5C/41F, sunny (very low on the horizon) and a light breeze. Got about 3/4 of the way to work, and suddenly had the premonition that I had probably forgotten my keys at home. Pulled over to check, and yup, no keys, can't lock up my bike. Continued to work and sneaked my bike into the office for the day.

58F and misty. Our 2 weeks of warmth appear to be over, I can't believe I spent one of them exclusively inside an air-conditioned conference center. Real waste of degree-days.

Cool morning so I wore one of the $7 merino sweaters I got from value village. I arrived a bit sweaty but I think that was due to wearing a back pack. As I pulled up at an intersection to turn right, a car came up on my left to go around me. I've had that happen a few times, but most drivers aren't quite that stupid. Still not as bad as the one time someone passed me in the middle of a right hand turn.

I need to avoid arriving at the university around 8:30am. Impatient drivers trying to find a parking spot and a sea of pedestrians.

The addiction/urge to ride today was super strong today, so I did a double-up. ;)

At 5:15am, pitch dark outside, I jump on the motorcycle to do the 18 mile ride to the gym. This can't be done on the bicycle, because I used the interstates. Anyway, ride was super, the workout at the gym was super too. Okay, no go to work on the motorcycle. ;) I haul it back home, dump the motorcycle and take a good 5 minutes to figure out which bike I am going to ride to work! ;) I settled on my (#1)79 Raleigh Competition GS.

Snatch off motorcycle leathers, hit the shower, grab shorts, top, tennis, dam fall down the steps to get to the Raleigh. :D All set.

I had snatched out the Raleigh and put in the driveway first off. Looked at both of them together, and I had to snap a pic. ;)

The ride to work was super-duper. Temps about a nice 79 degrees, sun out, I did the 6 miles to the subway. Off the subway, do the uphill mile to work.. Right at the gate of my job, I started to just take my cell phone and call in sick, and go riding. :D But, I did that last week. ;) I am at work now... Can't wait to get off...

Such are the ways of an old geezer...;)

http://www.cehoward.net/commute7.jpg

Bought fingered bike gloves last night, just in time. 55 degrees at 6am. But, a beautiful ride as always.

It was still fairly warm this morning (52 F.) but very misty/foggy. I've been wearing my glasses lately because of the dust from the gravel roads I ride, but today I had to keep wiping the water off them. Misty mornings with the dispursed light from the full moon are cool. I couldn't see the moon at all, just a glow from all over the sky.

:D Is that backpack-looking thing for the motorcycle?

That's not a bad idea. I got sick of the wannabe Fast & Furious dorks trying to race me whenever I was on my Katana.

Rode the Continental to school today, and I discovered it is AWFUL in Albany. The bars are too narrow, so starting off in a high gear from a light can be a wobbly prospect if you're not on the "hoods." It weighs 1,574 tons, so it's slow to accelerate. I knew that, but usually on my other bikes I can pace cars to about 15 mph. This wasn't even close. I brought it down as an experiment, and I think I'll take it back home. Despite the much better ride quality than my Le Tour it is all around much worse as a city bike.

My next city bike is going to be 650b for sure...

Funnily enough the only other person to bring a bike to my dorm brought a newish Schwinn Gateway. It has the same headbadge as my '74 Continental, which I thought was kinda cool.

That is the top of my street motorcycle suit. I only ride with full armour, top and bottom, don't care how hot it is..;)

On the fast and furious, they usually look at my bike and tell I am for real. ;) I do not engage with the youngster/fast and furious on the street. One time, I caught a couple of the so-called-fast at the racetrack when I was doing racer practice, I am on a 600 full race, they were on 1000s. It was no contest! ;)

Can't wait for the commute home.. The bike I am riding, a 79 Raleigh Competition GS, was givin to me some 30 years ago by my #1 son.. It was stolen, recovered crashed twice, put back together, and it is still kickin!! ;)

Life is dam sweet for this old geezer! :beer:

It was a day for pants... will probably wish I had packed shorts for the ride home.

Same here. (Aerostich in my case.)
:thumb:

Oh, I still wore shorts, but 5C is on the verge. Couple more degrees south and I'll wear pants. Wore a jacket for the first time on a commute since spring.

My old knees don't like 5C... seem to have recovered nicely from Sunday too.

Still wondering if you were on EPO as the other fastest guy in the group (and he is a really strong rider) said he could not stick to your back wheel.

:)

:lol: Not unless there was something in the pyrohy I wasn't aware of.

Rode the subway today, but on the way home I did my usual count of cyclists going over the Manhattan bridge while I'm on the train. 61!. That is far and away the most I've ever seen. I'd counted 40 once before, and 31 before that. At first I thought it was a group ride, but that isn't a route a group would take.

Maybe tomorrow I'll ride in myself. It is supposed to thunderstorm, but those are brief.

91 degrees but very pleasant, no humidity. Nice ride;.

Which one of your bikes is faster?

http://i414.photobucket.com/albums/p...r/IMGP2092.jpg

Excellent commutes this morning and afternoon.

64F and dawn/thick patchy fog this morning with winds from the S @ 4mph. Took a slightly different route to see if I could save some time and get in a little earlier. My normal route this semester is 21.7 miles and this route was 21.2 miles. The moving average was 2 minutes faster, but the total duration including stops was 1 min slower because of more stop lights. This route has 12 stop lights in 2.4 miles after leaving Berkshire Ave. The original route has 10 stop lights in 2.9 miles. I may try adjusting the route again on a different day to see if I can cut out some of those stop lights. I also felt somewhat like a celebrity after getting behind a school bus for a while during a few red lights till it turned off. All the kids in the back were waving and taking pix of me with their cell phones.

For the afternoon commute, it was 84F and sunny with winds from the SW @ 13-15mph gusting to 19-23mph. There was one hill that I was climbing and could see a runner a ways behind in my mirrors. According to my cyclocomputer and gps, I was going between 7-8mph for the 4/10 mile climb. The running was definitely booking it because he almost caught me before I hit the downhill section. After that, I never saw him again.

Had to go to work at 6 this morning and had a stand off with a skunk. Saw something come out from the shrubs on my left barely illuminated by my light. As soon as I saw the stripe I came to a halt and so did the skunk. Was in the process of turning around and it ran off.

:thumb: cehowardGS! Great pic!

Nice ride in this morning. Work being done on my bike path and the road running parallel to it but they did a decent job of leaving things clear for cyclists.

Rode home at a good pace tonight. It felt good to roll along at some speed.

I built and installed a new outdoor bike rack at my condo last weekend and man, does it make my life easier to have a place to lock the commuter outdoors that's solid, well lit and sheltered. Sure cuts down on the amount of time scrambling the bike in and out of the basement or struggling to lock it to a fence post.

A very nice ride in at 65 f ( 18 C). A couple different sightings than on my normal commute. A fellow riding in the dark with a back pack on the side walk. I guess he was using street lights to see. He was ahead of me on the down hill, and for some reason, came off the side walk, cut in front of me and rode the other side of the street. I passed him on the uphill and just kept going. I believe that I spooked him, and that is why he crossed the street. As I continued on on another street, a young lady was running with a headlamp on. At first I thought she might be a bike on the sidewalk, as she was coming up a hill, but as she got closer it was easier to see. I might have seen her before maybe once.

62F/16C with a light tailwind. Was riding leisurely. Spotted something reeling me in. Spooled up to fast cruise. Lost whatever it was. :P

Saw some wild turkeys "grazing" in a neighbor's yard as I left.

This was my last morning commute from our current house. Taking tomorrow off to close on new house, then we're moving right in. 1.8 miles from work instead of 6.5. :rolleyes: Almost seems too short to ride. I'll have to buy a Hummer.

A good ride but on the chilly side for shorts at 5C... time to break out the big-boy pants for fall riding.

On the plus-side of that, my legs felt really nicely warm once I changed into my work attire and was out of the cold!

Cheers!

It was another beautiful morning commute. 65F/18C, mostly clear skies, no wind. I left extra early this morning so there was almost no traffic. A pleasant ride it was.

I had to drive today, have a wake to go to tonight right after work. :-(

Last night I encountered a younger guy (early mid-20's) in a road kit as the MUP I was on crossed a county road. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him turn on to the MUP behind me. I'm more or less accustomed to being the fastest thing on the trail at the time of day that I'm riding, so I didn't give him much thought and continued on at my 19 mph pace (Did I mention that I'm a scofflaw when it comes to the MUP speed limit?)

Anyway, I had almost forgotten about the guy behind me when on a straightaway he blows past, pulls out ahead, sits upright and while maintaining speed takes a pull off his water bottle. I'm not a really a competitive person and I had no illusions of passing him, but I decided that I had no intentions of being dropped either. So I notched it up and stuck with him, close enough to say that I was with him, but far enough back not to crowd him. Our speeds went up to 22-23 MPH. On the MUP. Joggers, rollerbladers, biketrailers, all went past in a blur. He never spoke a word, but I still called out each time I passed. We must have been some sight, a young fit guy on a nice road bike being chased by some old fat guy on an ancient touring bike, with panniers & a handlebar bag.

Eventually MUP gave way to road. To my surprise he was going my way. He definitely had the leg up on the road, though I gave him hell for as long as I could. I suspect that he was toying with me. He finally dropped me on an extended climb (Hill + a bonus freeway overpass). As I came down the other side I saw him about a block up, turning off of my route. I kept the screws to it for the rest of the way home and finished my route in my best time ever, 20.5 miles in 1:09:42 pedaling, 1:15:18 elapsed.

BTW, I had broken yet another rear spoke on the way in yesterday morning. So I did the ride of the season on a busted wheel.