doctordan

Totally awesome! First time I commuted with my wife on the tandem. I need a car at the office for a Wednesday cross-town activity. I also had a Wednesday evening function that included my wife. She drove me home Wed evening, we rode in together Thurs AM, she drove home with the tandem, I have my Karate Monkey to ride home tonight. The ride is a little over 10 miles. Rolling time is much faster on a tandem but getting through intersections and traffic circle and needing to walk a short dirt trail made the ride a few minutes longer. Absolutely worth the extra time. Now my wife is trying to figure out how to do this more often, but she doesn't want to hang around town all day til I get off and she doesn't want to ride home solo. We'll figure it out...

novas

oooh today it was sore. i played ultimate frisbee last night for 2 hours and then only got 4 hours of sleep. getting up at the buttcrack of dawn to ride 8 miles of rough road to work was definitely not an easy decision this morning.

but i did it.

lksfirecapt

Hot, Hot....Hot. Missed the morning train so I didn't hit the road till almost noon. Already 100....with no breeze to speak of! Headed out with too little H2O..(my fault) and ran out north of Escondido... With still some moderate climbing I totally dehydrated and got really nauseated. After water and gatoraide still feeling the affects and the legs are gone....

Going to get a second water bottle mount...pronto! And I need to get that backpack off my back and into a bike mounted bag... Just too much heat and too little cooling surface.

ATRodger

Normal commute, good speed (18-20mph)....but the cool thing is, I got my first roadside found-object! A plastic TMNT Sigh (sp?). I passed it on the shoulder, turned into the next driveway, went back down the sidewalk and across the grass to get it. I stuck it through my elastic bag tie downs and rode home. I either looked really badass or really dorky.

envane

?

jyossarian

Riding home, I had a motorcyclist try to make a left turn and cut me off as I headed through the intersection. He didn't succeed although we missed each other by inches (I passed in front of him). I was going slow enough to look him in the face and tell him how stupid he is and that I'd smash his face in if he tried it again. He didn't say anything because, really, what can you say to that?

Machka 

I had my best commuting ride yet this year!!

68 kms round trip (I found a short cut that knocks 1 km off each way) ... sunny, warm, and light winds all the way!!

DataJunkie

I ran into another bikejournal.com member of club hypoxia on the way home. He helped tow me the remaining miles. My body is just about exhausted from the incessant knee issues and back troubles. I think I may have figured out the knee with my latest seat post and cleat adjustment.
I am still on track to finish up my first 1000 mile month since the accident.
Now if I can make it up Mt Evans on Saturday and back.

Anyhow, tomorrow is a recovery day. Going to sleep in and take the bus to work. Thank god.
Over 200 miles so far this week with a bad knee stinks a bit.

starla

You, sir, are devoted. I was excited to realize today that I just crossed the 1000 mile mark since I started riding in April.

I don't know that I will ever get to 1000 miles a month, but 500 seems a worthy goal at this point.

DataJunkie

You mean crazy.
Not to mention that I hurt my knee twice and came down with a virus.
Hopefully, things work out better in July and I can do something like 1200 while being well.

Sonoma76

Temp hit 110 today where I live and while I was riding. A brutal day to bike to work.

Then on the way home, my Bontrager rack + Trek basket failed after I went over a speed bump. The entire basket just fell off to the side, held on only by a cheap cargo net I had secured to the front of the rack.

Thank goodness I didn't have any groceries or beer in there!

clg

Serenity Now!!!

MIKEnDC

Delightful ride! Summer solstice and a full moon low in the southwestern sky.

Got buzzed by some dude in an Explorer. Three lanes of traffic coming up behind me and he was passing everyone on the right (my lane). He got enough of an opening to get halfway out of the lane and I don't think he even THOUGHT about getting off of the gas. Close and fast.

I just casually--almost good-naturedly--gave him the finger and kept spinning.

mjw16

Smoked him! I was passed by another rider this morning as I crossed the 14th St. bridge. No big deal, he signaled with a bell and safely passed. By the end of the bridge I had caught up to him and stayed a bike lengths or two back (I could tell he was a fit rider and thought I'd use him as a rabbit to amp myself up a bit). I followed him down the trail that leads to/from the bridge to the street in front of the Jefferson Memorial. The trail splits in two at this intersection, he chose the first left and I continued to the second (they both dump you out onto the street). He rode directly across the street to the sidewalk while I took the (what was now) inside lane and stayed on the street, as I always do. He could tell that my angle put me in a position to intercept him and beat him to the next segment of sidewalk, where I'd merge with him, and accelerated hard. I saw this and put the hammer down too. We were neck and neck until I shifted to the next gear, passed, and took a position in front of him as we got to the next sidewalk. He responded by yelling something, I wasn't sure if he was mad or excited. I continued to drop the hammer through some S turns and dropped him as well, not even looking back. The funny thing is that I almost lost it on a handicap access ramp-my back tire kicked up and to the right at what must have been 23/24 mph or so, luckily I caught it or my whole "victory" could have turned into a humiliating mess.

Other than this little excitement my ride was uneventful, cool, and dry however. This is my second "all ride week" in a row since March (the birth of our first child), hopefully I'll get back into the rhythym.

vtjim

Hilarious. Slow-cruise, around 16MPH on the MUP, and I notice some red color in my mirror. Something is behind me! Maybe a tenth of a mile back. In the mirror it looked like someone pedalling really hard. It came out of nowhere too, and I couldn't believe someone was reeling me in that fast.

So I spooled up to 25MPH in an attempt to deny the reel-in. After a while, I was on a long straight and didn't see the person. I thought that was weird, so I slowed back down and decided to stop in an overlook and sip some water. No cyclist ever materialized. Hmm. Finally I got back on the bike and saw, rounding the corner, a runner in red, coming my way. Must have come out onto the MUP after I'd passed, then I saw him/her behind me and decided it was a cyclist.

I felt stoopid. But hey, I can drop runners!

jpdesjar

the ride home last night was stellar, the trend this week has been clouds for most of the day and then they clear off and the sun just beams in the afternoon, another cloudy and damp ride this morning and my legs felt a bit tired but i biked everyday this week

woot!

envane

Took it easy cause I'm doing the MS150 this weekend. Paced myself behind some slow roadies. Wore a backpack for the first time in ages since I had to carry some extra gear. Ugh, why do people choose these over racks?

edbikebabe

YAH!!! I finally got back on the bike after being hit last Friday on the way home. My new single speed is still in the shop getting a new front wheel, so I rode my roadie. Sooooo fast & fun!!! There isn't much traffic on the way in, so I'll have to wait & see how I feel riding in traffic later...

zpl

Tried out my new drive/ride combo commute this morning. 16 miles each way is a lot more manageable than 24, and I'm hoping this will make it possible for me to ride to work most days of the week instead of a couple. Enjoying what I expect to be the last week or so of cool/non-humid weather before the New England summer kicks into full gear.

savethekudzu

Lost my rear tire (tube) on the way down a really fast hill this morning (one I can get up to 30 mph on without trying). Pulled off at a bus stop to change the tube, and prepared to catch the next bus.

At the bus stop, there was this guy - probably late 40s - with a mile-a-minute mouth. Kept going on and on even when I wasn't within earshot, working on the bike. I didn't mind, and was polite and friendly. He didn't seem threatening at all. Eventually I noticed what appeared to be a plastic cup of beer in his hand. Well, as a breakfast, it does come from cereal, right?

Got on the bus with this guy, and a couple of stops later, another man, probably in his late 50s, gets on.

First guy was in shorts and a sports jersey, with sunglasses, very laid back. Didn't bring his cup of beer on the bus as far as I could tell. Kept talking pretty frequently, though, maybe to the driver.
Second guy was all decked out in a dark suit, khaki-colored shirt, and khaki-colored fedora. Very smooth, but a scowl on his face. He sits in the bench opposite the first guy.

So, everybody gets seated, and the bus starts moving again.

Guy #2 - the one in the suit - almost immediately verbally lays into guy #1, telling him to shut up, and warning that if guy #1 comes across the aisle, there'll be violence. I have no idea what prompted this - I saw no threatening moves or instigation from guy #1, in the jersey, beer-for-breakfast.

For the next 15 minutes or so, #2, suit-and-fedora guy, continues scowling in #1's direction, occasionally spouting off something threatening-sounding. Never makes a move in his direction, nor does the other guy. Eventually #1 finds his stop, and later, #2 gets off too. The rest of us on the bus look at each other, stifling laughter.

Adventures in public transit!

HardyWeinberg

Beautiful morning, finally. Whew. Really fast ride.

17inchmonkey

I rode in for the first time today and loved it. 58deg @ 6:30am this morning in Oakland county Michigan.
Went from Farmington Hills to Troy, 17 miles one way. Took 56minutes (had some stop lights).

Anyways, way better than sitting in traffic. And since I ride 6-10 hours a week I figured I'd get that time in by going to and from work. Wow! im saving $120 a month in gas!

PS, im loving my MOTOBECANE!!! ;-)

caloso

Hooo boy is it gonna be hot today! 69F when I left the house, should be a high of 103F when I leave the office this afternoon. Summer is here!

Bob N.

Commuted to the new office today and yesterday, beautiful weather, love having a shower at the office. Counted 136 cyclists going down the hill towards K St on the Capital Crescent Trail, rush hour!

Ka_Jun

Get some fenders, you won't regret it.

Okay, have to post about this. Yesterday, I get ready to leave the office as I normally do. I take the elevator up to 15 (wheelchair accessible stall that I use to change) and as I open the door, a silent voice in my head screams, yes, you can see where this is going...dookie I don't know what happened, but it seems someone had a worse day than I did, I roll down to 8 and change there, trying to shake off the vision of Mr. Hanky leisurely lounging on the floor of the stall smiling up at me and basking in the ghostly light of the fluorescent lightbulbs. Other than that, had a nice ride over the Hot Metal Street bridge, saw a lot of recreational cyclists on the MUP, and enjoyed the cool sunny weather.