Another nice ride in today, colder and cloudy. The return of the SUV strollers on the trail, why always in pairs?. I also have been enjoying the chorus of the frogs at night, another sure sign that old man winter is losing his grip again.

Today at work just drug on and on and on..

You know, one of those days that you really just want to "get the heck out of Dodge!" Temp was in the low 50Fs!

So, I really wanted to just get home. With my superior intellect I figured I'd try a shortcut.

I cut along the local railroad right-away which did cut off about 1.2 miles from the ride. BUT the ride was tough. MUD, SAND, and BIG SHARP ROCKS. I'm not talking surface mud. I'm talking the kind that sucks you in and stops you dead in your tracks! The sand was also a real "quagmire." The rocks were the best for riding, even though they were still a handful. Oh, and It took me 10 minutes longer to get home!

So, lesson learned!

Chris L & ridealot: it will get better, but be careful anyway. Our wonderful weather continues so this morning I took my camera along. The maple sugarbush on my route, and a little raccoon that obliged me by sitting still for his picture (actually, as you can see by his shining eyes, he was dazzled by my helmet light, 15W is much better than flash at 30 feet).

Oh, I can think of a few implements I'd like to see go through their tiny minds, but that's just a private little revenge fantasy that I have.

Quite a nice ride in today, made a slight alteration to my route, which I think I'll keep after yesterday. Temps relatively cool for the time of year after last night's downpour. No idiots and a nice roll on the South Pacific. All is good again (for now).

The roads were dry at 6AM on my way to work but a few hours later the rain started. It let up some by lunch & had stopped all by 3:30 when I left for home. I need to do maintenance or repairs on several bikes now but so far its been easier to just ride another. I know, I know, this just depletes my stock of ride ready bikes & adds another candidate for cleaning & maintenance. Life gets tedious from time to time. Don

Another windy ride home last night. Besides that the weather was pleasant, tempature around 45F. Traffic was a little heavy but everyone seemed to give me plenty of room when they passed.

Cold frosty, but bright and sunny today. This wintery spell is great for riding but it sure is cold out there. I noticed today that the Oxford canal is partly frozen!

Cheers,

Ed

Low 40s F this morning and breezy. Colder with snow expected for the ride home.

The weather is getting better. It's supposed to be sunny as far as the forecasters can see. I took off the Nokians this morning, which made the ride faster.

But I had two near misses two blocks in a row. I was riding on a through street, all the side streets had stop signs. A truck and turned left from a side street immediately in front of me. Then a car did the same thing at the next intersection. They both stopped mid-intersection, and then I drove around in front of them.

It was daylight and I was wearing bright clothing. I guess they thought "STOP" only applied if cars had the right-of-way.

2nd time this week. The road was wet from last night's rain, but that didn't pose any problems. My brakes still worked nicely. My shoulders are much less sore than they were after Tuesday's ride in, so that's good. Next week My goal is to bike in 3 times.

Tim

Partially sunny and decently warm (low 50s maybe?) this morning. I decided to photo document my commute (posted here ) so took a pretty slack ride in. Right at the last few hundred feet of my commute my rear tire blew out. I just wheeled it in to work so now I've got a tire change to complete some time today.

Weather's improving here, too, after the heatwave we had last week. Temperature barely 20C this morning, only expected to hit 29 all day! Beautiful.

I live just near Chris L, and he's right about the weather improving. We hit about 42C about a week ago and I have to admit, trying to convince myself that 'going for a bikeride would be nice' was quite difficult. I managed to get home by about 9ish or so and even then I would say the temp was in the low to mid 30Cs. Its been lovely in the past few days though. I went out for a pre-work commute bikeride on Wednesday, left about 5:30am got home just before 7am. The best 1.5 hours ive had in a long time. The air was crisp, no traffic, slight breeze, no clouds. I hope that kind of weather continues for a while yet.

Rain showers today but definitely warmer. I went downtown to the LBS, "The Bikestand" & picked up a set of Kool Stop Cantilever brake pads for my Centurion Touring. It needs a good clean & lube after a hard Winter of service & the front pads were just about gone. Don

Chris, Recumbant - I'll trade weather for a couple of days. Today it was colder than ever round-about -4 °C this morning. I still had cold feet, despite two pairs of wool socks, poly bags cycling shoes and neoprene booties! In contrast, a long sleeved jersy and jacket were enough to have me sweating away...

Have a good weekend everyone.

Cheers,

Ed

I have been out of my normal commuting patterns of late. Wednesday evening, I rode across the river to the Capitol for a reception. (Note to DC cyclists: the bike rack at the Capitol has been moved from the Senate side to the House side. It is still very convenient to the entrance.) It was great to ride off into the night afterwards with the dome gleaming above me and then spot it again across the river while heading home on the Mount Vernon Trail.

The next morning I put the bike in my wife's station wagon, dropped it off at the shop, and commuted to work via the WO&D trail. It is an amazine experience to ride for six miles with only a few stops -- quite a change from my usual "stoplight at each block" commute.

Variety is great. Tonight, I ride to the shop and pick up the car. The weather is springlike -- my coat stays on the rack.

Paul

Lot's of Rain in SoCal this week...
Only made 3 days commuting, rare that I don't ride, but when it's real wet things wear rather quickly so I become a driving slug...

This morning tho... Wonderful 40 degrees, wonderful/colorfull sunrise

Only 3 days... now I feel guilty

Wow, I could really handle winters like that. Great pics!!!!!

Oh yah, my morning commute, it was very spring like, clear skies, earlier sunrise, warmer temps and a great ride in, life is grand.

Yesterday was something else. I've been carpooling, ride over to a co-worker's house catch a ride to work and back, been real nice. But yesterday was the break in that cycle, I have riden to and from work all week! I haven't done that since December. Didn't think I could do it. Still have two days to keep it up. Feeling it in my legs.

Well when I went to change my tire last night it turned out that both my extra spares were Schrader valves instead of the Presta my bike uses. D'oh! So I patched a tire for the first time ever I think. There was no object in the tire, but it had split on a seam. The patch held fine all the way home, but the tire was flat this morning. So I drove in but I went to REI over lunch and blew a load of cash on things I been putting off buying I think I'm going to completely clean the winter off the bike this weekend and change from my 2.2" Conti Town & Countries to 1.5" Conti Top Touring tires. Another sign of spring.

Took my first commute of the year. I biked in at about 7:00 am and made it to work in about a hour. I as only 6 miles, but there's some major hills in Northern New Jersey. I took the train home since it's too dark to ride in rural NJ and I don't have a good light source yet.

I'm going to start doing this more often to lose some of the winter flab.

MIyataphile

Warm rain in the AM, sunny in the afternoon. Got home from work & installed a new rack on the Motobecane touring bike.

Worked the 2-11 shift tonight. There is nothing better than a Sunday night commute home. Cool and quiet.

Very nice ride home this evening. Decent headwind from the south to keep things cool, relatively sane traffic, and plenty of eye-candy in Surfers and Broadbeach. For once I have something nice to say!