First post to this forum - so Hello.
I'm a little biking/commuting obsessed these days,
One of the hotter Ottawa days to ride but only
the second one with my new pannier and bikerack.
A big difference from using a backpack, though
my old Raleigh with accoutrements feels like it
weighs a ton.
For some reason the ride back was the fastest in
a while even though it was muggy and 37 with
the humidex.

Cheers,
-A

I don't miss summer one little bit, but alas, ours is only about six weeks away. :cry:

Welcome aboard, anandi.

My long commute home was great. Even though I made only a handful of traffic lights at best I was just cruising along at about 80% throttle. The lights were killers, though. I cleared (no need to slow down) only 5 of 50+ traffic lights.

Anyway, very glad to be back. I may ride tomorrow ... 50/50 at this point.

Beautiful morning 77 degrees 98% humidity and a nice long slow ride into work, how much better can life get.

A very nice ride in this morning. Still pretty hot and humid, but it's tolerable in the mornings before it really warms up a lot. It's a killer going home though!

Great ride to finish off (almost) my first week of commuting again. Cool temps and a great sunrise. I scouted a new neghborhood route to. fun. now if i could just fast foreword to the ride home.

:)
Woof!
Creep Dog

Fully overcast and cool this morning-- clouds just in time for the weekend. The weather has been kind of weird this summer, it'll cloud up and cooled down and then heat right back up. This cycle is going on about every 10 days with a temperature range of 10-15 degrees. Also we are just a few weeks away from the driest summer on record. I miss the rain :( Anyway, the ride is was nice, very little trail traffic and while I started off a little chilly It was very comfortable after a mile or so.

Today's ride was quite the norm, loud smelly cars, rude drivers, debris on the road, etc... Like I like to say, Another day in paradise! Cool comfortable ride home, no one tried to run me off the road. I honestly wish more people would bike commute. I got to say "On your left" for the first time in a long time today. Passed a dude on another mountian bike, I saw him in the distance and took it up to 23 mph to catch and overtake. It was cool! Can't wait to do it on my 'Bent!

Paul said I have learned to be content in all circumstances... I'm still learning. :p

I've had a very good week of riding to work. Each day has been very good weather-wise until today, when it clouded over. But today is my walk-to-work day anyway. I'm hiking this weekend, and need to toughen up my feet for hiking. So this week was less milage, by about ten miles, then last week (where I got 65 miles in).

John

A bodacious ride home last evening - a slight tail wind and mainly downhill for the big commute - all 47 kilometres. (on holidays next week, left the truck at work) Sunny and warm but not hot, I made the trip in an hour and 38 minutes. I had about 18 pounds of stuff in the sports bag, got to be a real pain after about 30 km, had to stop a couple of times and re-adjust.
A great ride, too bad I can't ride this far all the time!

On Friday, 22-Aug-03, I rode to work, then to a doctors appointment. I decided to take a little detour on the way back to work. This detour turned out to be 15 miles out of the way. It was a nice ride, but I was pretty beat and sweaty as I ran out of water and it was over 90 F with high humidity. I ended the day with 40 miles under my belt. It was a good present to myself for my 43rd birthday.

Cool morning, it's starting to feel like fall, I had a nice quiet ride in this morning under heavy cloud cover.

First day of school for the kids around here so the traffic was
heavier this morning. I might have to start leaving a few minutes
earlier to avoid some of the traffic.

The ride in this morning was fast. Temperature was cool but not
cold. I like the morning rides becuase I can push harder in the
cool morning.

Steve

This morning I drove in a few miles, parked, and took my bike from there. I was running late because I stayed home to see my only child get on the bus for his first day of kindergarten. Needless to say, it was a beautiful ride in and I was smiling all the way. Still am!

This morning, I rode past my office and on to my daughter's future kindergarten to drop off some regestration materials. In about a week, my commute to work will start with a walk to the school bus stop.

Anyhow, the ride was great -- not to hot, beautiful sunshine, pleasant sights. One motorist rolld down his window to ask directions, and I was glad to help.

Paul

Friday night after work I made a big loop of the eastern part of the county. Got about 45 miles racing away from, then toward, the setting sun. I pulled into the driveway just before dark. Summer's slipping away fast....

This morning's ride was uneventful. Took care to avoid the very dangerous school zones.

As others have stated, fall is in the air. Was cool (60 F'ish) and cloudy when I headed out this morning. Temps are still struggling to break 65F. Two more days and school will be in session, which means for crowded roads on part of my route as I pass three schools.

Hey PaulH, I had a Fella' pull up alongside of me the other day to ask directions as well. It's cool to help people out. I wish more folks would view us (Cyclists) as approachable in stead of "In the way". I had the day off and took my son in his In-Step trailer to two local bike shops. Just a social visit and a BB wrench to get. Had a blast but the little one scraped his knee on the sidewalk. Some liquid skin and a Kiss from Daddy and he was good as new. A happy 2 1/2 year old. He really likes his homemade camel back. I took an extra bite valve and tube and taped it to the lid of a rubbermaid bottle then put it in a Nalgene koozie. He loves it! It's "like daddies". All in all, a very nice ride. Fourteen miles, 12.4 mph avg. speed.

Great weather, and one of the last rides before school buses and traffic get added to the picture. It is also the 3rd birthday of "lil' Pony", my Terry Flora. I was looking forward to watching the computer roll 5000 miles this week, but mid-way home the computer went on strike. Oh well, I guess next week will do just as well.

Drove into work today, I have to work late at the shop tonight. Had a great experiance with niterider, I have a fairly old system and the charging unit failed, when I called to see if they were still available I was told to send the old one to them and it would be replaced under warranty. I'll say, my next system will be a niterider.

I rode into work yesterday morning, but the bike and I got a ride home, since I was going to a "going away" party after work. Rode in today again though. Chilly out this morning (8 degrees celcius)! Kinda refreshing for a change, although my arms and hands were a bit colder. If I had have been smarter, I would have worn long sleeves... but.. no harm done - the hot shower at work warmed me up :) Looking forward to another nice ride home tonite.

Heavier traffic than usual today. Road construction's been a bigger factor in my delays lately, even by Atlanta standards. But all in all it was a pleasant ride in. Much better than a lunch errand ride I took up Peachtree into Buckhead yesterday. Yesterday afternoon it was hot, humid, high pollution index, and unusually congested traffic which had me sweltering in lines of traffic.

But this morning's commute was ok.

Couldn't squeeze in the ride home yesterday but the ride in today on the shorter route was nice. I dropped my daughters off at school and rode the 13 miles in from there. I'll do the reverse tonight. This route is actually nice in that I pass through Willow Glen on the way.

Good rides lately,

Weather has been dry and perfect temperature. I have also been doing some rides after work with a colleague. Haven't done much riding with others before and it is great to get that extra motivation. Last time we managed 17 miles at over 20 mph average!

Cheers,

Ed

A little warmer today and supposed to be a bit warmer tomorrow. The temp was right at that boundary of short sleeve/long sleeve this morning. Nice ride, I have to say, a bit of wind, kind of humid but nice. Fall is def. coming, and I love that feel of change in the air. I'm thinking I'll hit REI over the Labor Day weekend for the sale, and stock up on stuff for the fall and winter. This year I aim to commute through the winter.

I'm certainly ready for the decline in trail that the fall will bring. Are there any sweater words in the English language than "Back to School" ;)

It was very cold today here to. I had to wear a fleece on the way in to work, aroung six, for the first time in months. By the time I left work at twoish for school it had warmed up enough for short sleeves. By the time my classes ended at about 5:15 I had developed a killer head ache and I sat around school untill about six before I left for home. Despite the head ache, it was a nice ride. I met all the usual people that I see on the commute, very rare to run in to so many of them on the same commute. I almost got run over by a bus and saw a couple of toilets on the side of the road with a big sign on top of them that said "Free-Fine English China-They really work". Me and the next commuter I passed had a good laugh at that. The ride home took me 40 minutes, about 5-10 longer then it should have.

Today is the first day this year I had to wear a light jacket and long fingered gloves on the ride in to work. I guess summer is just about over. Tis morning was a clear, cool, still morning, my ride along the river was about as good as it gets, the ducks were swimming and the fallen leaves were drifting along ever so peacefully. It's almost time for the wind fron tightswinter shoes and studded tires.

My last ride! Today is my last day at work before I head back to school (after a week off of course!) I had an excellent ride in this morning, although it was very hot and humid.

I have to thank everyone here for their motivation when I was just thinking about starting to commute - you helped a lot, and I've had a wonderful 4 months logging more miles than I ever have before. I'll be biking to school next term, although I've always done that. It's about 3 or 4 km's one way, but sometimes I do it 3 times a day. We'll see what happens...

Thanks again, and best of luck to all of you!

Darren, Best wishes at school! I look forward to seeing your posts again.

Only commuting home today. Heavy rains combined with not bringing rain gear coaxed me onto the bus yesterday afternoon, and I left my bike locked in a storage room here. I did cycle up to Intown Bikes during lunch, only to discover I"d left my wallet in my desk. Oh, well. Maybe the commute home will be spectacular to compensate for the flakiness of the past two days.