John C. Ratliff

Last year, just under two months after my bike accident, I rode around the neighborhood the evening of July 4th. I had great fun watching everyone light off their fireworks, and seeing the larger ones burst upon the evening sky in the distance.

Last evening, I again kept up that tradition, bicycling the neighborhood to see the people enjoying the evening fireworks. Some neighbors had gotten together for their own private fireworks on the road, and some even commendeered the roadway for their fireworks. It was great fun, and I hope to continue the new tradition in years to come.

John

Kodama

Well I had to work today as well, so I took a nice 15+ mile meander through the Kirkland area. Nice warm sunny day, a little windy, and the trail was super crowded. Luckily I was only using the trail to pass under the 405 and then got off to nearly empty road riding. A nice pre work ride --wish I was still out riding though.

Jaimie65

Started the week off with an adrenalin surge this morning. Me and biking buddy locked wheels @ 30 km/h (as you do) - fortunately no crash just a mild blip in the heart.
Government has installed very nice new bike lane which is fantastic apart from all the mud and gravel from a building site..
and the broken glass near the school;
and the cars parked in the lane;
and the bloke who forgot to stop coming out of his driveway today.
C'est la vie.

tnorman

Felt tired and sore from all the holiday weekend riding, so I took the short fast route in this morning. It was a pleasant ride 65-70F; the humidity's creeping up again. Might be time to take a day or two off the bike, but it's so hard to do when you get energized from watching the Tour every night.

chewa

Nice ride in but now getting stormy. looks like i'll be fighting a headwind home. Oh dear!

MI_rider

I wasn't sure how the ride was going to be this morning since I have a terrible head cold. Also there was a chance of thunder storms this morning. The storms never hit which is a good thing. I just rode slightly easier than normal and I have to say I feel much better after riding in to work. I was skeptical of the posts saying to ride with a cold and you would feel better but maybe there is something to it. I'm interested to see how my cold is tonight after the ride home.

pinerider

Back to work from a week's vacation, rode the whole 45 km commute. Took 1hr 54 minutes with the big fat commuter mtb bike, but was a pleasant ride. A few light showers and warm and humid, but more fun than driving. After about a half hour of riding I noticed a front fender brace no longer attached, but managed to keep it out of the spokes the rest of the trip.
Brought 2 water bottles, managed to almost finish them both. The exciting part of the trip was the switchover - full water bottle out of handlebar bag and empty one into bag whilst travelling.

gcos

On my ride in last Wednesday I was riding thru downtown St. Paul in the right lane next to parked cars. A lady passed me in a minivan in the left lane. The car in front of her was turning left, so she swerved over into my lane to go around it. Of course she didn't look first and would have hit me if I hadn't been anticipating her move. I slapped the side of her vehicle with my hand as I went past and she stopped. A block up the light was red. When I looked in my mirror she was still stopped in the middle of the intersection. She then pulled up next to me, rolled down her window, and asked "What happened?" I told her "what happened is you pulled out right in front of me." She continued talking but with the road noise I couldn't understand her and just told her to be on her way. I think she'll look before changing lanes from now on.

The ride home that afternoon (28 miles) was 92 degrees and very humid. My wife had called and offered to pick me up. I should have taken her up on it. All in all not the best day.

Andy Dreisch

"I think she'll look before changing lanes from now on."

I doubt it. She'd swerve the next time, too. It's great that you anticipated the move but I think her lasting impression will be that bikers are downright scary people. I don't know about the rest of the folks on this board but I would never, ever bang on a car. I see absolutely no value in it. You probably scared the woman to death.

But that's my opinion. I wonder: Would you have slapped it if a man were driving? The reaction may have been different.

As for my commute last Thursday before the holiday, it was great. It's a nice change to take the roadie every once in a while.

Juha

Andy,

in my opinion the "slap" on the car is a rather mild version of the "screech-BANG" that could have been. She very nearly caused a severe accident, and she should be made aware of that. I also think she should be scared. Scared of her own lapse of attention (and not of the cyclist).

When this sort of thing happens to me, I want them to know it was a close call, and a slap on their car gets their attention better than anything. I do that regardless of age or gender. Quite often that is all that is needed, but I have gotten into a couple of (peaceful) conversations, where I have explained my position and sometimes my legal rights as well.

--J

caloso

Well put, Juha. I've had to do this several times myself. Since it's a defensive reaction, I didn't have time to check the driver's gender.

Very mellow, very pleasant ride in today. Still recovering from a very hard 35 miler on Friday, the last big bike workout before my triathlon next weekend. I guess I'll do a short time trial tomorrow, then easy spins the rest of the week.

gcos

Sure, I would have done it if it had been a man. In fact, I didn't know who was driving until she pulled up to me at the corner.

I think people need to know they almost caused an accident. Next time it might be some kid laying dead in the road.

Mine'sAPint

Another beatiful morning for a bike commute I rode my newly converted singlespeed mountain bike this morning, my first ride on the bike. Other than a loose saddle and too low gearing I had a great ride. I ride a couple of fairly steep hills and so I'd wimped out with a 32:18 ratio... fine for the hills but my max speed on the flats was about 14 MPH Gonna change to 34:16, hopefully I can still get up the hills with that ratio.... Good fun without all the cheapo gear bits though and the bike is dead light

tchazzard

I had my first flat in a long time. And it was the first time I had to change a flt on a recumbent. It took a little getting used to. It was almost 1/2 hour later and had hands covered with grease before I was back in the saddle (I guess chair is more like it). Other than that it was a nice ride...70F and no winds.

darrencope

I had a good ride in today - managed to beat the rain to work, and it was almost dry by the time I was coming home. Made pretty good time too

AdrianB

It was supposed to be 16oC, cloudy with scattered showers here in south oz, but instead...

beeee-aaaaaa-uuuu-t---iiiii-fullll blue skies
morning winter calm
hardly any cars on the road as its school holidays
couldn't ask for it to be better....

New tyres worked out well too and no punctures yet!

greywolf

First Sunday off in ages , to good to last ,I got a call from my boss ( he was wearing his freindly voice ) to ask if I would work on Sun. starting @ 0530 !!!! I replied you gotta be f*ect. kidding !!! Anyhow we came to a deal ,seeing that I'd just worked 12nights straight without time off that I could take 3 days leave in the week ( the double time for Sun. had nothing to do with it ) .So anyway I get up on about the third or forth go the alarm has to rouse me @ 0500 open the front door to see what the weather is doing & its about minus bloody 5 outside , look at the bike & think bugger that & pinch the wifes car ,the first time in 3yrs I havent rode in I now feel guilty as sin ! I get a call from the wife later in the morning to say she wants the car back as she has to take the daughter to work ( she works p/time @ Mc D,s). so I go home in the work pick-up & pick up the missus ,my bike & gear & take them back to work. Time to go home , I get on the bike still undecided which route to take home , guilt makes me pick on the 50k one , my body says oh no ! Once I get going its not to bad & I start to enjoy the ride though theres not many people out on their bikes as its bitterly cold ,Im regreting the shorts decision . there are quite a few surfers in the water though ,I notice as I ride along the sea front ,they gotta be nuts !!By the time I get to my turn round point ,were the road turns to dirt , Im nicely warmed up & cruising along at about 25kph with a side wind coming off the sea . I decide to add another detour here of 4-5 ks.Theres quite a few people out walking ,all bundled up against the cold , my brain is busy doing its own thing while my consious mind is in neutral ,just looking after the driving, when this guy on a top of the line road bike passes me ( all Litespeed & lycra, oh & yellow tyres , at least the back one was, I never got to see the front one ! ) He was about 20 mtrs ahead & I decide Im lonely & want some one to talk to , I try to catch him ,I gain some ground on him but I cant seem to quite get in his air (it must have been those yellow tyres ?) so i drop back after about a K ,I check the commputer & the max. speed reads 36 kph , not too bad for me ! as I ride under the base of Mout Maunganui I turn to home only 15ks to go , its turning dark & its getting colder as I ride across the harbour bridge I get the force of quite a brisk south westerly wind 3/4 head on & glad that Ill be home soon , thinking of the fire & a coffee with a shot in it Im climbing the last hill home & I look at the commputer again & check the milage ,its 57 ks so I think Ill by-pass home & do a few Ks more to make it 60 (my guilty consionce kicking in !! ). Just as Im crossing an intersection & a 4x4 towing a boat turns the corner right across my path & nearly rips my leg off whith the trailers mudguard !! the pillock never even saw me though I had my LEDs flashing ,I don't think he heard my shouts of abuse either ,though the old lady checking her mail box did Now Ive got a bit of an adrenaline shot I ride a bit more than I intended & take in a local hill to burn off my aggression . Home at last & Ive cycled 64ks home from work , the longest I've rode in one go for quite a while . Guilt all gone too:thumbup:

Rowan

Now isn't mellow a great word. To me it's when everything is just so.

Andy Dreisch

Commuted home tonight and left the car at work. Felt great to loosen up on the bike today -- I ran a tough hilly half-marathon over the weekend and the legs needed a nice bike ride.

A couple interesting events tonight. First, I clicked over 3000 miles on the ol' Trek 520. Second, on two separate occasions dogs barked at me while passing (one was in the bed of a pickup and the other hanging out a car window). Scared the hell out of me!! I guess I should have smacked them upside the head according to the advice of the car-smackers earlier. Third, two idiot bikers were cruising the wrong way and forced me to veer from my path and into traffic. I definitely should have slapped them ... but I didn't.

Chris L

Knowing is one thing, caring is another entirely. If someone cuts you off, it's possible that it may be because they don't believe bikes have any legal rights to be on the road. Hitting their car is not going to make them aware of that (or change their views). Exactly how much damage do you think was done to the car? A lot less than if they'd decided to let the car roll over you.

If you're really worried about the way someone drives, take down their number and call the cops. Phone calls from the police tend to be just a little more persuasive than harmless smacks on the frame of a car.

Juha

OK, despite of my earlier statements I do not go around slapping everything that annoys me (stupid headwind, *slap*!). But where I ride people do generally know cyclists have rights (the details may be a bit hazy). I have, fortunately, yet to see a cager cut a cyclist off on purpose. They either judge your speed wrong or do not pay attention. I have never heard the "get off the road" -kind of cr@p from passing cars that seems to be so common elsewhere.

I usually agree with "let the cops deal with them", but if the cager did not notice you or understand what went wrong I find it somehow useless. The cop calls maybe 4hrs later, they have a chat and agree to pay more attention to something they have no recollection of. I think it is much more effective to give feedback right away. Even those who failed to see my feeble 85kg body, bright clothes, shiny bike and bright red pannier all heard the slap and reacted to it.

If they cut me off on purpose it would be another matter entirely.

--J

chewa

Good ride in, but I've done what every cycle commuter does in their time, and forgotton a vital piece of clothing. So- I sit here commando style, no boxers.

pinerider

I almost left without the bag of work clothes this morning, would have had to work in bike stuff today! A beautiful morning, so I took the road bike today, tried for a new world's record for the 12 km commute, but too many red lights, I was a minute too long (23 min, 30 secs.) I also had to loop around and stop to pick up a dropped water bottle. Got a little sweatier than usual, but still a pleasant ride.

tchazzard

Very nice ride in this morning. Very muggy, but foggy at the ocean's edge and a nice breeze off the water. The heat kept building as I got closer to work, which is 5 miles inland as the crow flies.

Have only forgotten boxers once in my last 3 years of commuting. Luckily the wife was home and ran a pair in. She got quite a kick out of this.

darrencope

Very little energy this morning - was barely able to get out of bed! Weather was actually kind of cool for a change, so that was nice! Once I got underway, it wasn't so bad, but even now I feel pretty low on energy.