Wednesdays 16.5 commute was stellar! Beautiful weather here in NorCal, rollng hills, the huge pigs in the field on the "hill", nice cool Fall-like breeze from the west...liked it even though it was a headwind! Unfortunatly I couldn't get out of the clips in-town, and got a chainring tattoo/piercing in the right calf :(

Hope today will be faster!

Left the house a little late due to a diaper situation. Spinning along at about 17mph on 21st Street, I caught the opportunity to make up a little time: slid into the slipstream of the No.63 bus heading across town. I put it into the big ring and pretty soon I'm doing 30mph and we're hitting all the lights. I got the "WTF is a cyclist doing 30 in the middle lane?" look from a soccer-mom in a Honda Pilot.

I love that.

Another bummer! I have to ask myself why I am so arrogant.

I know better. Don't cross railroad tracks except completely perpendicularly. The road was in particularly bad shape on this new route to my training class. I noticed the condition, slowed down, and started trying to unclip. Suddenly, I'm on my side. My elbow is bloodied and my back hurts. I got myself up, checked out the 'bent, put the chain back on and rode into class.

Fortunately, the blood washed out of the jersey (cold water and hand soap in the building), and everything else seems to be sore muscles. We'll see by the afternoon whether I'm asking my wife to give me a lift home. :-(

I dropped yesterday on the way home. I had taken the bike in the previous evening for a tuneup since my front Tiagra was rubbing a little and I haven't gotten around to relearning how to adjust them myself. Anyway, I'm on the ride home last night and crest a hill and figure I'd jump up to the big ring and get some speed going. I hit the shifter and my chain jumped completely over the big ring.

I grab the breaks and ease in a driveway, pop the chain back on and hop on and clip in, realizing I wasn't carrying any speed while trying to turn around and get back on the road......plop. Nice little piercing on my left calf.

Patience, I must remeber patience and not get in a hurry. The good news is, I printed out the spec sheet of my Tiagra front derailleur and learned how to tune the damn thing myself :D

I had a great commute to my Thursday office, beautiful sunrise. It was 62F when I left home, lunch time it was 81F, twenty minutes later it's 58F (rain came through). It's a good thing I brought bike clothing for all occasions... it will make for an interesting ride home.

Absolutely gorgeous fall day here in the Northeast. The foliage is turning so quickly, and the weather has finally been warm and sunny. Perfect ride in and home today. Not much traffic, and I took a new way home today that a co-worker let me in on that was one of the most beautiful roads that I have ever been on!

Got honked by one idiot driver up Yonge St. while taking the lane to avoid about 2km of bad road (3rd lane, light traffic too). On the way back while climbing a hill, got passed by a police officer on a motorcycle who shouted, "Work it, work it!". Got a real kick out of that.

Duuuude those are the best kind!!!

Last couple of days have been uneventful, kinda. Wussed out yesterday & wore some old sweat pants (can't afford tights), otherwise cool mornings & gorgeous afternoon rides. Oh yea, passed the 700 mile mark yesterday too.

Was hot today...but managed to beat my time by 5 minutes! w00t! made it up "the hill" in higher gearing as well...glad I managed that.

55F with a very heavy drizzle, only wore the top to my rain gear & pants/shoes were pretty wet by the time I reached work. Not a problem as I keep a change of clothes & shoes in my locker. The day became partly cloudy with lots of sun & 67F for a perfect afternoon ride. Don

Nice ride home this evening. I am taking a route that is primarily on surface streets so I do not see as many bikes as when I take the path. There was a big breeze this evening, most of the time behind me. Temps were in the low 60's.

The Rain God’s are my friends! (knock on wood) I stayed dry on the way in… from noon – 3:00 we got an inch in of rain… 1.5 hours later I rode home in 70F partly cloudy skies on dry roads with a 10mph tail wind!!!! :D

Congrats!

Beautiful misty morning, the bike lane felt faster than usual (probably due to limited visibility). I pulled up to the intersection before work where the bus was stopped for passengers in front of the green light. The volvo pulls into the left turn lane to pass the bus. I think, "dumb." "B*itch," thinks the bus driver as he pulls out into the intersection before the woman has a chance to make a right turn in front of him. I pull forward, taking up the whole lane, and shake my head at the woman with her right-turn signal on in the left turn lane of an intersection that now has a red light. She pulls out and drives off giving me that, "So what?" look. I pull into the work, this time remembering to unclip from the pedals *before* stopping ("socks first, _then_ the shoes").

I walk up the hill for lunch and step into a crosswalk. The guy in the red truck obviously saw it coming and thought accelerating hard would remind me of his dominance. I stopped in the crosswalk, raised both my arms, yelled, "It's a CROSSWALK." and very deliberately pointed to each of the stripes on the road. "F*ck you," says the man who then floors it again when I finally get out of the way.

Meanwhile, my girlfriend got the Right Hook at 20 mph 2 weeks ago and still complains of the shoulder pain. *sigh* Training one driver at a time I guess.

Long day at work. Good ride to work and home ,85 amd sunny , Nice day .

Blah!!! You stole it from me.

Day before yesterday, commute to work ended up commute to hospital. Right arm dislocated from shoulder, plus broken bone in joint thanks to slick chipseal corner and front-wheel lose at 25km/h. Really strange sensation having a bicep line up with the ribs (as if the pain wasn't enough to tell me something was wrong). Retraced my route three kilometres to the local doctor's surgery where they called an ambulance and gave me some pethedine. Spent six hours in hospital. Loved the knock-out sedative they gave me so they could reset the dislocation.

Bus to work yesterday and today :( . I'll try to ride home tonight, dammit, and if I get there, then it will be a 300km randonnee on Sunday. The surgery on the joint will have to wait until late-November because of all the randonnees I have planned in other States culminating in the Great Southern 1200 late next month.

Oh yeah, more importantly -- the bike came out of it much better off than me. Both (!) STI levers pushed out of line and a broken lens on the 5-LED Cateye rear light was all it sustained. It was going to get a virtual rebuild this weekend anyway, including new Velocity wheels (woohoo).

nice ride in thick fog and heavy dew, rode the road bike for the third day in a row, it's like getting a free ride to work.

Beautiful morning here in sthlm/sweden. about 10-12 degrees celcius and sunny skies. Dry roads and no wind. For once i had a really hard time overtaking another commuter. It took me two kilometers to catch him, a couple of hundred meters to wheelsuck myself fresh again and then pass him the final kilometer to work. :-) Good fun!

Rowan I feel your pain man! I've had my right shoulder dislocated some four-five times and if I was you I'd give it a week at least to heal!!

Anyway, have a nice weekend guys and gals!!
br/jens

another calm, dry morning ride. 62 °F, thin high clouds. the osage oranges are beginning to be a road hazard in certain spots.

Minneapolis (Richfield, Edina, Minnetonka)

Windy as hell - 15-30mph. Plus drizzle that wasn't there on the news report....

I second that "Windy as hell" Luckily for me it was mostly a cross wind.

I like the drivers on my morning commute... It is pitch black out for my entire morning ride now. With all of my blinky lights I get all the respect in the world. In the last 2 months I have only had one squeeze play (2 cars opposite directions and 1 bike in two lanes) on my morning commute. In the late afternoon with plenty of daylight I get squeezed almost daily!

Finally was able to start commuting again after starting a month ago. Got bit by a tick with Lyme Disease. Now that I've recovered I rode to work this morning and it was great. I rigde 9 miles to work about 5 in the city and then about 4 down a limestone trail. Funny thing was in the city I saw 5 turkeys and had a falcon or a hawk fly out of tree and fly head level in front of me by 5 feet for a couple of seconds which I think was pretty cool. Not sure who was spooked worse, me or the bird.

I have finally gotten around to riding the whole way to work, 12 miles each way. The weather has been gorgeous here in chicagoland. I get to ride a while through the forest preserve. Today I was running a little behind and had to really crank. Covered the 12 miles in 41 minutes at 17 mph. That is pretty much the same time total it takes me to get to work when I drive my car half the time.

Yep, I missed the drizzle though. I'm Minneapolis, St. Louis Park, Hopkins, Edina, Evil Prairie. What's your route? Are you one of those guys always going the wrong way on Blake Rd? :o