Today was my FIRST TIME riding in two days in a row, and I'm proud of myself!

It was even slightly colder today than yesterday. I wore more clothes, so this time I was overdressed but not miserably. I went a little harder and am glad I did. It even snowed a bit! I'm in NJ, and snow is unusual in April. No worries that it will stick, even for a minute, so it was only amusing, not at all a hindrance.

I gotta say, I'm pretty lucky that I have various routes I can take, and none of them has bad traffic or bad drivers. NJ is famous for bad drivers, and rightly so, but they don't seem to be bad to me as I ride these routes.

Neil, happy Passover! My ride only "costs" me an extra 30 minutes compared with driving. If I drove, I'd head into the city to pick up my father and stepmother. Since I rode, I'll ride home, pick up the car, then drive to Manhattan. From there, we'll go to my uncle and aunt's house in Westchester for the seder. Looking forward to it. Passover is a wonderful holiday.

CONGRATS on consecutive days! Great source of pride isn't it? Every milestone should be acknowledged and rewarded. 3 days ... 4 days ... & even 5 consecutive days ...! Last year was the first time I did 5 consecutive days for a total of 170 miles. That was pretty cool. I only hope I can do it again - and who knows maybe more than one ...

Great job!

Congrats, man!

I had a reasonably good commute this morning, despite some California rain and absolutely no rain gear or fenders. I just pumped through it and eventually got back to dry pavement. I was dry by the time I got in to the office.

Good for you! I'm doing 1-1/2 hour yoga class two evenings a week, I just can't quite get the gumption to ride home after that...So it's just 3 days a week for now.
Yesterday was +10F in the morning with nice crunchy trails. +40F after work with slush mud and ice on the roads and trails were challengingly punchy where the sun was hitting them, but still crunchy firm and fast in the shade. Spring has arrived, I'm going to have to start cleaning my bike now:(

Leisurely ride in this morning. My knee's got a little twinge and I didn't want to push it before my upcoming long-distance ride on Saturday. (Though I did blast past some little snot on a BMX who thought he'd cut in front of the old slow guy on the funny bike.)

Yesterday's the one I'm kind of proud of, though. I forgot my winter gloves and it was a little too chilly, so I made pogies out of my ankle gaiters. They worked, too.

A bit of rain this morning when I got up at 5:30, so I got back in bed and hoped it would pass. It did. Nice.

The wind gods smiled upon me last night; I had a tailwind for nearly the entire ride.

Alas, this morning I had a doctor's appointment this morning which took me another 3 miles in that direction. This meant my return trip to work increased from my usual 4 miles to ~7 miles, all of it into a headwind.

First commute!
 

Today was my first time commuting to work. It went really well. The only kink in the plan is that the bike racks where I plan to lock up my bike are of the sucky, wheel bender variety, and they were pretty full. I ended up putting my wheel over the top of the rack with the fork or downtube resting on the top rail of the rack. Now I'm worried that that was a really bad idea. Hopefully next time I'll get there early enough to lock up to the outside of one of the racks so as to avoid the wheel bending bit.

Anyway, I'm thrilled that I finally did it! Something I've wanted to do for at least three years.

Heh -- that reminds me of something from this morning. I get to work, shower, and park my bike in my cube. A plant-wide email comes out reminding "all associates who commute via bicycle" to park their bikes on the rack outside! Funny, considering only me and one other guy ever ride in. No way am I parking my nice bike anywhere other than my cube!

Congrats Humdrum and noglider!

Humdrum, I park my bike that way all the time when the rack is crowded and have never had a problem with my wheel getting bent or anything like that.

I get back home from the Passover seder late tonight, so I don't know if I'll feel fit to cycle in for a third day in a row, but I might!

Thanks! You've alleviated some of my concern, then. I'm also a little worried about bike rack etiquette, since now I realize there really isn't that much room for a lot of bikes. I hope I'm not taking up someone's "reserved" space. I guess I shouldn't care what other people think, though. The point is, the bike rack is there for me (and others) to use. I definitely wish the building management would let us bring our bikes into our offices, though. The security guard told me this weekend I can't do that.

Anyway, I'm off in a little bit for the return trip. Should be facing more headwind and it's uphill, so that's not fun. But overall I'm just thrilled.

It was ok, was dressed fine for last night, mittens, baklava, and a jacket, but the ride home today was a bit warm. Also my bike has been creaking for the last few weeks. I try to avoid it by going a bit slower, so it is taking part of the fun out of it.

First ride home this year that I could wear just shorts and a jersey! I damn near felt naked! 68 degs when I puuled out of work. Went home the long way and enjoyed the two ride out in the country.

First day riding my new bike, an '82 rusted LeTour I sanded, suckered, and slowly finagled back into riding condition (thank you Sheldon Brown--it was a learning experience). 20 miles without a problem, except one venerable female member of the greatest generation honking for at least 10 seconds (no joking) to let me know she was behind me and was planning to overtake me in the next quarter-mile (most slowly I've ever been passed). First time on drop bars, and I'm torn. I was faster (two mph, with wind harsher than normal, but my body aches). Other ride is a Trek Allant. I would have been slower on it, but I do like the upright position. Either way, a good commute, although my kid's preschool teacher laughed at me when she saw me with my safety vest, reflective bands for my pant legs, helmet, etc. Told my boys to tell her it's not nice to laugh at people, though (she should get a kick out of that). She's a good teacher and meant it well.

I lost my wallet on my commute this morning. "Stupidly", I was carrying my wallet in my back jean pocket during my commute and it dropped out of my pocket sometime during my commute. I didn't realize it until I arrived at work. I immediately backtracked my route all the way home in hopes that it had slid under a car or was in a place which could be missed by someone. I assumed the worst. I arrived at home and it wasn't. I considered it lost for good. I canceled my credit card and ATM card and ordered a new ID card and rode back to work. When I arrived at work, I had a voice mail from an incredible good samaritan who had found my wallet on the Queensboro bridge, where it apparently had fallen out of my pocket. I rode back to Queens (I live in Astoria) and picked up the wallet and offered a reward. It was declined. I rode back to work relieved that I didn't have to remember my wallet inventory. Lesson learned. Wallet is either kept in my bag or in one of my zipped pockets in the near future. Also, this advice may help anyone who carries a wallet, if you have a business card, it is a good idea to keep it in your wallet just for these type of emergencies. Not for vanity :p My total commute is usually around 4 miles each way. I can multiply that by 4 today.

Getting to work was a breeze, getting home was a battle of me vs the wind.

The ride to work was interesting.

A guy jumped on my wheel and sat there for several kilometres so I pushed the pace harder than normal.

About 500 metres after he turned off, and I started to ride a little more sedately, another guy passed me. I then jumped on his wheel and pushed really hard for a few more kilometres.

There's nothing like having other cyclists around to keep you sharp. :)

So why was today's commute different from any other commute?

Well, on such a commute as this I rode 10 miles into work with 2 bottles of Kosher wine wrapped carefully in my rain gear and a change of clothes. Then I raced the setting sun about 20 miles west of work to a friend's house- thought I'd be the last one there and everyone else got stuck in traffic- so I was early! Had an amazing seder with a great group of people and then rode about 8 miles home under a moonlit spring night on quiet roads.

Sweet. :)

Chilly this morning... the weather is changing alot... warm one day and cold the next. It was a beautiful sunrise on the bike. Clouds hung like jellyfish in the sky the rainbands forming their tentacles.

Low 30sF. Sunny. Headwind. The sun was nice for a change. Haven't seen it in a while. :mad:

I caught & passed one woman, then later watched some guy blast through a stop sign at the bottom of a hill, so of course I reeled him right in. :o

Feeling last night's seder dinner wine (Buzzman your post reminds me :)) Beautiful, cool (not cold) ride in. I am starting to see progress in my leg strength after 4+ months of commuting 2-5 times/week. I pull hills more easily and at a faster pace. I'm not looking to set records, but as I extend my commute, I want to keep it to an hour at most, so faster I must go, or else find some bend in the fabric of space-time that allows folders to pass through. Some kind of cogsmic event :rolleyes:

the ride in was quite pleasant today
it's supposed to get up to 55 today...pretty excited

i can't wait to do another long saturday ride

weeeee

Cold. Hands were frozen on the way in. Beautiful & clear, though. Got passed by a dude on a fixie.

OK, are you ready for my big news? I rode into work for the third day in a row. And it's amazing how I'm gaining strength so rapidly. Who would have thought that a 48 year old could build his body so fast?

Maybe it's not newly acquired strength but it's getting to know my body better and knowing that I can push myself more than I thought.

I rode home yesterday, shaved quickly (as I was a mess), jumped in my car and headed for Manhattan. Traffic was gawdawful headed in through the Lincoln Tunnel, one of the three inadequate thoroughfares from New Jersey into Manhattan. I should have allowed much more time. I picked up my stepmother and ailing father and we headed back out of the city to the seder, north this time, to Westchester county. Traffic leading up to the George Washington Bridge was also pretty awful, but once we passed that, we moved quickly. Traffic on the first night of Passover is normally bad in the NYC metro area, and I should have allowed more travel time. So we got to the seder an hour late, but everyone cheered us as we arrived and everyone could start.

I slept late and came to work late, but I'm glad being late didn't deter me from cycling. I just told myself that cycling would only had about 20 minutes, and I'll make it up this evening.

Nice imagery.

After anticipating eagerly the end of winter, I had forgotten how challenging it can be to ride in the spring. Our weather in NC lately has been like the old cliche -- if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes. We have gone from 80 F one day to 30s the next. Lots of rain and wind. I rode in the rain more in March than I did the whole previous year. This morning I checked the radar on-line when I got up, just out of habit, and noticed a rainshower had popped up over my part of the county even though the whole rest of the state was clear. I couldn't believe it. However, the showers blew over quickly and had quit by the time I left for work. It was one of those rides where I really appreciated having fenders, which kept the road splash from getting me wet.

Managed to miss the rain again. Sweet.

Almost-showers this morning. More like a light mist, just enough to get the roads slick and make me wish I had a rear fender. Still a great ride though.

I definitely prefer nice weather, since it gives me other cyclists to ride with. As soon as a cloud comes out in California, everybody gets scared that "bad weather" is coming. I consider "bad weather" to be more than 6" of snow (at one time) with sleet coming down on top of it. That's when I start wearing gloves.

I think that Doppler image was a computer glitch, because it showed my area of Durham getting dumped on this morning too. As I saw that on TV I turned and looked out the window. No rain, and the roads were bone dry (no rain had come through the area). I didn't see any sign of rain on the way in either.

Great ride this morning. Finally no headwind to speak of.

Agreed, this March was brutal for rain, as was the entire winter. My weekend Ultimate Frisbee game got rained out for 7 weeks in a row. We played once, and then got rained out for 5 more weeks. :(

Just discovered this Forum
 

I have been commuting for almost a year now. I was begining to think that I was the only one. I never see any one on my commute and none of my freinds bike commute, as a matter a fact most of them think I am crazy. Butt I love it. Any way it was great to stumble on to this fourm and discover I am far from alone.

My Commute is 10 miles one way and for the most part it is a flat ride, and beining in California weather is seldom a problem. I know tuff right.