Excellent ride today. Bit of a tailwind. 50F. Some sun. I felt peppy and was loping along at 17-20MPH most of the way. Today I only saw one other cyclist, an older woman going the other way on the MUP. I saw so many yesterday that I thought people were taking this "alternative commute" week more seriously than in previous years. Maybe not though. :(

Other than almost having a head on with a ninja skater, very nice ride in. Just put together a GT Ricochet this past weekend for commuting and camping, so working out the bugs and all the little adjustments to get things 'just so'...

Glad spring is finally here in Colorado!

Waved it off, this morning. Last night, chest was rattling and I had to climb in granny the whole way up the hill (after considering walking it). Beautiful day, too, what a waste.

Couple of firsts last night:

1) Swallowed my first bug of the year! It was smallish, i failed to identify it before swallowing.
2) First Flat.

Went to fix the flat this morning and guess what? It was a failed patch! Probably at least a 5 month, 400km old patch (at the very very least). I guess technically that's another first for me, I've never had a patch fail on me before.

i haven't swallowed any bugs yet this spring but i have collided with them, it's funny when they bounce off of your face

the ride in was nice this morning, it's supposed to rain a little this afternoon so i may be riding with wet shoes on the way home...beats driving though

Rode my new bike today to school. Very pleasant. Motorists were very sparse and the weather was great.

I'm not looking forward to that one at all!

Stopped at the dentist for a couple hours of drilling and doping. Otherwise, wet.

rain, rain, rain. 18 miles home in a mix of drizzle and pouring rain. Did I say I was wet? LOL :)

The ride home was pleasant but fast. The weather report threatened rain and it was darkly cloudy so I high-tailed home. People along my route were rather friendly today and I got lots of waves and greetings, my route goes through a rather rough part of town so I took advantage to wave back and make nice.

Halfway in my ride, I finally spot another commuter ahead of me. It was like a mirror image of Fredness. He was on a hybrid but had a nice rack like me and panniers. He wore a helmet like me and also a flourescent vest (my vest was folded on my rack). He glanced behind to check for cars and spotted me. He did a doubletake but kept going. That was the third commuter I've seen in a year and a half.
Ernest

Today it was a bit of rain, but it was a dry PNW rain and so it was a good commute.

Awesome...

I rode in on a pretty much stock Phillip's 20 folder and came home on a suspended drop bar folder... the return ride was much more fun and I went out of my way to make it a longer ride.

It was a cloudy, but warm ride this morning. I beat any rain in, but lots of standing water to avoid or not. If it wasn't so cloudy, the light in the morning would be wonderful. The temp was at 50 F ( 10 C), but going up to 70 F ( 21 C), and that is good. There might be thuderstorms, but they are always so hit or miss, that I just look for places to duck in, if they happen.

http://lolcat.com/images/lolcats/667.jpg

:p

Upper 40sF. Rained harder than I thought it was going to. I didn't wear proper attire, so I got pretty damp, so I'm now commando. :o

I saw a total of one single person (pedestrian) on 5 miles of MUP.

Today was my first day on the bike in over a week. I missed Little Red!

wet ride home yesterday, my shoes are still drying at home stuffed with newspaper
the ride in this morning wasn't too wet, mostly just coming up from the wet pavement and as soon as i arrived at work it started raining harder so my timing was good

it looks like more of the same for tomorrow and friday

Great! Had a few deer next to the trail look me over as I passed by, a beautiful hawk skim over my head by just a few feet and what seemed like hundreds of rabbits crossing the trail in front of me...man they can zip in front of your wheel pretty quick!

It rained. I used a black plastic bag to make a "custom" ooooo .... helmet cover with tape. It looked fine but I will continue my new quest for rain protection - I've got upper and lower body all set - need to properly address the shoe situation and the helmet. I also used a thin cap thinking the brim would be helpful - it wasn't really.

Hosed off the bike with a few fills of my water bottles when I got here - I like clean derailers, don't you? It will dry out and get sunny - so I'm looking forward to a fun unencumbered and faster ride home. I did some swearing this morning because the weather and shoulders and cars convinced me that one section of Hudson Rd. in Sudbury, a hill leading to a complicated intersection, convinced me that I should take the sidewalk - bumpy, with cracks and puddles. I dislike big puddles - they get me wetter - if that is possible - and they hide weird holes under their smooth surfaces.

So happy to be at work, clean; warm & dry. :thumb:

Very sunny but cool ride in this morning. Riding over Margaret Avenue bridge I noticed hundreds of blue straws that made a crunching noise when the tires went over them. Now why would anyone throw away all these straws? Up and over to the other side and there at the bottom of the hill is a street sweeper with, you guessed it, blue sweepers. The guy was making a bigger mess with loosing all those blue bristles then his intended task. :lol:

Great and fast. I woke up before my alarm which was set an hour earlier so i got a real jump on the day. There was no traffic. It was awesome.

Pretty much this, unfortunately. Usually I am pretty immune to rain but when it (with the wind) is wiping out the spring flowers before I get a chance to take them in, bringing the scenery right back to November, it is definitely putting a hit on me. The ride is painless, and I'm on my warm metabolism so I'm not suffering physically at all, at least (other than my crazy shoulder)

Got a call from one of the plants I support at 2:00am....Since I was up from 2-3:45am fixing someone else's problem and had to be at work again at 8:00am I decided to sleep in and drive.

And if you ever decide to call the IT guy at 2am because you 'don't want to wake up the regular guy' - you are definately not cool. That IT guy isn't paid to work after office hours are over.

great ride in today, first time this year I broke an hour.

My training partners brutalized me on our pre-work ride this morning. I needed it.

Been really busy at work so no chances to post here till now. Some interesting things in the last week or so:

1) Got "goosed" leaving work. I was riding out of the parking deck on a bright, sunny day and could just barely see something approaching me from my right. As my eyes adjusted I realized it was a goose (we have dozens of them here at my building) in full attack mode--wings spread, hissing and spitting. I'd slowed because of my limited vision and it was nearly the end of me; I barely managed to accelerate again and get away from him.

2) Riding home last week there was a guy stopped at a light to my right waiting to turn. As I approached his car I saw he was wearing a surgical mask.......alone, in his own car. HUH????

3) Slammed my fist into 2 different cars this weekend commuting/running errands.

The first one was a little old lady who went way left to get around me, then went way right and cut me off. Fortunately I was already braking to stop at the red light ahead. Still I stopped right behind her and pounded my first into the trunk, then walked the bike alongside the passenger window and explained to her what an idiot she'd been.

The second one was the next day. Again approaching a light, but the driver in front of me didn't go even though the light was green. The driver behind me went way left to pass me, but then realized she had to stop because of the car in front of her. Now she was stuck....so she just started merging right. Unfortunately, I was already there. I smacked my fist into her passenger side window, she jerked the car left and pointed at the car in front of her. Lady, I don't care that the person in front of you is an idiot, that doesn't mean you can be one too.

Commute in was very nice - 70 F with no wind and bright sunshine, (at 7 am!!). RIde home was another story. My commute takes me past Staples Center in Los Angeles, where the Lakers were playing Houston at 7:00. Lots of big honking Escalades, Range Rovers etc, turning into lots in front of me. Stayed as far right as I could and it was no problem. Worse part was that with about 5 miles to go, this hellacious head wind came out of nowhere and it didn't stop til I got home. My butt was kicked when I rolled in.

Very warm morning, upper 60s F at 6:30 am when I left home. The radar showed no rain in my part of town, although there were thunderstorms moving across the region. The chance of rain is supposed to go down this afternoon, so I decided to go for it after driving the past two days. Made it about two-thirds of the way to work before it started raining, sprinkles at first and then a steady shower. So I pulled into a sidestreet, got my rain jacket out of my front bag and quickly put it on. Of course, the rain stopped about 1/4-mile down the road once I had my jacket on.

We've had a bunch of violent thunderstorms in our area the past two days, with several tornadoes. I saw what appeared to be a funnel cloud in my rear view mirror as I was heading home last night. Saw this newspaper article this morning with a photo of the same funnel cloud, as I was driving in that exact area at the time. Scary. ... and the reason why I drove.

Possible twister or funnel cloud strikes southeastern Alamance County

http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/southeastern-24799-alamance-strikes.html

Today was pretty wet. I am glad I put fenders on last week. At least I was just wet from the rain not from spray from my tires. I have a fan aimed at my clothes hoping they will be dry for the ride home.

54*F, light drizzle...had my best time coming in. Really hit the lights and was able to keep the speed up, felt great!

Mid 70's for my ride home down the mountain yesterday; what a joy to be in just bicycle shorts and a t-shirt for the ride home:)

My commute was fine today... mid 60s and very humid.

I found out that on the way home yesterday one of my riding partners was attacked by a dog, on a street where we ride frequently (in fact we had just ridden through there on the way home from a breakfast ride Saturday). She was bitten but she said it was punctures only, no tearing. The dog's owner was a nurse; they called the dog off right away and helped clean up my friend. Still... kinda scary.