My rear bike on one of my MTBs is unhooked. The tire is so messed up, it needs replacing and until then... I just use the front and go slow.

Wow - way behind on posts here, and no time to catch up today...

Rides yesterday were nice. First time on the bike since Thursday. Felt good and strong yesterday morning, enjoyed the ride. Was tailed by a cop for a while - wasn't sure what he was doing, but I made sure to signal, complete stop and unclip at the 4-way, good lane position. Wasn't really a good chance for him to pass, but still wondered. Turns out he was just heading into a neighborhood up a ways from where he caught up to me, and was apparently in no hurry to get there.

Ride home was hot and sweaty, headwind. Left my bag at the office since no riding today, so that helped. I'm tired of the heat - have a bus trip to Argentina coming up soon, and am actually looking forward to being dropped into the dead of winter for a week ;)

Very nice morning. I took photos on the way in so the trip was almost twice as long as usual. As a consequence, I was on the bike trail for much longer than usual and saw a LOT of bike commuters. Usually, I see less than 10 but I saw more than 20 today. I wonder what the daily number of bike commuters is on the CCT? That would be interesting to know. On my way home last night, I stopped to look for the parakeet I found yesterday and couldn't find it. I called the DC Animal Shelter this morning to see if they got it, but the woman who answered said they never got my call. Yesterday, I was impressed by the person I spoke to, and today, very unimpressed. Oh well, maybe someone else rescued the bird.

Cops always make me nervous.

that's just freaking awesome - you will have to let us know if you get any responses

nice ride in this morning although just a tad humid. Hopefully the t-storms will hold off until after I get home this afternoon - I wouldn't mind a little rain though :thumb:

Great ride today - perfect temps and light wind.

The weather in the mornings these days is just plain perfect. A tad cool at 10C when i leave the house but 15min of pedaling and it's comfortable. I can give'er abit on the way too work and not be drenched in sweat when i get here.

Pretty easy ride in today. There was a guy sprinting through traffic parallel to me, and we happened to end up at the same light. He commutes infrequently, due to the length of his commute [25km] and the heavy traffic volume [burbs through downtown to industrial park].

Me too - I'm pretty sure he was hanging back for a while to see what I would do at the 4-way stop. I wouldn't have known he was there except for my mirror - he was far enough back that I couldn't hear him. Good thing I knew, too - I usually slow down at the intersection but don't come to a complete stop unless there is other traffic. I could rationalize that behavior but won't bother to try...

Oh yeah...yesterday evening and this morning there was a new addition to my commute. An older male ped wearing shorty red running shorts. You know, the kind with the slit up the side. :( I was hoping yesterday was just a fluke.

Sometimes I wish there were more cyclists around on my route, but I'm kind of glad because I like the solitariness. In my nearly 5 months of riding, I've only encountered another cyclist three times (other than kids tooling around their driveway or in their neighborhood).

The first two were roadies in full Lycra. And get this--they BOTH waved at me! I nearly fainted dead away.

The third was someone walking their bike up a hill going the wrong way. Well, I guess it was the right way since he was walking. Needless to say, I dropped his ass and shot him the finger as I did so. ;)

ya know I never see other cyclists on my commute either and I do dig the solitary aspect of the ride, but yesterday on the way home I finally found another biker waiting at the first traffic light on my commute. We chatted briefly and I drafted him for a mile or so, then told him i'd take over in the front for a few which he was happy to hear....we rode like that for another mile or so and then switched back. As he passed me he noticed I was riding single speed and says "Let me put these gears to use a little, I'll move up" :thumb: we cruised for another 2 or so miles until he split off to circle back home, exchanged a hearty thumbs up and said peace. Totally awesome and friendly ride home and a cool experience.

...but next time please make it a cute girl. :rolleyes:

While cycling in to work this morning I seen a small bird sitting in the middle of the street. I knew he was in trouble because he didn't attempt to move at all, even while I talked to him as I passed. He was directly in the path of an oncoming car, so I pointed to him in hopes it would make the driver avoid running him over. It worked.

Then I immediately turned around, set my bike down and walked over and cupped his little body up in my hands. Initially he offered no resistance, but as I walked to the side of the road he started to walk out of my hands, and then flew into a nearby tree. Yeah!

Crappy air quality and hot, hot, hot.

it was a warm one today, i kept my pace easy for the 1st half because i had a dentist appointment which is really convenient because it is right on route to my building, once i arrived the office was nice and cool so it only took a few minutes to cool down

i arrived at work with a happy clean mouth and took a nice cold shower, i think i am going to purchase a small desk fan tonight to assist with cooling in the morning

I am looking for longer routes to work and I tried a new one this morning. I found it on good 'ol bikely.com which is a pretty good site I guess but not necessarily for those who run road bikes. Anyway about five miles in I come to the route that is supposed to take me through the wissahickon. Now The Wissahickon is a huge park in Philadelphia without very many ways to get through it. This is when I notice that this route is unlike most paved routes in that it is unpaved. Gravel actually.
So I figure what the heck I can do this. Cyclocrosses go through worse. So there I am skidding along on my aluminum road bike with mountain bikers and joggers looking at my like, "whats up with this wackjob?" Anyway about five miles later after skidding around curves and burning up my front brake I emerged onto actual pavement. I just wanted to post a commute in which the insanity was entirely the responsibility of the rider not insane drivers.

Ooooh... Nil Recurring. :love:


My ride home is going to be uncomfortably warm and humid. Ick.

spoke broke, back wheel in shop till thursday. Drat. Might borrow my kids bike, but it has no rack.

Bikely.com does have different tags for the routes (though whether people use 'em or not is another thing). Look for Onroad and/or Smooth

Sucked. Rode the bus, haven't touched the rig since last Thursday when I caught something and it went into my lungs. Damn I want to get better quickly and ride.

It was hard. I was on my old bike b/c last night I stupidly wrecked my handlebars of my new build. (I have to get new bars today, which is basically a stupid tax, for me being stupid. I was changing to a new, smaller stem, and i was taking the bars off the old stem, and they were stuck. I tried to force them off. Ooops. I know it's a dumb thing to do. Sometimes your brain just doesn't work. )

I'd forgotten how small my old bike was (the reason for the new bike). It was the first bike I bought when I thought I might bike around town a bit. So much harder to ride a bike you're too big for.

I was happy though, I was able to adjust the front brakes on my ride. Overall, not a great ride, not a bad one. Now I just need to remember not to force metal against metal. (and to lube everything)

Beautiful today, sunny and in the 60s on the ride in. Followed two other riders off the ferry to the bottom of Western Ave, and then they promptly ran the 3-way stop cutting off a truck that had the right of way to their right. I stopped. Truck went, and about 1/2 block later truck started to execute a U-turn (?) with nary a turn signal or reverse lights (the reverse "beep" sound was on but no lights). He saw me and let me go around the rear of him before he did anything else - cool - and then on my rear wheel in my right vision I see another cyclist trying to pass me on my right, as I'm coming up the bike lane! Hellllloooooo I don't think so. Even though it's a hill, I shifted up and lost him in the dust somewhere back there...

let us know what happens :)

This route was tagged as on-road which is why it frustrated me so much.

I got ninja drafted today... I was about 15 miles into my commute home on one of the rural roads I use. I was on the shoulder and looked into my helmet rear view mirror and lo and behold a cyclist is coming up on me. I was going about 15 mph so I figured he wanted to pass me but he got directly behind me. A minute later and he still hadn't passed me. Even though I was tired I picked up the pace to 20 mph for about 2 miles. Then I looked back and he was gone... he must of turned off somewhere. I was used... I was ninja drafted. :(

Sir, anyone who had to draft someone going 15 mph is no ninja!