Flatted a mile from the office (first ever in 6-months). Walked in with the sun beating down, and have to patch the tube at lunch

fantastic. the sun was just coming up; it was warm enough for just a short-sleeve jersey and my shorts; traffic was light. the 8 miles were very refreshing. yay, southern california!

Commute was great this morning. Cool, slight mist. Only been commuting for 2 weeks on bike so far, but every day is a bit better (10 miles each way)

Managed to log a 'best time' and also did better on the hills. T-storms this afternoon might make it interesting, but I packed a rain shell this morning, so as long as the lightning holds off, I am good.

Last week summary.

Got out of the house with diverse cargo configurations on my back aiming for the main road that leads to the bicycle path.

Great commute this morning, cloudy and 50ish. Got to work in record time.

Was biking back from lunch in Chinatown and got attacked by a seagull

Biking door to door now @ 30 mi RT. My overall average is improving also.

Great sunny weather today...a very nice change of pace!

Interesting ride in to and from work today.

As I’m approaching the building (0.25 miles away) there’s a car that won’t pass, won’t pass – I wave them around, still stay behind me about two car lengths. No honking, I’m doing about 15-18 MPH but it’s a 30 MPH zone. I pull off to the parking entrance, car stays with me, almost pulls alongside. I’m just ignoring them at this point. I pull up to the door – yup, here comes the same car. I’m heading toward the stairs when the driver says, “Man, you were flying!” I couldn’t see in the car clearly, but it looked like a co-worker, so I’m about to let loose some smartass comment (we’re a close-knit bunch). I bit it back JUST in time when I noticed that this was a stranger. I walked over and we had a nice chat about bicycle commuting. He’s interested in doing it himself and had lots of questions. He said that he always looked out for cyclists and had tremendous respect for those who ride on the road. Made my day!

Had to stop at the dentist on the way home to have a filling repaired. There was a long wait, so when I left, the storm that had been forecast earlier was arriving. I headed on out and got a couple miles into it when the lightning started. Pulled into an elementary school and waited out the lightning for 20 minutes or so. Got back on the road in moderate to heavy rain – felt great!

Riding along on the wide shoulder, cars whizzing past. I get honked. I’m thinking “Yeah, whatever,” when I recognize the car of some close friends of mine. They pull over and offer me a ride, and are aghast when I tell them that I actually enjoy riding in the rain. They made me promise to call them when I got home. If they didn’t think I was certifiably insane before, I’m sure they do now!

Fun times.

By August I won't be able to do that here without feeling like I just stepped into a hot shower with my clothes on.

Already hotter outside the house than inside at 6:00 a.m. Summer was late last year, but making up for it this year. Avg high temps for the last 4 weeks have to be somewhere around 97F... Gotta love Texas!

Worked "from home" today - wife headed out of town for the day with the kids, so I did a quick run to the Walmart (the "far away" one) to return a Redbox flick, and then to my favorite Starbucks for a few hours of work. Rode home at lunchtime to eat and finish the day from home. Traffic was nice, missed the real heat of the day, and had a great time.

Replaced brake pads this weekend with a set of Kool Stops. They stop great, but the front squeal like a stuck pig - I've adjusted toe and everything else I can think of... was hoping they would settle down after breaking in, but they're still doing it after 20 miles. Guess I'll just consider it an early-warning device for traffic in front of me at a stop light until I can find time/motivation to try something else.

I hate this rain. I don't like taking out my (dad's) 30 yo racing bike in the wet, but we've been having crummy weather and ever worse forecasts, so I biked to work today. Going down was nice. At 3:00 I went to tighten some spokes and yet new front brake pads; the 10 minute ride back to work was a mad dash in the rain. And going home I had to take shelter from the rain.
And tomorrow is rain.
I can't wait until it clears up!

This morning was damn near brutal. I guess taking the weekend off the bike was too much recovery for me. I pushed too hard and almost made myself super sad.

The ride home was pleasantly wonderful, if super freakin hot. Sunny Southern California. Gotta love it. While you're dripping with sweat.

ctoddrun - Sandpaper/steel wool. spend some time with it. love it. [pad side and rim side.] Brake squeal should get at least a little better. And of course make sure that they're toed in pretty sharply, though it looks like you already did.

I was forced to drive my car in today, I had to take a company physical. Every time I drive my car, I am reminded how many bad drivers there are out there. It's funny, I feel safer on my bike.

Awesome ride home today. We had a crazy storm around 4pm, but it had blown thru by 7:30. The bike path was pretty much empty, it had cooled off a bit, and there was steam, rising from the blacktop. I flew home, felt like a Gatorade commercial or something. Only slight downside was I was on my good/weekend bike because I couldn't be bothered to air up the tires on my commuter this morning and move the frame pump from the good bike. But a 10 minute wipe/lube at home tonight did the trick.

Nice ride in this morning, pretty uneventful.

Bummer, no commuting for me for a while, on account of no job for me for a while. A spat of redundancies at my former employer took care of that.

Now, daytime leisure rides are a different story

My ride was pretty nice, made it to work in a little under an hour. (13 miles) Nice weather, not too hot in the morning.

61F and sunny at 7:00AM this morning. Made the 15.25 mile commute in a bit over 56 minutes on the single speed.

Was up late last night. Pretty tired this morning. I almost bailed out of the commute. Just didn't have the motivation. Would have preferred to take the "easy" way. But once I got out on the bike with the crisp morning air in my face and the sound of the wheels on the trail... my fatigue faded from my mind and I found my rhythm.

enjoyed the ride in, it was a bit grey and the roads were a little wet from the nighttime showers
had an awkward time with a bus that kept passing me and i kept passing him...

Absolutely beautiful. 60 degrees, the sun was just coming up, and there was mist in the air! Finally, some humidity! I saw a really cute kitty who must be new to the neighborhood, and then I saw a fox down at the park.

Then I got to work, and my boss asked me a few questions about bike commuting. He's thinking about getting a bike. Score!

Today is about the 5th time I've ridden to/from work on my new Mongoose XR-250 MTB since I bought it at Wal-mart two weeks ago. I have a 9 mile ride each way and this is something I started as a result of needing Total Knee Replacement surgery (later this year) and I can't do anything else for exercise! It's been in the high 70's in the morning and around 98-101 in the afternoons. Pretty hot but so far, I have no problems doing it. I wear my military issue Camelbak 100oz. Hydration system and you can bet I'm sucking down all that water by the time I get home! I can't believe what a joy it is to get out there and ride a bike! Reminds me of when I was kid! I ride motorcycles a lot but this is even better! I noticed yesterday was a turning point for me in terms of getting stronger because I noticed I can peddle longer, faster, and shaved 10 minutes off my ride home yesterday and my ride in this morning! (It's been taking me 1 hour each way) I don't know why I didn't do this before!

I look forward to talking to you all as time goes on!

"Keep the rubber side down!"

-GPSRanger

had the day off yesterday - no commute

today was absolutely beautiful in relation to last week - normal temps this week - looking forward to it!

had a good ride in here this morning. It was a bit cool, but muggy, as the humidity was already starting to ramp up. I managed to dodge the T-storms last night, but not sure that I will be lucky today. in the spirit of the above wildlife report, I saw 2 hawks, a deer, and the arse end of a fischer cat on the way in this morning, but I was on the road a tad earlier than normal, as I had a conference call with one of our UK offices.

Nice ride overall. I overslept today (forgot to set my alarm!), so it was getting pretty warm by the time I got to the office.

Tried out my new Arkel commuter, which arrived yesterday. Pretty nice overall, and I like the laptop pouch (so nice to get that sucker off my back!). I wish the locking mechanism played nicer with my rack, but I have a reasonable workaround and at some point will get a more compatible rack.

Lost a blinky though. Boo.

Today is about the 5th time I've ridden to/from work on my new Mongoose XR-250 MTB since I bought it at Wal-mart two weeks ago. I have a 9 mile ride each way and this is something I started as a result of needing Total Knee Replacement surgery (later this year) and I can't do anything else for exercise! It's been in the high 70's in the morning and around 98-101 in the afternoons. Pretty hot but so far, I have no problems doing it. I wear my military issue Camelbak 100oz. Hydration system and you can bet I'm sucking down all that water by the time I get home! I can't believe what a joy it is to get out there and ride a bike! Reminds me of when I was kid! I ride motorcycles a lot but this is even better! I noticed yesterday was a turning point for me in terms of getting stronger because I noticed I can peddle longer, faster, and shaved 10 minutes off my ride home yesterday and my ride in this morning! (It's been taking me 1 hour each way) I don't know why I didn't do this before!

I look forward to talking to you all as time goes on!

"Keep the rubber side down!"

-GPSRanger