Had an "interesting" commute home this afternoon, to say the least. First, I was riding downhill on the busiest road on a my commute (5 lane) and catch something out of the corner of my left eye, only to see a large tire and rim go flying past me. The wheel must have been traveling at least 30-40 mph and certainly would have taken me down if it had hit me, only missing me by a few feet. It hit a curb about 20 feet in front of me, bounced into the air about 10 feet and then continued rolling down the road. Shortly after that a school bus passed me very closely and then proceeded to force me to the curb. If I hadn't shifted to my right it certainly would have hit me. This is on a marked city bike route with no bike lanes, but plenty of "Share the Road" and bike route signs posted along it. Finally, some guy in a small compact car ran a stop sign in front of me, forcing me to hit the brakes. This was in my neighborhood, on a quiet street with lots of kids around. You gotta be careful out there!

Amen Brother!

coming home through south western baltimore a street brawl broke out,

so i hid behind a building at the bottom of the hill untill it was over, I then shifted into my big ring and imagined I was lance trying to keep my points lead.

all ended well tho

Bad day for me.

First off got a wet foot on a flooded street at 37F so my foot was cold all the rest of the 9 miles or so.

Then I blew out a tire on the way home. But at least then it was 64F and I was only a mile and a half from home. That tire has been giving me trouble lately so it has been retired from service. It only gave me about 1700 miles.

Great commute this afternoon at 57F and overcast with winds from the NW @ 21mph gusting to 30mph.

Had an interesting situation happen this afternoon.

When I get to Rt 20, I have to eventually go left. On days where there's a lot of traffic, I turn right from Cottage Ave because there can be a lot of vehicles that turn left from 20 onto Cottage Ave, and it makes it pretty tricky trying to pull out. http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie...12,148.44,,0,0

I pull right into an abandoned gas station just up the road on the right and wait for a decent gap and turn left from there. This is the gas station that is abandoned (not at the time this pic was taken though) where I was waiting: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie...16.99,,0,-9.43.

There was a van that was approaching from my right on 20 that stopped in the middle of the road and I believe they though they could hold up traffic. The road has a large shoulder, so vehicles just started passing the van on the right. There were quite a bit of vehicles beeping their horns including the van. It was actually almost comical. I tried to motion the van to go but they kept waiting and giving me the "why haven't you gone yet?" look. When there were finally no vehicles around, I went with the van still waiting. I believe the van thought they were being nice to me holding up traffic. My thing is, I prefer to have as little vehicles approaching from behind because there's a blindish turn and later the shoulder gets narrow/littered, so I need to move left.

Man, some of y'all have bad stories to tell.

I biked to work for the first time today and LOVED IT! 57-deg and sunny in the morning, 75-deg and sunny in the evening. Gotta love Texas in Fall/Winter/Spring.

It won't be quite so enjoyable in August, though.

Been spoiled by the hot rod (21.4lb R300). Need to replace the tires so I have been riding my T700 and it feels SO HEAVY! LOL other then that it was a great ride in and home today.

Rocked the Xtracycle 33 miles today! 15.9 mph avg speed. Picked up my son for the last 7 miles on the way back. Ducked into work just ahead of the wind picking up and had a most excellent 19mph tailwind on the way home.

I'm good and tired, though-- forgoing the train on daycare days is tough!

Major milestone today!
This was my first ride of the year without any covering on my hands, legs or ears, and with with my lightweight wind shell instead of the Showers Pass. It was a balmy 50 degrees F (10C), which in these parts is shorts weather. he forecast calls for 73F (23C) today, which will make it the warmest day so far this year.

I rode the Marinoni in today. I fall in more love with that bike with every mile I ride it. I am really jonesing to do the drop bar conversion now. I will try to grab a cell phone "panda shot" on the ride home.

I feel great today! I had an awesome ride home yesterday...it was fishing season, and boy, was I reeling 'em in! Every time I passed another cyclist, there was another further along the trail. The last guy I passed, a mildly hippy'ish looking fellow riding a Surly LHT, was on a long, gradual uphill section. I could tell he knew how to climb because he was the only one on the hill not spinning in a low gear, and he was keeping a pretty good pace. Took me a while to get past him, and he kept on my wheel for a while. At the top of the hill, he was maybe 50 feet behind, but it was enough that I made it through an intersection just as the light changed to yellow, and he had to stop. Didn't see him again after that.

This morning, (beautiful day: 5C, sunny, negligible wind) I commuted on my road bike for the first time this year...man, does that bike feel fast! A guy drove up beside me at one point and said something like, "You're flying!", but I couldn't hear him that well. He was smiling, so I assume he said something nice. I smiled back and he drove on.

The morning commute was slightly soured near the end where I nearly got left hooked by a guy making an illegal U-turn. We both slammed on our brakes and avoided a collision by inches (and I think I might have heard a woman gasp!) A little bird then informed the driver of the error of his ways. Still, it was a great ride in overall. Now on to the drudgery of work!

Been a colder than usual spring but after seeing this photo I think I'll stop whining about it.... :D

First commute of the year that started with me being warm, with a pleasant uneventful ride in shorts and short sleeves.

I think I need to invest in some lighter arm warmers. This morning was just a bit too cool to go with short sleeves but the evening ride is supposed to be in the 70s so I didn't want to go long sleeved. My arm warmers kept my arms too hot though. Other than that, nice ride.

I'm halfway through this:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61MWLvu5VsL.jpg

So I can only imagine the worst. :eek:

Glad you made it home safely.

these are the salad days of commutes for me...perfect temps coming in, slightly warm heading home.

The softball/kickball crowd is out in force so I have some weaving to do on the National Mall area.

Minimalist commuting for me today: fixed gear, no computer, no HRM, no backpack, no lycra, no particular hurry to get to the office.

I ride through parts of SW Bmore to home as well. Curious where this happened??

got wet, but it was above 50deg, so it wasn't so bad. :)

Unfrigginbelievably gorgeous. 70F (20C) and sunshine, light breeze. Man, that Marinoni is a blast. Even though it is not really designed for front loads, it rides great with my Ortlieb Backroller snapped onto the front rack like a pizza bag. I'm pretty sure I had a perma-grin the whole way home.

I was feeling cold at 60F and drenched yesterday, that would have been a steamy shower a month ago. Funny how quickly your metabolism turns on you.

I LOVE that book (and pretty much anything else David Simon has a hand in)!

Yesterday's commute: Cool, rainy as hell, uneventful but it was a nice, not-too-early 08:30 ride in. Today, more of the same especially the rain. A Little more eventful, had to use the Air Zound twice (one pedestrian, one cager).
Tomorrow's commute: 05:10 wake-up for an 05:25 ride to werk. Yarb.

No commute today but I did the full Atlanta Beltline tour on the beater today. I just love this bike. Looks beat to hell but rides like a champ!! Best $40 I have spent on a bike (that fit me...nailed a Univega Viva sport for $30 once at the thrift but was not my size so I flipped it for a nice profit :D ).

I am starting to see light at the begining of my ride. It takes getting accustomed to, as 10 months of the year in the dark is comforting, but after 2 months in the light, I don't want to give that up either. Good temps at 55 F (13 C), and no rain in the immediate forecast. I just might get my tomatoes in the ground this week.

Finally....
 

broke 1 hour....57:14! Thank you tailwind and restfull weekend. Last Friday I logged 54 miles on the bike commute...17 in...17 home AND 20 round trip at lunch to the DMV to renew my drivers license. That was an excellent day as well.

Just a tad bit chilly this morning. Also over the weekend, or at least since my last ride, they completely ground up the street that I ride about my last 3 miles into work. It was that diamond grinder thing. There was about a one inch gap with a sqaure edges that could pop a tire in a second at every intersection and was so rough I could not ride between intersections. No real good alternatives that I can think of, certainly not without back tracking and being even later for work, so I cut through parking lots, sidewalks etc till I got there. I hope they fix that soon, the good news is that was the roughest part of my ride anyway, so after they repave it it will be very nice. The really bad thing is, I forgot I was suppose to be at a meeting downtown today at lunch. I keep extra everthing to wear at work but I have to get there and will not wear my good clothes on my bike. So I am riding and taking my bike in with me and wearing my bike clothes. Lets see how that goes over.