Thanks everyone; I'm feeling pretty good this morning. One item of interest... I bought the helmet about a month ago when I bought my bike. I just called American Express and found out that they will send me a full refund for the helmet under their "Purchase Protection Plan". It covers accidental damage or theft for 90 days. What a deal!!

I'll pick up my new helmet tonight and hope to be back to bike commuting tomorrow!

Tim

Pinerider, You only get so wet.

Hey...I had a dog come out after me...not sure if they were more interested in me as a biker of my dog Ellie who was behind me in the trailer. Anyway, the trailer tire ran over the dogs foot...they ran off yelping. I am quite sure this dog will not come out after me again.

Other than that it was a nice humid ride in with light rain.

Really cold this morning. I might need to invest in a set of gloves. I started riding just after washing my hands. I found myself doing the clenched fist thing for a mile or two until they dried. Traffic was really backed up due to a train crossing. By the time I got to the front of the line the train had backed out of the crossing and I was able to get across. I took it slower today as my knees have been starting to feel a little overused. Slowing down seems to have helped a lot. Think I will ride home tonight.

The rain came to Seattle today. Acutally we usually get a "misting" but this was honest to God rain.....Fenders and Latte, and it doesn't bother me. : )

Yes, I can ride and drink a latte. It's a cycling requirement to live/work here.

I separated my shoulder.

No, not by biking, but in my basketball game last night. It popped out real nicely and popped back in shortly afterward. (My shoulder's pretty loose from a skiing wreck a few years ago.)

My wife thought I was nuts when I suited up this morning but I made it in just fine. The starts were a little tricky because I couldn't pull on the bar too much.

In any case, my regulare commuter bike had a flat and I didn't have time to change it so I road my Ti rocketship to work. I blazed along Santa Clara streets at warp speeds. The combo of the superlight road bike and strong, rested legs (from the weekend billygoat ride) really made for an exhilirating trip today, even with the shoulder problem!!

That sucks. Here's to hoping the pain goes away quickly. I broke my rib snowboarding last spring and I just felt so powerless when I couldn't accelerate when the light turned green.

Way to stick out the ride this morning though!

Yes I have a latte cup that fits in my bottle cage, don't want to get the ticket for no latte on board

Yes the rain has returned my first wet, I mean really wet commute in a long time it was sort of nice, though ask me about rain come Febuary

I started the ride home just fine. But about mid way I bonked. Not sure why. I ate fine and had my usual pre-ride snack. Everything as normal. I guess it was just my time to bonk.

I don't know about you all but when I bonk I get weak and inattentive. What I normally do with ease I fumble when I'm like this. It gets downright unsafe. So I stopped and munched on some peanuts. This carried me through.

My shoulder was fine. Tomorrow I have the early shift so I'll see you all then!!

Today was overcast, not too cold. I wore the shorts and took the long way, for a very nice ride. I had fun driving through what was left of the puddles from last night's rain. (I didn't bike last night...short of time, and had some stuff to pick up. Had nothing to do with the icy rain falling, I swear. Really. Brrrr!)

I wasn't looking forward to the ride home. I'm sick of traffic in the dark, and Thursdays the highway seems busier than usual. Tonight, I decided to go home by the long way, on the back roads, the first time I did it after dark. I turned off the highway after I had gone far enough to avoid Cemetery Hill.

The rest of the ride home was wonderful! I only saw two cars all the way home. Nothing but the wind in my ears, the crickets, the hum of tires, and the occasional heavy breathing of a werewolf. Every now and then I'd hear the sound of a car running down the highway a mile to my right, and smile knowing I didn't have to worry about it. A little change of route can make such a difference.

BTW, Quaker has just come out with some breakfast oatmeal squares. They are heavy and chewy, more like soft cookies or scones than granola bars, and in my opinion they're really good. Great biking snack!

Yesterday's commute back home was one of the best ever. It started late, the weather was coldish (a couple of degrees below 0C) but calm. No clouds, so I could see the stars clearly.

I rode about 2/3 of my 16 km trip thinking "this can not get any better" when suddenly it did. I hit a stretch by the sea where there are few streetlamps or other artificial illumination and I suddenly noticed the Aurora Borealis lit up the entire northern sky. It had probably been there all the time, but I could not see it because of all the lights. I had to stop for a few minutes to watch the colors travel through the sky. I've lived here for 34 years, and I think this was perhaps the second time I see this here. It's relatively common more up north.

I continued home feeling strangely peaceful and relaxed, my everyday worries having been reduced to their right proportions for a while. Life IS great!

--J

Mornin everyone, A great ride this morn. a bit on the chilly side, I wore shorts and a light jacket, no wind and some traffic. Going to be a long busy day at work, I will be looking forward to the ride home this evening. I could feel that winter feel in the morning though, I'm not looking forward to the cold rides to work. have a great day.

Still warm here, 60f, 16c at 6:00am. An overcast day but a great ride in, rode the new bike trail again, 3km in the dark on new asphalt, not another soul on the trail (just 1 cat - I missed it - lucky it wasn't a skunk!!) The breakers were rolling in on Lake Ontario, with a breeze from the east (it was a wind yesterday).
The rest of the ride was uneventful, the usual courteous motorists and I getting along nicely.
The other bike commuters seem to have packed up for the season, I've only seen 1 or 2 all week.

Nice and cool today. Light drizzle all the way here. It sure is fun to ride in the rain when you are prepared for it.

Aahhh! Friday at last. Lovely morning here, a bit chilly but so bright and sunny that it was forgotten once I got into the ride.

Unfortunately the traffic is slowing me down much more than during school summer holidays, so I'm unlikely to break any speed records. Last night was very slow on the last section on my ride, it was early for me (5:30pm) and the rush hour was still on - I took a detour down the side streets to avoid a big queue near to home, but got stuck behind slow cars doing the same thing.

Today's ride more than made up for it though. Rough and smooth...

Have a good weekend all,

Ed

Dark. Cold. Well, relatively cold. When the ride covers the transition from darkness to light, it seems much longer for some reason even though I took basically the same route as usual.

Foggy and a little damp today, but much better than yesterdays rain-fest. Could be worse. I could live in the midwest and fearing the snow.

AWESOME!!

No northern lights on the way home, life is still great anyways, but... Had my first flat on the way home this evening, at the end of the new bike path along Lake Ontario. Must have picked up some construction debris in the gravel as I was exiting the path. Had to use the cell to call home for a ride, I was travelling light without pump or tube. Oh well, there goes self sufficiency!!
It was a challenging ride anyway, very gusty headwinds, overcast with a storm approaching. I was only 15 minutes from home when I had the flat. I guess I can justify buying myself some commuting slicks now, the old knobbies were about 8 years old. I didn't want to replace them until the magic was off them!

Another incredible week. Mon-Thur the days grew warmer; by Thursday I was back in my SPD sandals. This is October in Philly. Unbelievable.

Today it was misting, drizzling, very humid, not very pleasant, but still perfectly suitable for cycling.

I have to go drive the car around the block a few times. It's not good for it to sit unused for so long.

RichC

Ride home was very unlike yesterday's. I was cooking ... no bonking today!!

Today looked beautiful--sunny and clear and bright! I put on my shorts, hopped on the bike....and froze my buns off! It was COLD! (someone told me later it was 38 degrees f) Well, I decided I would warm up as I pedalled, so I kept going. My fingers were numb withing two miles. That cleared up as my blood got flowing, but I got to work with very cold feet, and the first thing I did was make hot tea.

It had warmed up by the time I went home, and I had a nice ride back!

riding home from class the other day, it was raining, i was lovin it! in front of me was a bus with it's "i'm stopped to pick up people" lights flashing, so i went to pass on the left (this is still common practice, correct?). as i'm pulling past him, he starts to pull out and ends up bumping me into oncoming traffic! being the road vigilanty i am, i decided that if he was comfortable pushing me off the road, he wouldn't mind pushing me up a few hills; so i got in front and rode that BikeE like it was a car, right in the middle of the road (i try not to do this too often so that the polluters can get past). the next stop wasn't even a block up the road so i knew it wasn't going to last long. i didn't even bother to look hard enough in my mirror to see the drivers reaction, i just kept an eye on our distance. in the end, nothing came of it.

i've been hit by a bus while on foot, those bad boys hit hard. the one that got me wasn't doing more than like five mph, but it was enough to make me do a superman and slide a few feet. truthfully, i was terrified that that bus was going to kill me the other day, but if i'm to die, i will die fighting...

E...

Cold and rainy all week. There has been snow in the North, so that's not far away.

10c, 49f this morning, put on the long sleeve t-shirt and ready to hop on the commuter with a new rear tube - It was flat again! Had to go to plan B - put the lights on the road bike, put stuff in backpack. Very windy (gusts to 30mph) ride in, equalled record time for the short commute, even though it was a strong crosswind/headwind.
Summer's over for sure, supposed to drop to 2c tonight!