09/03/03 is the last post I can get.

While not a commute to work and back, I nevertheless commuted ... to my daughter's field hockey game and back. I included a serious climb in each direction to bolster its affects. 15 miles each way.

Amazing ride this morning! This is only my third week commuting, but man am I addicted already. And after today, I'm pretty sure there's no turning back. After what seems like weeks of dreary weather, I got to see the sunrise over the harbor, and thanks to Baltimore's smog problem, the colors were amazing! For the first time, no one was rude, almost hit me, or blew their horn at me, and to top it all off, I've already shaved 10 minutes off of my commute time. The legs feel great this morning, and I can't wait for the ride home Why don't more people do this??

Good commute today. I used my old Bianchi road bike, which I've recently gotten roadworthy again. Hooked up a cyclocomputer to it so I can keep accumulating my average speed and total
mileage figures, checked it out pretty thoroughly (since it hasn't been on a commute in a year or so), and commuted in relatively slowly (in case there was some mechanical base I hadn't covered). Fairly heavy traffic coming over the I-20 bridge at Boulevard, and again at MLK and Piedmont, but nice cool weather and largely considerate motorists the entire distance. As I said,
good commute today.

Nice day and it looks like the whole week will be nice. Winter is on the way though, it won't be too long and the snow will be flying. While getting ready for this mornings commute I noticed that my rear tire was flat, After replacing the tube I noticed that the hole in the tube was like a fish eye in the rubber, looks like a manufacturing defect, after carefully checking the tire and finding nothing puncturing it I looked at the tube closely and it really looks like something that was there from the beginning. The ride to work was warm and dry with light traffic, the sun is shining bright and the afternoon is forcasted to be great, we should all have a great ride home. I used my new Marwi pro elite light system this morning and jury is still out on weather I like this system as well as the nightride classic. My repaired charger for my niterider should be back this week and I'll be able to do a better comparison. So far, I like the mount for the niterider better than the Marwi, I like the low beam light better on the Marwi. The high beam on the niterider seems to be brighter than the high beam on the Marwi. The battery on the nightrider fits better in the bottle holder. I let you all know my experiances with both systems as time goes on.

On a whim I re-counted the number of "controlled intersections", i.e., stop signs and traffic lights, along my route this morning. And the answer is:

68

For you locals the route this a.m. was Hellyer to Silver Creek to Coyote Rd to Hellyer to Senter to 10th to Hedding to 1st to Rio Robles to Tasman. This is about a 20 mile route so the average was over 3 lights/signs per mile. Not surprisingly, many of the lights are bunched together in San Jose. There's one stretch of "singlet" (one-way route cutting through San Jose) that has ten lights; basically one per block.

I find that 4 lights make up the bulk of time potentially stopped. I can spend minutes waiting for them if I hit them early in the cycle. (Senter at Capitol; Senter/Tully; First/Trimble; First/Montague)

Luckily, I had very good luck with all the lights this morning and trimmed about 7 mins from the commute as a result.

Nice commute in. Temperature is finally starting to let up! Sane Cycling season is starting again (not that I haven't been riding, it is just a lot more enjoyable now). Had a flat starting out but couldn't find the hole so pumped it up and it stayed full all the way to work (probably have to pump it up on my way out tonight, maybe it is time for a new tube.

I had a very nice ride to start the week. I got off on time and the temp was in the 60's. that's as cool as it has been since the spring. Nice sunrise with a big RED sun coming out of it. To top it all off I made most of the traffic lights on the green. red sun, green lights, big smile.

take care,
CD

my bike comute was awsome! nice temperature, didn't sweet that much

Cooler today and supposed to be much cooler tomorrow (high of 63) There actually was some rain for the first time in months over the weekend, with more predicted this week. Fall it seems has arrived, with gels with my theory of the seasons being off by a month. Indian summer is over and we are now in early October style weather. Anyway today I wore a long sleeve shirt, but kept the shorts, there was some headwind, and some threatening clouds but no rains, and a rather nice ride.

Good commute today. The weather has turned and I now need to get my fall gear out. Went online and bought the lighting system I want and a rack and bag as well.
Wore my poncho since it did rain on me a bit.
-Duncan

Great commute home. A giant tailwind made for sustained speeds of 25-26 MPH for practically the entire trip when such speeds were possible. I had luck with the traffic lights, too. I didn't time it but I think I made it home in 55 minutes, which is easily 15-20 minutes faster than normal.

I noticed someone drafting me and we went on for a few miles this way, then we traded places. This doesn't often happen on my commute and it was pretty cool.

Nice ride in today, the first day this fall I had to wear a light jacket and long finger gloves. The clear skies and no wind really added to it all. My Marwi light update, I don't like the light mounted switch on the low beam light, it's very hard to use and you can't turn the light off or on while riding. you can operate the high beam switch though, it's mounted on the bar. The low beam throughs plenty of light to light your way, it's more of a spot than a beam compared to the niterider. So far, overall I still like the niterider classic.

great ride in today, 62 degrees F, sun rising. Two deer just stared at me as I glided past them-trying to figure out what I was.

Good commute, cool day. Traffic was a little brisk, but it only bogged me down in two locations. I'm using my old Bianchi road bike for the next few weeks, so I'm taking the commute relatively slowly as me and the old bike get reacquainted with each other. That's a fun commuting adventure in and of itself.

I was glad to ride in today because I skipped the commute
yesterday due to fog. I hate fog. I have lights and all but I just
don't feel comfortable in the fog.

Anyway the ride in this morning was fast. Virtually no wind. It
is supposed to be a great afternoon so I can't wait for the ride
home.

A little warmer today than I expected, so I over dressed a bit. However it was a pleasent warm morning, with a pretty scattering of clouds in the sky. Trail traffic has already falling off --truly the early fall is a commuters paradise.

The word for the day is autumnal . Mist over the meadows along the river path makes for a surprisingly chilly ride. I may have to invest in some of those spiffy arm warmers.

And this morning, I was the object of some weird aggro from a River Person. A lot of homeless camp along the river not far from the bike path. Usually they seem pretty harmless and actually fairly friendly. This morning there was this guy having all sorts of problems with the (probably stolen) Burley he's got all his stuff in. And he's mostly blocking the path. I slow down and go around, trying not to hit him, his stuff, or his poor little dog. And I say my usual "On your left!"

River Person goes nuts and starts screaming all sorts of obscenities and challenging me to a fight or something. Okaaaay, it's 7:41 am and I can tell you're already having a really bad day so I'm just going to keep pedaling. Good luck.

Echo the autumnal spirit. Long sleeve tee under my jersey felt just right this morning. Since I didn't get out of work until 7:30pm, it was also right for the trip home. All my new batteries seem to be working well, this is the first ride this fall that I've needed lights to see for the whole trip home. I stopped to drop off medicine at one of our clients, they were amazed at the lights. They assumed I was on a very quiet motorcycle until they saw my bike close up. This is the start of my favorite riding time, cooler temperatures to push hard in.

My commute today has been great!!
We're experiencing a high-presure system right now, so it's cool & sunny

...not that it matters! I only have to commute 3 kilometers suckas

Well today I added shoe covers, lobster gloves and a skull cap to the jacket, it was mid 40's when I left the house. Clear skys and an ever so slight head wind made the ride well woth the effort. I rode at a no sweat pace and arrived at work in 1 hour and 15 min. I'm getting used to the Marwi light switch, I still think the niterider is a more user friendly system as a whole. Last night when I got home I noticed the lense cap on the low beam light had loosened up, it may have been loose from the start.

Hi Folks,
It was threatening rain here this morning, but stayed dry for the ride in to work. Only problem was caused by a string of fairground trucks parked bang in the middle of the bike path. Oxford has a funfair in the city centre in early September. I hope they are not going to hang around for long though...

Cheers,

Ed

Very nice uneventful commute this morning. Moderate temperature, a bit hazy, fairly heavy traffic,
but not gridlocked.

Nice ride in on the short route. Warmer this a.m. than the other day due to cloud cover.

I did my first commute in the last week and a half. I just haven't felt like commuting recently. We had a potluck dinner prior to our homeowner's annual meeting last night. After eating so much, I felt obligated to ride today.

It was cloudy when I started but started to clear up after about 15 minutes. Then it clouded over again for the final third of my ride. I took it easy this morning and hardly broke a sweat. It seemed like I had a tailwind for the west-to-east part of the route.