Man, I went down HARD a few minutes ago. As I was pulling into the parking lot behind the building that my class is in, I didn't see the gravel on the road. Turned in and touched the front brake, as a standard turn-and-brake, and the front tire slid out, and I slammed the ground. The chain popped off (it's a singlespeed bike), my saddle turned sideways, and my brake hoods have some new damage and one was turned sideways slightly, and I was seeing stars (my chest hit the ground first). OUCH!

Sorry to hear about the fall Trekkie. About a year ago I did the same thing in the driveway where I work. Hope the injuries are not too painful and heal fast.

I made my first commute after 2 1/2 weeks holiday and despite the grim grey weather it was really good to get saddled up again. Even more exciting is the prospect that I'll be buying a new frame at the weekend to build up a new bike.

Cheers,

Ed

Hey I just realized! Today through Sunday is the earliest sunset of the season! (Where I live, anyway.) After this, I get more and more light for my evening commute. Summer is coming! :p

4:12PM according to my chart. Sunrise, however, keeps getting later and later until the end of the month.

Oh man, sounds painful Trekkie! Nice to see you can still type, though (kidding, just kidding).

Forgot to check to make sure my patch on the rear inner tube held from Monday night. It was flat this morning. I pumped it up and grabbed an old tube from the stash of 10-15 old tubes I have in the garage. The tire went flat after I got to work. Unfortunately, the old tube I grabbed this morning was an old Schraeder I kept for my wife's bike. The new patch I put on the existing tube has held since I repaired it this morning, though.

It sure would be nice to see the sun. The weather has been mild in Chicagoland and has been pleasant to ride in, despite yesterday's rain.

Yikes trekkie, hope all is well. I went down last night pouring rain, 30 mph winds, lights on blinking like a renegade Christmas tree, a delightful( truley she was after she hit me) young-older lady pulled out into traffic, I tried to stop, and the next I knew I was on my face on the side of the road gazing at some wet muddy leaves. I was fine, bike was fine, poor young older lady was extremely kind and genuinely concerned.I'm a lucky man...
Strange though,..I rode the rails this morning letting my thigh recover some, not planning on riding home. I have my fiance's MTB in the back of the warehouse and decide to take it home. Much too small for me, it feels like a glorified Big Wheel. Slow ride home, Knees kicking me in the chin, upright riding postition and it all felt great. It ain't the bike but the ride--(atleast for today)

41 F with intense rain showers at 6AM today. Had a quiet ride in through medium dense traffic. There were only a few impatient drivers rushing to get to their freeway commute. At lunchtime, it was clearing up & sunny so I rode my new Torelli back & enjoyed the sunshine. Then by 3:30 PM, we had lots of sunshine with blue sky all around. Only negative was all the dirty water on the road which got my bike really dirty & left a dark spot on my backside since I was only wearing my rain top. Stopped by the LBS to see if they had any word on the fenders we are trying to get (Honjo aluminum or Giles Berthaud SS) but looks like it will be awhile. They had a nice pair of yellow Planet Bike "Freddy Fenders" but only in the wider mountain bike & hybrid sizes. Just have to ride one of my bikes that has fenders & try to be patient I guess. Don

Nice ride in and home . Rode the ss today . Had some real bad weather yesterday ,so I did not ride yesterday .
But hopefully I can ride the rest of the week .
Have a good nite .

Ride home was not that fun. The weather was great, but the traffic was horrible. There was the normal amount of traffic, but it seemed that drivers yesterday were more in a hurry to get home yesterday then normal. Plenty of people passed me barely giving me any room, had three people pull right out in front of me, and had a few people yell at me. The ride home sucked.

The ride in this morning went much better.

Good question - this is my first year attempting winter biking, so I'm still learning.

I've just been wearing my old hiking boots (circa 1981) the last few days. They have no insulation, just leather. I wear them with 2 or 3 pairs of socks depending on the temperature. Typically I wear a pair of thin synthetic socks, then a pair of cotton sport socks, then a thick pair of wool/synthetic blend socks. At -18 to 22 my toes are starting to get a bit cold at about the 3/4-way point of my 11.5km ride. If I had to ride another 1/2 hour or so, I'd probably need to stop somewere to warm up.

I'll need to find a better solution before it gets really cold.

upper 30s and cloudy. not exciting, just how i like it.

Another day in the death trap......arghh.......I started out today allowing 90 minutes to get to the opposite end of the city for a dentist appt. I would have been fine if it didn't snow 5-10Cm last night. The riding was too dicey to count on getting there on time...alive. So I turned around. I think I am going to change to a dentist closer to my end of the city. I was really looking forward to 2 hours of riding. Tomorrow will be a better day.

It's been a while since I've posted but I'm still at it. We've had it great so far weather wise (if you're not into Skiing or snowmobiling). Unseasonally warm so far. I had a very nice ride in this morning. Dark all the way in but that goes with the territory. It's fun looking at all the Christmas lights and decorations that people put out in their yards (looks a little odd without snow, but hey). It should be an equally good ride home (in the dark) after work (man, the day light hours are short).

Great ride today. The last few days haven't been great weather-wise so I've been riding the bad weather badass. Switched back to my usual ride today which has a shorter wheelbase, taller BB, and higher gear.

The mp3 player was on shuffle but it kept serving up sooper funky older Del tracks. Rocking along finding all my gaps, hitting green pretty much the whole way. Managed to bring it in with a 17mph average even with some wicked traffic and headwind, so I'm pretty happy.

I hope my ride home is as nice.

I don't know what my problem is, but lately I find myself yelling at people. Last night I yelled at a Chevy Tahoe and a wrongway cyclist. This morning I yelled at another wrongway cyclist and a Honda Accord that ran a light in front of me. Everyday, I promise myself that I'm just going to keep my head down and worry about myself, and everyday I break that promise.

Anyway, this morning was absolutely gorgeous. Clear and warm after two days of rain. If only I didn't have stupid work to break up my rides.

Yes, my detist moved and I have farther to go. So, I changed my six month checkups to fall and spring so I don't have to deal with the snow issue. Of course if I have a problem with my teeth... well, that's the gamble.

Rained again last night but it had stopped by 6AM. It was 38F & no wind but heavy rain was forecast so I rode my safest rain bike ( it's heavy & slow but very visible) I felt like I was in my own little world with the headlight & strobe system lighting up the road & alerting motorists to my presence. As usual on this bike, every passing car gave me a wide berth & I had an uneventful commute in. When I rode home at 3:30 PM, the rain had arrived so I had to wear my full rain suit. It was really coming down but had warmed up to 49F. When I reached home it was getting pretty damp inside the rainsuit but still dryer than I would have been without it. Don

what a kick ass day today. kicked ass at work, kicked ass at lunchtime ride, kicked ass after work ride.

The buttery smooth ride of my new specialized sequoia turned out to be in part due to low tire pressure. Tires are rated 75-100 and they were at 60. Borrowed a friends floorpump to air them up. I can feel the road a little more, but it still rides real nice. :)

I was riding home today and got a little ashamed of myself for a second. I looked at myself wearing goofy looking clipless shoes, bright red shirt, headlight and rear blinkie on my ROAD bike. I thought to myself "What have I become!" Back when I got my first mountain bike I used to think that mountain biking was fun, road biking must be a chore, I'll NEVER be a roadie! NEVER!!! Well, I don't think I'm a roadie, but I love my road bike and I love riding it.

Good ride to work today. Road the SS. It rained off and on all day but good ride to and from work. Have a good night!

Super Douper..Bright red shirt, bright shoes...Well, maybe the shoes can be excessive. One pair of mine are...But wth...Gotta be seen and be comfortable..I don't care what they think be proud...ps---to be really safe, where are the reflectors??My reflectorized vest has a blinkie built in it...
Ever go into a restaurant in bike gear...Get healthier...Waitress' might eventually hit on you..can't be all bad...I have seen it happen.

I got lucky on the ride home last night. It rained all afternoon and stopped about a half hour before I left work. Nothing but wet roads for the ride home. Traffic was ok, better then yesterday. Been a pretty mild December so far.

Morning's commute could be classified as "nervous." It's just above freezing and it had been raining so the trail was wet. There was just a little bit of slush in one place. Other than that it was just wet.

Waiting for my studded MTB tires to arrive so I can switch bikes when it gets bad.

Yesterday gave it's share of problems. I popped a spoke on the journey to work, suffered a (slow) flat on the return ride and noticed that my headlamp had developed "the flickers" again.

Luckily I have spare spokes to fix the wheel, but I was hoping for a quiet evening... The fauly connection inside the lamp took some time to fix (I hope...).

Have a good weekend,

Cheers,

Ed

just about 40 °F, a little drizzle...no egregious rudeness, traffic actually a little light. it has been a mild december here, too, although rather damp. i'm sort of looking forward to the challenge of snow.

have a good weekend, bike peeps!

Beautiful, murky new moon rising in the east. Temp in the mid 40s F, humid but not wet.

As I came through the freeway underpass and onto the reservation, the fields stretched in front and around me, reaching out to the mountains in the east, and to the low gold-rimmed blue clouds, hiding the sun.

Wet the last couple of days, with the peak of cycling commuter saturation coming last night. Started undressing in the tile foyer when I got home since my cycling clothes were doing a good imitation of rain forest drippage. ;)

Beautiful morning today though, have to work 12-9 and I might leave home early to take advantage of the warm temps.