Still dark outside and cool. The regular chase by the two large strays at the corner. Their time is coming...real soon as a matter of fact (mwua-ha-ha-ha!). Half a mile into the ride, a car runs a stop sign and almost clobbers me. Using my momentum, I kicked his door hard and bounced off to regain my balance yelled colorful metaphors at him. He just gazed stupidly at me and drove on. Uneventful the rest of the way. The idiot this morning is not representative of the drivers in my part of town. I'm pretty proud of the drivers here in Oak Cliff. They seem to have a consideration for bicyclers for the most part.
Ernest

kinda a little over cast on my way home but cool and no humidity.

Funny thing happend. I was approaching a yellow light that I knew I was gonna stop at, so I slowed down and stopped at the stop line right up against the curb. As the light turns Green for the other direction a dude in a yellow Jersey (mellow johnny not Hi-viz) comes through the intersection at full speed on the wrong side of the road and leaning in to make a left. That means he's about to turn into a stopped me :eek:

luck was with me and he looked up and saw me and jammed on the brakes in time to swerve onto the correct side of the road, and he says to me "that was almost a crash" very matter-of-factly. I think I might have had a mini anyuerism trying to comprehend how dumb that statement was because All I could think to say was "Yeah that wouldn't be a problem if you were flying on the correct side of the street". I'm usually better with words.

goddamn i am such a tough guy crusader.:rolleyes:

Got kinda warm on the way home, mid 80's. Very nice ride home. Air in all my tires and not idiots today. Have to leave home by 0500 in the morning. actually looking forward to the ride.

I made 2 bad moves this week - tried a new saddle, Selle San Marco Aspide from my brooks b17 narrow, ass hurts. 2nd, a friend offered me a ride today and I was about halfway home (10 miles to go) and I said "no I got my own, ride, it has 2 wheels." Well i ended up getting a flat on my old faithful weelset.

http://4morrow.com/bikeforums/flat1.jpg


http://4morrow.com/bikeforums/flat2.jpg

:eek: That's a killer flat.

Things took a turn for the dodgy this week in Toronto... my regular route down the Don Valley to the lake to get downtown has been disrupted for the past couple days as police shut the path down to investigate a grisly murder scene in a derelict train yard.

I am welcoming the slightly cooler weather these days! Everyone seems to be worried the summer is over but to me the fall is by far my favourite time on the bike.

Great rides both ways, saw the sunrise on my way in and sunset on my way home.

I talked with a Serious Roadie at a stoplight. Sometimes I feel like I should keep up with the quicker cyclists... not today, not after a 12 hour shift. I told him to have a nice ride, and slowed down even more. Also talked to a little old man who crossed the street in front of me, he said it was nice that I waited for the light (it's a "yield to peds on red" turn) and told me to have a nice night. Cool people today.

It was one of those commute, i felt like i had a tailwind no matter which way i went. I ran an errand for work on the way home, a precious detour that added a few k's to the trip. I should charge the company milage, but i won't.

No commute last two days due to rain. I don't have fenders yet. Someday.

Great ride! A little warm this morning and still dark. I took my mtb this morning to get more of a workout and to chase the strays. The usual stray dogs didn't chase me this morning, just layed there on the corner and looked at me so I kept going. About 2 miles in the ride to work I see another commuter for the first time! He was going really fast in my direction but I crossed the street and kept going so I didn't get a good look at his bike. My mtb bike goes really fast now that I put on those Bontrager slicks!
Ernest

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...Picture030.jpg

Pretty decent ride for me. As it is 3 miles, but I have some fun hills to get myself of to a good start every morning. Of course, this is my first week of commuting.:rolleyes:

My daughter didn't get to bed until midnight, so neither did I. I woke up at 0500 (late!), stumbled through my morning routine in really clumsy double-time, and I was off.

The ride snapped me in to reality and reminded me that like it or not, I'm awake. It was a good ride; a little faster than I normally go.

fast and quiet and somehow i ended up at work...

Good ride in. This is the first time I've done any substantial distance in over a week (I've had some sort of allergy/cold thing which has sapped my energy). I left a couple of hours early with a neighbor, and we rode over to Decatur (GA) before heading back downtown to work. It was comfortable temperature, and felt nice to be able to do the extra miles.

Sometimes those are the best commutes.

Had to leave late and take a shorter route because I forgot to charge my headlight battery last night. I charged it for half an hour and it lasted through the 6 mile ride. It's good, though. I'll just take a long ride home. :)

i do remember the ride in but nothing happened that stood out to me...the best commutes are the ones where you decide to try a new route at the last minute...i did that yesterday to incorporate a climb

I followed a fellow commuter for a few blocks this morning. He had a helmet, except that it wasn't on his head, it was strapped to his pannier. I was tempted to say something, but I held my tongue.

nice ride in. Dropped 3.5 yr old downtown (2nd time this week, usually I only do pm retrieval), found ... another trailer where I usually leave ours in the staff room! Stacked mine up against some other strollers. So that's 3 trailers at this daycare sighted (including ours).

Buncha people like that on the MUP I use.

Came in early to help with an unusually busy day. First time needing to use a light on the way in. Other than that, great. Traffic light timing was better than average, too.

First day commuting (only really started riding last Friday, so I'm an uber-noob) and it was good. Not very heavy traffic and nice weather, and the ride is only a couple miles.

OOOOOO, today has been great. Sun is out it's around 75*- 80* Went into town to get some chain lube and other bike stuff. Had the kid in the trailer, stop off at school to have lunch with mom and brother, then to the LBS and a nice up hill ride back. My kid fell asleep on the way back... Will try to get out for another ride later today....

Fun commute day yesterday, left work later than normal so I was smack in the middle of 5:00 rush hour. People were c.r.a.z.y.! Had a truck about 1/2 block in front of me decide that "hey, I do want that parking space a block behind me." So he threw it into reverse and backed up allllll they way, paying no attention to me at all. It's only a two way road with oncoming traffic so I had no where to go but stop, I have no doubt he didn't see me until I yelled "Heeeeeeeeyyyyyy!" I was right up against his truck too. He just yelled back at ME. Ijit. Where is a cop when you need one?

I also encountered some teen (they looked really, really young) guys "directing" traffic into the Cruise Ship terminal. They were not off-duty cops, just guys wearing orange vests. They were stopping through traffic and directing left turners across the lanes, even when they should have just directed the through traffic forward with right of way first. I watched this from a distance (a nice straight stretch of road) and when I got there, the guy directing looked at me, hesitated, and went ahead and directed a truck a head anyway. !!! I did not slow down and yelled that "You are NOT going to let him go!" Truck saw me and stopped (thank you very much). Guy looked shocked (!) shocked (!).

Rest of the ride was niiiiiiice and generally drivers were super. Today was very light traffic, very muggy, and too bad I had to go to work!

I got to go home early, yay!!
I stopped at the gas station and inflated my tires to Ludicrous PSI (when your teeth rattle just looking at a crack in the pavement), then started hammering home.

Once I got on the MUP, I realized...nobody knows I'm off early. I can take my time and enjoy the scenery. I hardly ever get to take the MUP anymore, since most of my commutes are in the dark. I slowed down, took it easy, really looked around at everything (and everyone, hi friendly people), and enjoyed a mellow ride home.