Glorious commute this morning. Just a hair above freezing, sun coming up. No wind. Blue sky. Snow-capped Adirondacks behind a glassy Lake Champlain. *sigh*

Makes up for yesterday afternoon's rain-fest!

Great ride this am. +8c, sunny, slight tail-wind, new chain & cassette, fastest ride of the year, to early for all the other bikes, pedestrians, mini-vans & SUVs... my world is a happy place!

Ride home yesterday was great as well other than all the spring morons... sorry... mentally malnourished individuals. Countless wrong-way & sidewalk "cyclists"... I'd say they out-number the good riders by about 3 or 4 to 1.

Vent time...
The most annoying thing was a cab driver in a mini-van ("Hey, I know, lets create the most dangerous combination imaginable and let him loose on the city streets! That should do away with those pesky children!" - At least I'm pretty sure that's what the cab company was thinking.)

I was riding along a fairly major roadway, keeping up with the traffic in the 30km/h school zones. As I approached an intersection with a cross-walk I could see a boy (about 5 or 6yrs old) approaching the cross-walk. I also noticed a mini-van cab at the intersection, impatiently waiting for traffic to clear. His wheels were turned to make the right turn through the cross-walk. He was watching me & inching forward. I shook my head & mouthed "NO". He was to impatient to wait for me and decided if he gunned it hard enough he could get into traffic in front of me so he wouldn't be stuck behind the "slow" cyclist. He didn't look at the cross-walk until the last second, hammered on the brakes & came to a screaching stop about 12" from the boy. GRRRR!

Unfortunately, I didn't think of getting his cab number until it was too late.

the ice: gone for good
time to swap knobbies for slicks
my joy will increase!

Great ride this morning. Nice temps, overcast without much glare, and none of the forecast rain. Hopefully the showers will hold off so that I can cruise around and run some errands on the way home today. Got one honk, by a Hybrid Civic, this morning. I can't blame him because I had to swerve around a pot hole, but still I consider the hybrid drivers better than most.

your prose is so sweet
that's what I'm talkin' about
I feel the warmth too

the ice: gone here too
studded tires are history
my avatar lies

We rounded up all our morrons and sent them Saskatoon. At least that was what I thought until this morning....in the first instance a commuter I had not seen before pulled up to lights I was stopped at waited for a break in traffic (which happened to coincide with the traffic signal turning to an arrow for the opposing traffic) and proceeded to run the red light, cross the 6 lanes of a major street and ride down the wrong side. Sometimes I think I should stay home on these first nice days of spring. I felt safer when I was the only Fruit Loop biking to work when it was -20C.

On the up side though it was a great commute. Shorts yesterday and today on the way home. It is supposed to drop to 10C for the weekend. That should send everyone back into their cars and houses.
Today should be a high of 26C....WOW. I am ducking out early.

Today's commute was horrid, I had to drive my car

Nasty cold & wet commute today. I got caught in a late season snow/sleet shower. Bleurgh!

Have a good weekend,

Ed

I look out the front door and the roads were dry, so I pump up my tires check the weather report and went out the door. The radar showed to the north and west but I thought I could beat them. Wrong! 5 miles in on a 17 mile commute it started to rain and I was soaked by the time I got to work. But at least it wasn't snow.

How was the commute today? Chilly. I gotta learn that the TV news readings of temperature are about 100 miles away from me.
In Denver it was 50F this morning, up here north of Denver, it was 35F.
No gloves, touque, or thermals made for a chilly ride. Luckily a hot shower was on order.

Today was the first commute day that I actually turned around and went home due
to the weather. It was raining and gusting hard so the raindrops stung, there was a
ton of water on the road, and after about a mile and a half on my 11-mile trip i said
"SCREW THIS" and turned around. Luckily there is not too much going on at work today
so I can do my stuff remotely.

I guess there are levels of hardcore that I have yet to attain... props to all of you who made it in similar weather.

I forgot to post about the off leash cat yesterday. Probably the most amusing thing I've yet seen on a bike commute. A guy was crossing a residential street with his black lab and a black cat was trotting alongside the dog.

As I got closer, the cat froze in the middle of the road (stupid cat) and stared at me. I started smiling and slowing down. The human stopped and watched me. I looked at him and kept smiling as I was slowing down. The cat bolted back to the grass as I got closer and I made a squeaky sound at it.

I said to the guy, "He looks just like my cat!" (Which is true.) He said, "I'm lucky enough to have a cat that takes walks!"

Never thought a cat would be that social. I'd have to drag my cat by his neck to get him to follow me.

It was horrible today, wind had to blowing about 70 MPH and of course I was riding into it, and the dust was blowing everywhere.

Good ride in to work today (75 degrees, very light wind) temporarily interrupted by 4 inch wood screw through rear tire! Had a spare tube, though, so not the end of the ride by any means - juat a minor nuisance. Rest of ride went pretty well. Looking forward to a very comfortable/enjoyable ride home around midnight.
Have a great weekend!

Same as yesterday, rain/hail/thunder but with no sunny ending.

wet & wild, looking windy on the way home. gusts to 25MPH. too bad it isn't a tail wind, I'd make record time

Well, the commute to work yesterday was great, but on the way home I was caught in a freak rain/sleet/wind storm that we on the edge of the Rockies have been known to get. Biking west through my town I was repeatedly stood up by fierce winds, making the ride even worse.
About a half mile from my apartment I hear a horn honk behind me-- "Oh man, not anymore high school kids" I thought to myself. I turn to see my girlfriend in my Subaru slowing down on the shoulder.
She asks if I want a ride home, as she was worried about meand the storm. I say there is no lightning and the winds have calmed (sort of) and that I will make it home!
Surprised, she drives off, and te minutes later (as I said the headwinds were fierce) I make it home.
I was quite proud of myself for making it home and sticking with the biking like I did. I may be getting out of my newbie stage yet!

Oh, I didn't mention, that my rear tire was half inflated the whole time and I didn't have my minipump with me... I'm getting some slicks for my MTB in light of that, and making it into a TRUE commuter.

Thanks for listening.

The Kid

I work for a bicycle advocacy organization in Atlanta and to encourage folks to ride to this weekend's Dogwood Festival we are providing free secure bike parking for cyclists.
Somehow riding to work on Saturday and Sunday isn't as much "fun" as during the week. I guess it's because I'd rather be doing my weekend riding on my Litespeed.

My week-end commute is my favorite. Half my commute goes through an industrial area and there's hardly any traffic on week-end. Another reason is I like being off during the week so there's less people on bike trails and parks (I do nature photography).

Today is a great day. I did some scouting yesterday and came to work on a new route this morning. It goes through a train yard and the streets aren't on any maps so I never bothered giving it a try. It's 2km shorter but I don't save much time because I have to dismount and walk on a pedestrian bridge to cross a freeway. It's much more enjoyable though. No more pot-holed freeway service road with trucks going twice the speed limit. A long part of my new route has pavement that's as smooth as it gets. I also has large speed bumps which slows trucks but not bicycles. This new way across the freeway opened up another route. I'll see tomorrow what's it's like with real traffic.

Bright and sunny, 10c, hardly any traffic, I cruised to work at 7:30am down the middle of some roads you can't even see the middle of during the week. A cop even waved. Too frickin bad I have to be at work.

The rest of the week should be interesting: our public transit system is possibly going on strike tomorrow morning so there may well be 5 times as many cyclists and motorists on the road. Dunno how much I'm gonna like that.

Rode Friday & Saturday. 30F in 60F coming home Fri. 40F in 55F breezy coming home Sat. Have heard rooster pheasants in 2 or 3 different locals. Also heard a turkey gobble Friday mornin'.

Perfect weather in the 60's and 70's last couple of days. Almost got taken out by a motorist "right hook" yesterday. He got the finger. A little bit of compensation for that on the ride home when a young lady in a VW Bug behind me yelled that she "liked my helmet". (Got the blinkie light atop it).

The red sky may have caused sailors to take warning, but for me it encouraged me to take my time. So I took the long way to work this morning. Not sure what the temperature was, let's say perfect (just cool enough before turning cold on the downhills).
The ride home should be a little warmer. I'm hoping that doesn't mean hot. I have some shorts packed just in case.

Got about 1/2 mle down the road 6:30 this morning and was already f-f-f-f-freezing. Turned and came back - Checked the temp - 34 with an 8 mph wind - No wonder I was cold. High of 44 today. Tomorrow will be warmer. Maybe I got spoiled after a weekend in the 70's.
Have a great ride everyone!!!

Heavy overcast all day. Left this morning in 64 F, with winds out of the NNW at 6 mph.
Didn’t start the TL-LD500 back up tail light flashing when I left this morning figuring just the TL-LD1000 would be enough. Of course the batteries ran out of juice in the TL-LD1000 on the way in. Didn’t notice it until I got to the usual stop for the usual things. BA-ah, that's the very kind of reason I run a back up tail light in the first place. Some day I'll learn.

Coming home it was 68 F with winds out of the NW at 10. Couldn’t exactly bomb the down-hill on the work end of my commute with rush hour traffic like it was, but got a decent run out of it, 38.4 mph. Bike feels like it’s doing some kind of strange “clank” from time to time when shifting. Stopped and tried wiggling some things around, but everything felt tight. On the way through town I went straight through the circle and hung the first left. Spotted another cyclist in front of me on a road bike in street clothes. Tried to catch him, but the harder I tried, the more he increased the distance. Here I am dressed fo' schnizzle (I think I'm too old to use that right) in my zoomy Bell helmet, Primal Wear Dragon’s L’Air jersey, Pearl Izumi shorts, and Sidi shoes and couldn’t catch a guy in street clothes. Almost went two blocks out of my way afraid somebody would see me. Luckily he turned off at the mini-mall.