the tailwind pushed me along on the ride home yesterday which is always nice...the commute this morning was sunny and still windy but more mellow...it's nice to not have to wear long underwear these days

On the ride home yesterday, I had issues with my seat moving on the post, tilting back. I had to stop 3 times to readjust, but since i had left with earlier than usual, I had enough sunlight to stop, make adjustments and move on.
This morning's ride felt great! After the windy ride in yesterday, the long straight, slightly uphill stretch that usually has an unpleasant headwind, but was a real bear yesterday, basically flew by. The endorphins have me feeling pretty good this morning... time to be productive.

Commuting? Wana start soon...
 

Hello everybody!!

I am a brand new rider who, after having a bad experience with a second-hand bike, has decided to give it another try and get a new bike.

My budget is the following: £ 250/300

Use: I basically need the bike to commute, so I'll be using it on roads. However, there are quite a few hills in and around Brighton, for this reason I ended up by considering an Hybrid bike.

Basically I am pondering pros and cons of the following bikes:

- Specialized Sirrus 09
- Specialized Centrum Elite 08

Any piece of advice is more than welcome!!
So, please feel free to let me know which one you would get and why or suggest other options, if you have any.

Thanks a lot! Cheers!

Riccardo

42F, sprinkly

Was going pretty good until some guy decided I wasn't making it to the red light ahead fast enough, honks a long honk and peels out around me extra close. It scared the crap outta me since I wasn't expecting it. I had my camera strapped on and snapped a pic of his car, but no plate (new cars in cali have no plates till they come in the mail) so as I was riding by (since he was stopped behind some other cars) I snapped a pic of him. Mostly just an instinct.. or so I can remember him. After the light turns green, he pulls up next to me "Why'd you take my picture bro?" "Because you tried to run me off the road" he says something else indecipherable and peels out... the rest of the ride was pretty good. I think that's the first honk i've had since last year though, so that's not too bad I guess.

Couldn't use the helmet light today, snow was too heavy.

Looks like I'm going to wimp out and bus home tonight. Storm coming our way with 2.8" hail, don't want to get caught in that on the way home!

welcome to the world of bike commuting! This thread is for people to post what kind of day they had commuting by bike. I'm not sure you'll get too many responses to your question in this thread. You are, however, in the right forum- the commuter forum. You might want to repost your question as a separate thread or in the "sticky thread" titled "Advice for New Commuters". ( both of those bikes sound pretty good to me but hopefully someone will have more first hand experience with them than I).

My ride was quick and fun on the road in today and I had to travel around to a few different locations during the day so got a few extra miles in and then had a nice bike path ride home in the dark.

Awfully nice ride this morning: 40F/4C and about the lightest showers one can imagine for part of the way. As out of sync as I was yesterday, all was harmonious today--it just felt absolutely tip-top!

I learned a new trick that the kids play around here tonight. The typical mini-monster trucks people drive around here have oversized knobby tires that stick out about a foot on each side of the truck. Since they're way outside of the wheel-wells they spray water everywhere when it's wet. This juvenile delinquent in his jacked up toyota swerves up behind me in the bike lane laying on his horn for a while so I know he p0wnz me and all that. Then he does a slow pass about a foot on my left so his big tires have plenty of time to spray me real good with water before he takes off. These guys are so creative! Dang, wish I was that smart...

50*F..whahoo...roads were wet from rain last nigh but no rain coming in, but I'm suppose to get soaked going home but temp should stay up there, in which case rain won't bother me.

Not bad, low's 50's and light rain, the kind of rain I don't mind too much. At least it wasn't the soaking or pouring rain that may affect my ride home. I kind of like watching the rain bounce into my headlight while I stay relatively dry. In addition, legs felt good and I found the right gear for the majority of the ride. Rear brake kept coming apart on yesterday's ride home, but I think I fixed that. Also, leaving early today, the little fella gets his 1 year checkup today, definitely want to be there for that.

I was off the bike for just over a week due to come kinda cold. I'm actually still recovering but enough is enough. I swapped saddles on my bikes, and oh what a difference that made! The legs actually felt really good for that amount of time off.

A blizzard warning for Denver today means that I stay at home. I am not up to that big of an adventure.
Plus, I would rather not endanger my kid when I would have to pick him up.
Maybe I will take a spin around my neighborhood after work.

lovely ride this morning
i put on some new tires yesterday so i got to test them out on my commute

i hope the ride home is as warm as it was yesterday
:)

For the first time since Monday, I did a proper bike commute. No flats, no broken chains, just riding. Sweet!

broken chain?
did it break under your strength or was it an oldie?

Back to the 30's this morning, and a headwind. Boy am I getting tired of the winter gear. 50's promised for this afternoon ;)

First flat of season yesterday at lunch. I think this was also the first flat on my Panaracer Tservs.

On ride home yesterday, a large suv, Ford Expedition?, that I was watching in my mirror swung from the left to right, missed me by inches, and layed on the horn. Real nice.

That reminds me.
I had a pierced JA jerkwad getting irritated with me yesterday while I was forcing him to wait to take a right for 2 secs while I took a left in a green left turn arrow.
Later he buzzed me while hauling his huge boat. I was not exactly thrilled and showed my appreciation for that maneuver with a certain finger.
Moron motorists must be enjoying spring.

It's a brand-new chain, and it snapped under normal load on a flat road. The shop agrees that the master link may have been bad. It's possible the mechanic didn't install it correctly, but I'm seriously inclined to doubt that.

well, i am glad your commute was proper

Another flat. And I had taken the wrench out of my bag to rid emy road beater to church last night, so I had no way to get my folder's wheel off.

I went to take the bus back home and grab my car and saw it rolling right by... and there's an hour in between busses.

I had a long 2+ mile walk back home and got to work 20 minutres late.

Do they make anything in Kevlar for 16" tires? Two flats on Schwalbe Big Apples in under a hundred miles?

The New Haven streets are killing me. Nothing but sand and glass and other crap. Grr.

I'm stopping by the bike shop on the way home tonight to see what they have to try to stop these. I can't keep commuting if I keep flatting twice a month.

Two days in a row with no commute. Oh well.

It was different today, but still fun. It started out with my normal couple of mile run through town to start my mountain climb to work. Well, two blocks from home, the first of a series of kamikaze car drivers pulls out from a side street across my path forcing me to swerve right to miss her. I’m thinking, “I’m not even awake yet! Please, can’t you drivers give me a mile or two to warm up first?” I just shake my head, I don’t even bother to yell at her.

The dodging car theme continues and then I come to the MUP along the river levee that I never take. I think, “hey, I will get away from the cars for a few blocks and ride the east side of this path I have never ridden before”. It was pure brilliance on my part, until the path ended a block short of the street I wanted. Come on now; not only do I have to do evasive maneuvers before I’m awake, now I must actually think and figure out how to get over to the street I want.. Daymn! That is a lot to expect of me in the morning.

Well I find my way to the street I need, I find my mountains and I’m in heaven. The rest of the ride, all climbing, went so well, I added an additional 3 mile climb on the end of the climb and dropped down a tight twisty narrow mountain road to my office.

I can’t wait for my commute home; is it 5 yet?

Some days I love the rain, all the car windows are rolled up and it is so peaceful and meditative! But what is up with all the glass?!?!?! Water makes it stick to your tires longer and you can,t see it in the rain so another flat for me! ARrrrG!!!