 45f. Knickers and a windbreaker helped, though my tootsies were cold. Wish I had snagged those neoprene booties when they were being clearanced at REI for $20

Back in May I actually rode when it was in the 30's. Was I freaking nuts?

HardyWeinberg

flagger wanted me to take an insane detour out of my neighborhood basically around the outskirts of the entire city. I cut into a parking lot next to the road (while she was letting a bus go through!) and popped out the other end. Had to run up 3 steps to get out of the parking lot, so it's not a great route if I had my daughter in the trailer (like I expect to tomorrow)

caloso

Passed a girl on a celeste Bianchi Milano. I called out "what a beautiful color bike!" Since I was riding my celeste Bianchi 928, she had to agree.

gna

I've fixed up a bike for my wife, see https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vintage/577253-my-wife-s-raleigh-sports.html. We've talked about biking into Minneapolis together, but my wife has never done it. She normally bikes a mile or so to the bus stop, where she has a bike locker, and takes the bus downtown. We take turns driving my daughter to daycare. Today was my turn. After I dropped my daughter off, my wife called and asked if I wanted to bike in with her, so I went home and got my bike.

It was beautiful morning for a ride--cool, sunny, light wind. We rode on Marshall over the Mississippi, along the Parkway, on the Greenway, and along the LRT line. It was a fun commute. She really liked it--says she wants to do it more--so now we have to figure out how to get our daughter to daycare on our bikes.

rando

nice day, not too hot. commuter count: 8. incl 2 beautiful college women. I love being near ASU.

canyoneagle

Nice job on that old Raleigh. I've thought about doing similar for my wife. I'm inspired.

doorunrun

The ride home was a bit on the wet side. A light drizzle in spots. But I've been riding my mountain bike this week because my regular commuter developed a freehub problem and is unusable. Man, do those knobby tires throw off some road sludge; a.k.a. no fenders on the MTB.

All in all it was an OK ride. At work we're doing a GreenRide/OneLessCar initiative and there are a lot of teams. You get a point for every commute you make using alternative transportation. You don't get much for how far you ride, but it does skew towards transportation with a smaller carbon footprint.

Now that I know "someone's watching," I don't want to chicken out and drive the car in even though the weather is lousy. Yes, North Florida is pretty wet and humid right now. If feels like a hurricane is developing on top of us.

Oh how I want some beautiful fall weather!

Sixty Fiver

It was hot as hell this afternoon... just asked the girls what 5 times 14 is and they asked why ?

I replied, because that is how far you will be riding this week going back and forth to school as I just google mapped our commute to get the new distance.

Since we do almost everything by bike they should be looking at putting in a 100 km week.

I think they should be proud of themselves.

Grim

Ride in was awesome! Ride home was good till I had a real close buzz. https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...26#post9603726

That just fouled it the rest of the way home.

eshvanu

Mostly uneventful, which is good. Got buzzed by a dillweed driving a city pickup pulling a very large trailer. Glad I checked in here, since I now remember I still have to report the incident.

Matt1972

The weather was nice today- lows in the 70's. Tonight was in the 50's, so I wore my balaclava. The crisp air of autumn is on its way...

julianpowell

the weather in new jersey attained perfection today. good commuting!

Luddite

It was slightly cool today, nice commuting. Gonna piss rain tomorrow though. Bleah.

blxm

Really, truly, horribly north of Scotland wet and as I was leaving the house, my 4 year old looked at me earnestly saying "Dad, take the car". I feel the need to instill in him the sense that you can ride a bike anytime so I replied "Ach, its only a bit of rain. And it's boring driving cars."

It was really wet but I have got good panniers and a decent shower at work and weirdly enough, I saw more bike commuters today than any other day all summer.

fletchh

Ok, will try this again. It was a chilly dark ride in 56 F (13 C). Getting used to the dark, but not the chill.

Big_e

Dark as usual and pleasantly cool. I rode my hybrid in today and plan to do some riding after work. I sighted my first commuter for the year! The commuter was about a block away. All I could see was the helmet mounted headlight as he/she turned to look, probably at my headlight. He/she went flying down another street and was gone.
Nothing else to report.
Ernest

vtjim

Clear, lower 50s, no wind.

At the end of my street, a regular (roadie) rode past as I stopped at the stop sign for him. We exchanged hellos. Then the Tour de Commute commenced. I had just started out so I wasn't really warmed up. He gained many yards on me but I had him in sight most of the time. After about a mile I started pulling, and about a mile later I was behind him at a respectful distance. He kept turning his head to see where I was.

So we were cruising along, 18-20MPH, for a couple of miles, and he bailed and took a different way in. I saw him next to my building about 5 minutes after I got here. I snapped a blurry iPhone picture as a trophy. (Severely cropped for reasons of privacy.)

tarwheel 

The temps dropped down into the 50s F for the first time since last spring this morning. It was nice arriving at work sweat-free for a change. I missed my bike commute yesterday because I had errands to run in my truck, but rode after work. I used to ride after work all the time until I started bike commuting 3 years ago, and I'll have to say that I prefer "killing two birds with one stone" by combining commuting with training. It's nice getting home from work, hitting the showers and then eating dinner and taking it easy rather than trying to squeeze in a ride after work.

genel

Entire week has been great riding, sunny and cool. With heavy traffic.

Another flat today, second this week, hole was at base of stem. Wonder if this is a problem with the tubes I've been buying, or is it a feature of the Krysium Elite wheels.

Allycat24

61F and sunny. Right about the time I was thinking I need to take it easy to let my knees warm up, my knee started hurting. I noticed the pain for about 3 out of the 7 mile commute and then no more. I have to remember to order those knee-warmers tonight. I know 61 is not that cold, but I'm a princess, as someone once called me, and I'm very sensitive. :-)

jpdesjar

Enjoyed the ride this morning.
Looking forward to logging some more miles over the long weekend too.
YAY!

School is back in session...watch out for those school busses and the kiddies.

canyoneagle

Came in about an hour later than usual, and YIKES the traffic is much heavier.
I soooo like the quietness of the earlier commute. Guess I need to be better about coming in early.