I don't commute very often. I usually ride for a couple hours before work and then have to drive the dreaded car to work. I rode today and it was pretty uneventful. 3.06 miles in 12 minutes 41 seconds. Heck my shower took longer than that. :D

Oh well, at least i am a "commuter" today. It is also cool to have my bike in my office with me. I parked it right in front of the chair across from my desk so nobody can come in and talk to me. Now it is how we (my bike and I) like it. Nobody can come in and bother us, we are alone again!!! :p

Another great day on the bike. Motorists seem to all be my friends today. I put on a rear view mirror last night, a new louder bell and reflective wrist straps. It was an awesome morning....-3C with a slight headwind no clouds. Cool and crisp; just the way I like it.

I wish I could bring my bike in my office. It would be a good way to initiate conversations about my favorite topic. I guess it would be hard on the bike though in the winter.

Have a safe ride.

48F winds SSW at 25MPH gusting to 35MPH. Nice to be back on my normal schedule.

It was a cool, but not quite frosty morning for today's ride to work. The benefit was nice bright sunny weather, similar to my sunday ride.

The experiment with a new chain oil is also interesting - castor oil. I know what you're thinking.... Actually it works extremely well, the chain runs very smoothly, shifts well plus its fairly clean (and inexpensive). I'll keep the expt. going for a couple of hundred miles and report back. I believe it will compare favourably to Finishline's "cross country", but am awaiting a rain trial.......

Cheers,

Ed

nice mild ride this morning. a wild rabbit darted out onto a quiet residential street and stayed about 30-40 in front of my at the same speed for around a block or a block and a half before darting off back into someone's yard. it felt like the environment was showing their approval by providing me an escort in the form of a hare. then i got to work and realized it was probably just a curious little rabbit.

52F and raining today, had a quiet ride in until the very end. As I approach our parking lot entrance there is an uphill stretch. Today, as I labored up this stretch, a new officer on my team blew by me on his Jamis road bike. Unfortunatley for me, there were witnesses! I was peeling off my gear inside & one of the young ladies said "Did he just dust you Mr H?" I trotted out my excuses:
1. I didn't know he was back there 2. My touring bike is heavier & the front wheel was rubbing on the fender 3. I overdressed & felt like I was riding in a sauna inside my full rainsuit
I didn't use the primary reason: I'm 64, he's 34. Back to plotting my revenge, I'm bound to catch him sleeping one of these days. Don

While stopped at a traffic signal, a MBTA bus pulled up beside me. The door opened and the driver said, "We can see you, don't worry about that, we can sholly see you."
Mission accomplished.

Good ride to work & home . But my front light is dead .
So no light on the way home . But did have flashing light on messenger bag . So tonite I will be trying to put new batteries in tonite .So hopefully I can take the long way home tomorrow . Have a good nite .

Good ride in this am. You just can't beat a November day that hits 16C (yesterday) and 6C overnight. It could just as easily be -25C with 2 feet of snow. I will take every day as it comes. I am sure someday soon I will put those Nokians to good use.

saskcyclist, that's the weather that came thru calgary the day before. the temperature actually rose 3 degrees overnight, go figure. it was 0 this morning. i hate when it's zero, it's like there is no temperature. it should jump right from -1 to 1, none of this zero crap.

some guy: "hey, what's the temperature?"
me: "nothing, we don't have a temperature this morning"
some guy: "no temperature?"
me: "nope sorry, there's no weather either, we're screwed."

A little bit warmer when I left home this morning (36F/2C). Warmed up a little bit more as the sun came up too, making for a very pleasant ride in. I keep having people around the office tell me that I won't be able to ride in for much longer... they just don't seem to get that I'm kinda looking forward to a bit of the white stuff on the ground.

Brand new to the board, and not sure if this is the right quote/reply box or not, but wanted to add my .02 about the commute here in NW Washington state today . . . The weather was great! Overcast, 50's no rain. The traffic, as usual was pretty decent too. I ride 12 miles, with about 9 being country highway and the other 3 being city. The country is always a treat b/c nine out of ten vehicles that pass me are 4x4, crew-cab, dually, diesel trucks, jamm-packed with . . . one driver. They blow enough exhast to warrant a gas-mask on the commute. But aside from that, most are fairly decent about sharing the road; only two idiots who thought it'd be cool to get up next to me, put it in neutral, and blare their 8 miles-per-gallon engines. Boy was I impressed. And intimidated. I didn't know whether to be turned on or piss myself. Either way I couldn't help but sing "And I'm proud to be . . ." Anyway, all things considered, the ride to work today was great!

I pulled my Nokians off last night. The 20 minutes it took to swap tires will be made up in ride time with today’s commute.

I finally dressed right. I have typically been comfortable for the first 3 miles and then opening zippers to try and regulate heat. By the time I get to work I have soaked the liner in my jacket with sweat. I have been reading the details of what people have been wearing at various temps. And I walked out of my house this morning at 40F with a bottom layer, long-sleeve jersey, thin tights, hat under my helmet, and neoprene booties. It was chilly for the first 3 miles, then all was good!

Roguehippie: You're in the right place. Welcome, et non ilegitimi carborundum!

Cool fog in the Big Valley this morning. And courteous drivers on 21st Street (big ups to the guy in the Honda Accord who passed quickly and safely with a friendly honk and wave). So it was a nice ride in.

I had a nice ride in this morning. It has been quite a while since I have ridden to work and it was like traveling a brand new route. There are allot of changes to trees, plants and yards that have occured over the last month. I did count 17 other people out on bikes this morning. That was much more than I expected, but more power to them. The temps were in the low 40's and there was no wind to speak of. I'm looking forward to the ride home.

Commuting today is crazy! This is like living on the West Coast with Ollo Ollo listed above... well.... minus the Marion Berries and Salmon---- BUT: with a week of rain and mildly cool temps a question remains--- where is Winter? My tan is still here, and my fellow cyclists are also unfashionably un-pale this late in the season!
Alas we have had it too good since Spring!
SaskCyclist-- my Nokians still have that new-tire smell too! Was hoping to have Winter's cold as a reasonable excuse to store up some body-weight on butter tarts!!!
-- light shirt, no gloves, high of 60 F for the ride home too!!

Bad commute today. I completely lost it. It was 5 p.m. traffice. I took the shorter but more dangerous route because it was getting dark fast. There is a part of the road that exist like a freeway entrance ramp. I couldn't stay in the turning lane because I was going to keep straight. Yet the guy behind me was honking his horn because he had to slow down. I honked my Air Zound which was just as loud as his horn. I started yelling at him at the top of my voice. Wishing that he was could be removed from the gene pool. I wished I hadn't flared up like that. I should have just taken the long way around and cought the trail just off campus.

Great ride this morning - cool, beautiful, light wind from the South, and my days off this weekend put paid to my overtraining blues, so it all felt really good.

This afternoon, I went home early due to a crashing headache -- only to learn when I got to the Bike Station that it was because I'd been POISONED! Ok, not intentionally poisoned, or badly poisoned, but still. I thought I smelled something odd when I was showering in the ladies' locker room this morning, but wasn't sure what; when I got back there to gather my stuff (planning to throw my bike on the front of a bus to get home), I found a notice on the locker room door: "Due to Gas Leak, No Hot Water Until Further Notice!"

Immediately I remembered the weird smell, and it all made sense. I rode the bike home instead of taking the bus, figuring that an hour in the fresh air would do me MUCH more good than an hour breathing bus fumes. I did feel better when I got home - I took some excedrin and a nap and that, plus the ride, pretty much killed the headache. I still feel a bit tired, but not bad.

The ride home was really nice, headache aside - still cool, and the wind was at my back most of the way. Overcast, with a bright green lake and a lead-grey sky.

Ran out of light again today! I need to get a bigger battery or drag my charger back and forth to work, neither solution sounds very good. I just bought the battery a couple months ago! I had enough light to be seen… I just couldn’t see the road. Regardless, I made good time. I did have to stop and take my hat off, it was warmer than I expected.

I almost feel guilty posting this. I didn't commute today because I was able to work from home, but instead, carved out an hour plus for a ride on the bike trail in Roseville and some additional mileage through the foothills. The weather was fabulous, with sun and a light breeze. I got in almost 17 miles, which isn't quite as much as commuting, but it was sure more enjoyable.

Nice ride to work and home .Nice weather today .
Have a good nite .

Not to wet at 6AM today, rode the Centurion rain bike through intermittent showers. By lunchtime the sun was out & it appeared to be clearing up. Wrong! but I foolishly rode back on my new bike & didn't even wear my rain gear. When it was time to go home at 3:30 it was raining again. I left my nice white jersey at my desk to avoid that black stripe up the back. I keep some clean clothes at work so I substituted a long sleeve blue shirt for my jersey, put on my helmet & headed for home. the rain gradually tapered off & had stopped by the time I reached home but I was pretty wet. Not cold though as it quite warm. Got out of my wet clothes then cleaned & dried the bike.

Pleasant ride in this morning. Tempature was around 48F. Slight wind and not much traffic. Have not been able to ride in as much because of after work commitments and some other stuff. Hopefulley that is all done with and I can get back to riding to work more now.

mid 40s this morning and quite insistently drizzling, turning to rain at the moment. perhaps it will stop. the weather forecast in the morning paper seemed a little odd - it referred to temperatures in the 70s as "seasonable", which they are not - and then i noticed it was dated september 28. ah, the sweet antiquities of times past! would they only persist as fiercely in my heart as they do on the breakfast table!

I had plenty of excuses not to ride today, but I took each of them on and rode anyways! I cleaned my bike from stem to rear derailleur on Monday night. I also put new tires on, and thought I was ready to go. But this morning the second of my pannier attachments broke. I fixed it with a bungie cord and an old leather toe-strap. Then my blinkie was dead, but I scrounged around in the messy drawer and somehow came up with two AAA batteries. When I got outside and pedaled my first stroke, I almost fell over because my chain had come off. I finally got going, but my rear derailleur was being twitchy, and the whole bike was grinding. I realized that I forgot to re-lube the chain after getting it sparkling clean. So I relied on only 2 gears, which got me the 12 miles to work after all. It was a glorious morning, 45-degrees, sunny, and the maple leaves are still pretty bright. I felt sorry for all those scowling faces stuck in cars in traffic.

After 2 rides in the 20s (F), this morning's ride in the mid 30s felt warm!

It was spitting very light rain. Not even enough to make the trail wet.

I was in Prague on vacation last week, and we hit a low of around 16F at our house during that time. I'm not sure whether I'm happy or unhappy that I missed a commute that day!

Great ride in this morning - especially compared to the craziness last night. There is a disruptive set of roadworks in the vicinity of my workplace, so the traffic this morning was backed up everywhere. No problem on a bike! at one point I passed about 1/2 mile of stationary cars on the outside. One driver tried to make a move to prevent me doing this, but since there was absolutely nothing coming the other way I just used the "wrong" side of the road. Ha ha, you're stuck and I'm not!

Cheers folks,

Ed

39F at 6AM today with patchy wet fog but I rode my Moto Grand Jubile to hopefully have a faster commute. About 1 mile out & on the darkest part of the commute, my headlight dimmed, then went out. I was just cresting a hill & didn't have much speed. While I was fiddling with the light (thought it might be a loose connection) I rode off the edge of the pavement onto grass & then went down when I tried to go back up over the pavement edge. Headlight was totally gone, & the butblinkies in each hip pocket went flying. Both went out as they hit the pavement! I felt some road rash & a very sore left shoulder but nothing seemed broken so I groped around & located my blinkies, got them operating again. As I got my bike up, I spotted the headlight of a fellow commuter approaching up the hill, he greeted me & we tried to ride on but my crank freewheeled & there was a ratchety noise coming from the rear wheel. We coasted down hill to a streetlight & found my chain off both front & rear sprockets. Doh! Got everything back in place & rode on to work. I am going to see the Doc this afternoon as the shoulder is really sore. It feel's odd & I don't have the range of movement that I ought to have. Serves me right for riding a bike without a backup headlight. Be careful out there folks. Don

More fog. That is all.

good ride in this morning, a little cold. I need to wear a base layer or something. It's really cold when I first start moving. Maybe I should do some jumping-jacks or something before I leave the house to warm up.

Last night I saw a couple other commuters, with lights and all...it was great. One of 'em really smoked me on a downhill. He had a nice road bike and was pedaling the whole way down. I was a little nervous to go over 35mph on my old-ass bike.