just a slight coolness on my arms this am but otherwise the Spring commutes are amazing. Lots of bikes coming home last night, found myself in a pack of 5 bikes in a bike lane at one point.

First day I've ridden this week (home Monday with a nasty cold, took the train the past two days while recovering from said cold).

Gorgeous weather, 60, sunny, calm, lots of bike traffic, it's funny to see it increase with the good weather :)

Still feeling the aftereffects of the cold, my lung capacity definitely isn't back yet and I may take the bus part of the way home to avoid the big hill tonight. Caught some air on the MUP this morning too, they're setting up for a regatta this weekend and there were some electrical cords under a plastic protector that was taller/steeper than it looked at first glance.......I believe that's the first time I've had the Surly completely off the ground (while fully loaded), she's not terribly graceful :)

Warm beautiful morning. Found a couple of bumps I had never seen before. one was so bad it almost hurt.

Nice ride in today, except for one idiotic imbecile who decided to pass me doing 50MPH against oncoming traffic... why can some people just not resist the urge to pass cyclists??? Even if it runs oncoming traffic off the road? Ugh... I'm getting to where I hate cars more and more.

Ahem. Anyway, other than the aforementioned idiocy, the ride was very nice.

i had to deal with lightning on the ride home last night. i hate lightning. the rational part of my brain knows that i'm FAR more likely to get splattered by an errant motorist on the road than get struck by lightning, but i don't have that primal, irrational fear for cars that i do for lightning. mind you, i have a very healthy respect for cars and the damage they can inflict upon me, but i'm not scared of them on that deep down psychological level like i am with lightning.

40F sunny clammy-wet but no precip

Got a few drops of rain before sun up, but the commute itself was gorgeous! Cool, but not cold. Didn't wear a lite jacket this morning.

On the other hand, I haven't driven my truck in quite a while. I'm going to have to start that puppy just to make sure the battery is ok.

Good weather and bike felt really fast. Had another commuter draft off me for a while. Wouldn't have been so bad but his RD was out of adjustment and that noise drove me nuts. Was very glad when he turned. Then, as I was cruising through a green light, an idiot in a pickup on the side street to the left decided he'd waited long enough at his red and floored it. We looked at each other, both braked hard then he waved me through. Heart rate hit its max for the day on that one.

It's called "a sense of entitlement". A lot of people out there have no sense of respect or responsability for anything or anyone, as long as they can get instant access to what they want. They will risk anything or anyone to get instant personal satisfaction.

My operating theory right now is they are just stupid. But you might be right.

great ride this morning.. but it was really crowded out there...
i guess today is bike to work day.... GET OFF MY LAWN

That is life on the last block of my new route (well, 2nd-last block). Drivers' choices are restricted to ramming oncoming traffic or ramming cyclists. It's too bad their rigs have no mechanism for speed modulation...

You're 8 days too soon.

Today was OMG it's sunny let's dust off our bikes and ride to work day. I did notice a few extras on my route.

On my ride home yesterday on the Custis Trail in Arlington, VA headed eastbound back to D.C., when I'd gotten to a relatively level stretch, I reached up with my left hand to try to adjust my helmet strap, since it was pinching my left ear. Another cyclist headed westbound approached and as he passed me, he screamed "GET OFF THE PHONE!"

This continues to irritate me. :/

Pretty nice ride home. I have been a commuter for years now and if people still yell at me and act stupid I rarely even notice anymore. If they dont get in my space or threaten to, I dont care about them. You have to raise a ruckus to get me to pay attention to the silliness. About 2 miles from home this big lady in an SUV got behind me, it was a four lane road she had plenty of room to go around me. She was getting pretty close so I started keeping a pretty close eye on her. She lays on her horn. So I look around just to make sure I aint missing something. THat is when she starts to go around me, slows beside me and is furious. Get off the street, she screams and other stuff I could not understand. She was furious. I just shook my head and kept pedalling. As she pulled back in front of me and took of I sadly noted the "In God we trust" plates. I am Christian I am not sure how you square the fury and intolerance with........ I dont know why she acted like that. She would have only had to be behind me for a few seconds, certainly less than a minute. What is wrong with people?

Kind of a bummer of a commute today, and all my fault. I was waiting at a light (first in line, waiting in the left turn lane), and a cyclist flew by against the red, a young guy on a cyclo-X commuter, going fast. No, there wasn't really any risk, since I know the light pattern and presumably he did too (ie it was green for cars coming straight at us, and there were no cars coming). But it annoyed me, so I figured it would be a good time for an experiment. I caught up to him and passed him while saying "you're making us all look like a**holes". Some yelling from behind about 'you got something to say, say it to my face', and then he caught up to me again. I repeated my comment, and added "you went right through the light; is it that hard to stop?" He said something profanity-laced about "there was no need to; it's my bike and I'll ride how I want to".

Anyway, I felt bad. I don't like thinking I unnecessarily gave some other bike commuter a bad day, and the confrontation has kind of been on my mind all day. I've always felt that it's not hard in a west coast town to get respect and courtesy from cars; just respect the road rules and ride like a slow, skinny car. No, I don't stop for every red light, just the vast majority of them.

Stupid works, too. This morning I had a friend's bicycle tied up in the back of my Tacoma, and I passed a roadie who was hugging the edge of the pavement. I was entirely in the oncoming lane. No cars coming though. Just doing my duty as a fellow cyclist.

I don't know where else to post this, so I'll post it here: In about a week I'll be free of the rat bike and commuting on a brand new Trek Soho Deluxe. Commute reports will be forthcoming. I'm pretty excited. Getting a great deal due to my broken Liquid frame, so props go to Trek and the LBS. I'm just too twitchy at having to wait a whole week for delivery!



You know, I've always noticed the slower cyclists are the ones who ignore red lights and stop signs.

It was cool in the morning with the promise of a warm 70s afternoon. When I left work at 5:45 though the ocean breeze had kicked in again and it was below 60. I was somewhat cold as I only had a t-shirt on. Otherwise it was pretty uneventful but there were a LOT of bikes going across the Manhattan Bridge. My speed is somewhat in the middle on my commuter so I was passed a lot and I passed a few people myself.

I think tomorrow I'm going to do the real easy commute, downstairs in my bathrobe, and work from home. Funny thing though, I look forward to the Friday commute and staying home will take that away. I'll have to quit early and take my roadie into the park for a few laps.

I use the lights as an excuse to rest. Of course this early in the year commuting I need all the rest stops I can get. Beautiful morning around 35 and clear in Los Anchorage. No moose or bear on the trail to make it interesting.

d'oh!

still, kinda miss the lonely and cold winter commutes
KINDA......

Was cruising home, with about 7 miles to go, and realized that the power bar I'd eaten earlier wasn't enough. But I had no other food, so I just said screw it and kept riding. About two miles up, there's an REI over the levee from the bike trail. Theyd set up a table on the bike trail, and were waving at people Apparently its bike month. They gave me some granola bars, and free water bottle, and some coupons.

Wasn't hungry anymore.

Kudos to every cyclist who rode here today... was 74 degrees F and this would have been wonderful if the wind had not been howling at 30 mph and gusting well beyond that.

Opted to ride south through the river valley instead of risking the bridge crossing and found a little shelter in the valley but had crossed the bridge a few times earlier in the day and it was not fun.

^^Yep! No harm in enjoying the 'stop' part of stop-start.

light sprinkles, loved the cloudy overcast morning, makes the green come out even more.

More bikes out every day.

Lovely morning. 60F/15C and sunny, but with an obnoxious headwind. At least I'll get it at my back for the ride home. Lots of attractive young women were out riding the other way. Not together. It must be some kind of cute woman cycling day or something.