I soldered and taped and shrink-wrapped, and got my lights up and running. I had a short-circuit at the tail end of spring, and pulled the lights off for maintenance. Unfortunately, I never got around to fixing them until now. New Molex connectors on everything. They aren't as pretty, but they are stout, secure and easily replaced [by me] if damaged.

The ride in with my "new" lights was great - until they died. WTF! The 21V Li-ion battery was fully charged when I left the house, but was dead in ~15 minutes. Grrrrr! I'll switch back to my main battery for tomorrow. I think I'm going to have to crack open the faulty pack and see what's going on in there. Bad cells? Overheating? Boo-urns!

Passed a pedestrian that got killed minutes before I arrived at the intersection. Didn't realize what was up--didn't see anyone on the ground (just people standing around) since the responders hadn't arrived yet. Saw it on the news later.

Rough..... apparently, I was still worn out from the 80 on saturday. Oy.

Put the geared bike back on duty this AM after my knees started griping about my single-speed hammering. Knees today feel fine, just a faint "funny" sensation, no pain. Whew, didn't stay in denial long enough to really mess myself up. After having gotten used to the more aggressive geometry of the SS, my handlebars feel a bit too high. Going to take them down and forward a notch or two (adjustable stem) and see how it feels.

Definitely finding I like the feel of steel better than alu.

Quite a bike commute day yesterday. Started with a training (well, more like a bull-shooting) ride with my buddy before work. Then my wife called to ask if I could take my son to soccer practice. So I rode home at lunch, switched the roadie for the MTB plus trail-a-bike, rode back to work. Then in the afternoon I rode over to daycare, picked up Lucas, and we rode to his soccer practice.

After awhile my wife and daughter show up at practice and my daughter wants to ride home on the trail-a-bike because it's really "hers."

All in all, 5 different legs adding up to about 40 miles.

Sunny again, and brisk (30sF). Tonight go to bring daughter not from daycare to home but daycare to swim class at the Y and then to home. 3 more weeks of this I think (twice/wk). Really, it's fun. And the hour or so at the Y not a bad break before pulling the trailer up the last hill. At least as much a break to let traffic clear out of downtown vs doing anything for my ownself.

Really need to mount that damn headlight.

I almost lost it on a wet patch of pavement after a fast right turn from a downhill street. As soon as I started leaning for the turn and saw the wet patch, I tried to straighten out a little, but the tires started to slide out anyway. Somehow I was able to save it by countersteering and putting down a foot. I'm convinced if i'd been in toeclips or clipless, i'd have been down. I just bought a new helmet, but i'm glad I didn't have to test it out. I didn't need any coffee this morning.

+1

The commute this morning was the coolest (temperature wise) so far this fall. It might have been my favorite commute to date but I was under the burden of carrying one extra item. A co-worker of mine has free tickets to see our own Baltimore Orioles square off in a double dip with the AL leading Rays. For me this means bringing a fleece jacket along in my messenger bag. This adds nearly zero weight but a ton of nuisance. I really need to get on installing my rack and a trunk bag for the winter commute when I'll need to carry more.

I wish I had a Tampa Bay Rays hat, but don't feel like spending money on one. Their's is one bandwagon I'm willing to jump on. I'm rooting for them tonight not because I am a lousy Baltimore fan but because I'm a diehard O's fan. Two losses tonight may get a better pick in the draft and I'd like to see anyone else but the yanks or the sox win the division. If it can't be the birds then let it be the Rays.

PS. It's terrible what the Hilton has done to the view from our beautiful city stadium.

Happy Commuting!
-Greg

On my way back to the office from lunch, I heard a taxi screech to a stop behind me, then lay on the horn. It was far enough away that I knew he wasn't honking at me. I turned around and apparently, a texting ped walked across the street against the light w/o looking. The ped yelled at the cabbie, the cabbie yelled back, the cars behind the cab started honking and other peds looked on in amusement. Funny how even when people are wrong, they'll blame someone else.

I have yet to commute on a bike in winter, but I'm planning to do so this year. But I can't imagine spending two HOURS each way in transit (my commute is three miles/15-20 minutes). I can't afford to spend four hours a day doing nothing but riding a bike. How do you manage?

Waved it off this morning, 2 year old had a bed wetting incident...didn't get a whole lot of sleep...

My ride home included my new DiNotte lights. Okay, it was still daylight, but I put them on blink.

I had two people on the other side of a divided highway flash their lights at me. I could see the headlight reflecting from reflective signs in broad daylight. I'm impressed with the lights.

However, my 60 mile ride on Sunday, plus my 33-mile commute each day yesterday and today has worn me out. I'm driving tomorrow, but I'll be back on the bike on Thursday.

First commute since "The Crash". Fortunately the ride was uneventful both ways.

I had old man legs on the way back from 3 mile run this morning. I didn't even feel like catching a full suspended WM commuter just a block ahead of me.

I got my new bike today! I didn't get to ride it too terribly much though, only about 2 miles. But tomorrow I plan on going on a good 20 mile ride since I am off work. Gotta break it in right?

A bit nipply this morning, wore long tights and two cotton t-shirts. Looked silly, but I’m quite accustomed to that. The 10mph+ headwind really sucked… helped to keep me warm, though! Beautiful on the way home, just shorts and a t-shirt and a 13mph tailwind for all but one segment of the ride… set a new personal best, too bad I can’t really take credit for it.

This was one of those days that reminds me why I do this. Super quiet and peaceful on the way in, I saw a gang of raccoons pillage a trash can then waddle across the street with their booty. I said "cool!" out loud when I saw them... two jumped in to a storm drain, and one waited and stared me down.

The way home was interesting, nice sunset, interesting people watching since I decided to take Tennyson instead of Harlan. I stopped at Sunflower Market and picked up dinner... I'd never stop there if I had a car because it would be so inconvenient to get home through town. Bought some yummy produce, went home, changed shoes, and went for a run. I'm really happy that after an 8 mile bike ride I have the energy and motivation to run... after going through periods where I didn't really take care of myself, I'm suddenly hit by how big of an accomplishment today's ride and workout really is.

street ride in today. It was fine. Then a ride to my late night gig in the South End. Stopped at a bike shop for a new pump- lost mine in transit.

On the ride home I discovered my brakes were rubbing! I thought I felt slow. They still need adjusting.

nice ride home though.

huh?

2 hours to go 3 miles? I don't get it. I ride 10.5 miles each way and in the worst blizzard conditions it hasn't taken me anywhere near 2 hours each way.

I would think if you had to you could easily walk three miles in well under an hour.

Nice ride overall but it didn't start like one. I roll out of my neighborhood and see another bike commuter going my direction. He's moving fast but we say good morning to each other and I fall into pursuit mode to catch up. All of a sudden I hear an ugly scraping noise coming from my front tire. I pull over and see that my right front fender bracket had fallen off from where it attaches to the fender. Ugh. I end up removing the bracket and thank goodness the fender didn't scrape against the front tire. A very basic commuter lesson revisited: do those safety checks prior to hitting the road.

I hate to sound like a wuss but my legs are just too tired today.

who doesn't love the first commute with a new bike? I rode my new Giant FCR2... amazing the difference from my Giant Sedona MB... FCR2 felt light and solid, made me start looking for lance to start
drafting on....

Any idea what happened? Car? Hopefully you didn't see any thing that bothered you.

It freaks me out when I see fatal crashes.

Got suited up and ready, only to find a flat tire. Didn't have the patience to deal with it (just changed out a flat before leaving work yesterday), took the car.

Right around 50F. Very pleasant. Passed 3 cyclists. Saw some more going the other way.

There was a huge blue heron in the water. Biggest one I've ever seen. Looked like an ostrich.