Shinyville

...tornado sirens came on while I was riding home, and huge gusts of wind came up, 60 or 70 mph. That was fun!

This is the only time I find myself riding on sidewalks. If I'm heading east, and there are massive wind gusts coming out of the south, they'll blow you right into traffic. Not fun.

buzzman

strangely light traffic today- almost seemed like a holiday. But the cars that were on the road were moving fast

I was overtired- didn't sleep too well- and it was cold! Funny I rode all winter in 10-15〫F weather ( or below) with wind and snow. Now I'm so hungry for spring that it's feeling really cold at 26〫F. Didn't help that I left my beat up gross gloves somewhere and had to ride home with only Gore-tex mitten covers over my hands.

Stiff wind in my face the whole way home. Glad to be home toasty and warm.

daredevil

For the first time in memory, I drove today. Raining hard and I didn't want to put up with it on a Monday. I'd rather ride in below zero weather and snow than rain. Anyway, I got a flat! That'll teach me!

bhop

Man.. what a day.. windy as heck. Going to work.. headwind.. coming home from work.. headwind.. is it possible to have a headwind both directions? It sure felt like it... The wind was really kicking my butt. The drops didn't seem to help much.

In West Hollywood, in the bike lane ahead a guy is trying to push a BMW into a parking lot with little success.. apparently it's broken down. I stop and help cuz that's how my momma raised me.. BMW M3s are heavy..

Halfway home, my bike felt harder to pedal than it did when I was in some strong wind. I stop and check my rear tire and it's losing air. *piece of glass* At this point, i'm about 2 miles from home. I didn't feel like changing my rear tube since i'd have to deal with the derailleur, so I decide to walk home. I get a few blocks up the street and change my mind...

...so I take my time fixing it, i'm in no rush. It's actually kind of nice just hanging on a Hollywood street corner watching the different people walk by. At some point, a guy comes up to me and says something like "I just wanted to say, as a cyclist, from back there *points down the street*, it's kind of cool seeing you changing your tire underneath the Lance mural... good luck" I didn't really think about it and I was off to the side a little so didn't notice it.. funny coincidence.. heh..

anthegreat1

today my commute was alot easier with my lighter bike built up.

sd_mike

My afternoon commute pretty much sucked. It has been a couple weeks of good days, with one bad half day. With people on phones, big rigs NOT stopping for stop signs, many others oblivious to the rest of the travelling public, it wasn't fun. It would so help if people actually looked, especially while driving, the direction they are travelling! Other than that, a bit of a headwind. Morning ride was cooler, but nice. The distance each way is about 4 miles in a major city.

FredOak

Brought the hybrid out for it's first ride of the year. 20*F but at least no wind.
Had to work harder then I thought, need to raise the seat a bit for the ride home and see.

tarwheel 

I'm finally turning the corner on the cold I've had for the past week. Felt much better riding to work today than I did yesterday, and finished my morning commute about 2 minutes faster despite getting caught by a lot of lights and encountering more wind. My wife was trying to talk me out of commuting yesterday due to my lingering cold, but -- as I told her -- I feel much better after exercising, so I don't think riding is making it worse. I feel somewhat vindicated now.

vtjim

20F, blue sky, snow-capped Adirondacks. Light tailwind. I made good time. Caught & passed another MTB-riding commuter. Tried to drink water at a red light. Found I had a bottle full of slush.

Yesterday the headwind was bugging me so I did some woods/trail riding instead of slogging it out on the MUP all the way home. That worked out well.

neilfein

Since moving, and since my carpool is off, I've settled into a new bike/train routine - leaving from one train station in the AM, getting off one station early in the afternoon to bump the commute from 3 miles to 5 RT. It also gets rid of one nasty bit of road-rage-prone roadway, a section that's worse in one direction than the other.

The ride home yesterday evening went well. Good weather, and I had a friendly chat with a guy in the train station while I was recombobulating. (Unfolding the bike, etc.) On the way back. I saw a woman struggling to carry a desk across the street by herself, so I helped her out.

Later that evening, I was in the garage and noticed that my front tire was flat - for the second time in a week, after sitting my my garage. This brought up the possibility that there's something wrong with the rim, maybe a spoke poking out? The chain is getting stretched and there are a few fiddly things wrong with it, so I'm going to bring it to the shop after work. No bike commute for me today!

jpdesjar

it was windy and cold this morning...i worked hard
this will probably be the toughest riding all week

my thighs are sore

making

Very nice ride.

Had some gang banger looking guy try to ask me directions to another street a few streets over. It was in the worse area I ride through. Felt bad for not stopping but there were lots of places for others to hide, told him to turn right at the light as I rode away, I did slow down a bit. Hate to be a jerk but it was about 0500 in a bad area.

mjdwyer23

I had a great ride. It was a hair cold at 28*F and windy, so next time I'll wear thicker gloves and maybe Windstopper tights instead. My commute in is 14 hilly miles, and this has been my first commute of the year. I love getting to work, taking a warm shower, and feeling alive and ready to go! I'll take the longer hillier route on the way home to get some more seat time in. 52*F and sunny this afternoon!

mangosalsa

Colder this morning at 5:30AM (why do I do this again?). Good ride though, getting used to the new bike.

I have to add something here about yesterday. At the end of the day I sometimes end up on campus and catch a bus for the last couple of miles (the road home is extremely dangerous at 6:00pm) ... anyway. I was sitting at the bus stop watching traffic and bikes go by. I've never seen this many idiot bike riders in my life. Within a one block stretch of car-congested road, I watched bike after bike cutting cars off, riding the sidewalk (illegal here) with pedestrians, hopping off curbs in front of cars, slaloming between vehicles, etc. Traffic stopped and started because of bikes at least 8 times in 15 minutes. One guy came off a curb and parked his bike between moving cars, blocked traffic (basically jaywalking) until the other lane was clear, then hopped the other curb nearly hitting people walking on the sidewalk. If all of these bikes had followed traffic-flow rules, everyone would have gotten to where they were going much faster and with less aggravation. Just an observation.

Maybe having kids has made me more observant?
Maybe I'm getting old and crabby?
Maybe I enjoy this whole breathing in and out thing I've had going for so long?

mjdwyer23

^ That whole "sense of self preservation" thing kicks in hard, doesn't it?

Heather H

I didn't ride yesterday, I was really tired and stomach achy, found out today it was probably food poisoning. The ride in today was nice, windy, but nice. I just beat the rain.

kgriffioen

Got up and looked outside and no rain. Got all dressed and ready to roll and its start raining. Didn't want to change again so I put the bike on the rack and took the car to work where it was not raining. I will try and get a ride in at lunch time. Very strange storm going through the area today.

drummingpariah

Horrid. My bike was stolen, so I had to walk.

FredOak

drummingpariah,

Was that the bike you just got and had painted?

drummingpariah

That's the one. Just replaced the rear wheel, pedals, and straightened the forks on it too. Not my best day ever.

noglider 

That's awful. I'm so sorry.

HardyWeinberg

42F and misty, otherwise peaceful. Dryer than last night.

Last night I checked the weather radar website to see if there might be an opening in the steady rain that I might catch if I left earlier or delayed, and was confused why the entire map was one color.

Then I realized that there definitely weren't any cloud openings coming.

Itsjustb

<soapbox>My wife believes that drivers can tell the difference between bicycle-riders like these (wife and I call them "idiots on bikes") and "real cyclists" (a "real cyclist" being someone who's made the [not very large] effort to learn the rules of the road for using bicycles in traffic and then obeys them). I'm not as convinced that people do make the distinction, and I fear that the examples set by these idiots on bikes color the perceptions of all cyclists. For example, when a driver sees me taking the lane, does he think, "Oh, he's doing that because it's safer for this stretch", or does he think, "There's another cyclist just doing whatever he wants and slowing me down."?</soapbox>

Windy commute today but nothing else to report.

mangosalsa

Thanks for filling in my blanks. This was pretty much my rant when I got home last night. Then my wife said, "no, I meant, how was your day AT WORK?" ... such is life.

Brett77

Good commute today, did it a little faster than I usually do. It's 30km commute which I did in 56min (31.5 km/h avgs speed). Really warm out today too (compared the last few weeks) it was 9C when lately its been around 0 in the mornings.