DataJunkie

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.

jpdesjar

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

neilfein

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

jpdesjar

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

genel

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.

DataJunkie

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.

neilfein

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.

jpdesjar

well, i am glad your commute was proper

Standalone 

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.

caloso

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

con

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?

mechanicalron

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!!!

ban guzzi

Rode in to work early today. I have a one of 'those' jobs. Can't call in unless dead, work holidays and when non-essential personel get sent home or have a snow day, here I am.

With all that said, not too shabby a ride in! One get off due to a 3' drift that blended in and walked two short sections. Took about 2 hours and 20 minutes for ten miles and a grocery store stop since I'll likely be snowed in at work till Saturday.

buzzman

really nice ride in this morning. nice ride home tonight.

but I'm kind of tired- long hours this week. I was going to try to get a few extra miles in by doing a loop out to Concord/Weston but it was lightly raining- just enough to make me wuss out.

HardyWeinberg

Gorgeous, mid 50sF coming home. Totally should not have worn full-fingered gloves.

SweetLou

I had a wonderful ride home. The last couple of weeks have been pretty miserable for me. I rode out to a store about 20 miles away, all into the wind. A couple of days later I went to rugby practice. My legs were dead. The last couple of weeks, my legs were tired and any kind of exertion just made my legs sore.

Finally, today I was able to ride home pain free. My legs felt great. I didn't ride much faster than I usually did, but my legs never tired. I was having a wonderful ride.

cooker

Last night riding home in the cold (5C, approx 40F) rain I hear ssshh...ssshh...ssshh with every wheel revolution. Yep, its air escaping from a hole in the tire, making noise each time it hits the wet road. I ride a hundred feet and then it's too flat, so I walk for a few blocks until I pass a store that's empty and for lease, and has a covered alcove at the doorway.

I can't get the whole bike in the alcove out of the rain so I take off the wheel, pry the tire and pull out a section of tube. I spot the hole right away. I check the outside of the tire and pull out a 1/4 carat gem of glass. Damn wet rubber - too easy to penetrate.

I don't have a spare tube but I have a very old patchkit with glueless patches. I rummage around in the trunk bag and find some old glue too. I buff the tube and peel a glueless patch and stick it on. Absolutely no adhesion! Too old, or too cold? I don't know. I glue it and it still doesn't stick. I roll it like a dube, vigourously for a few minutes hoping the heat and pressure will bond the rubber. The corner won't stay down, but the middle seems to be stuck. I doubt it will hold but I stuff it in, pump it up, mount the wheel, and ride in the direction of Curbside Bikes, since I'm not sure Bikes on Wheels is open late. Amazingly, it holds. I buy a tube and some new patches with filthy hands, and scoot around to the alley where they have air and top it up a bit more. I'm not expecting to make it home, but I do. I figure it will probably be flat in the am, but I'm cold and tired, so I set the alarm a few minutes early so I can replace the tube before work.

I come out in the morning and check the tire. Hard as a rock. Was last night a dream? Nope - there's the new tube and patchkit from Curbside sitting right there in the trunk bag.

buzzman

now that's a good commuting story!

Doohickie

Yeah, that is.

This morning was a little surreal, with cool, misty fog everywhere, temps in the low 50s, what little wind there was, was at my back. It was a zen-like ride.

Then I had to ride home. It was warm but I didn't bring shorts. I wore my long bike tights and a long sleeve bike jersey, which were far too warm for 70 degree temps. Nice enough for the first part of my trip, then turned into the wind. Damn you, wind.

bkrownd

When I don't have to deal with automobiles or lightning I love commuting in the rain. It's sort of interactive weather, like I'm part of nature, and keeps things cool.

MIKEnDC

46F/7-8C and foggy as all get out. Kinda fun, though. I never noticed how much I "rock" the front wheel back and forth as I ride--not radically, of course, but more than I would have thought. Pretty easy to see in the fog. I guess I need to tighten up my riding motion a little.

Or not.

fletchh

It was a pleasant ride in the fog this morning 40 F ( 4 C). Although, by the end of the week my legs don't always seem to want to hurry. It is supposed to get up to 64 (18 C) today, so all the cool weather gear will be riding on the back of the bike on the way home.

FredOak

I got soaked!!! riding home last night but it was great!

This morning 34*F, no wind and actually saw 4 other commuters (based on gear and baggage), which I hardly ever see. And there were actually 2 new bikes in the rack when I got to work and I'm usually the first one there...things are looking up.

tarwheel 

My new full fenders are definitely earning their keep this month, the rainiest we have had in a while in NC. Today was the kind of day I would have driven in the past, but I had one of my best rides in a while thanks to the warm temps and lack of wind. I rained off and on all day yesterday and much heavier over night, but it had quit by this morning. The roads were still very wet, but the fenders kept me clean and dry. We'll see if my luck holds out this afternoon. The morning forecast calls for an 80% chance of showers this afternoon, which I failed to notice before leaving for work. Last night, they were forecasting about 20% chance of showers. Funny how they change the forecasts like that when you aren't paying attention.

ItsJustMe

I had my first road hazard flat in probably 2 years this morning. The gravel road I ride 4 miles on every day had a couple of 100 foot stretches where the frost was breaking, so it was very swampy there. So the county came along and dumped a load of this horrible 3-5cm crushed rock down. It's huge, it's sharp-edged, and it's unavoidable. This was the 3rd time riding over it, and it finally got me; I went flat in a couple of seconds after clearing that minefield.

So I got to practice changing tires in the dark. And realized that I haven't used the Topeak pump since 3 or so years ago when I was using Presta valves, and had to pick the little rubber gasket out with my fingernails to flip it to Schrader. All told, about 12 minutes, due to the 3 minutes it took to get that pump switched over, and having to dig for the tire levers since I haven't changed a flat in so long.