Had a nice ride in this morning. It was very cool for this time of year, upper 60's. I am now leaving when the sun starts to rise, and I ride to the east, so it's nice to see the sunrise. :)

Been a great last couple of weeks commuting. Weather has been decent, and the past few days have been nice and cool in the morning. I have seen a few others out there riding to work, way more then I have in the past.

I've had two days of riding to work so far after a three week vacation. And it's killing me! The small hills I used to fly over has become Mt Everests... But besides that it's great to be back on the bike again :)

How long do you guys think it will it take me to get back to the form I was in just a couple of weeks ago?

Cool this morning
fall is coming
dodged plenty o' glass

(not haiku, jus' playing)

Wet-n-gritty. Slow. Rode the ol' Trek mountain bike today, 'cause I cleaned my Burley last night and didn't want to have to de-grit it all over again. The Trek is so messy--throws everything it rolls over back up on me. It does handle well on craptacular streets, however, and I have much more confidence in the brakes on it.

Nice riding weather yesterday afternoon and this morning.

I picked up a thorn about 3 miles from home yesterday. Luckily it stayed in the tire and didn't leak much, and finally fell out right after I hopped off the bike in the driveway. Much nicer fixing a flat at home than on the side of the road ;).

I'm thinking about building a fixed gear bike for the winter, so rode pretty much the whole way in this morning using 50-19 to get a taste of the single gear. Not too bad - made it up all the hills on the way to work pretty easily, and made one of my fastest trips too.

This morning was so nice out that it made my day. Even my jerk of a boss had no ill effect on me. I stopped at the gas station and bought one of those strawberry eclaire popsicles and ate it on the way to work.

I felt like I was six years old; so happy that it was hard not to laugh. I was hoping to have some of the popsicle left when I rode by a house where kids are usually waiting on the bus. Can you imagine the agony of waiting for the school bus on a beautiful morning, only to see some dork ride by on a bike eating ice cream? Lucky for them, I had already choked down the popsicle in a few bites.

It's getting cooler out and I'm loving it!

I couldn't get out of bed this morning and was thinking I'd take the train (saves about 20 minutes), but ended up riding mostly because I'm broke. First day for arm+leg warmers this year. By the time I got to work all I could think was how glad I was that I didn't take the train. Joyous weather in Boston.

Morning commute was in the 50F-range. I saw a great blue heron stab its beak into the water and pull out a little fish.

Otherwise it was very slow today. Average speed of only 12+ mph. That's because I was riding around a park (in grass) looking for a cell phone that a friend of mine thought she might have lost there the night before. Turns out she had been there before me and found the phone, so it turned out okay.

Looks like we're warming back up to summer-like temperatures again. I'm not quite ready for fall yet.

Portland commute went awesome. I took the extra-long ride this AM, over Washington Park.

About 1/2 up the big hill I hear a noise that sounds like my tire rubbing against something. I have been having hub problems in my back wheel, and have been praying my freewheel and axl have not snapped in two (I need an upgrade bad). My first thougth was "that sounds expensive".

Turns out to be a golden maple leaf stuck in my breaks, and rubbing against my tire. Phew.

Then I thought about it. That is the first leaf of fall. :(

~n

PS, know's fall is close, because his athlete's foot is flairing up. :P

It had to be close to 70F this morning, just some more perfect weather for my morning commute. BTW: I shaved another minute off my best time. School is in session... watch out for the minivans.

Cool, this morning, 78-79F. Plenty of bugs along the river, swarm after swarm, it feels like someone's throwing handsful of grits in your face. Had to wear safety goggles and a bandana over my mouth and nose to keep from ingesting the little buggers.

Going home, it's supposed to be 103F, but the bugs will be gone - and it still beats driving in.

Tomorrow is the last day of my 1.5 mile commute. Starting Monday, I go to a 15 mile commute (one way!!!). Temperature will be about 87 with very high humidity. Hope I can stick with this.

Weather was nice but I was tired. So the commute seemed a bit labored. But I was cheered this morning when I passed another bike commuter heading in the opposite direction from me. I've seen the fellow about four times now. I'm hoping he'll be a regular.

Rough ride in AM... low 60s, started out in light rain, 12-15 mph headwind. Ride Home alot better... rain had stopped, and light tailwind.

As I rode to work yesterday pre-dawn, there was a small rabbit at the side of the path. When I was about ten feet away, it popper straight up about 3-4 feet, then straight back down. When it landed, it raced toward my front tire (missing, thankfully). That was just weird.

My first commute today... I had planned on testing out routes around the area to see what was the most suitable way to work, but I ended up taking the chance and ride to work unplanned. Conditions good, traffic medium, weather cool. A good way to try out my first go to work without ever planting my behind on a bus seat. This is my commuting bike; http://home.no/mahl/foldr.jpg , a Dahon Boardwalk. Perfect for my needs and my tiny city-centre apartment. Also a very comfortable bike and fitted for my pretty short commute (20 minutes).
Turns out, on the first go, I spent 5 minutes less on the road than I usually do bussing there! Pretty incredible, really.. ANd this was straight from my front door to the entrance of my work facility. Seems bike commuting is the way to go.

What can I say? Another wonderful ride in with temps around 68 degrees. Although I was a little tired (haven't been sleeping well the last few nights), my legs had plenty of juice. I caught up with, and followed (not really drafting) a roadie who complained as I passed him. I was hanging anywhere from 3 to 8 feet behind and off center. I was basically waiting for a good opportunity to pass after warming up. He asked if that was me "riding his @ss", I answered "yes" and asked if he had minded. He said that it wasn't safe in the dark (he had a point, but I was never really on his wheel-and he knew I was there) and I told him that I knew what I was doing and just let it ride. I passed and accelerated to about 25 mph, passing 3 other riders and saw his headlight shrink as I pulled away. I finished up pretty strong and rode around in the garage for a few minutes to cool down. Not quite an "all ride week" for me (it will be one for a good friend of mine) but 4 out of 5 is pretty good.

Cool morning again, wonder if the remains of that storm in Florida will reach Vermont and bump up our humidity.

Had an interesting ride in this morning. Today is my last commute from the apartment I live at, on Monday I will be commuting from a different location. This morning while I was in a bike lane riding, I was coming up to a stop sign and there was a guy walking his 2 dogs in the bike lane. I politely say as I am slowing down "Sir, the bike lane is for bikes, please use the sidewalk" to which he replies "F you". So I said, "And a good morning to you too!" and went on my way. Nice way for a last commute on that route :rolleyes: The weather was nice this morning though, low 60s.

50Fs again this morning. Felt like I was dragging an anchor. Even checked to make sure the wheels were spinning freely. No, it was just me having zero energy. I ran about 5 miles on Wednesday and I think it caught up to me today!

My wife said I could get a new bike for my birthday (next week). Is it weird that I feel badly about giving up commuting on my old workhorse Peugeot? I want a suspension!

Yesterday, I was superman (I had a tailwind in to work). Today, nothing, nada, no juice, no zip. At least it wasn't too hot.

Oh well, it will get better.

Another great ride. I took the scenic route which adds 15 minutes but is alot less congested and feels "country". Took it nice and easy this morning because I'm riding a century tomorrow morning, and because I've been pushing it pretty good for the last few days. This week has been the year's best weather (as far as I can remember) in Boston.

Got my commuter frame out of the shop yesterday evening. I had to take it in to get the BB taken out (it was totally jammed in there). Looking forward to getting the new one put in so I can stop riding my "good" bike in to work.

Interesting week of commuting, mainly due to the drastic changes between Monday and Friday.

Monday was hot, mid 90's, typical calm summer traffic around town. Then, by Friday, the morning temps dropped to the chilly 60's, and Durham's population increased by the thousands as students arrived for the start of the fall semester.

I attended our monthy Bicyclists' Breakfast this morning, had coffee and conversation with our local crew of bike commuters. Every week, I see a few new faces show up...

Have a good weekend, everybody!

I rode Tuesday and Thursday and had flats both days… what luck! We'll try it again on Monday. Have a good weekend.

There was something else I wanted to write...

Funny experience with a blader this morning. I came up behind him. There was a stop sign up ahead, and we were approaching a couple of people out walking, so I was content to drop out of warp and coast until we cleared everything.

We passed the peds, safely navigated the intersection, and then the blader stuck out his left arm and gave a thumbs-up, moving all the way to the right side of the pavement. He hadn't turned around to look at me. I wasn't making any noise. I had no idea how he knew I was there.

As I went by him I saw he had a mirror on the helmet he was wearing. Very cool! I said hello and waved after I passed...

Man it was hot today. It was at least 70f when I took off at 7:50AM. I took it very easy and arrived at work in good condition. For the week I rode my bike to work 4 of 5 days, and walked the other day (my bike was in the shop and I didn't want two bikes at the office) (oh, and walking takes 23 minutes).

The highlight of the week came yesterday. As I was leaving the office parking lot, I crossed the street, and directly across the other side was a lady walking down the sidewalk. As I turned she looked towards me, and I to her. Our eyes met. She was chinese an beautiful. And I smiled and grunted something out that only I could hear and rode on. And as I rode away in disgust, I thought of all the clever, witty things that I could have said yet didn't. But next time! Yes, I will be ready.

I'm home today so I guess I can summarize the week of commuting M-Thu. We've had a very nice string of seasonal weather with cool mornings, thick marine layer, and mild afternoons -- PERFECT bike-commute weather. Suprisingly I haven't seen too many of my fellow 'regulars' out lately, but it could just be that my timing's off. I think I've only driven once in six weeks. The challenge lately has been holding back off the competitive (even self-competitive) drive enough so I don't hurt myself. Last week I hammered 3 rides in a row (Weds in and home, Thurs in) and I was hurtin' on Friday. This week I've been much better about taking it easy to keep it SUSTAINABLE.

Pleasant enough commute today. The last two nights I've needed my fancy new lights from Performance. I haven't had a chance to take and post pics yet, but for now let me say that I am quite pleased. Those 30W come in handy on bumpy, dark, narrow, tree-covered paths. :D

Warm to cool back to warm morning commutes this week. Little shower on the way home tonight. This will be a tune up for the up coming weather. Made 4 out of 5.