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-   -   How was the commute today? (https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/7855-how-commute-today.html)

daredevil 03-25-09 02:52 PM

Couldn't use the helmet light today, snow was too heavy.

Heather H 03-25-09 03:51 PM

Looks like I'm going to wimp out and bus home tonight. Storm coming our way with 2.8" hail, don't want to get caught in that on the way home!

buzzman 03-25-09 10:15 PM


Originally Posted by Dafne (Post 8595546)
Hello everybody!!

I am a brand new rider who, after having a bad experience with a second-hand bike, has decided to give it another try and get a new bike.

My budget is the following: £ 250/300

Use: I basically need the bike to commute, so I'll be using it on roads. However, there are quite a few hills in and around Brighton, for this reason I ended up by considering an Hybrid bike.

Basically I am pondering pros and cons of the following bikes:

- Specialized Sirrus 09
- Specialized Centrum Elite 08

Any piece of advice is more than welcome!!
So, please feel free to let me know which one you would get and why or suggest other options, if you have any.

Thanks a lot! Cheers!

Riccardo

welcome to the world of bike commuting! This thread is for people to post what kind of day they had commuting by bike. I'm not sure you'll get too many responses to your question in this thread. You are, however, in the right forum- the commuter forum. You might want to repost your question as a separate thread or in the "sticky thread" titled "Advice for New Commuters". ( both of those bikes sound pretty good to me but hopefully someone will have more first hand experience with them than I).

My ride was quick and fun on the road in today and I had to travel around to a few different locations during the day so got a few extra miles in and then had a nice bike path ride home in the dark.

MIKEnDC 03-26-09 05:24 AM

Awfully nice ride this morning: 40F/4C and about the lightest showers one can imagine for part of the way. As out of sync as I was yesterday, all was harmonious today--it just felt absolutely tip-top!

bkrownd 03-26-09 05:49 AM

I learned a new trick that the kids play around here tonight. The typical mini-monster trucks people drive around here have oversized knobby tires that stick out about a foot on each side of the truck. Since they're way outside of the wheel-wells they spray water everywhere when it's wet. This juvenile delinquent in his jacked up toyota swerves up behind me in the bike lane laying on his horn for a while so I know he p0wnz me and all that. Then he does a slow pass about a foot on my left so his big tires have plenty of time to spray me real good with water before he takes off. These guys are so creative! Dang, wish I was that smart...

FredOak 03-26-09 05:50 AM

50*F..whahoo...roads were wet from rain last nigh but no rain coming in, but I'm suppose to get soaked going home but temp should stay up there, in which case rain won't bother me.

mjw16 03-26-09 06:55 AM

Not bad, low's 50's and light rain, the kind of rain I don't mind too much. At least it wasn't the soaking or pouring rain that may affect my ride home. I kind of like watching the rain bounce into my headlight while I stay relatively dry. In addition, legs felt good and I found the right gear for the majority of the ride. Rear brake kept coming apart on yesterday's ride home, but I think I fixed that. Also, leaving early today, the little fella gets his 1 year checkup today, definitely want to be there for that.

Pig_Chaser 03-26-09 07:18 AM

I was off the bike for just over a week due to come kinda cold. I'm actually still recovering but enough is enough. I swapped saddles on my bikes, and oh what a difference that made! The legs actually felt really good for that amount of time off.

DataJunkie 03-26-09 07:19 AM

A blizzard warning for Denver today means that I stay at home. I am not up to that big of an adventure.
Plus, I would rather not endanger my kid when I would have to pick him up.
Maybe I will take a spin around my neighborhood after work.

jpdesjar 03-26-09 07:23 AM

lovely ride this morning
i put on some new tires yesterday so i got to test them out on my commute

i hope the ride home is as warm as it was yesterday
:)

neilfein 03-26-09 07:28 AM

For the first time since Monday, I did a proper bike commute. No flats, no broken chains, just riding. Sweet!

jpdesjar 03-26-09 07:32 AM


Originally Posted by neilfein (Post 8602356)
For the first time since Monday, I did a proper bike commute. No flats, no broken chains, just riding. Sweet!

broken chain?
did it break under your strength or was it an oldie?

genel 03-26-09 07:46 AM

Back to the 30's this morning, and a headwind. Boy am I getting tired of the winter gear. 50's promised for this afternoon ;)

First flat of season yesterday at lunch. I think this was also the first flat on my Panaracer Tservs.

On ride home yesterday, a large suv, Ford Expedition?, that I was watching in my mirror swung from the left to right, missed me by inches, and layed on the horn. Real nice.

DataJunkie 03-26-09 08:16 AM

That reminds me.
I had a pierced JA jerkwad getting irritated with me yesterday while I was forcing him to wait to take a right for 2 secs while I took a left in a green left turn arrow.
Later he buzzed me while hauling his huge boat. I was not exactly thrilled and showed my appreciation for that maneuver with a certain finger.
Moron motorists must be enjoying spring.

neilfein 03-26-09 08:26 AM


Originally Posted by jpdesjar (Post 8602382)
broken chain?
did it break under your strength or was it an oldie?

It's a brand-new chain, and it snapped under normal load on a flat road. The shop agrees that the master link may have been bad. It's possible the mechanic didn't install it correctly, but I'm seriously inclined to doubt that.

jpdesjar 03-26-09 08:28 AM


Originally Posted by neilfein (Post 8602656)
It's a brand-new chain, and it snapped under normal load on a flat road. The shop agrees that the master link may have been bad. It's possible the mechanic didn't install it correctly, but I'm seriously inclined to doubt that.

well, i am glad your commute was proper

Standalone 03-26-09 11:33 AM

Another flat. And I had taken the wrench out of my bag to rid emy road beater to church last night, so I had no way to get my folder's wheel off.

I went to take the bus back home and grab my car and saw it rolling right by... and there's an hour in between busses.

I had a long 2+ mile walk back home and got to work 20 minutres late.

Do they make anything in Kevlar for 16" tires? Two flats on Schwalbe Big Apples in under a hundred miles?

The New Haven streets are killing me. Nothing but sand and glass and other crap. Grr.

I'm stopping by the bike shop on the way home tonight to see what they have to try to stop these. I can't keep commuting if I keep flatting twice a month.

caloso 03-26-09 12:01 PM

Two days in a row with no commute. Oh well.

con 03-26-09 01:10 PM

It was different today, but still fun. It started out with my normal couple of mile run through town to start my mountain climb to work. Well, two blocks from home, the first of a series of kamikaze car drivers pulls out from a side street across my path forcing me to swerve right to miss her. I’m thinking, “I’m not even awake yet! Please, can’t you drivers give me a mile or two to warm up first?” I just shake my head, I don’t even bother to yell at her.

The dodging car theme continues and then I come to the MUP along the river levee that I never take. I think, “hey, I will get away from the cars for a few blocks and ride the east side of this path I have never ridden before”. It was pure brilliance on my part, until the path ended a block short of the street I wanted. Come on now; not only do I have to do evasive maneuvers before I’m awake, now I must actually think and figure out how to get over to the street I want.. Daymn! That is a lot to expect of me in the morning.

Well I find my way to the street I need, I find my mountains and I’m in heaven. The rest of the ride, all climbing, went so well, I added an additional 3 mile climb on the end of the climb and dropped down a tight twisty narrow mountain road to my office.

I can’t wait for my commute home; is it 5 yet?

mechanicalron 03-26-09 01:27 PM

Some days I love the rain, all the car windows are rolled up and it is so peaceful and meditative! But what is up with all the glass?!?!?! Water makes it stick to your tires longer and you can,t see it in the rain so another flat for me! ARrrrG!!!

ban guzzi 03-26-09 05:00 PM

Rode in to work early today. I have a one of 'those' jobs. Can't call in unless dead, work holidays and when non-essential personel get sent home or have a snow day, here I am.

With all that said, not too shabby a ride in! One get off due to a 3' drift that blended in and walked two short sections. Took about 2 hours and 20 minutes for ten miles and a grocery store stop since I'll likely be snowed in at work till Saturday.

buzzman 03-26-09 05:53 PM

really nice ride in this morning. nice ride home tonight.

but I'm kind of tired- long hours this week. I was going to try to get a few extra miles in by doing a loop out to Concord/Weston but it was lightly raining- just enough to make me wuss out.

HardyWeinberg 03-26-09 06:11 PM

Gorgeous, mid 50sF coming home. Totally should not have worn full-fingered gloves.

SweetLou 03-26-09 08:02 PM

I had a wonderful ride home. The last couple of weeks have been pretty miserable for me. I rode out to a store about 20 miles away, all into the wind. A couple of days later I went to rugby practice. My legs were dead. The last couple of weeks, my legs were tired and any kind of exertion just made my legs sore.

Finally, today I was able to ride home pain free. My legs felt great. I didn't ride much faster than I usually did, but my legs never tired. I was having a wonderful ride.

cooker 03-26-09 08:03 PM

Last night riding home in the cold (5C, approx 40F) rain I hear ssshh...ssshh...ssshh with every wheel revolution. Yep, its air escaping from a hole in the tire, making noise each time it hits the wet road. I ride a hundred feet and then it's too flat, so I walk for a few blocks until I pass a store that's empty and for lease, and has a covered alcove at the doorway.

I can't get the whole bike in the alcove out of the rain so I take off the wheel, pry the tire and pull out a section of tube. I spot the hole right away. I check the outside of the tire and pull out a 1/4 carat gem of glass. Damn wet rubber - too easy to penetrate.

I don't have a spare tube but I have a very old patchkit with glueless patches. I rummage around in the trunk bag and find some old glue too. I buff the tube and peel a glueless patch and stick it on. Absolutely no adhesion! Too old, or too cold? I don't know. I glue it and it still doesn't stick. I roll it like a dube, vigourously for a few minutes hoping the heat and pressure will bond the rubber. The corner won't stay down, but the middle seems to be stuck. I doubt it will hold but I stuff it in, pump it up, mount the wheel, and ride in the direction of Curbside Bikes, since I'm not sure Bikes on Wheels is open late. Amazingly, it holds. I buy a tube and some new patches with filthy hands, and scoot around to the alley where they have air and top it up a bit more. I'm not expecting to make it home, but I do. I figure it will probably be flat in the am, but I'm cold and tired, so I set the alarm a few minutes early so I can replace the tube before work.

I come out in the morning and check the tire. Hard as a rock. Was last night a dream? Nope - there's the new tube and patchkit from Curbside sitting right there in the trunk bag.

buzzman 03-26-09 08:40 PM


Originally Posted by cooker (Post 8607766)
Last night riding home in the cold (5C, approx 40F) rain I hear ssshh...ssshh...ssshh with every wheel revolution. Yep, its air escaping from a hole in the tire, making noise each time it hits the wet road. I ride a hundred feet and then it's too flat, so I walk for a few blocks until I pass a store that's empty and for lease, and has a covered alcove at the doorway.

I can't get the whole bike in the alcove out of the rain so I take off the wheel, pry the tire and pull out a section of tube. I spot the hole right away. I check the outside of the tire and pull out a 1/4 carat gem of glass. Damn wet rubber - too easy to penetrate.

I don't have a spare tube but I have a very old patchkit with glueless patches. I rummage around in the trunk bag and find some old glue too. I buff the tube and peel a glueless patch and stick it on. Absolutely no adhesion! Too old, or too cold? I don't know. I glue it and it still doesn't stick. I roll it like a dube, vigourously for a few minutes hoping the heat and pressure will bond the rubber. The corner won't stay down, but the middle seems to be stuck. I doubt it will hold but I stuff it in, pump it up, mount the wheel, and ride in the direction of Curbside Bikes, since I'm not sure Bikes on Wheels is open late. Amazingly, it holds. I buy a tube and some new patches with filthy hands, and scoot around to the alley where they have air and top it up a bit more. I'm not expecting to make it home, but I do. I figure it will probably be flat in the am, but I'm cold and tired, so I set the alarm a few minutes early so I can replace the tube before work.

I come out in the morning and check the tire. Hard as a rock. Was last night a dream? Nope - there's the new tube and patchkit from Curbside sitting right there in the trunk bag.

now that's a good commuting story!:thumb:

Doohickie 03-26-09 10:01 PM

Yeah, that is.

This morning was a little surreal, with cool, misty fog everywhere, temps in the low 50s, what little wind there was, was at my back. It was a zen-like ride.

Then I had to ride home. It was warm but I didn't bring shorts. I wore my long bike tights and a long sleeve bike jersey, which were far too warm for 70 degree temps. Nice enough for the first part of my trip, then turned into the wind. Damn you, wind.

bkrownd 03-27-09 02:48 AM


Originally Posted by mechanicalron (Post 8605162)
Some days I love the rain,

When I don't have to deal with automobiles or lightning I love commuting in the rain. It's sort of interactive weather, like I'm part of nature, and keeps things cool. :)

MIKEnDC 03-27-09 05:01 AM

46F/7-8C and foggy as all get out. Kinda fun, though. I never noticed how much I "rock" the front wheel back and forth as I ride--not radically, of course, but more than I would have thought. Pretty easy to see in the fog. I guess I need to tighten up my riding motion a little.

Or not. :D

fletchh 03-27-09 05:41 AM

It was a pleasant ride in the fog this morning 40 F ( 4 C). Although, by the end of the week my legs don't always seem to want to hurry. It is supposed to get up to 64 (18 C) today, so all the cool weather gear will be riding on the back of the bike on the way home.


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