Nice ride in, I haven't been able to ride all week. My legs are loving it. Temps are in the 70's already (before sunrise) so it's gonna be a cooker on the way home.

Getting psyched, I'm building up a Surly LHT as my new commuter/cargo/road/everything bike! Can't wait, so excited!

36F / 2C. Pouring rain the whole way in. Lightning and thunder. Thunder was consistently 5-10 seconds delayed. There wasn't a single other person (that I saw) on 5 miles of MUP. Sweet.

My co-worker, who lives about 10 minutes away on foot, emailed to say she was delaying her departure due to the weather. I gave her some $(@* about that. ;) At least she can use an umbrella!

37f Nice morning pretty good headwind though, supposed to get windier and be raining this afternoon:(

Dang, Texas, why don't you have a spring? 70s and humid in the mornings and mid 90s and humid in the afternoon. Not much besides me moving on my commute.

Yesterday I found out the tires on my road bike just can't handle thick mud. The police had blocked off the MUP and the road on East Columbia because a cement truck ran the light on a steep descent and T-boned a car pushing it through the barricade and down a 20' embankment into the park. The driver of the car did not survive. The police were asking the cyclists to detour through the grass field in the park which at this time of year is about 2" of mud. This morning was much better, clear and chilly but no real issues. The police still had a 5 tonne truck parked in the middle of the MUP at the scene of the accident and there was a lot of debris on the path but it was mostly cleaned up.

32F, sunny, dry, gorgeous. Shorts were the right call, fingerless gloves were not.

Had a commuter race this morning*, kept my heart pumping on my newer longer less-slopy route.




*and I never do this. But this guy turned right to go in front of me, in my direction, clearly gave me The Look, and took off faster than I could keep up. Then he shifted and basically lost control of his bike and I kept going. He never got closer than 50' to me the rest of the way, another ~4 miles before I turned off, even w/ lights. I should have stopped to chat but I had to get to work...

So hot in the morning, rainy in the afternoon and windy in the night. What a weather! :D

It snowed yesterday evening, the roads had a bit of ice on them this morning but I didn't seem to have any traction problems with my slicks. I love the sound of bike tires breaking through an ice covered puddle. 8C forecast for the ride home, so I'll be wearing shorts. I left much later than usual since I'm just studying for finals now. The commute is much more fun without all the cars around. Many more cyclists around 7:30, I also saw a motorcycle and a vespa.

It was nice to see that the bike lane they were brushing dirt into, got swept yesterday. Unfortunately the sweeper didn't pick up all the dirt that was on the road. In addition to various clumps, there is a slick muddy film. It should be dried out by the time I head home.

I need to start practicing getting my cadence higher. It dropped off significantly during winter riding and my knee is starting to complain.

Repeat of yesterday: -5C, clear, no wind.

I've been trying different variations of my route to check the conditions of various trails, and there's still lots of ice in the shady areas.

Misty and foggy. Still cool and waiting for spring. Got honked at, not sure if it was a honk of encouragement or derision, but I passed the car at a light and the driver was smiling... not sure why.
I tried shifting less today, kinda to test my strength. Made it half way before I shifted to the next larger cog to get up a hill. After that, only 2 more shifts the whole way in. Could have done less, I'm certain.
Hope the ride home will be peaceful.

Got dropped by a little grey haired lady with what must have been a carbon fibre walker... should have Cinzano'd her with my cane.

I am sure she gave me "the look" when she blew by me.

There is a reason I don't walk much and am sure I will be a little faster on the bike.

:)

:lol:

Nice ride in this morning. Chilly but not cold - 33-34 degrees F, 1-2C. I'm still running the singlespeed rear wheel, and kind of liking the simplicity again.
My Gates replacement cog for the Alfine arrived last night and I installed it and got the rear wheel ready to go, but decided to stay with the SS for now.

I am sure these little old ladies are doping as I have seen them doing intervals in the mall and you know they have to be on the juice...

It is looking like a nice day and the doctor says I need to ride my bike so will do that so I can get dropped by the usual spandex wearing suspects.

What a great ride in this AM! Temps around 60. Legs felt great and I made the 7 mile commute in less than 30 minutes including a couple red lights. This was on the MTB I've borrowed from a friend. Whole range of higher gears available to me, which wasn't the case by the end on my now defunct hybrid due to some shifting issues I was ignoring b/c I kept thinking my new bike would be built soon. Realizing now how much that slowed me down, even though I pedaled a decent cadence.

Anyway, new bike finally is close. Have all components I need and rustproofed inside of LHT frame last night. Build on Saturday!!! :)

Another beautiful day today. I think it was the 10th sunny day in a row. Morning temp was 6C, afternoon 20C. Just perfect. I finally got around to taking a few photos of my commute.

A dirt road shortcut that cuts through a field on my way home.
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_0077.jpg

Another view of this field. My house is at the base of those mountains in the background, about 30km away.
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_0074.jpg

More fields.
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_0092.jpg

Rolling farmland.
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_0096.jpg

A "dolmen", which has stood at this site for about 3000 years.
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_0100.jpg

Just a few kilometers more.
http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...n/IMG_0105.jpg

Sorry, no photos of my house. It's about 3km straight ahead from this last photo.

Jeffpoulin, What I'd give for a commute like that! All I get is 5 miles of subruban sprawl.

Wow, Jeff. Farmers around here won't even be seeding for a few weeks yet.

First entry in weeks, another cold day, I'm not sure it got above 40, and a 15-20 mph head wind this afternoon. Heck of a spring so far.

Replaced front brakes and cable last weekend, new rear pads on order. They were in a pretty sorry state.

This is how today's morning commute would have looked if I was doing 200km/h.


The first version of it that I uploaded here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mDUXoOuHoU was very shakey, so I ran it through the Deshaker filter for virtualdub after creating a 8x speed copy. It made a huge difference. In the original video the brake levers were stationary and it was the rest of the image that bounced around.

Now to do one with my winter MUP ride video.

Jeff - WOW! Beautiful photos!

And cool vid gecho. :thumb:

Jeff and gecho, thanks for those awesome contributions.

Strong headwinds this am, I was on the road extra early. Probably 50+ degrees out there. Stopped to do my stair intervals at the National Gallery, was doing those in the dark when another cyclist stopped by to do some stair reps as well...that was unexpected!

A pleasant ride this morning at 52 F ( 11 C), and no rain predicted this afternoon, so outside of dealing with traffic, it should be a nice ride home. One day this week I came to an intersection, wanting go left at the light. The issue is that lane can go left or straight, and the same for the opposing traffic, which is why I put out my hand and keep it there until the light turns green. It also prompts people in opposing traffic to turn on their signals if they are making a left or not. I was first to the light and a truck pulled up behind me. 4 cars in the opposing traffic were slow to put on their signals, so I had no idea who was going straight or left, so I waited. The truck behind me beeped at me, because he wanted to go straight and I was in his way. He backed up, and sped around me. I just had to laugh, as a big truck beeping at a guy on a bicycle.

+1 to that, I see pictures like this and I start hating where I live.

Good ride both ways today. Slight headwind this morning, slight tailwind this afternoon.

Lots of traffic on the river this morning, though, so the ferry was pretty slow - took about 20 minutes between the time I got to the dock and the time I was back on dry land on the other side, when it usually takes less than ten.

Had a rough trip home yesterday. About halfway there, I'm going down a gravel road, and my front fender comes loose. I stop to fix it, and when I take off again, the front monomount for my rear rack breaks, causing my rack, trunk bag, and taillight to flop backwards and get dragged through the gravel for a few feet. I put it back together with velcro straps, and kludged a quick fix for it last night. This morning, the bike it rattling and creaking like crazy. I can't wait to get my LHT frame and parts in so I can rebuild the thing.