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.

Partly cloudy & around 60F for the trip home. Head/cross winds to 25MPH.

Well I'm up to riding 2-3 days a week, instead of taking the gas hog. Today was overcast with only light wind on the way home. Had a flat but repaired it on my lunch hour and rode home on the patched tube. Only had one motorist nearly run me off the road, passing me on my left only around 1 foot away, I guess he thought I had enough road (I only go about 8" into the road if possible).

21 Degrees C this morning at 7.15am. Doesn't look like we're going to get a "winter" this year either.

Much cooler this morning and very heavy overcast, it stopped raining just before I left. Last night on the way home I rolled over the commuting 5000 mile mark for this year, i'm behind last year at this point by about 590 miles. So far the weather has been challenging to say the least, It's been tough on me and tough on the drive train, I'm optimistic that this summers weather will be better than last year although the forcast for the rest of the week is quite wet.

Ok ride home last night. Had a couple of close calls with some cars and a bus. I have to admit the one with the bus was probably my fault. I was nit paying attention to what was going on and just did not see the bus pass me and it stopped right in front of me to get a passenger. My bad.

Ride in this morning was good. Wet roads again from rain last night and traffic was a little heavier because I left a little later than normal.

Wet one this morning. Woke up at 5:15 to another violant thunderstorm and downpour. I decided to re-set my alarm, sleep late, and drive in today. Then, about 5 minutes later, the rain stopped, so I hopped in the shower, dressed quickly, and jumped on the bike. Althought the trail was flooded in some places, without the typical headwind, I was able to fly in and make it in almost record time. Once my back was soaked (removed my rr fender last week-big mistake), I just didn't care anymore, and hit a top speed (peak) of 26-27 mph-averaging about 18 or so. By the time I hit the 14th street bridge I had gotten a nail or tack (some kind of metal shard) in my rr tire and it was wobbling badly. Although it didn't flat, I had to slow down in case of a blowout. I'll check it before this afternoon's ride home and replace the tube if necassary. Good thing I've got some emergancy stuff with me here at work.

Interesting commute yesterday. I have read how people sometimes make their commute longer, for no other reason than logging in more miles. My commute is normally 31kms round trip, and I am usually quite happy with that mileage.

Well, yesterday I had to make a detour on my way in - and after work I went to see some relatives who were having trouble with their computer. Some time during the day I realised this all means some additional mileage, but did not bother to count even approximately how much.

Fixing the computer took longer than expected (doesn't it always?) so I left my relatives' house at 9:30PM. I realised from the start it was going to be a long ride home, so I took my sweet time, and even decided to take a longer route just to avoid my usual commuting streets. It was a quiet, beautiful evening and the ride was absolutely fantastic!

At the end of the day my bike comp had logged 66kms - more than double my usual distance. And somewhere in between I managed to squeeze in 8hrs of work. I was tired but happy! Had I used car or public transport, I would have just been tired. When I hit the bed at home I did not have to remind myself of the difference.

But my hat is off for you all who commute 60kms daily on a regular basis. It would take me a while to build up stamina for that.

--J

I have been on the Sparta trail many times. It is my favorite. You got to love the tunnels. I have incorperated it in my ride from Winona, Mn to Stevens Point. You can get on a trail just outside of Winona on the Wisconsin side of the river. From there you can go all the way to Camp Douglas on trails. I think this portion was about 90 miles. Great area to bike in.

I crashed me fixie
No one saw it though except for you all so shhhh save my embarisment

I cut through a 200ft section of grass to a 'bike path' on my commute. The grass was tall so as I was approaching the paved path to my left on an angle the tire got stuck in that little area where the pavement rises out ov the grass. I rode it scrapping the tire along for about 5 ft and realized it's time to go down. It's funny how the brain works b/c at that moment I remembered a time about 15 years ago when riding my Panasonic brakeless track bike I came to a hill so steep I could'nt stop and found some bushes to crash in. Well fortunatlly there were some nice cozy bushes to crash in so I pulled my left foot out as the bike was going down to the left stepped onto the pavement as the right peddal of the fixie launched me accross the bike path[this is actually when I started to laugh] and I curled up and broke the bush into piecies which cushened my fall nicely. There was a fence post about a ft away whew! All I got was a few dings on the right leg and wasn't late to work. Thanks for listening

Wet roads on the way in this morning. Temperature in the mid 40sF. Winds gusting to 26MPH and forcasted to get worse this afternoon. Lots of geese with babies along the river lately. Cute little fuzzy ones.

Had one moron try to put me into a row of parked cars last night. I braked, then laughed at him as I passed him in the gridlock a little later on. Never saw him again. This morning it was 19C when I left home. Pretty uneventful ride, usual honks but I don't really care that much.

It was 57F & just starting to rain at 6:00 AM so I grabbed my Motobecane Touring bike: green blinkie in front, red blinkie in back helped keep me visible as the rain turned into a steady soaker. We needed this rain so I was pleased when it continued throughout the morning. By early afternoon when I rode home, it had cleared up & I enjoyed a dry trip home.

Yesterday's ride home really sucked. After leaving work about 45 minutes late, crossing the 14th st. bridge on my way out of DC, the metal shard in my rr. tire (which I picked up in the morning and decided to leave it in and risk the ride home) decided to puncture my tube. I had to walk the rest of the way across and patch my tube on the VA side. I had noticed a serious wobbling in the tire too but thought that would dissappear after removing the metal. As it turns out my sidewall blew out and the bead separated from the rim for about 4 inches. I stopped again near the airport, deflated the tube a little and tried to tuck the tire back in to no avail. I decided to just re-inflate and try to limp home but my pump refused to work. I ended up riding home on about 20 psi and a wobbly rear wheel, I could only safely do 9-10 mph. My 35 minute commute turned into about an hour and a half. I went out last night and picked up a Continental Town and County urban slick (compared to my Korba Kenda semi-slicks) and absolutely flew in this morning. I'm going to change the front one over tonight. Worst part was that I was trying to get home before 5 so I could pick up a delivery of new bike parts from Pricepoing. I made it to my rental office at 5 of 5-just in time to get my new; seatpost, road bars/tape, Ultrega cranks and bb-sweet.

Good ride home last night. I got home right before the rain started.

No ride in today, got to many meetings after work. Not a bad thing since severe weather is predicted for most of the day.

It was a nice ride in this morning. The temp started out at 53 and was up to 59 by the time I rolled into the office. There was no wind at all this morning, a big difference from yesterday when it was blowing in all directions all day long.

I too have noticed the baby geese along the river. They are cute, but their parents need to lighten up with that hissing business.

Started off nice & sunny, light cloud turned into complete overcast. Hilly 13 mile cycle into Dublin, through city centre. Unfortunately had a light headwind (which seems so much more when you're doing 25!).

Dist: 12.7miles, avg spd 15.5mph, max 29.9 (cruising usually ~22mph). HRmax 171, avg 148, 683kcal! Nice workout today

Pretty good riding for the last few days. The weather is threatening to crack up, acording to the forecast, but it is still warm and dry here.

My old steel road bike is in pieces at the moment whilst I re-paint the frame. I stripped it at the weekend, removed the rust and got a good solid coat of primer on. I'm now ready to spray the first colour coat - when I get time. I'll follow up with a clear laquer, something I did not try last time. Hopefully it will add to the appearence and protection. Maybe I'll be able to take some photos to post in the commuter pics section.

Cheers,

Ed

Reading some of the other post of people riding in 40 degree (F) weather I consider myself lucky because I'm in 72-75 degree (F) weather. Today the tempature was 79 F… this means triple digit temps are around the corner for my commute home. I'll enjoy it while I'll can. Today I saw more people biking than I have ever seen since I started commuting… it was nice to see. Y'all have a great day!

Had an encounter that was at first very aggravating but in the end was kind of funny. I didn't get out of the office until after 7, well after downtown empties of state workers. So I took 15th Street, a street I'd never take during rush hour. It's a one-way, three-lane thoroughfare and it dumps on to the crosstown freeway on-ramp. But traffic was light and it's the most direct route home and so I thought I'd just take it.

I was tooling along at about 15mph, taking the center of the right lane, and having no problems since there were few cars and it was easy for people to move into the center or left lane. Then, this guy in a crappy pickup pulls up, swerves at me, and yells "Get the f--- off the road!"

I said, "Why don't you pull over to the curb and we'll discuss this?"

He said, "F--- you!," and drove ahead. Right to the red light, which I knew to be a particularly long red light. And I'm pissed, so I put it in the big ring and hammer to catch up. When I get within a 100 feet or so, I yell "Hey! I want to talk to you!"

I could see him look in the rearview and his eyes got really big and he jumped the red light and darted across 3 lanes to get on the freeway on-ramp. I just had to laugh.

I was riding a road bike with a backpack and a dorky Giro helmet. I'm wearing dresspants with a reflective cuffbands. And a buttondown shirt and loosened tie. Not exactly the messenger/crazed anarchist vibe.

So, I ended a long workday with a laugh and an unscheduled interval workout.

Ah, finally a little warmer this morning on my commute in (55F) and sunny. Of course as I look out the window now it's cloudy... AGAIN! Anyway, I had a nice ride in, allot of bikers out there this morning. I don't know what is so significant about today but I don't remember ever seeing that many before. I am so ready for a "day ride", I haven't taken one yet this year, well, back to work... ahem.