they had us on the alert for northern lights down here but i saw none, sad to say.

this morning was brisk (27 °F) and clear with high clouds moving in. last night the gingko on brooks street dropped its leaves; it looked like a giant yellow paintball had splattered onto the sidewalk, the extension and the street. the group of osage orange trees on state (just south of the tracks, by the golf course) had released a fusillade of fruits overnight as well, and i almost wiped out maneuvering around and through them. autumn! i love it...

I had never knowingly seen the Northern Lights. Thanks to N7CZin MT's post yesterday I looked to the Norther sky on my commute... Breath-taking! :D I'm not good with words so I won't be able to give the splendor the discription it deserves! I was kicking myself that I didn't have a camera with me. I think I'm going to get one of those $20.00 digital cameras to take with me every where I go.

I probably shouldn't have ridden in this morning. I have been nursing a cold/flu for 2 weeks, I was progressively getting better until Sunday, I felt the worst yesterday… but I have spent entirely too much time off the bike so I rode anyway!

It was my first ride with the heavy, noisy Nokians, on top of the 2 week hiatus and being sick… My average speed dropped 4.5mph! I figured I would be slow, but I spent way to much time in my Granny gear! :(

Lethargic ride in this morning. Felt strong yesterday, but I've been out of town a lot lately and haven't done much commuting, so I guess it's just the muscles waking up again.

That being said, it's been great on the bike the past two days... around 45 deg F when I leave home, warming to around 50 by the time I get to work. Thanks to the end of daylight savings, I'm no longer starting off in the dark, though my ride home is definitely dark! Fitted a 10W light last night, which should make things a bit better. Most of my ride is on well lit streets and not many busy ones, so hopefully this should be enough... for now!

Besides being cold (29F) the ride in this morning was beautiful. Clear skies, and clean fresh air. Real nice.

Grrrrr. The one afternoon I'm *not* commuting by bike, and it's clear and warm and gorgeous outside, with a 20 mph tailwind.

Hmf. Want my bike.

Nice ride on the way home. Mid 50s, and a 10mph tailwind. I cruised at an easy 18mph clip. (ya gotta love tailwinds!)

I had a nice ride in this morning. Superdark when I left at 6am. Hoping it will stay dry for the ride home.

Nice day for commuting today, dry streets, broken clouds & no wind at 6AM, rode my Specialized touring bike in the early darkness & returned from lunch on my Bianchi, rode a few extra miles as it was so nice out. Looking forward to picking up my new Torelli road bike later this week. Don

So after 10,882 miles (17,411km) commuting the past 4.5 years, I finally got to try my Fiber-fix spoke kit. Yup, I broke my very first spoke today. I'm happy to report that the fiber-fix work well enough to make my bike rideable, although the wheel was not perfectly true, not even close. But it got me home without calling Dan out of his barbershop rehearsal and that was why I've carried it all these miles. Otherwise a beautiful day for a ride.

Hard day at work. But good ride in & home .
Have a good nite !!!

The first half was good. Bit overcast this morning, so I probably shoulda had a blinky light on, even though it was light out. Screamed at some idiot lady in a jeep that nearly pulled out in front of me, (why is it that drivers near schools are complete idiots?) but that was forgotten a block or two later.

The ride home; not so good, 'cause I *didn't* ride home. After changing into my riding clothes, I was packing up my stuff and getting the rest of my gear together only to discover I'd forgotten my headlamp. I tossed the battery in but the light somehow didn't make it into my bag this-morning. Had to beg a ride home from a coworker who lives nearby.

Oh, well. There's always tomorrow...


-Trevor

Thirty-six degrees (F) and windy this morning, the first sub-forty day so far this fall. I went with double layer both for pants and shirt along with my Bike Jacket. The micro fleece layer was a little heavy and I sweat a little bit but not too bad. I was afraid the double layer for my legs was too much but it turned out to be very comfortable. Doubled up on sox and used my wind blocking booties so my feet kept nice and warm. I did 5.8 miles in 25 minutes. All in all, a great day for a bikeride!

for some reason today's mid-30s temp felt colder than the last two days' sub-30, at least at the beginning of my ride. by the end i was perspiring as usual, however. it is always great to be out there, misanthropic motorists notwithstanding.

25F this am, bright & crisp. I heard a few people struggling to get their steel cages started & I chuckled as I rode right on by!
Great ride!

Pretty wet this morning, I think I need a front fender because when I got to work it looked like a had a beard from all the black water on my face.

As a highlight though, the production manager is mopping up the bike tracks left by a lowly draftsman. Classic! He missed a spot in my cube, I better go tell him.

23 degrees, and I still need to work on keeping warm enough. I couldn't find my winter glvoes, and my arms were cold, but it wasn't so bad. I bought safety glasses to keep cold air out of my eyes, and they weren't as effective as I hoped, but better than nothing.

Tried a slightly different route home yesterday (I've just moved house, so still figuring out the best way) and cut a couple of miles, a lot of traffic, and about 10 minutes off the commute home. I ride through the Cherry Creek State Park, just down the road from my house, so have plenty of options on a nice day to extend the ride. Slight headwind on the way home, but nothing over the top.

This morning was a bit damp. It was raining as I left home, but stopped after a couple of miles and just left a lot of water on the roads. Hooray for fenders! Rain started up again about 5 minutes from the office, and about 30 minutes after I arrived it turned to snow. Came down the same faster route this morning (took around 45 minutes rather than an hour for the alternative). It was much nicer to have less traffic, even if it was a bit more of a climb. 20mph tailwind kinda helped too. :D

55F and drizzling this morning. It would have been a really pleasant morning to go for a long detour. Too bad I had to be in early and wearing a tie to meet some new clients. Maybe I can sneak out this afternoon, but I doubt it.

Oh, and what a wonderful day it was. Rode from Downers Grove to Warrenville in record time and felt great doing it (not to rub it in or anything).

If it makes you feel better, today I missed my first work day commute in a month, and it's great weather. They say it might be our last nice day for a while. I picked my old van up from the mechanic's last night on the way home. I didn't drive it at all for the last month. Pretty cool, eh?

Even with the van back I am committing to staying on the bike. I had to put gas in the van this morning and about choked when I saw the per gallon price ($2.06 per gallon). My van has become my alternate mode of transportation and it's clearly set in my mind that way. I like that!

62F cloudy, windy, it had rained earlier this morning so the roads were wet. WOOHOO! Today is the first day I get to test out my new fenders!

They worked pretty good, I think I have to adjust them, my left foot is a little wet while my right foot is almost perfectly dry. I was even aiming for all the puddles in the road. The best part was watching the dirty brown water drip off the mudflap...that water would have been on my bike and body....

It was quite warm this morning at 6AM, 50F & dry with no wind. Ride in was uneventful until I was cruising through our empty parking lot. It was very dark & my vistalight illuminates a very small circle. Our building has numerous 18"X18"X6' cement barriers all along the building between the walk way & parking lot (this was done after an irate citizen made our Yakima office into a drive through). The local skateboarders had dragged one of these barriers out into the traffic aisle & as I entered it was edge on & unseen by me. Missed it by that much! as Maxwell Smart used to say. We now have all the barriers anchored with L shaped steel straps. See how long it takes the kids to defeat these. Don

Definitely chilly this morning. So much that I wore a relatively thick polyester long sleeve stretchy shirt, with a t-shirt over that and a windbreaker on top. I think the windbreaker was a little much; when I got home tonight my arms and back were dripping wet. Yech. Still in my shorts for the bottom half, it would have to be really cold here to need tights or wind pants. Switched out the 10w halogen for the 20w for the ride home, I could tell a good difference though the 20w is more flood than the spot-like 10. I'm modifying my Cateye Opticube for rear strobe duty. That combined with my 5 led red flasher, along with a serious assortment of reflective tape on the bike, should make me a nice big target for the occasional insane driver.

rode to the dentist at lunch today....good ride, 5 miles one way. On the ride back my whole mouth was numb and I kept having to wipe the drool from my mouth with my sleeve. gross...

Left for work about 20 minutes earlier, so as to beat sunset..Rode in about 10 minutes of near dark..Temperature was a little under 60 when I got into work...Tried not to put on my arm warmer or jacket- so would not get them smelly before morining commute back home. As dark gets earlier, this will be impossible.
Good commute...Averaged 13 mph..( I have about 4 miles of significant climbing)Now, with dark getting earlier...Did not see one other cyclist- except for kids leaving schools....Standard time..Should be over 50 degrees when I leave in the morning..