Unusually sore this morning after yesterday's epic, particularly my arms, which I assume is from the (at times) monumental effort it took to just control the bike in some of those wind gusts yesterday. I want to do it all again.

Great weather for the ride home on Firday! Nice commute the traffic was pretty light also.

The weather for this upcoming week looks like it is going to start cooling down again.

Hi Folks,

Slow start to a cool morning's commute today. Eventually it turned into a nice ride, there are lots of autumn colours on show at the moment. Time to watch out for slippery wet leaves....

Cheers,
Ed

Forgot to post re: Friday night's ride. Took the long way with the monster hill. Saw many deer and there was a tarantula crossing the road at the steepest part.

I took the day off from work today, but rode into town to run some errands. The foliage is at peak and there was a stiff headwind (10-15 mph). It was my first day riding in wind with the Mango and I was impressed how easily it sliced through the wind. I was able maintain 21 mph on the long stretches without any effort.

It was also my first time going up any really steep hills. You really feel the 70 pounds of this bike on such hills. I dropped into the lowest gear and crawled up the hill out of the downtown at a whopping 5 mph.

Nice ride this morning with cool 38 degree temperature and a slight tail wind. Cranked the 18.5 miles in 1 hour flat. I guess the weather is forcasted to turn for the worst in the next couple of days, should make riding interesting.
Question for TCHAZZARD.
Is the mango seal from the bottom will you get wheel splash from below in the rain? Looks like an interesting vehicle, I'm looking forward to reading your updates and experiences with it.

Cooler ride in today, and more beautiful autumn colours. I'm still managing to ride in short sleeved jersy and shorts though. It has to get down into the single figure centigrade range for me to need a jacket on the 1/2 hour commute ride.

Cheers,

Ed

"Question for TCHAZZARD.
Is the mango seal from the bottom will you get wheel splash from below in the rain? Looks like an interesting vehicle, I'm looking forward to reading your updates and experiences with it."

There are cutaways in the bottom to allow one to push themselves backwards. This said, there is no wheel splash as the wheels are outside of this cutout area. Another benefit is that the entire drivetrain is enclosed. This will dramtically decrease winter maintenance.

Ride in this morning was nice. It did not get as cold as they said it would. Supposed to rain today so I will probabaly get wet on the way home.

Kinda cold this morning, overcast but windless. A fair amount of other humans out on the trail today, but also a Great Blue Heron which while fairly frequently sighted is always welcome.

Cold and sunny this morning!

Last night was a pain. Fair headwind all the way, and it got dark during the course of the ride. This makes the bike path section of the ride unpleasent because of the constant dazzle from the lights of cars coming from the other direction - especially when they are running full beam. The path only runs on one side of the main road (separated from it by a grass verge), so this experience is akin to running against the flow of traffic. If that wasn't enough, two inconsiderate cyclists almost forced me off - I had to slow almost to a stop to avoid a crash - because they insisted on riding side by side.

I'm beginning to see Chris L's point about bike paths...

Cheers,

Ed

Wet, very wet, there was a lot of leaves on the road and really deep puddles, many branches have fallen into the side lane also. It was like riding on an obstacle course, It's still raining hard here but it's forcasted to stop mid morning so the ride home should be dry. I got my new Lake MXZ-300 winter shoes yesterday, they are supposed to be the warmest available, I applied the first coat of waterproofing wax last night. They seem to be very well made and look like they are going to be warm. I'll post my experiences.

"Wet, very wet, there was a lot of leaves on the road and really deep puddles, many branches have fallen into the side lane also. It was like riding on an obstacle course, It's still raining hard here but it's forcasted to stop mid morning so the ride home should be dry."

Wow! It is supposed to slow down up here in Maine over the next two hours, but I think I will drive to work. The winds are spiking over 40 mph and the rain is blowing sideways. It is one of those days when I do not mind riding, but am too worried about the cars not seeing me due to poor visibility.

It will be a good excuse to run some extra errands.

The ride home last night was a tough one! We had rain all day and luckily it stopped about one hour before I left.

Then the wind came. Gust upto 25 mph. What a rough ride home, I got blown all over the place. Luckily I was going in a somewhat south - north direction and the wind was going in a west - east direction. Not much headwind, but I got blown sideways like there is no tomorrow. I was pretty tired last night.

Cool ride in this morning and much calmer winds. Phew!

Took a few commuting down days after a challenging ride on Sunday. Felt refreshed this a.m. It was a strange ride though. Pretty dangerous, actually.

First, there was a situation that I caused where I got trapped by a traffic light situation I misread. My bad. I apologized to the surprised drivers. Not particularly dangerous, just stupid.

Then there was the total idiot who cut off two cars and me in a mad rush to ... well, I'm not sure what the fool had in mind.

This was followed later by a classic right-hook. I saw it coming of course, but it was pretty close.

In between it seemed I had more than the normal idiots blocking the bike lanes. I also hit a preponderance of traffic lights.

Fully overcast and cold today, ~42degrees according to my bike computer (which is fairly accurate when it is not in direct sunlight) I was wearing my leg warmers, shorts, a heavy sweatshirt and my rain jacket and was still pretty cold. I need full finger gloves, a different cap (my current one doesn't cover the ears well enough) and I may need to move to some sort of full pants type thing. It started drizzling pretty quick into the ride and was getting heavier (though not yet a real rain) by the end. Raining pretty steady now and supposed to last through the day and evening. I saw four other riders out today, which was good to see.

Warm enough this morning (60F/16C) but pouring rain and gusty wind. So today's choice: warm wet or cold wet? For the morning I went with warm wet, and added the rain pants and seal skinz. This evening it wasn't raining as hard, and had stayed about the same temp so I put the rainpants into the rack trunk. Wind was worse going home and the road was covered in deep windrows of pine needles and branches, but at least the street flooding was gone. It was fun.

As stated earlier, I chose to drive to work this morning due to the driving winds and heavy rain. Although the storm did not clear out completely, it stopped raining by mid-day. I felt guilty when I got home from work, so went out for a quick loop out by the ocean. A couple of shots from this route follow. The surf was wild and no matter what the weather, I sure wished my daily commute followed this route.

Here ya go:

Fantastic pictures. I love the Maine coast.

Great pictures, that sure is an interesting looking vehicle you have there. I may really need one of those.

Tchazzard, great pics and awseome looking ride! What kind of reaction are you getting from drivers being in that? How well can you see around you in it?

My commute home last night was uneventful. Pretty much a regular old ride.

The ride in this morning was chilly. For some reason I had a hard time riding. I felt sluggish and slow. One more day then I will rest!

Fantastic stuff Tchazzard, thanks for the picure links - Now I have to go and find out some more about HPV designs.

I had a frosty but bright and sunny ride in today, very enjoyable.

Cheers,

Ed

Nice ride you got yourself tchazzard! Great commute yesterday! Off today with little boy, may ride some if he's up to it. He is just getting over the flu. We'll see.

Well, it's been a long time since I've posted but I'm having a great year commuting, my mileage is way up. We've been having some cool mornings (33F/0C this morning) but in the 50's (10's C) in the afternoons. We aren't getting the rain that you are in the east, it's been pretty dry. My commute might be getting longer soon, I might be moving to our south Minneapolis office. I'll go from 8 miles one way to around 15-16 miles one way. My only concern is keeping my feet warm in the winter months. Happy riding to all, you're my inspiration.
--Mark T