Low 60's, 25 MPH headwinds. Oy! It was my lowest average speed since mid June. And that's all without a single old lady or a porcupine.

71 degrees and calm as I left the house. The ride home last night didn't feel right at all - I felt disjointed, the bike was making noises (grinding from the right pedal, small squeaks from RD/hub, FD rubbing a bit) and I almost decided to take the day off of riding and then get some maintenance done this weekend. But I spent a few minutes working things over last night and decided things would be good to go. Pedal grinding turned out to be some grit in my cleat - cleaned it and presto, no issue. Quick rub down of the chain removed most of the back end squeak. Didn't hear the FD at all this morning, so maybe that was also the pedal/cleat thing? Anyway, the short version is that I'm glad I rode. Tacked on an extra mile loop at the end to make sure I get over my monthly mileage goal by the time I get home tonight, as there will be no riding for me tomorrow.

At the end of my ride, I cross under a highway. Two 4-way intersections, one with the frontage road in each direction. Going straight through the second one takes you directly onto my company's campus on a three lane road. Two of the lanes proceed straight from under the freeway, and the third (right lane) is a right-turn lane from the frontage road. The 3 lanes become 2 at a stop sign as you enter the campus. Usually there's no traffic coming through there as I arrive, but I started a couple minutes late this morning. As I'm coming straight in the middle lane, I decided not to move right as I usually do because there were actual cars turning right from the frontage road. A moron in a really nice Mustang GT decided to stay in the right lane and squeeze in at the merge/stop sign rather than change lanes behind me and go around in a completely clear lane. I almost chased him/her up into the garage, but decided that would probably be unproductive. I'm surprised that that people can be so unaware/inconsiderate of people they share an office with...

I couldn't resist drafting a Pepsi truck this a.m. It was a perfect setup: creeping up behind him at a right turn, then going slightly downhill for a couple hundred yards it was easy to keep up while getting up to speed. He finally got away on the up slope at around 45mph! This was all less than half a mile but I got a big kick out of it.

Frosty morning here and have yet to get on the bike and head off to physio but took my morning walk through the mall after sending the girls off to school and grabbed a coffee and as I was limping along I hear this sound... ka chick ka chick ka chick ka chick... and I know it's her.

I'd know the sound of that walker anywhere and I know... that the game is on.

She "ka chicks" her way up beside me with her pimped out walker and I'll be damned if she didn't give me the look and if those wheels were not so small and spokeless I might have cinzano'd her with my cane.

I am sure this little old lady is on the juice... she dropped me like a bad habit as she kachicked away from me and hard as I tried, I could not hold her wheel.

Maybe tomorrow...

It happens to me all the time. Great satisfaction In particular if there is a large truck trying to back in into a warehouse and blocks the street causing the traffic to back up for many blocks, sometimes for several minutes. It's very satisfying to ride by all the cars stuck in the traffic, and then I have nearly traffic free few blocks after that

Speaking of porcupines: it must be a season or a new fad, or something: there was a girl riding her bike over the Williamsburg Bridge this morning carrying a little porcupine in her front basket that was nicely padded and had ribbons and flowers for decoration. I hear they're cute and make nice pets, I mean, er... porcupines, not girls... although... oh, never mind

Nice, cool, dark. I had a close call - a "creeper" (car that continues rolling slowly at a light) came within a foot of my path as I crossed an intersection with traffic. I'm pretty sure the person would have pulled in front of me if there was no traffic next to me. Apparently I wasn't visible enough, pre-dawn, with my 2W Blaze on blink and my Supernova E3 Pro lighting the way

[QUOTE]Speaking of porcupines: it must be a season or a new fad, or something: there was a girl riding her bike over the Williamsburg Bridge this morning carrying a little porcupine in her front basket that was nicely padded and had ribbons and flowers for decoration. I hear they're cute and make nice pets, I mean, er... porcupines, not girls... although... oh, never mind [/QTE]

Under your picture it says queens, why are you on the williamsburg bridge when commuting?

Spent some time last night @ home further diagnosing and trying to deal with a creaking sound from the cranks/BB area. Was sure I'd fixed it over the weekend when I replaced the non drive side plastic cup of the BB (which had cracked) with a metal one. No dice. After a couple days the creak was back.

Think I may have finally found thew culprit this time... drive side crankarms w/ chainrings may have been a little loose. Pulled it off, cleaned everything up and put itg back on (with grease per Sheldon Brown website suggestion). Got it good and tight. No creaks on this AM's commute!!! Knock on wood. It was nice to not have to worry about embarassing creaking noises when pedaling harder.

FD needs slight adjustment now. Chainrings must be slightly closer in now that that crank is tightened down better.

Otherwise ride in was good. Sun came out a little at the end. Better than last night's ride when a double decker DC tour bus passed me with only a foot or so of clearance, almost running me into the curb near Jefferson Memorial. Took note of the license plate number and plan on contacting tour operator to complain about the driver.

Wiped out heading home last night, stood up to climb a hill and the bike just fell out from under me, I think I shifted my weight at the exact wrong time on a pile of wet leaves.

Gushing scrapes on my left knee, pain in my left hand, and real pain in my right wrist. I was late to get my daughter from her soccer practice so I just kept on straight there (actually stopped at home to hose the blood off my leg on the way). Then on to soccer at her school. She kept loosening her cleats but I couldn't tie them w/ my hands being kind of messed up so another father helped me there. Then I got her home right when my wife was leaving for a meeting she had, so I was home w/ the kids and basically let them run wild but still got them to bed close to the right times.

This morning I went to the ER and was in/out in (edit: 2 hrs, not 1 hr) I got x-rays to verify no break in the wrist, just a sprain, an ace bandage, and now I'm at work.

Not sure how commuting will go in the next couple days; it was difficult using my right hand on the bike at all (and it only has one shifter, on the right hand downtube). And our car is stickshift, I drove it around the block this morning and it was doable on a vacant neighborhood block but I don't know about combat traffic on a 5 lane road.

Hopefully I'll get back to normalish for next week, fingers x'd.

I was weighing calling the family doc about my wrist, but I knew he'd send me somewhere for an x-ray, going to an urgent care (my insurance company website said most had x-ray but the one here doesn't answer their phone outside business hours), or the ER where I knew they would have everything I could possibly need. As it happened I was out of the ER less than 30 min after the urgent care opened. Now I can call them, if I remember, and ask them if they have an X-ray, for future reference.

I definitely think I made the right choice going to the ER but I guess I will have to wait for the bills to roll in to get the final word on that.

Because I broke my bike yesterday, I drove. Replacement parts ordered from Harris Cyclery, hopefully arrive tomorrow. I stopped and got a bagel on my way to work. Now I feel like crud.

First time posting...been commuting about 14 months now and just needed to get this off my chest.

This morning I had just left the house and came up to the second lighted intersection I normally deal with. It's at the on-ramp to one of the regional highways that heads into downtown Minneapolis, and is fairly well traveled. I'm in the leftmost lane, which is the straight-through, and there's a right turn lane on my right. I'm pretty much right on the line between the two, like normal. I pull up to the red light, watch as the cross light turns yellow, and just as it goes red and I'm expecting green, kick off. Only this time the opposing traffic in the left turn lane got a green arrow. So I pretty much pulled out RIGHT in front of them, and of course the lead car lays on the horn. I immediately yell SORRY, but the horn kept going so it turned into a "F U" instead. Felt like crap the rest of the ride in and it's still bugging me.

Before anyone jumps on me for jumping the light, this is the same intersection where I had almost an identical situation (light had just changed, so I was starting through the intersection) when some slob in a minivan passed me VERY closely on the right (passed me in the turn lane, basically) while on the horn, then slams his brakes on as soon as he got in front of me. Since then I have been very anxious to get through that particular light, hence my early start.

I know I completely screwed up and wish I could have explained to the driver that I made a mistake - I'm sure he/she thought I did a stop and go. In the grand scheme, it's not the end of the world, but it still irks me as I'm normally very careful and cognizant of my place in traffic, and try very hard not to impede anyone else's progress. I stop at every stop sign (I've rolled through 2 in the 14 months I've been commuting), do at least a stop and go at every red (the lights that I know will change I wait for, the others I don't) and generally jump a red only after the opposing light has changed (and only so I can get through the intersection and out of the way of those behind me). In other words, I try to be safe and courteous as much as possible.

Like I said, just needed to vent a bit. I'm sure this will stick with me and I will be even more hesitant at that intersection now, although I'm close to finding a different route, even if it adds time to my commute. Regardless, thanks for reading.

Sorry to hear about the wipeout. Had a similar fall a few years back that gave me a nice rash, very swollen knee, and a 2 week break from riding - it sux. Glad you're not badly damaged - get better quick!

The longer I ride, the less stuff bothers me. Learn from your mistakes, try not to get run over and have a good time. And about the cage pilots, have a thick skin and short memory. Oh, and I have rerouted my commute for the safest, most pleasant ride, not the quickest, much more fun that way.

Went to physio this am which loosened things up nicely and went for a ride afterwards just to take a little loop...

Crossed the bridge at a good clip as there are few people on there at 11 in the morning and started my climb off the bridge which is a short but steep 12 percent grade and suddenly I hear these weird noises over the wind and for a moment thought I had snapped my frame in half as I must have had it dialled up to at least 400 watts.

Then I recognized the sound...

ka chick ka chick ka chick

I was thinking... not freaking way ! But then grandma pulls up next to me on her hopped up walker... I did not even know they made Zipps for these things and again... she gives me the look.

Was so distracted I did not see the porcupine step out in front of me and barely managed to bunny hop the spiny little criitter and when I looked up I see grandma cresting the hill and damn it if she did not flip me off.

I wonder is she has an E walker.

The ride back was fairly uneventful until I was nearing home and I saw a huge flock of what I thought were geese and then realized they were small flying pigs and below them was this Saab with a big assed dent in the passenger side. if you think bird crap is nasty you should see what pig crap dropped from 100 feet is like. And the smell... whoah.

There isn't enough washer fluid in the world to get that much crap off a Saab and think the owner must have had it coming to them.

Drove the car today instead of riding my trike, and what a disaster it was this morning. Hit stop and go traffic due to road construction, and that took what seemed like forever to get through. (If I had rode, I would have been coming from a different way and wouldn't have had any issues at that perticular spot.) Pulled up to the lot that I park in whenever I drive and they told me that I couldn't park there and had to park on the street. The reason being that I didn't have a sticker, which I've never needed for the 2 years that I've been going. I was already running a little late due to the construction, but I was even later after I finally found a spot about 1/2 mile from campus. (When I ride, I get to park on campus.) I got to class about 20 mins late. Definitely looking forward to riding tomorrow.

65er Did you drope the hammer on her?

I know that it bothers you that you screwed up but for what it is worth I too have noticed here in Minnesota that MNDOT (Or whoever decides) messes with the light sequences quite a bit. I had a similar experience this week where I was at a routine stop at an intersection that I use all the time. I started to go & then practically stood it up on the front wheel in the crosswalk because the sequence was changed and it was actually not my turn to go. I looked quite stupid and uncool, but it beat the alternative.

That works for me - I had forgotten the incident until I read whoiswes's report.

I actually just started commuting to my new job yesterday. Train + Bike = saving $150 a month in gas!

Commuting has been great, and I'm looking into buying racks to alleviate this 15lb bag off my shoulders. Laptop+clothes+lunch= shoulder pain.

Never had the chance... will be watching for her tomorrow as am sure she has been stalking me.

I don't need my bike to commute per se, but I did run some errands before class today. Drivers in Albany have been nice to me lately. Coming back from class was a torrential downpour that I did not expect. It kinda sucked because I was dressed for a presentation in class. My nice corduroy jacket with the elbow patches is all soaked now.

My commuter also wears Araya Red Labels for the time being, with a nearly corncob gearset on the back. Lots more effort, but the extra tall ratios at the top now let me super-cruise through the flatter parts of Albany with minimal effort. Climbing the steeper hills is a challenge though...

I'd sneak up and airzound her. If you can make her freeze up before dialing it up she'll never keep up.

Think I need a better weapon than this... a lighter bike might help and what with the explosion in the porcupine population here I had better be rocking some Gatorskins.

groovestew's Bianchi has these fitted and one would be hard pressed to keep up with him... figuring his little layoff might give me a chance and am sure he'd have no problem with little old ladys unless they were driving Saabs.

Good, I can see you're not about to underestimate this one. Little old ladies can be cagey, an almost animal cunning at times and merciless when they've gained the upper hand. But I'm sure you know this already - reading of your travails I can almost hear "Eye of the Tiger" playing.

Nice ride in. I was tired and slower than usual. The ride still woke me up and energized me.