Today was difficult ride. 40F and sunny but I had no energy. I took a very light breakfast and that was my very first mistake. Starting to ask myself why I am torturing myself in biking every morning but then a work college I haven't seen in 3 weeks told me I look like I lost some weight. This is the little motivation i needed for tomorrow's ride.

2 flat tires, one tube. Good thing the one on the front was a slow leak. Could make it about 4 miles till it needed air. May rethink my commuting supplies.

My rear tire wasn't acting right, so I had to take the train. I'm going to be worried about it all day now.

Does going to the Post Office to file my TAX extension count as commuting? :-) I had to cross Route 9 w/o traffic lights and then ride along it for a little while on my way back Route 30 was no picnic either.

So the lady at the desk starts in with: "So what's the law, if there are a certain # of lanes then bikes aren't allowed ...?" Yeesh, I kept it civil (every pun intended) and we talked about how to drive around bikes and not be scared of us. I was as polite as possible - setting an impression don't you know. Plus I seem to be THE ONLY person on a bicycle in Natick.

Should have seen the looks I got from the lady behind the big steel door. people I do not look dangerous. I'm in such traditional garb - day glo jacket red helmet (in hand) bike gloves, fun bike shorts, black socks and MTB shoes. I had my messenger bag so I totally looked the part. Even my kids would not have given me a hard time.

Ever see those reality shows where a hot babe dresses like a fatty and they video tape everyone's reaction? Someone should do that with a cyclists outfit. I swear it's like we're not regular people or something! Weird.

Kudos to the Natick POLICE for stopping traffic to let me cross. THANK GUYS! :thumb:

drummingpariah - what was your tire doing?

38F and grey. Drier than yesterday but less sunny. Patches of downpour going home last night! My 7 yr old just matter of factly dried his seat off last night and hopped on to go home, previously he's been wailing if I ever let him see evidence that his seat has ever not been perfectly dry.

I pulled up next to another bike commuter this morning - the first other one I've seen since moving. I said to her, "I don't see many cyclists this early." The light turned, and she mumbled "Gotta get to work."

Bicycle commuters sure are an unfriendly bunch...

no, just a typical woman avoiding a typical man

Beautiful out there this morning. Got a late start but it was wonderful. Light 7 mph tailwind and a sunny 58. I was enjoying it so much I locked up my brakes twice. Once a car was pulling out in front of me from the left (but to their credit, they came to a complete stop well in time). I should have been watching. The second time was all my fault. I'm drilling it up a hill, head down. Almost didn't see the garbage truck in front of me until too late.
Ahhh, it was a good ride.

It's the Formula single-speed freewheel hub, actually. It's "springy" for lack of a better word. It seemed like it was pedaling forward fine (I only went to the end of my driveway), but pedaling backwards "springs" and bounces back into forward motion. Didn't seem like a good idea to keep riding until I could take a proper look at it, I'm hoping it's something simple though. Any ideas?

a fine commute in this morning but a totally weird ride home.

In my years of riding along the Charles River I've spotted two bodies in the river, pulled a guy out who'd jumped from a railroad bridge (attempted suicide) and broken his leg and found a woman lying unconscious across the path still clipped into the pedals on her brand new bike.

Tonight, it was late- 10pm or so, and as I come around a corner and am about to cross a road that intersects with a bridge I see a disheveled man in a white shirt, torn open, bloody and looking like he's about to jump. I stop and get him talking, he's drunk and crying and incoherent. Then he wanders into the road and stands there looking like he's about to get hit. I finally get him out of the road and talking to me. I lure him away from the bridge by promising to help him look for the cell phone, keys and wallet, which he says he has tossed away in a nearby parking lot. What I really wanted to do was call the cops but I didn't want him to freak if I did and jump in the river.

We go together to get his phone and we find it in pieces but on the way I get him to give me a number to call to get someone to come pick him up. I call it and no one answers but then he tells me it was his girlfriend's # and she has a restraining order out on him!

That did it. I got him looking around the building for his phone and I took off like a shot and called the cops. But, whew, it was creepy and scary. Hopefully, the upside of this is that I might have kept someone from doing themselves in but I hope this guy hadn't just done something horrible. This creeped me out.:(

Weather was great. Had a funny incident when I picked my daughter up from daycare. As I was getting my daughter's helmet on her, a little boy leaving asked "You going to ride that bike?" Upon responding yes, the kid looked at his dad, pointed at me, and said "Why can't..." The kid's dad, shut the door and glared at me.

Great ride in. Quiet and dark as usual. I rode my Columbia Tourist today. Stopped at the donut shop for my sausage rolls.
Ernest

A light, but steady rain, then harder as I got into my ride. I had to take my riding glasses off to see in the dark. The temp was 40 F ( 4 C) so that was not bad. Everything got wet, but nothing got cold. The bottom of my paniers are getting wet and transferring the wetness to my clothes. I'll have to find a water repellent spray of some sort. Hopefully, one that does not emit toxins everywhere.

gorgeous warm (50F!) sunny ride home last night. Current bike parking is on the back deck, noticed a rear wheel flat while glancing out the window. Slow leak apparently.

:eek:

That's some crazy stuff, but very cool of you to handle it. Maybe one day the guy's life will be straightened out and he'll think about that guy on the bicycle who helped him out.

My commute was far less interesting. Low 30sF. No wind. Another sunny morning. I was cruising along at a reasonable pace. Passed one guy on an MTB. Saw a couple of riders going the other way. That's about it.

fletchh: pack your stuff in plastic bags, either large ziplock or grocery bags-problem solved.

Commute wasn't bad, I've recently been more consicouse of upping my calories and it's paying off, I had decent energy today. The temp was near 50 and the light drizzle is, actually, kinda nice. It's like a moisturizing facial (or something) on the way in, my skin feels nice and smooooth. It feels good to breath too. Didn't see another cyclist, only a couple of joggers. Hopefully we're getting to the tail end of all this rain.

Nice day today temps mid 40f, tail wind and overcast. Forcast is for sun later. Finally, a break from two days of rain. (Wimped out, 20-30 headwinds, 35f, and rain no longer seems fun).

Downtown Mndelein, I ride in the middle of right lane, in the 100 yards or so before lane ends. Traffic is heavy and some jerk in a beater gets right behind me and lays on the horn. He's trying to pass a couple of cars on their right. Jerk. Otherwise, nice pleasant ride.

bright and sunny
no wind

my legs were a little tired because i put in some extra miles last night...i always feel faster at night
i am thinking about putting my brake back on soon, just need to adjust them and lube the pivot points a bit...want to save the knees

Rainy and the trains were all late. I talked to a woman who had a singlespeed Strida. My seatpost started slipping at the end of the commute.

those stridas are neat
i hate sliding posts...tighten that thing up good

Morning commute was a tad brisk at -7C, but really nice. I was just about to enter my data from the ride only to find that all the data that is resettable, was reset. Which is very odd, must've been a power glitch because that's like a 4 step process to reset EVERYTHING.

Plus 4 C this morning and no wind.:) Kept ending ahead of a fairly new BMW M3 by filtering down side streets rather then sticking to the main roads then meeting up at a red light. Boy did he take it personal and just about drove into the back of a city bus after blasting away when the light turned green.:lol: I know we should aviod this personality type but it can be fun sometimes.

Thick fog and 37F as I took off this morning. A little hairy for the first few miles, hopeing the cars would notice my obnoxious lights, till the sun poked up and brightened things up. I got absolutely DUSTED by a fellow bike commuter about half way through. Man, some day I dream about being able to maintain a pace like that! All in all a great ride, and the weather should be glorious for the ride home.

It was cool yesterday, I wore jeans. Seemed a little cooler this morning so I put on jeans. By the time I started riding it had warmed up probably 5-10 degrees and by the time I got to work I was a sweaty mess. Bleh.

Gorgeous sunny morning. 42F (up 12F from when I got the paper!)

Nice ride in this morning 60ish and sunny. Should be a good ride home too, but it's supposed to rain tomorrow and Friday, so I may be bussing instead of riding

Unbelievably gorgeous day to ride. Loving my new Randonee, but haven't quite hit on the right arrangement of bags and/or panniers. My commute is ride-->subway-->ride. As I put on my helmet to leave the subway a guy told me, "I love a woman in uniform!"

Then he asked me if I worked for a courier service. That pleased me: I must look like I belong on the bike (instead of in the loony bin, which is what I think I look like).

:)

Another brutal NW wind.

Between weather, getting a bug, needing to haul stuff, places to be after work it has been the better part of 2 weeks since I even got on a bike.

Little chilly and a little windy today but it sure beat driving the truck! :thumb: