Enjoy it while it lasts! I felt bad for the city workers this morning blowing leaves in the light rain, with just me biking on the path. There were a couple of joggers though. And the creek will flood by this evening, making it all pointless. I'm not complaining though!

It's okay, man. I haven't been able to ride a bike in traffic, much less commute, for going on 4 months now. It was almost exactly a year for me, too. I miss it. Hang in there. Things will improve, and even if you can't go back to commuting, if you ride to get somewhere (as opposed to riding in circles for exercise) then you're still welcome here as far as I'm concerned. Heck, even if you don't, you've been through a year of commuting, which qualifies you in my book.

I most likely will not be able to go back to commuting at all as long as I live here. There is no bike infrastructure, and drivers are getting more and more aggresive and stupid, and the police are useless. I'm not going to stop riding, and I'm going to keep being an advocate, but I just can't commute any more.

I'm not okay with not being able to bike commute if I want. Every day when I drive to work, I check the weather, look at road conditions, and watch traffic as if I were cycling. It has changed the way I see traffic and drive. It makes my sick to my stomach that 99% of the populace here couldn't give a rat's behind about utility cycling. Sadly, this includes most of the local roadie club. The general consensus is "Commuting here is too dangerous." It makes me angry because it's true, but nobody is willing to do anything about it.

On top of it all, I'm still dealing with legal repercussions of my accident, not the least of which is the moronic police department claiming it's my fault I got hit by a car that ran a red light. It went something like this:
Police: "We went back and reviewed your case. We now think it's your fault."
Me: "Are you daft? The guy ran a red light and hit me from the side."
Police: "No, you would have been run over if that were the case."
Me: "Hello, he was in a Honda Accord! It knocked my bike out from under me. Bumper is only at my calf level. I went over the hood."
Police: "We don't see it that way, sorry."

Why do I even try? Ugh.

Stickman, lawyer up.

Gorgeous morning for a ride - 60 and sunny, traffic not too bad, hit almost all the lights. Must be livin' right!

About 50 degrees, raining at 7:30 am. I took Beater #1 bike, Honda Prelude. Did the 7 miles to the subway, ate breakfast at my favorite downtown spot, then did the couple miles to work. Pure sweetness.. ;)

Raining like cats and dogs right now. Might pass on the ride home, might have the wife come get me. Will see. ;)

Drizzly rides both out and back today. Warm. Love those rain bootys from Showers Pass.

Perfect again.

Vegas must be really nice this time of year.

20-45 mph winds kept waking me up all night, so I wimped out and took the bus today. I don't mind cold but once the wind starts blowing faster than I can ride, I'm out. Should be less blustery tomorrow, so we'll see. One issue with the bus that I've never had cycling: I've never gone past my home because I was engrossed in a video game. :o

Okay, I need to apologize for my rant earlier, but I heard back from my insurance adjuster, and I learned a few things.

1. The police report has no bearing whatsoever on my accident claims since nobody pressed charges.
2. The insurance companies are totally responsible for figuring out who pays what on the claims.
3. If they can't agree, they get a third party to arbitrate.
4. If the other company (of the guy that hit me) even claims 1% responsibility, they will be obligated to pay.

What this means for me: doesn't matter what the cops said, the insurance companies think I wasn't at fault, so they will take care of it. I was worried for nothing, hopefully.

I still miss commuting. :(

for me it didn't start great as i hadn't had enough sleep. about a mile in an onld guy on a bike cut me of and i ended up bumping into him, although very slowly. after a quick argument using my best mandarin i kept going on my commute. less than a minute later my rear wheel punctured quite dramatically. caused by the hole in my tire wall that i have ignored for the last 600 miles or so. walked half a mile to the nearest street mechanic to repair the puncure but he tries to rip me off by asking 10 times more than he should for the job. end up walking a mile to the next mechanic only to find he's not there, so on i go another mile to yet another mechanic who fixes my tube and even makes an attempt to cover the hole in the tyre so i can keep going without worrying too much. get to work 20 mintues late but know body notices.:)

51 f .... 20 mph wind ..... rain .... but overall enjoyable .... didn't overdress :D

This truck passed close by on my way home. I’m still trying to work out the best (read safest) way home.

A nice ride in at 49F (9C). A tad chillier, but still not bad.

Frozen Fork, yep we can identify with semis and other vehicles that like to see if they can miss us by inches, even on the other side of the road.

For the second day in a row I am opting to use my car and relax a bit. I find that as I am moving back into a lifestyle of utilitarian bicycle usage I occasionally need a day or two off to recover. I stopped riding in 2003 after many years of bicycling, and really only started getting back into it a few months ago. Also I'm discovering that as I am getting older (58 now) it is taking longer to get fitter. I remember not having to take days off when I was younger - I would simply ride with less intensity on days I needed to recover, and I'm thinking after a few more months of commuting I will be able to do that again. Meanwhile, I'm glad that I still own a car for occasional use . . .

40F/4C with a quartering headwind. I was pathetic, speed-wise. Still a bit zonked out from cold meds I took last night. Looks like things are finally going to begin cooling down, weather-wise.

A rare morning rain ride for me with light showers and temps in the low 50s. Usually I drive when it's raining when I get up, but it was a light rain and is supposed to clear up later. Plus I drove yesterday due to forecasts for severe weather and thunderstorms, which passed to west of us. No problem because my legs needed some rest anyway and I had a hint of a saddle sore developing. Felt much better today, so the rest day did me good.

Tractorlegs, I'm about the same age as you (58 in January) and I definitely have to pace myself more than when younger. Although I ride about 6 days a week, I ride at a fast past only 1-2 days/week. Sometimes you just need to take a break, and I just about always feel better when I do. Despite that, I will am on track to ride my most miles in a year ever this year.

About 25F this morning. Forgot to put on a mid layer but ended up not being an issue for my 30 minute commute.

Unfortunately I was involved in a dog getting hit by a car :(

I was riding through a residential area. You know the kind; driveways, mailboxes, etc. Speed limit is 20 mph. Still dark out. There was a car approaching the opposite direction. To my left I heard a dog start barking. I could tell it was fairly close but didn't stop to look because I was paying attention to the car coming my direction.

A second or two later the car and I just about passed each other I heard the dog get hit by the car. The car slowed down in advance and I don't think the dog got run "over" per se. But I definetely heard her get hit by the bumper.

I immediately turned around, and made sure I couldn't be of assistance or that she wanted my information. Turns out the owner had three dogs with her. Two small dogs and one large one. It looked like they all had leashes but I think the big one just got away from her, that's the one that was clearly hit.

Such a terrible feeling!

Got going a bit late today partly due to the snooze button and trying out some new gear. I used my electric toe warmers for the first time today. They worked well but running the cable extensions from the battery packs on my waist, down the inside if my shell pants took too long. Also wore my new Smith Variant helmet.

It ended up being much warmer and much less windy than forecast, so I was far too warm for half the ride. The wind picked up significantly halfway in, which I actually appreciated.

My legs didn't feel like they had much in them today. The ride took 61 minutes, though I had to deliberately slow down early on to reduce overheating. There should be a huge tailwind for the ride home.

Many riders I've seen on my afternoon rides home have expressions of agony on their faces. The fact I can actually see their faces probably explains part of it.

And my laptop died again this morning. It's the 3rd motherboard it's blown since the problems began. So I had to type all this on my iPod.

Oh, and 100th day of commuting for the year.

Back on the bike commute after a 6 day break...thought maybe I was done...25 degrees SW wind...Dressed fairly well just got cold toes and crotch towards the end. Need to double layer my underwear. :eek: Less than 300 miles to go to reach 5000 bike commuting miles in 2011...35 miles a day puts it within the realm of possibility...only need 7 more days...

Great day for a bike commute! :-)

The coldest morning so far this fall at 16F. Lots of ice by the time I got to work--water bottle, beard, between wind breaker/pants and clothing. I'm missing the simplicity of July logistics: shorts and jersey and go!

Had a run-in with a cop on the way home last night. Sort of.

It was on the most frustrating part of my route - on a 4-lane road, 2 lanes each direction but no shoulder, 45 mph speed limit, between two lights. The second light is for a road leading only to a community/sports center on the right; for some reason, drivers are often very impatient in this area, rushing up to the light; of my 9-mile commute each way, this is the section where I consistently have the most close passes. I have learned to aggressively take the lane here most of the time, but it's also up a hill, so sometimes I drift over to the right side of the lane to allow traffic to pass me. That was the case yesterday; I wasn't really thinking about it, but there was a headwind in addition to the hill, so I was going slower than usual and probably drifted over toward the right 1/4 to 1/3 of the lane. And sure enough, a big SUV passed within a foot of my handlebars - way too close for comfort. I yelled at him (or her, who knows) - and right then another car passed just as close, just in time to get stopped at the red light behind the SUV (as an aside, I've noticed this phenomenon a number of times - one close pass is often the trigger for another follow-the-leader close pass right after it). I stopped behind the car that just buzzed me; it was a late-model brown Crown Victoria with dark tinted windows, a spotlight affixed to the driver's side, and exempt license plates. An unmarked cop car, obviously, so obviously the driver should have known he was supposed to give me 3 feet of space, or preferably the entire lane, especially since he was just rushing up to the red light. Pissed me off, not to put too fine a point on it.

So when the light changed traffic starts moving, very slowly; I start moving behind the cop car, who is going so slowly that it's hard for me to keep moving, so, again without really thinking about it, I start to pass him on the left. As I get alongside the driver's side window I start pacing him, and staring into the window from about a foot away. Frankly I don't know what his reaction was, because the window tint was so dark I couldn't see into the car, but he was trapped in the slow-moving traffic and had to have seen me - just like he had to have seen me when he buzzed me (another aside - as I stopped at the next light a little further down the road, another driver, wearing a Livestrong cap, gave me a thumbs-up and complimented me on my rear flashing red light - said it could be seen from a long ways off) so I'm pretty sure I made my point. Point being that he endangered my life just so he could be ahead of me at the light, and was now in MY way so I had to slow down just like he should have when he was behind me. And that incidentally he was a ******bag and should have known better.

Upper 40s with a stiff headwind gusting to 25. Left crank arm bolt started to come loose mid-ride. Not sure why. Tightened it back up and got back to riding. I'll have to keep an eye on it.

this morning was the first properly sub-freezing commute of the season for me. the 15mph west winds didn't help. it felt cold. really cold. i was probably under-dressed and i forgot my toe warmers; my feet were solid blocks of ice by the time i got to work. i won't make that mistake again.

-1º, sunny, winds down to about 10 mph. Huge snowdrifts everywhere from the wind event.

Wow, Steely Dan has 888 posts, and the following post is GriddleCakes with 999. Of course they'll both probably continue posting to the forums and go ruin it.

Great ride home. Fresh snow falling, and a strong tailwind. Instead of trying to go fast I just enjoyed getting blown along at a leisurely pace. Here's me with my fancy new winter helmet.

http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/a.../IMG_1235b.jpg