They're dropping like flies. The other bike commuters, that is. It was around freezing this morning and I didn't see another cyclist until having biked 22 miles. I met a regular while crossing the I494 bridge across the Minnesota River valley. He's been riding in stealth mode in the dark up until this fall when he mounted a couple of of flashers up front, and in the rear. Kudos to him, finally! And a mile later at work, another commuter was putting her bike in the bike lockers, and a co-worker I've worked with across four companies since '94 pulled in. She lost her dog to cancer a few weeks ago, and without the time constraint of needing to get home to let him out, has been biking to work occasionally.

Had a good ride through driving but light rain with a stiff headwind. My sister passed me in her car, then pulled over to ask if I wanted a ride to work. I was soaked to the bone and had about 9km still to go. Told her no thanks and enjoyed the rest of the ride.

Cheers,
Scott

I accomplished something this week that eluded me all summer long: I managed to ride all five days this week.

It was 30 degrees this morning. I've come to the realization that my cold weather riding gear is actually more like "chilly weather riding gear" & not suitable for sub 40 degree riding. I'm on schedule to hit 3000 commuter miles on my Monday ride in, I think that Monday night will be a good time to hang it up for the season.

It was a beautiful ride today though.

Ay, that'd be me.

Did my normal 12 mile commute into the office without incident. Decided to take the path along the river and I was treated to lots of pleasant "sights" all the way in. I really should take the river route more often.

Nice mornings here in Austin.
Sometimes, everything just feels right on a bike ride.

Went downstairs to discover a flat just as I was ready to hit the road. It was nice to change it at home but, I failed to find the cause and patched the tube and rolled out. Of course, I felt the rr. wheel getting soft about 3/4's of the way to work. I didn't feel like changing it in the dark so, I just kept stopping and pumping-getting as much mileage on it a possible. I made it in about 20 minutes late, no biggie as I'm usually the first one in and pulled the tire off. It turns out I hadn't seen the tiniest sliver of glass embedded in the tread. I pulled it out, patched the tube and used Skabs to patch 3 cuts/holes in the tire. The cool thing is that I decided to give my Co2 pump a try. Wow, that was cool, got about 110 psi. in about 2 seconds-I couldn't believe how quiet and fast it filled my tire. I've gotten tired of riding home with the measly 30/35 pounds that my hand pump is capable of and, wanted to get accustomed to using the Co2. On the plus side, my legs have felt totally recovered from last weekend's century and were loose and strong. Hopefully this afternoon's ride will be uneventful.

the lake front path in chicago is pretty messed up. north avenue beach swallowed up the path, burying it under a layer of sand form the wind/wave storm we had the past two days. pretty slow going on 700x37 tires. i have no idea how the dudes on skinny tire road bikes were riding through all that sand.

Oh, come on. It's been reassuring knowing someone else is out there with me. :-) It was five days in a row this week for me too, and my body is feeling it. Don't know if it's the colder temps, the strong headwinds every afternoon, too many candles on the birthday cake, or a combination...

Largely uneventful until I overshifted and wedged the chain between the crank arm and large chainring. Said 'ring didn't have an anti-jam pin, and it took me 5 minutes to get it freed.

Warmer today, I was overdressed but didn't really mind. I swapped tail lights and left the other one home to blink all day. I want to see how long it lasts running on a set of rechargables. That should give me a good idea whether the light is bad or I got a package of alkaline duds.

I'm severely jealous you got that southerly wind at your back going up the Hudson. This entire week I've been having major headwinds on the way down, and the path gets too dark above 104th St to use after work.

Crosstown can totally be a PITA, but they've done a really good job of keeping the designated cross streets well-paved. (20th, 19th, 120th, 119th, 90th, 91st, 10th, 9th – notice the huge dearth in midtown, though? 44th and 43rd aren't too bad).

Shoot. It's just now bicycle season around here...finally.

I rode to work all five days this week. After starting out so warm Monday afternoon, by Thursday morning, it was 39 degrees, easily the coolest morning so far this fall. After that hot afternoon Monday, it's been 65 to 80 degrees in the afternoon since, really nice.

2011 days ridden to work: 181
2011 commuting mileage: 4423.3

Five days on the new bike now and mostly loving it! Sunny and below freezing every morning this week with midday highs around 35ºF, but now that I'm riding with an aggressive body position I just want to hammer anyway, so staying warm hasn't been an issue. I miss my handlebar mirror though, this Third Eye helmet mirror doesn't begin to compare.

And I was cool with bar-end shifters when I had them on my North Road bars, with the shifters were right there in the primary hand position; on drops I'm not so enamored with them. Anyone know of a model of 8 speed brifters compatible with Avid Mountain BB7s?

Oh yeah, I forgot about this:



Awesome locking job that I saw at the store on my way, about 10 feet from a half-empty bike rack. The lock is threaded through a short strand of rope that is stapled to the firewood. Theft options abound here; you could plant a foot on the firewood bundle and pull on the rope until it pops free, you could cut the rope, you could load the firewood into the bike basket and ride away with both a free bike and and free firewood (double score!), or you could undo the two bungies that hold the basket to the bike and slip the lock cable over the handlebars.

Then again, if I rode a Magna, I don't think that I'd even bother with the lock. If I were the thieving type, I'd be more inclined to take the 1/4 full jar of pepperoncinis (wait, what?) than the bike.

I'm going to ride out the to university this weekend to study for a mid-term. Today I got my laptop back from being repaired at Staples for a week, so I figured I might as well take it with me. But first lets turn it on . . . . . uh, its still broken, exact same error code as before. Maybe the tech guys just hit one of those easy buttons and put it back in the box.

After blinking away all day I'm certain my tail light is fine, I just have a batch of defective Rayovac batteries. The packaging has this big guarantee plastered all over it. But upon looking at the details it would probably end up costing me at least as much as package of batteries to collect on it. That is if I actually had the receipt. Who actually keeps receipts for stuff like that.

I've never had bad batteries before, considering Rayovacs aren't that much cheaper than Duracell / Energizer I guess I'll stick with those brands.

yeah, met a friend for breakfast up on 86th street so got the nice tail wind but had to be at work on E. 31st so back down the path into the wind and then the dreaded mid-town cross streets. Today's ride was great though. Nice ride to work then home then out later tonight for a ride uptown to 95th and then home again. Loving having the bike in the city but some of the streets are in rough shape, whew!

She was pushing her bike alongside the road. I could see her rear tire was flat. I was going to offer to help, when suddenly, without looking, she crossed the road to the other side. I had to brake hard not to hit her. I just shook my head and kept pedaling. A teaching moment lost in disgust...

HAhahhaHAhAhahaaa

Not a bad ride in. One of my fastest, mostly due to light Sunday traffic and cooperative traffic lights. It was cool starting out but once I got warmed up, I was quite comfortable.

It should be downright frigid on the way home ... which will include a trip to the chiropractor (Multi-modal).

Racking up the miles on the folder these days getting around Manhattan. Rode over to Brooklyn to meet some people and then headed back over the Brooklyn Bridge to a film screening at Lincoln Center. Then back to Brooklyn to have dinner with a friend then back over the bridge one more time to mid-town and home. A total of 47 miles for the day.

Lots of peds on the bridge today due to charity fundraising walks. Peds refuse to stay on "their" side of the bridge and pretty pissy at the bike riders for even existing. It was still a friggin' blast and the movies I saw were excellent. An all round good bike riding day today.

Wet and rainy all day today, road still glistening right now with a below freezing/chance of snow overnight forecast. Time to get studly:



It's gonna be a loud ride in tomorrow. Damn it.

Just a chilly ride in at 44 F (7C). The days are still in the 60s F (high teens C), and that is good. I always dislike that several weeks of adjusting to cold crappy weather, but I know it is coming.