Today was gorgeous -- sunny and clear, no humidity or smog to speak of, and a temperature of about 15 C. Toronto continues to sneak roadblocks into my path as they do road construction without telling anyone about it or updating their cycling map (which would otherwise be incredibly useful). The footbridge at MacLennan & Summerhill is still closed, and so is Summerhill itself between Gregory and MacLennan, so a detour is needed. Still hoping for a Mount Pleasant bike lane someday.

Another pretty day in southern CA. Tried out a new jacket (bright yellow!) - sweated my butt off. The price to pay for being visible, I guess. Thought about work all the way in, so did not notice anything around me except the road.

Feeling really tired and unmotivated at the end of the work day...not looking forward to the way home. Hopefully, it'll cool off a bit and I won't be grinding through work issues in my head again.

On the ride home last night I was going through a wooded area and I saw 2 deer browsing on some foliage in a drive entrance. I pulled across the street to watch, and they attempted to sprint away. The deer were standing on asphalt and as they tried to run their legs were spinning like you would see in the cartoons.

Hi there, I'm new here. I'm a middle school teacher who has been bike commuting the 16 mile round trip to school on and off for the last two years. This year I'm determined to make bike commuting the norm for me. It's amazing how much better my day goes when I ride to work rather than slog it out on the freeway. Plus, on the way home, I get to do a lot of great reflecting on the things that inevitably don't go the way I want in the classroom.:)

The ride to work is not so bad. The weather is really mild right now, and after a week and a day of consistent riding, I'm finally beginning to feel in shape again. The ride home has been a little gnarly with the 90+ temps, but it's pleasant enough. I'm looking forward to a good year of bike commuting.

Velcome and good luck Mr Zombizon!

the commute today was excellent, took it easy after this weekend's 24 Hours of Allamuchy race. I brought in a vat of lasagna, a huge handfull of peanuts and a bag o pretzels (didn't get to those) and a vitamin water for lunch and snackage. ride home was laid back, sat up in the saddle for most of the time except intersections and the foot bridge. I can't remember when I last drove in to work... nice!

Was the coolest morning thus far. I decided to try and ride it in my work clothes. To see if there was a happy medium temperature that I don't need riding clothes for.

I packed a back up shirt, just in case. It'll be warmer in the afternoon, so i still brought my cycling clothes, but it was nice to not have to change when I got here.

Cold ride here as well. Was about 45, 53 in the sun. Still, a nice ride. Felt like I flew in to work. Only part that was cold were the hands. May have to get the gloves out if this keeps up.

A bit chilly but pleasant. Tried out these hiking pants I got, that zip off to shorts. They kept my legs just warm enough that my muscles didn't feel it starting out. They really breath well, these are definite keepers, glad I bought two pair.

Ugh, back to school day around here which means more traffic and school buses. I almost got taken out twice by the same school bus. The driver decided it would be great to pass me on a downhill while I was going about 25mph and then proceed to stop and pick up kids less than 50 yards after passing me. Needless to say I was pissed so I went around to the left (yes, I know it's illegal but I was not going to lose my momentum) and then the bus driver decides NOT to pick up the kids and takes off again. I couldn't believe it. I got the bus number and will probably send an email to the district about it. I really can't stand school buses.

Other than that it was a nice cool morning for the ride in.

I took a different route to work for the last mile or so to get around this huge hill right around the corner from work. Looks like it added I guess half a mile, so I ended up late by a couple of minutes. D'oh!

I just wore a wicking T-shirt and felt pretty cold for the first few miles.

spectacular
 

What a great commute this morning. My five-year-old only two weeks ago was able to balance and ride on his own, and today he joined his seven-year-old brother in a two mile bike commute to school. What a great site it was, planetbike superflashes-a-flashing, meandering down a gorgeous mup under cool clear skies.

We set a new rainfall record over one hour yesterday morning: 117mm (4.6 in) between 7 and 8 am. I worked from home in the morning :). The previous record had stood for 130 years. Having been completely soaked through and riding through foot-deep water the week before last, I'm glad I wasn't riding.

Today, on the other hand, was gorgeous. Nice ride in and back. I have my windows open now – we're down to 26C/78.8F outside for the first time in ages. Not too humid, either.

First bike commute of the week. I'm coming back from pulling a muscle in my neck...6 days off the bike! So I took it easy on the way in. It was a pretty mellow ride, except for tripping over my own feet while trying to get going at a stoplight. :mad: Oh, and I forgot my mirror. Not cool.

The sky was beautiful, though. Nothing like riding to work under the stars.

It's raining again! My wife's Superflash conked out about 30 seconds into the ride, so I had her stay close to me all the way in. I'll have to put a fender on her bike so it/she doesn't get wet. She hates fenders - thinks they're goofy. She may change her thinking when she doesn't have a soggy ass during the next rainstorm...

I regrettably discovered the limits of fenders the other day. It doesn't matter if your butt is dry if your feet plunge into the water with every pedal stroke :(

Finally I am back in business ! After around 1.5 months of work from home, I am back at office. Todays commute was great. A bit cold, no crazy motorists, not much traffic. All good !

Construction report:

As of last night Carstowe was also closed off. *sigh* I saw pedestrians coming out of it and I thought I could at least walk my bike through, but by the time I got there the workers were trimming tree branches around the overpass and the sidewalk was blocked too.

The #41 bike route heading north works okay as follows:

Glen northeast to Summerhill
Summerhill west to MacLennan
MacLennan south to Whitehall
Whitehall west to Mount Pleasant
Mount Pleasant north to Inglewood
Inglewood east to Welland, and continue on as normal.

It seems like a lot of round-about stuff before Mount Pleasant, but it's not too bad because those streets are all short and low-traffic. Mount Pleasant itself is the painful bit, as always. Riding on it is a deathtrap, and I won't do it; I'll walk on the sidewalk instead. Can't wait until I can fix up my folder and make it roadworthy again, because the 20" tires make it sidewalk-legal...

Well my flatless streak ended last night. I blew out the rear tire in a construction zone, pulled off the road and found about a 1" nail in my tire. That nail woulda flatted a car tire so i'm still in love with my Continental Gatorskins.
Sticky situation this morning. It was raining fairly heavily and I was going down an undivided 80kph rural road. Still early and still darkish. A dog that has been known to chase me had me lined up in his sights. I can see a line of cars in my rearview moving to pass. I tried to signal to the cars to stop (of course they didn't), the dog runs out into the road as the cars move to pass me. They see the dog at the last minute and there's a braking and skidding. Every commute's an adventure.

Isn't it always the case that when you're up early and have plenty of time something always happens to make you late anyway? This morning it was a leaky pump head. It cost me 15 minutes and a CO2 cartridge. Feh.

Was damp (but not a steady rain) this morning. I don't like riding into work in the rain.

I am, however, starting to be sold on the idea of synthetics for cycling wear. (Still no cycling-specific clothes for me, though!)

Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.

First day back on the bike in about a week.
A perfect ride! 75* in the morning, 95* on the way home. No honks, middle fingers, or empty beer cans today. My ride home was so easy. It's the harder part of my commute. The majority of the 7 miles is uphill and into the wind. Today it almost wasn't even a challenge. I was able to keep a good cadence the entire time, and I found myself riding certain harder parts of my route in a higher gear than normal. Simply Awesome!

Cannot wait until tomorrow's ride!

Nice ride this AM, except for the 5 minutes of SHEER TERROR as I tried to make my way past the high school right before school started (oh right, that's THIS week!). Think hundreds of amped up 16 year olds with Brand! New! Drivers Licenses! who don't want to be late to class. Think unexpected lane changes, daring U turns, people shouting to friends in other cars. Add hordes of teenage pedestrians, wrong way cyclists (heads up, dude in green t shirt!), kids hopping out of illegally parked cars, plus a few dozen moms with strollers and/or dogs on retractable leashes.

Well SHEER TERROR might be a little overstated, but I certainly was alert!!

Stick with this route and I won't need coffee....

Last night was tough in an Az. monsoon. Also a guy tried to wreck me, looking me right in the eye, by pulling out in front of me as he went right. he stopped as i yelled, and then did it again while laughing. I veered around, got off my bike and punched his passenger side door panel. he stopped laughing and sped off. It was quite deliberate, in contrast to most folks just being weenies on their phone or high on prescriptions, or drunk.

No commuting this week or, from the looks of it, next week. Gotta get our stuff packed to move from our current apartment to our new apartment. Add to this, the possibility of a visit from Hurricane Gustav (go away, we don't want your kind around here) and, well, things are just peachy. :rolleyes:

On the plus side, I ordered lights and other assorted goodies to deck out Fredkenstein and myself in glorious Fredness. Most everything should be in by next week (already a couple shipments have arrived).