21*F, no wind. Left a little late as I had to drive my daughter to school first. Man, half hour later and drivers get crazy!

Had the video camera on and I hope I got this idiot woman who almost T-Boned me turning right, from the left lane no less, right in front of me.

Had my best time in this year so far though, probably due to trying to get away from the cagers.

LATE! Woke up at 6:35 and had to make a 7:06 Train 3.5 miles away!

Made it, but had no breakfast and minimal coffee. TGFA -- Thank God For Adrenalin!

Also, I was so late that I didn't even stop to put my gloves on-- even though they were right there in my messenger bag. Brrr. it was like 28 out.

I succumbed to (what I've self-diagnosed as) mild bronchitis and am working from home today. :mad: I decided to give my lungs a break. Been sucking cold dry air into them all week.

In other news, hydrocodone is the shiz. :p

It was a nice ride today, 30 F (-1 C). I am getting tired of the dark though, and that was made worse by day light savings time, which is idiotic. I had a flat going home on wednesday, the 3rd flat in 3 months. The first two were understandable, a nail, and a burst at the seam, but the last was a pin hole and no apparent reason for it. Those are the worst flats. I am also tired of dressing up to go out into the dark and cold. This is probably because I got a taste of shorts and t-shirt on monday.

Rode in this morning at 0C, man that's warm. I also inflated my studs to their max psi which made for a fast ride in this morning. I don't think i'll be taking them off anytime soon though.

First day back commuting in 3 years.

I forgot how much I love it! Why did I ever stop? The MTA here in NYC will no longer get any money from me.

This sunny Friday
End of week, beautiful out
I'm working from home

hey, be careful. that's not stuff to mess around with. :( Don't confuse it with Codeine. Hydrocodone is basically the same chemically as heroin. And it's definitely not intended for bronchitis! Just make sure you know what you're putting into your body and don't be a Joker, OK?

Gesundheit! :D

Cold! Rode into the site with my new Lone Peak trunk bag on the rack, a cup of coffee in one hand, and my ID in the other.

27F and sunny. Backlit Rainier silhouette again. There really is a difference between 27F and 30F.

Welcome back, chimpo!

Cool and beautiful this morning. The moon setting in the west, the sun rising in the east, and me and my bike right in the middle where we belong.

Walked into the building and a colleague noticed the clippy shoes and lycra: "Man! You're making all of us feel guilty!" Nah, it's just the way I like to get to work.

sunny ride and not too chilly
it's supposed to get up to 45º tomorrow so i am looking forward to a relaxed weekend ride
spring is in the air

Finally it gets above freezing and I'm home sick... Figures.

10 above today. Felt like a sauna after the below zero rides of the previous two days.

Faced a road rager in a jacked up pick up truck. He accellerated to pass me on the right as he came off a cloverleaf while I was trying to cross to the new shoulder, then swerved to buzz me on the left as I continued to try to get out of everyone's way. He did the whole run me down, stop, yell at me as I passed, then try to run me down again. I'm lucky a ramp opened up in the curb on the bridge to escape to the sidewalk.

I'm glad I only have the weather to deal with. You guys mess with much more treacherous stuff. I ride a time of day when I have the highway all to myself. :)

It was GREAT! I saw another bicyclists and waved!




http://alternativecommutepueblo.blogspot.com/

Nothing to comment about my ride until the last 1/2 mile when a car full of college gals passed me only going around 5 mph faster than me yelling, "Wooo, bicycle, wooo, yay!" Made me crack a lopsided grin.

I made good time today despite being loaded down with some electronics gear I had to bring in to work. Maybe that Clydesdale Gravity Drive kicked in a few times...

Morning ride was good, chilly, but good. I found the right gear, you know, the one that you can stay in the meat of it for most of the ride and it feels good-I think I only shifted a couple of times. That was good. Legs felt strong, had a nice tailwind too, that was good. The ride home kinda sucked, windy, cold, and raw (damp) feeling, sprinkles here and there. It was good to be back on the bike, this week's been tough with home repairs, bike repair (rr. hub), doctor's visits, etc-I think I only rode 3 days this week. Things should settle down next week and I should be on the bike every day.

I encountered five distinct species of cyclist on the way home today:

A guy riding a Strida.

A dork in butt-crack jeans and Wayfarers who gave me The Look after passing me while I was pootling up the least of my daily hills and thinking deep thoughts.

A strong rider on a Tikit towing a hardshell suitcase on one of those little trailers. I speeded up to watch the trailer, since I've got everything but. It looked solid! No bounce that I could see at all. Then I slowed down. He was fast with that thing!

A good samaritan on a road bike who asked if I was all right while I was stopped and playing with facebook on my new iPhone.

And the usual people who aren't hipsters, just rugged individualists who coincidentally dress and groom the same and ride single-speeds.

Oh, and some 43-year-old wiseass on a tricked-out folder who thinks he's clever.

First time poster - long time reader!! Commutes both directions were awesome today. 65 F and sunny at 5:oo pm in the afternoon on the way home. Only drawback is that part of my route, (Figueroa St. in downtown Los Angeles) is being resurfaced and the top layer of asphalt is gone. It would rattle the fillings of someone on a mountain bike, let alone a fully laden hybrid. First time this year riding to work in shorts and T-shirt, no jacket. Overall week was good - rode all 5 days and felt good doing so. One simple thing I did this week to improve the commute was inflate my tires to the right pressure. Its really easy to slack off and think "I'll do it tomorrow", but man what a difference. Probably picked up 3-4 mph because of lower rolling resistance. Doing a 30 mile fun ride, the Tour De Sewer" in Bell Gardens next weekend -http://www.bikeforums.net/images/smilies/thumb.gif wish me luck!

Specialized Crossroads Elite

Thanks for the post! Keep em coming.

The commute home last night sucked! Have i mentioned i hate spring, well the melt anyway. Such a disgusting time of year. Massive puddles (lakes really) often concealing potholes. A season's worth of sand on the road all in a heap after being stripped of the layers of snow and ice separating it. I took the major road as the side roads were next to impossible to avoid the splash. I managed to avoid the splash until about one block from my house where i got it twice in rapid succession.

The commute this morning was nice. Temperatures went back down below freezing turning all that water on the road back into ice for the time being. The studs traversed it without a single slip this morning. Traffic was light being Saturday and all.

I keep thinking that I've found that on my panasonic on my night rides to choir. But my fitness is improving at a rate that this is not a constant. I'm also much more in tune with my energy level and aware when I don't quite have it, not to mention the fact that I have different effort goals & time constraints on different nights... so that main gear seems to constantly change on me from ride to ride.

Had to yell "Watch out!" twice today: to a cyclist who decided to turn left from the right-most lane as I was passing her, and to a ped stepping into the road without any warning, with his back to traffic.

My commutes are killing me - I'm riding pretty much every day and my legs are screaming at me to give them a rest. Normally they get to recover during the weekends, but these days I have to go to courses on the weekends, so there is no end to the bike trips. Maybe I should take the subway tomorrow... but biking is just too much more fun...