Beautiful day for riding. 70 degrees, no wind (rare for Oklahoma). Ordered a rack and trunk yesterday. Cannot wait to get out of the sweat inducing backpack.

How Was The Commute Today, or rather, How I Did Survive The Many Perils To Life And Limb During The Harrowing Four-Mile Journey:

Around the corner from my house, I ride along the edge of a long, narrow park. The street is narrow, not quite two lanes. I came up to a car that was going very slowly and not particularly straight. My first thought is that the driver is drunk. As I got up to his wheel to pass, I noticed that he was reading a paperback! I waited for him at the next stop sign and yelled through the window, "Hey, close the book and pay attention to driving!"

Sheesh.

Okay, about a mile from there, I hit 21st Street a straight, three lane shot across Midtown. I don't see it, but I can smell burning oil and hear a loud buzzing. It sounded like a poorly tuned chain saw engine. Which it was, attached to a scooter with a pimply-faced teenager on it. I pulled along side and said--in a friendly way--"Is that as fast as that thing goes?"

Unfortunately, I think I startled Pimply-Faced Scooter Teen and when he turned to look at me, he veered slightly. So, now I'm having to veer towards the center lane and traffic. I just shook my head, shifted into the big ring, and dropped PFST. And I was so hoping for a bit of a race to the office!

Oh, and then once in Midtown, I had to dodge an oblivious cell-phone talker.

But now I'm here, safe and intact.

that brought a tear to my eye just reading it - what a great Dad you are

been way too long since I posted - I don't know why - I just got out of the habit

Nice commuting year so far - I am ahead of last years ytd mileage total which was one of my goals, aided by the very nice Spring we have had in DC compared to last years monsoon - I do need to get my bike serviced though

After more than a year w/ no punctures I got two in 12 hours and realized my rear tire was fecked - since the new one went on there have been no problems

Can I vent about a disturbing trend I've noticed in DC where bikers are cycling around with those in-ear, earbud headphones - VERY VERY dangerous - a guy I was trying to pass yesterday veered right into my path because he couldn't hear my "On your left". When I tried to point out to him that him wearing earphones was dangerous, he told me where to stick my complaint - more and more bikers are doing this - please stop :(

I have discoverd an interesting tech. to driving in traffic. I ride down a 4 lane divided road on part of my ride to work. The road has about 3 feet of pack limestone on each side for bikes to ride on. There are numerous intersection on this road. The intersection have right turning lanes at them. This causes a problem if I stay on the path because if the right turn light is green and cars zoom to make the light and turn in front of me even though they see me going straight.

The method goes like this. As I am approching the intersection I leave the path and merge into traffic through the right turn lane over to the first straight through lane. I end up passing all the cars in this lane on their right side. As soon as I get to the light it is about to turn green and I can proceed right throught it.

Does anyone think this is a dangerous move or do you think this is the techniue I should use.

this is what I do as well on my commute home - it is a little dangerous but so far so good

Solidly overcast today, temps down into the 50s (f) and quite windy. It's bike to work day! I didn't really remember this morning til I got to work, so I didn't go out of my way to check out the commute stations. Anyway every day is bike to work day for me :)

So I'm off on vacation for a couple weeks, so no commuting for me for a while.

About the only thing dangerous about it that I can see is the fact that you're on the path to begin with.

Colder this morning with thick rolling clouds & a steady breeze all day, supposed to rain so I wore my yellow top & rode with fenders but by lunchtime, no rain came so I took a chance & rode no fenders in the afternoon. Still wore my rain gear just in case I was wrong that way the stripe up my back would be on my slicker instead of my clothes. Its still cloudy & windy tonight but doubt it will rain. Don

Overcast, with mild headwind this morning. Legs still burning from yesterdays 80 mile adventure. Took it easy. Nice ride :)

First decent ride for a while today - last week I was feeling decidedly under the weather with a mystery cold/virus thing. It was good to be back on the long scenic route.

Cheers,

Ed

Temperature just above freezing. Light rain/snow mix the whole way in. Moderate north(head) winds. We had 3 inches of snow yesterday and rain all weekend long. Killed my training rides. Next weekend already looks like a wash as well with more rain. Well, rain for the whole week for that matter!

Well, I've been out of the loop here for a week. I was in training all last week in downtown St Paul. The training was boring but the bike commute was great, 42 miles/67 Kilometers round trip, every day. I lucked out on the weather for the most part I only had rain Wednesday PM and part of Friday. Now I'm back to my regular routine, cool this morning 44F/6C and cloudy (what's new). It should be a dry lunch run and ride home this afternoon... ah, maybe.

Gratified to feel a bit of the snap returning to my legs, so I just hammered the ride in. Looking forward to the afternoon: my wife's taking the kids to Grampa's tonight so I may get in a 40 mile ride out there tonight.

In Minnesota there is actually a "3 foot passing" law. It's a tough one to enforce but I have heard of an instance or two where someone was ticketed for driving to close.

Whoa, great story, thanks for sharing.

First commute to and from in quite a while. I have done a couple of half commutes but this was the first in several months of riding both ways. Nice weather with temperatures in the 70's AM and 80's PM. Traffic was tolerable. Will try again tomorrow if the thunder and lightning stay away in the AM.

Quite foggy at 6:00 AM this morning but by lunchtime we had a sunny day with a light breeze. When I got home this afternoon, it was75F

The ride home was cool. Temps struggling to get to 50F. Head wind all the way home. sure made the climb at the end a chore. Forcast is for chance of rain every day this week. We are above normal for precip and below normal for temps for the month.

Was nice to be dry when I got home for a change. :D

18 degrees C and overcast this morning, expected to hit 25 C today. This is what we call "winter" out here folks. They're promising late rain today, and I really hope we get a deluge.

The ride this morning started out dry but ended up wet as I rode into some rain soaked streets. I missed the rain but the streets were pretty wet. Of and on showers all day today. Time for the rain suit.

Finally met another commuter on the way in today. Said he was a member of the board, but I forgot to ask him for his screen name. So if you see this, Hi!

When is ever going to warm up? We have been having rain almost every day. Yesterday I raced the rain home. It was a tie.

This morning the skies were threatening but I stayed dry. Thank goodness because it was in the fourties.

Minnesota is almost ready to have its day of summer.

The weather is getting better. At least my fingers and toes are not becoming numb from the cold any more. Today was a very wet morning I got lime stone all over everything from the trail. I gave my Attack 2.0 to my wife in hopes that she too will see the benifits of bike riding. We are planning a 33 mile trip in the next couple of weeks. It is an old rails-to-trail path in Wisconsin. Elroy-Spartan trail I think it is called. It has three tunnels and many tresals. My wife thinks she can not do 33 miles. I told her it would be a slow ride taking in the sites maybe six hours total. I wish she would like it as much as I do.

Maybe I can get my daughter into it.

What the heck is that fire ball in the sky?!? :eek:

Ok, ok. I guess that is the sun. First dry commute into town for the past 7! Sunny (duh) low 40sF. Another dead deer laying along the route this morning. So sad to see. :(

Last night I went to my Tex-Mex restaurant and order a big plate of enchiladas! That wasn't too bad but we had fried ice-cream for dessert. :eek: This morning when I got on my bike to pay for the previous night's sins, it was 72F, a bit windy, mostly cloudy and there :D was on my face for the entire commute. Plus I made it from home to work in under an hour. My commuter is heavy 8 speed MTB. Have a GREAT DAY!

Last night we were at the office until about 10:45pm. Had to refuse the offers of 3 different co-workers for a ride home: "You don't understand. I've been looking forward to this ride home all day!"

I switched on my light and blinkies and glided through a dark and quiet Midtown. Just two or three cars on the streets. I caught up to a pair of fellow cyclists; they were on single-speed cruisers. I could hear their conversation and it was animated, giddy. Maybe they were barhopping. Maybe they were just enjoying the ride.

After crossing Broadway and heading towards my neighborhood, I sat up to adjust the strap of my backpack. I thought to myself, I wonder if I can ride all the way home without any hands? The left lobe said, "This is a good bike handling skill that I should work on." The right lobe said, "Shut up! This is fun!"

I hate working late. But I love the ride home.

Elroy-Sparta. The tunnels are long, so bring a light. They can also be cold, so be ready for that. My wife did the trail with me a couple of years ago with no training at all. I don't remember how long it took us, but she had fun (save a sore rear-end). There are essentially no hills worthy of mention since its a railbed. The trip up to the first tunnel (from elroy) is a mild incline, but then you go down a mild incline so its a wash.

Today marks day 2 of week 3 of commuting. I see what people mean about week 3 is hard. Tomorrow I drive since I have a 4:00 bike fit appt. with my road-bike. Here's hoping I'm back on the bike on Thursday!

Brennser, I have a solution for that. I mounted an Airzound to my bike, and it seems there is nothing on the road that the sound of this horn doesn't penetrate. It has saved me from two cagers attempting to turn left in front of me in as many days. It is much like a marine horn, with the exception that you can refill it with your tire pump, and it is designed to be mounted to a bike.

For passing cyclists who don't seem to subscribe to the same road ettiquite paradigm as me, I move over to the left and begin a sprint about two meters from their back tire. This gives me space, in case they should veer suddenly, and speed, so that it's all over quickly.

If you feel the need to use this limestone, then merging with traffic before the intersections is your best option. Personally, I'd not feel safe on the limestone, and would therefore be in the right-hand traffic lane, allowing cars to pass me in the other lane(s), or sharing the lane when there is enough space to do so safely.

This morning's commute was great. I just put a new wheel on the front last night, with an American Classic hub. It seems to spin much better than the previous Shimano hub. Maybe it's psychosomatic, but I don't care.

60 degrees F, medium humidity, and bright mornings thanks to the long days of summer. 10.5 miles in to the office, with a sprint down a four-lane "old downtown" road.

Honked at a cager this AM right before she turned left into my path. The Airzound is a great horn. Still getting used to the volume, though; it hurts my ears.

It was overcast & warm today and unusually humid for Washington. Had a nice quiet commute in with light traffic & a few other cyclists seen along the way. Weatherman says rain tonight & he may be right.