Just over 60 degrees this morning, coolest ride in for several months.

Wet
 

12 miles in a downpour in London. Gore-tex in my jacket failed almost immediately. Good news was, I didn't need a shower at the other end. ;-)

64 degrees this morning. Should be in the upper 80s on the ride home. =D

Tough commute Today due to my shifter cable breaking yesterday...I could only shift between the two front rings...made for some interesting hill climbs. Plus there was severe thunderstorms approaching from the West. It must have motivated me because I made it in dry in 54 minutes...my fastest time in of the year. Now I need track down a shift cable. :notamused:

I rode through the tail end of the severe thunderstorms that JPinWI managed to avoid. I got soaked to the skin, but then again I usually am after 20 miles anyway. Except my shoes are all wet, and that's gonna suck this afternoon.

I had a partial fail in my pannier/garbage bag setup and my work pants ended up with a wet spot in the most inconvenient of all possible locations. :eek:

Ride in was uneventful. I did manage to lock myself out of the shower at work, with my clothes inside and the water running. Luckily, my bike clothes were accessible or I would have been running around the building in a towel looking for the facilities guy. :) *sigh* good times, good times.

Warm (15C), grey, and drizzly in spots.

Been commuting since 2005, use to post everyday. Not so much anymore since my commute went down from 3.6 miles to 1.6 miles.

In any case...easy commute today, lights where in my favor. Traffic was fairly light, no right-hooks or car doors to speak.

Just the way I like it!

Be Safe

-FBMXer

"How was the commute today?"

Pretty rad. Despite the fact my bottom bracket was creaking part of the way (need to replace the damned plastic cup with proper steel and repack it), and that it was my 5th of seven 10-hour overnight shifts in the E.R., I not only thoroughly enjoyed my ride home from work, but for the second day in a row I managed to climb the one block I usually walk because it is too steep of a hill. Today I sat down and powered up it, yesterday I popped out of the saddle to conquer it. For the longest time I could just barely climb it, and it totally winded me, but with working multiple nights in a row, all the walking I do at work (much of the time muscling decrepit, laden, gurneys through tight turns), and a daily 15 mile commute - most days I just walked that block so I'd have enough energy for work+commuting the next day. Getting stronger yay!

Bonus: It wasn't raining like I expected it to be, but was cool, dark, and overcast like I like it.

Commute today was rough. The hill I was afraid of attempting last night completely destroyed me. My legs were not enjoying the ride this morning. It also didn't help that I left late and had to push to make it to the Ferry on time. Yesterday I was feeling great all day, energy galore. Today it's all I can do to keep upright in my chair, and I'm absolutely dreading the ride home. Might go as far as I can and just catch a bus the rest of the way. Is that considered cheating?

cruising through the door zone, a street where parents drop their kids off at a private school, a big delivery truck was stopped in the road to my left. I was so focused on watching for opening doors with kids squirting out into the bike lane that I almost missed the other commuter crossing from left to right in front of me and popping out from the front of the delivery truck. I locked up the hub brakes. Didn't even think that was possible. Missed him, and both of us were going slow, but it was kind of a shock.

Love the cooler mornings, hate the school traffic that comes with cooler mornings. Time to start changing up the commute again.

Supernose: there is no cheating in commuting, and that hill wont even be there in a few months as long as you keep going at it even once a week.

Commuted for the first time this school year. Well, the school year just started today.. I guess I'm 1 for 1 on days that I've bike commuted. Still waiting for my panniers. Did the 3 mile each direction commute and it was nice. Nice, cool morning here in Denver. I averaged about 4 minutes per mile. Not so bad with a ~15 pound backpack (already loaded up with textbooks :mad:), so I hope it will be easier with panniers and nothing on my back.

The commute in was uneventful.

As I was preparing to leave, I noticed that traffic on my normal route home was backed up at least a mile and decided to take another route. It turns out that the alternate route was about 2.2 km (1.35 mi) longer than my normal route. It was also way hillier. And I had a bag of groceries strapped on the bike. It was a good ride but I was ready to be off of the bike by the time I got home 72 minutes later.

Great rides recently, especially with the summer weather that finally arrived.
I yell or make comments (never swearing) to drivers who block crossings on MUPs, bike lanes, or run red lights and blatantly block my path. Usually to the effect of, "What, no reverse on your car, you should get that checked!" or "You can't just back up 3 feet?" or "Thanks for the block!" Sometimes I just give them a 'thumbs up' as I ride by. The last several days I've had pedestrians, who are also blocked by the drivers (yesterday a metro bus completely ran a light, blocking three cyclists and five pedestrians as we were actually crossing with the light on the MUP), yell at ME because I was hollering at the drivers who were, you know, BREAKING THE LAW as I was legally proceeding. "Hey calm down!" Jeez. If I had a horn would they say that? Maybe I should just start ringing my bell like crazy. "ding ding ding...ding bad driver ding ding..." People have been so inured to the blockage factor that they don't even care any more. Never mind that they have to weave thorough cars poised to hit the gas the second they can move forward, regardless of people crossing with a green, or enter the general traffic lane to proceed. I'm finding it really annoying that people are basically telling me to shut up about it because they should be annoyed too. But I am aware that those who are saying it may not experience it every day. :notamused:

Then today I hit a huge hard to see until right on it pothole. Jammed up something in my rear axle. Since I've done this before I know not to ride it hard or up hills until it can be repaired (last time I did that I broke two bearings and had to replace the whole thing). Husband can hopefully pick me up tonight. And it's a beautiful evening too. Back up bike will be put into service tomorrow. :D

Wore out another cheap michelin tire. Really need to invest in something nice.

Somewhere in the last 24 hours I lost 4# worth of fluid. Presently rehydrating.

Another nice ride in at 58 F (14C). I think it goes back up from here, but heading into Sept, the nights will be cooling down. Yesterday, was my first real earthquake, short, but the ceiling tiles rattled.

81 as I get ready to head out. 111 forecast for my commute home.
I'm going in early for a special project. This will be my first dark dark commute. Should be an interesting day of commuting. Again, I'm the only commuter I see in my end of town. Very strange.

Cool mornings and moderate afternoons, this is a nice change-hopefully it stays this way. Well, after yesterday's 5.8 earthquake I now know just how quickly I can change, pack my things, grab my bike and hit the road. Once they gave the "all clear" I went back to my cube, logged off and changed in about a minute flat. I checked w/ my co-workers, topped off a bottle and was out the door all in about 5 minutes. I was a little concerned about the condition of the 14th St. bridge but, it was fine. I only ran into bad traffic on Maine Ave but, everyone was nice and let me weaver in/out to cross the street. Once I got to the VA side I stopped to make a few calls, make sure everyone was ok. I saw a lot more cyclists than usual, people leaving early and, plenty of traffic on the GW Pkwy and RT. 1. My poor wife had to walk across the Memorial Br. and down 395, fortunately she caught a ride bike home from a friend, this after a 45 min. walk out of DC. My ability to get out of the city and back home quickly and reliably, make me more grateful than usual to be on the bike. It made me consider the state of my emergancy preparedness on the bike though: should probably carry more snacks, a light and, a more complete medical kit-just in case.

Topped off yesterday's 22-mile commute with a 90 minutes of kayaking on the lake near my house. Lots of exercise for the day but I felt great this morning. I'm only 0.2 lbs away from my goal of losing 28 lbs since last Christmas. I now weigh what I did in college more than 30 years ago. Gonna try to maintain this weight.

Nah. Start out slow. You'll get stronger.

Some sun this morning. 65F/18C with a ~20MPH headwind. A bird flew out of the weeds next to the MUP and came within inches of my front wheel. That was my excitement for the ride.

Haven't posted for awhile. I've missed few commutes all summer. But now school is back and with it the traffic, so I thought I'd do an update.

Nice weather no wind, but some ominous clouds were rolling in as I got to the office. Been riding the road bike. and I think I've ruined the rear dereilleur. I't doesn't have enough ommph to get to the small gear. Suspect to much rain and road grime using it on the commute. But love being able to drop the younguns. (I know..it's not a race)

Traffic very heavy with first day of school in Mundelein. Guess the global warming preaching isn't taking. Only one other bike at the HS.

Stop sign have been a pet peeve all summer. I've lost count of the number of times I've carefully managed my speed to cross with a car going in my direction, only to have a crossing car gum up the works and not move till after I've stopped and waved him through.

Anyway, sunrise is starting to intrude on the ride, so time to start getting my light setup going again.

More cool morning temps, I feel a slight chill when stopped at a light (also partly due to the fact that I amcooling down from the morning run). Seemed to be multiple obstaces this am, cars, people, strollers. Enough thast a fellow rider agreed with me that everyone seemed to be out and about today.

Post earthwuake ride home was nothing special. A colleague mentioned that he saw hundreds of people on the MUP walking home from the Distict last night where on any other given day he sees none.

Commute was nice for me today. Cool, but I still managed to work up a good sweat while shaving a minute off my usual time. (Did more walking on the pedals as opposed to shifting down on uphills.) :D

10C, sunny, breezy. My commutes over the past week have all been very uneventful. Which is nice.

Almost got run off the road by some idiot who decided he wanted to race a bicycle in his 1999 banger. GRR.