Today's commute was fun and annoying.

Fun because I felt energized, the weather was warm but not hot and I rode fast.

Annoying because on the way home as I approached a car ahead/right that was waiting at a stop sign (no stop for me) it kept inching forward and at the same moment a car behind/left in my lane is about to make a right turn in front of me and WORST OF ALL: A CYCLIST waiting at the same stop sign as the first car takes off and crosses in front of me just as I'm about 5ft away from him! Fortunately no one hit anyone and I passed through unscathed.

Just another day in the life of a bike commuter...I don't even get mad in situations like that. It's been a great week overall!

always read this thread. i love all the different kinds of commutes and the different people who do them.

rode to work this morning just to prove that i could after having been sick and because i didn't want to finish the week with only two rides in it. i haven't had that since the first week that i just tried it out, and i think back then i did three. it went fine; it was actually faster than some of my other rides have been, so i guess i'm getting a) stronger and b) more savvy about how to make it all smooth. pocketful of dried figs was nice to have along the way.

leaving about half an hour earlier really seems to help. easier traffic, easier everything at that hour except for the fact that glancing to the left gives you full-on sunlight, right in the eyes. couldn't see a thing, but i'm thankful for having realised that early enough not to do anything dumb or dangerous at intersections.

got turned round and sent home again for having been sick. decided i feel fine about that; it's pretty much the best of all worlds. the main reason why i went to work at all was because i didn't want to miss another day on the bike. this way i got the day on the bike AND i didn't have to spend a whole day expensively pretending to work for it. took the other bridge coming home, since i had all this lovely additional time for messing around.

grrrrrr. yeah, they got a nice wide SIDEWALK to cycle on, but just try getting to it. that was really freaking mental; nothing but dead ends for i-dunno-how-many-false-leads, and then finally a sidewalk that was locked. had to come down and go through the whole process again just getting to the one on the other side. got a taste of what people mean by 'headwind' on that sidewalk too. but then for dilemma the ride home from that side might actually be nicer in a couple of ways. the hill coming up off the first bridge - it just ain't normal, martha.

got home, turned round and went straight out again (by car) to have dinner with friends-i've-never-met from scotland. that was pretty darned cool; turns out neither of them has ever had a driver's license and the story of me-and-my-bike opened up whole fields of speculation and interest from them.

songs for the day: chain up the swings, michael marra, and freedom come a' ye, hamish henderson. yeah!!

Very muddy ride to work and home in spots. But still a good ride . Fills like it is getting colder out . I hope the weather hold on alittle longer . Have a good nite .

Thank you

I'm laughing at this one...thank you for brightening my day. :)

It was cold. Im not sure I am ready for winter yet

OK...so my commute in on Friday started Thursday when I go home from work. Because, since I joined Bike Forums I have been thinking about things I never thought about before. When I got home Thurday I did some cipherin' and figured out that I have a lot of redundent gears on my little Schwinn Mesa. Then Friday I did an es'peerment, really paid close attention to the gears actually used getting to work and then home again. Out of 24 choices I have for gears I use 9...that's it, just 9 gears. But the other 15 make my bike look really cool! (I guess) Maybe I think too much.
I do know that the gears I have decide to use make my ride a little easier. I didn't know, because I never thought about it, that it made that big a deal.
Beyond that...I passed the little old lady and her dog today. She had him on the leash, but I could tell he wanted to come and say hi to me. Thanks again to the two of you who responded to my "hidden message." It's getting a little cooler here each day and the weather man says that it is going to rain next week. I like riding in the rain. My co-workers think I'm nuts...don't tell them, but they're right.
I was asked today, by a new guy, "Do you ride year round?"
I said, " Yes, I do."
He just shook his head and walked away. I'm sure this 22 year old guy was thinking, "Crazy old man." (I'm almost 50.)
I'm sure, as he gets to know me, this assumption of his will be confirmed.
Weddings and chior practices have put my riding on hold for the week-end, but come Monday morning I will be back out there on the road.
Have a great week-end everyone!

Cycled home from work for the first time yesterday (drove in). I have been carpooling so I convinced my car pooling buddy he should ride too. I had mapped out what I thought would be the most direct/Least dangerous route using maps and satellite images. A few of the spots took us back through some rough service roads (dirt), over some railroad tracks, and then out through a very industrial area. We got through that, and then discovered this little paved bike path we didn’t know about. We were about to head up the path to see where it went, when POP! There went my buddy’s chain. …and my chain tool hasn’t arrived from nashbar yet (probably will today – go figure). So we were able to borrow some tools from someone in the area, fixed the chain as best we could (reused the pin) and made it about another ½ mile and then POP, there it went again. So I grabbed one end of the chain and he held on while I pulled him the ½ mile or so to a gas station, where he was able to call his wife for a ride. I did the last 5 miles or so on my own and had a fairly uneventful ride.

This morning’s ride in was much better. I found some better routes… down back streets, through a huge cemetery, back through a large corporate office park, a little off road action to cut through to some more suburbian streets, and finally the last mile or so finishes out on one of the larger roads. Made it to work in about an hour this morning (yesterday took about 2.5 hours with all the mishaps). I’m hoping to be able to get it down to 45 minutes eventually… legs are definitely feeling it.. will need to build up to that. I’m glad I did it and plan on 100% biking for getting to work and back. It’s about 9.5 each way. Thanks to all those on the forum who have offered such great advice to get me started.

My pleasure. My karma is set for the day.

Hope your buddy doesn't give up on bike commuting.

Yeah I'm working on him. Really want him to do it with me.. especially since he's down to only one car right now and "needs" rides to work. We live really close to eachother and I'm trying to encourage him to come with me. I'm going to try to help him fix up his old bike today (old specialized rock hopper that has to be about 20 years old). I think a new chain, new cables, and a derailer adjustment will have him back in business.

It's a true friend who will tow his buddy with a broken chain!!! We all need friends like that.

I commuted 14 miles to the company "Fall Bash", two people offered to give me a ride home. I of course declined and rode another 22 miles home. Some people just do not get it.

It was a fun 2 mile ride to the store then across the street to work today...then a VERY fun (insert sarcastic sneer here) five mile walk home...first I missed the turn going through an unfamiliar neighbourhood, then my light went out...not a good night...

Great commute to work this morning. It was grey and cool this morning so there weren't too many people on the Hudson Greenway (call me "le misanthrope" if you must :D) so I was able to mostly enjoy the ride instead of worry about dodging the unaware. Rain in the cards for this evening, so more of the (good) same I imagine. I hope I didn't miscalculate the temperature for the return, though. I left the rain jacket at home figuring with a high of 80 today I'll still be too warm to ride with a jacket in the rain.

Ah, wimped out today. The long frisbee game yesterday afternoon and the prediction of rain all day today conspired to put me on the train. Oh well, I've been doing too much riding and running recently. I'm going to enjoy the off-day.

Just got in from my first bike commute. I feel great! I have much more energy this morning. I usually arrive tired and sleepy, but I feel good today. 13 miles is a nice distance too. There was a small shower today on my way, but it only lasted a few minutes. I'm getting used to riding in traffic and I'm looking foward to my ride home on my newly built commuter.

Good ride in this morning... warm and humid at 81 degrees. I was late so I had to hammer most of the way... but I made it on time.

Brrrrrrr It was 41 degrees on the way in this morning. All I had was my rain shell... and I peeled that off for the 2 mile climb to up to the office. You can tell that fall is in the air. Guess I need to get some tights and arm warmers one of these days.

Forgot my ballcap today....Had to walk through the office with serious helmet hair this am. Oh well :-)

Forgot to turn my alarm clock on after setting it last night and woke up at 8:45 am so I telecommuted today. Oh well, I'll make it up tomorrow.

Had a nice ride in this morning after a nice weekend in Baltimore/DC. Sun was rising as I rode in and it was nice and cool. Lots of traffic, but I blew by them and took a different road. Rain and thunderstorms predicted this afternoon, may be a wet ride home.

Beautiful morning up here, though cool. Was better prepared for a ride in the low 50s than last time, but still need something better on the torso.

Nice ride in. Cool so wore 3/4's thin fleece and gore windstopper.

The sun was just coming up over the Forth Bridge as I crossed so lights on.

I'm trying to work out safer routes in Edinburgh as the traffic planners have changed things and put cyclist a bit more in conflict with cars. Today was round Charlotte Square and along thistle street (past the Oxford bar - for Inspector Rebus fans), but too many cobbles on 28 mm tyres!!

Today is my first "round trip" day. I biked home on Friday, back to work on Sat, now I get to do both! I feel WAY better than I usually do on a monday morning. I'm totally excited to be getting the excersize (I need it) and also stoked about not filling up my car for a long while :) Made it to work in 55 minutes, about 10 minutes faster than it took me Saturday (10 miles). A lot of the time savings was in the route though.. there are still a few sections where the maps say roads go through but they dont.. so I have to do a bit of riding around to find the best route. Looking forward to the ride home!

It was raining today, so no commute for me! Looks like it will clear up this afternoon, so I'm back on the seat again for tomorrow. Anyone else chicken out due to rain?

I was way over dressed this morning. The temp when I left home was 44F with a SSW breeze. I was unzipping everything I could 3 miles into the 6 mile commute. :rolleyes:

I put my lights on the Jamis over the weekend. They are not the best, but should allow me to ride that bike in the dark. Just not very fast with the 10W headlight.

A little sprinking of rain from partly cloudy skies. Cooler, but I also had too much on. About a mile from work I took off my windbreaker and fleece to finish the ride and cool down.

I had the bike "tuned up" on Friday. I bought it from Commuter Bicycles in Santa Barbara two months ago, and had some break in problems, some of them my own doing, and some due to minor assembly problems. Eric fixed everything for free, only charging me for $5.00 for a new thorn-proof tube. He worked two hours on the bike. Cool guy. Note to self: buy from him again.

The tuned up bike was a joy to ride. The gear shifters, the brakes, everything is nice as new.

I'm off to take a lunch-time ride now.

I commuted last week. Didn't loose any weight, almost got hit by a cab but hell...I had fun.

Ricardo

Commute was a blast... I took the backup bike (converted MTB) and followed some unpaved alleys that run through a residential neighborhood. Some of these block-long alleys have some bumpy patches, and I even caught some air on a few natural moguls. :D Sweet! My trip back home was a bit rainy, which made the alley route even more fun. I think I'll do it again tomorrow...

Went to work the usual way this morning, 4 miles. Pretty easy (getting easier every day). First thing when I get to work a guy asks me how far I ride and I say 4 miles. He whistles and says, "Man, I could never do that." Then he goes outside for one last smoke before the bell. I think, "Well, duh."
Coming home starts out with a funny encounter with Phil. (See my post on the Best comment from Co-Worker about your commuting thread.) Then I decide to go home the "short" way. The short way is 1.5 miles up hill and then pertty much down hill the rest of the way home. I felt good about it, because the hill seems to be flattening out or something. It wasn't as tough gettting to the top as the last time I did it. Plus there was a guy pulling out from the post office, that is right next to my work, at the same time as I pulled out. I not only caught him on the up hill, I rode with him for a while until he turned off and I went on up the hill. It's kinda nice to ride with someone, wish I could do it more often.
I got to the top of the hill, and just at the crest, there was a truck parked along the side of the road. I got right next to it when a dog jumped up from the floorboard and started barking at me. I about crapped. Fortunately the window was only open a little bit. I got home in good time and now I am sitting here enjoying a "Fat Tire" Amber Ale and reading this thread.