Dammit!! It was bound to happen: left for work without any clothes to change into.
Luckily I am mostly 'remote' and my meetings are on the phone. I don't want to drive to get my clothes! Maybe I should take my lunch hour to ride home and back!
On the list: bring extra set of clothes for work!

:(

If the slicks have a smaller circumference, then yes, they'll mess up the odometer as well as the speed. It will read high. Probably not by much though.


:D Are more people admitting to this now, or has there just been a dramatic upswing in clothing-forgetfulness lately?

It's getting warm and pleasant around these parts. Almost wish it would rain on me sometimes. I should be careful what I wish for. Thunderstorms are predicted this afternoon. :eek:

46 degrees and rain! Made for quite the sloppy ride in, but what fun spinning through the puddles!

The temps were a little low this morning (low 50s) but there was no wind. It was such I nice morning I seemed to have not kept a good count of others, seems I saw about 8 others out on bike. Though I haven't posted in a while, I've been riding most every day.

Last week, I had my bottom bracket go out and was riding fixed gear. On Saturday, I got the frame threads fixed and replaced the bracket. The ride was smooth as butter.

Lots of other bike commuters out there. I had some fun pretending I was racing them. Not intentionally. I was hobbling up a hill and this dude on a mountain bike goes flying by me. Instinctually, I popped it up a couple gears and held a distance perhaps 20 m back for the rest of the climb. Quick shoulder check, he saw me. Flats, blows through a stop sign. He's bouncing up and down like a trotting horse, must be maxed out in his top gear. I shift up to my big chain ring. Green light ahead, straightaway. I fly by him. Light turns red. He pulls up next to me breathing hard. "Nice day for a ride" he deadpans. Yep. Nice one. We are taking up the whole lane and a truck wants to turn right in the shared right/straight lane. I tell my new friend that I usually pull over to the left and let them turn right. "Good to make friends with the natives", I say. He pulls ahead of me and the truck turns. No words. We wait awkwardly at the red. His right leg is bobbing up and down on the pedal, like a drag racer revving his engines. Green. Go! He's off like a shot. But I've got him in my sights. Downhill. He's maxed out again, bouncing off his seat like a rabbit. I can pass him, but my turn is coming up. So I turn off and he bounces away. Until next time Racer X . . . .

The ride this morning was very warm, above 70, and very muggy. Pretty uneventful, but I was drenched in sweat by the time I got to work. Gonna be in the mid 90s on the way home :o

The definition of muggy:

Durham, North Carolina
Currently: 93°F Partly Cloudy
Wind: South at 8 MPH
Humidity: 45%
Dewpoint: 69°F
Barometer: 30.01 inches and falling
Heat Index: 97°F

Had to skip the ride this morning. Today was restocking day at the office. Stocked the fridge with yogurt, Myoplex, bagles. New bottle of shampoo for the locker, and a change of clothes to leave at the office. (In case I leave home without them).
That ever happen to you?
http://www.thecatdragdinn.org/9nude2a.jpg

Funny you should post that, I ride to work just outside Raleigh...lol :D

So nice to see so many more bikes in the bike cage these days, including some really nice roadies. I occasionally see a Specialized S-Works and there was even a Colnago one day. I spoke to one woman who has been riding a 46mi roundtrip 2 days a week. She just got a new Trek Madone WSD. Very nice bike.

Excellent, we can start a commiseration society... the Very Damp Commuter Club! ;)

Looks like I got out of there just in time. :)

Can I join the club? North Carolina Chapter?

90ish on the ride back today from Durham to Chapel Hill. Though I saw TWO other commuters on the road going my way. Misery loves company.

Ok, ok it wasn't that bad but it was certainly a peek into the rest of the summer.

Good ride to work and home . Saw alot of people out walking to nite . But no one out riding . Have a good nite .

Wow, it has been a busy past couple of weeks for me. Meetings and a little travelling have put a big damper on my commuting. That all seems to be in the past now.

Had a good ride in this morning, pretty warm and humid with the tempature around 67F. High today is upposed to be in the high 80's with high humidity. Yeah! Felt good to be on the bike again!!

I finally bought jerseys. Three plain colored ones. Yellow, blue, and red. Wish I'd gotten some before. It's almost like riding shirtless. Cool and dry.

Last night I was convinced I was going to get rained on. There was a huge line of storms heading this way but it passed south of us.

This morning was in the 60Fs and very pleasant. Headwind again but nothing awful. It pushed me home last night so I had to pay the fare I guess. Lots of Trail Hotties out on the path too.

I also put two new tires on my bike last night, so this morning was the road test of those. Plain old 27 x 1 & 1/4 Nashbar tires. They seemed to make the ride softer, which is a good thing. Less rolling resistance too, from what I could tell. My old front tire was an original from 1987. The back tire was a very inexpensive LBS tire that was already going bald after one year.

Today was my 4th time bike commuting, and the first time it's been warm enough for me to actually sweat (74F and 83% rel. humidity). Took advantage of a little-known shower in our building and arrived at my desk clean and cool.

In four rides I've gone from 45 minutes door-to-door to 30 minutes d2d (45 min door-to-sitting-in-my-office). Guess I just had to remind my body that it's capable of more!

it's getting warmer...71 °F (dry bulb), 61 °F dew point. nice tailwind on the way in. such a great start to the day! enjoy yours...

not a good start to the day. Already I've been stung by a bee on my inner thigh, youch! And then I flatted, big old wood screw drilled into my tire. Then I found out I lost my CO2 pump and my backup air pump is broken! Just as I was whipping out the cell phone to call SAG support (wife), an aquaintance crested the hill and I waved him down to borrow his pump. All is well. Thank goodness for the good will of fellow cyclists. Oh yeah, this was after the owner of the business where I was changing my tire, kicked me off the front steps. She later came out with a nice cold bottled water. People are sorta mean sometimes and then they can be super nice.

Good ride in today. Rain, Rain, Rain. I am usually due for about 4 or 5 rainy rides throughout the year. It was 8C so not too cold. Only one cager decided to see what he was made of. I heard him comming from a ways back. without slowing down or even taking the foot off the pedal he pulls out and passes me. Less than 100ft ahead there was a city worker comming down the road on a rather large lawn tractor. I am sure the city worker nearly crapped his drawers. But the cager was able to cut me off (after I had already moved over) to squeeze back into our lane. The really rank part of this is that we were in a park. Oh yeah, I caught him about 1/2 mile down the road at a pedestrian crosswalk.

Minor details, overall a very good commute. Have a great day.

Today was great, humidity and heat were exchanged in a violent
thunderstorm last night. Here's how yesterday ended:
Well this mornings commute flat started a bad karma day but my
guardian angel was looking after me. On the return trip I realized
bike 2 was slowly loosing air so fixed it before leaving work. Raced
to the train, made it easily as the train was 1 hour late. I kept
looking at the sky as it darkened. A slow train ride due to high
temps finally arrived at my station. Skies were still OK. I quickly
had to change this mornings flat, large chunk of glass. Went to pump
it up and the pump didn't work. I fiddled with it to no avail, skies
continue to darken. No cell phone, what to do ?? I look at my bike
and realized I had left another pump on the frame from Sundays ride!!
Salvation. I pumped like crazy and took off as the weather was
taking a serious downturn. I was really hot but with one cold and
nasty wind I bacame chilly. The wind was howling, I'm thinking
"where's Dorothy and Toto". The sky was as dark as I've ever seen. I
rode as fast as I could against a very strong wind. I pulled into my
driveway, ran the bike onto the porch and the heavens let loose. I
just escaped, thanks angel, finally the karma changed. Drinking a beer
on the porch during the thunderstorm was a perfect ending.

Crazy strong cross wind blowing off the Sacramento River as I spun down the river trail. I stopped to help a kid who was standing next to a mountain bike turned up on its saddle and bars. He said, "Aww, it's totally f***ed so don't worry about it. My girlfriend is coming to get me." I said, "Okay, no problem," and took off.

Walked in the door to see the Wonder Twins in their highchairs covered in food but smiling ear to ear. Even my wife had to laugh. Best moment of the day.

Widely scattered thunder storms, hail, & showers were predicted for yesterday afternoon. When I got off the bus it looked like the storm was over so I got the bike out of the car and cycled home. At mile 7 it started to rain. By mile 13 it was poring. I had not washed my helmet or sweatband in quite a while. The rain dissolved all that dried salt. the water running down my face tasted like the ocean and burned my eyes. It was hot so the rain felt pretty good. By the time I got home the temp was dropping, but I made it in time. Little did I know but there was also a tornado warning posted.

This morning was foggy but quiet. For both rides I had to use my fingers as windshield wipers on my glasses.

I'm up to my stupid flat tire tricks again. Last night was possibly my worst infraction. Why?

1. Wife calls at 4:30 and needed me to be home by 5:30 so I can take our son to his ball game and she can take our daughter to the doctor. I left late because two people stopped me with urgent questions on the way out the door.
2. I was out of the office last week and forgot that I had just used my last spare tube for a flat two weeks ago. The patch kit and spare (patched) tube were on the work bench where I left them two weeks ago.
3. No cell phone (single income family) and no money by chance a pay phone is available.
4. Phtttttt, phhhhttttt, phhttttttttttt from the rear tire about two miles into the ride home. 10 miles to go. Half hour left to get home. Hole is next to the stem. Panic sets in.
5. My cycling shoes are old, flimsy, and terrible to walk in.
6. The tube a friendly fellow cyclist was for an 18c tire. I have 32 c. The little pump I have didn't help, no matter how frantically I pumped. It did protect the tire and wheel, however, as I walked the bike.
7. 7:15 PM, I find a ATM for money and pay phone for a call. Left a message for my wife and kids ("Hey, I'm alive").
8. 9 PM, 1/2 mile from home, my wife and kids pull up in the van.

In the last ten years, I have averaged MAYBE one flat a year. This year, with a new tire and tubes, I have had at least four. Auggggghhhhhhh!!! Murphy rears his ugly head.

I hate it when I'm not prepared, but this year has made it difficult for even preparation to help!

Biked to work this afternoon on my vintage Pashley which has dysfunctional brakes; makes for an intense ride. My other bike is in the shop, so my choices were finite. But I did enjoy the trek. On sweltering hot days like these I like barreling down on the pavement, so the breezes can cool me off.