I just got my bike's service done at the shop and rode home. (thank god, the bike guys were as friendly as usual, they even let me tried an expensive high performance racing bike which i totally had no intention to purchase at the moment)

Its getting windy here, i can hardly on 2-6 gear on a flat road. When i was stopping near the traffic light, a big as truck flew past me and blowed me half meter to the left... But the ride was still enjoyable, i also plan to ride in the wind again tonight just for fun.

DC was a beautiful ride in this morning. I took the last few days off because the last distance ride I went on killed me. Finally felt strong enough to tackle a ride into work - part of me knew that it was time to take the bike out!

Played some bike polo with a crew out in DC - wiped out twice but no sever bruises to complain about - have to start learning how to handle my bike instead of just ride fast and in a straight line. The ride home at 10pm is great - no headwind! Even the potomac was still. It was so good that I even got a chance to practice no hands for a a while! Great day for a commute.

30 MPH headwind in the morning and 18 MPH headwind going home. Stupid wind!
Good ride anyway, just wish the wind directions were reversed between morning and night.

the ride this morning ruled... nice day, and I'm having a much easier time with the hills... I've shaved a good 5 minutes at least off my commute since I started a month and a half ago

the ride back tonight was alright, a few knuckleheads honking and a couple people passing too close, the nighttime seems to bring out the bad drivers out here

such a schlub, me. i'm tired.

cold, clear, grey morning ride. puddles all drained away. not nearly enough sleep last night, so i was late starting out, and button of all buttons. tired.

the ride was a write-off as far as not dying in the first block, so i kind of lost the main plot and started to hyperfocus on tiny side-things instead, like timing the light at the bottom of the bike path on my stopwatch. chunnering away to myself, leaning on the button and channelling frank burns at it: "come on, come on, come on; what the zark is your stupid problem? rome is burning; the sky is falling; CHANGE ALREADY!!" secure in the knowledge that Nobody Bikes To Work Anymore In This Weather, and i've got the world to myself. and i look right, and there's another commuter on a loaded white commuter bike at my shoulder. dunno how long he'd been there, but once i'd finished yelping and almost falling over we had a nice little chat about something or other until the light finally did change. i'm not too sure what. about five minutes later, heading onto the bridge, i kind of remembered his nose and it occurred to me he might have been the manager of my kid's summer team. it's hard to tell under a helmet. it was that kind of day. still is.

woman in the health club sitting all by herself on a chair outside the door to the court, like a kid in high school waiting for the principal to come out and Deal with her. waiting for her partner, i guess. she got an eyeful of my whole flight-squadron gear while i was weighing myself right beside her, and she was VERY impressed when i told her where i'd come from. so impressed that i didn't have the heart to tell her how milquetoast my performance is considered by Real Commuters. so i swaggered a bit and spit in the dirt and answered her technical questions about 'don't you get COLD' for her like i really was some kind of rareified astronaut type with special knowledge. then i went and washed myself.

still tired coming home. there's a new person in my 4-person cube these days, and she - i tracked this - never let more than 40 minutes go by ALL DAY without starting a new little popularity session with the other denizens. fries my head so i hardly know which way is up. i've really messed something up with my gearing system, so i didn't have all my gears on the way home and that didn't help, but i was kind of too far gone to notice what kind of difference it made.

lawd. just put me to bed and don't bend me. today the scale says i weigh 150.

Cool ride in this morning but it was nice riding into the sunrise. Lots of cars out this morning but overall they did well passing me. Didn't see another commuter today like I have most of this week. Should be a nice warm ride home this evening into the sunset.

No more commuting for me. I got the axe yesterday. Out of the blue, no reason given. I guess my position is bein eliminated. <sigh> Back to full-time student for a while I guess. At least my road bike should see some more love in the near future.

^^^Ouch baby, that hurts ...

Today I got a friendly nod from a motorcycle cop, a rarity in this roads. I waved back and he saluted! It made my day!

The rain and wind are back today so I got wet riding in. I haven't figured out how to dress for my commute yet (this is week six) so that I'm warm enough on the easy first three miles without cooking myself for the last two. I was getting chilly until I hit my first hill, then I could feel the warmth spreading through my body. First the legs, then the rest of me soon after. By the crest even my fingertips were toasty and I was gloveless at 44F degrees. If only the hills were at the start of my commute instead of the end.

Damn, sorry to hear that.

At the risk of sounding lewd, what are you wearing?

Sorry to hear Oboe. What field are you in?

Foible, dress for the third mile. Your body will warm up once you start riding.

My commutes have been great all week, the weather has been perfect... nice and brisk in the a.m. , bright crisp Autumn sun. I just want to ride past the office and keep on going... :rolleyes: I woke up early to take some longer routes in to work a couple days this week.

I saw the guy who almost ran me over last Friday at my LCS (local coffee shop) yesterday; I tried to get his license plate # when he left, but the rear gate of his pickup was down, and I couldn't make it out. :mad:


Tough break, oboeguy... I wish you the best of luck. :beer:

Around 40F this morning, with a full frontal headwind from the bowels of Hell. I ride along Champlain lakeshore so I get it bad if there's a south wind. Looks like 35-40 knots. Big waves. Pretty to look at but slow going.

All I can say is: It better be that strong on my ride home. Tailwind good! :) Weather report indicates it will be so. Yay!

FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUDGE!!!
Sorry to hear that oboeguy. I know how it feels and I sympathize. I just heard 750+ positions were declared surplus yesterday in my company. I hope none of them is mine. Anyways, update your resume, register for unemployment and enjoy your time off while you find another job. It's kinda refreshing how you now have plenty of time to enjoy yourself during the day and slowing life down to check it out to enjoy it better. Good luck in the job hunt. BTW, you might want to describe what you do in case any BF'ers hear of anything.

Always listen to the voice in your head telling you something's wrong. Like today, I ignored the voice telling me something was wrong before I left. I thought it was telling me to wear a helmet so I ignored it. And of course, I got tapped on the elbow by a cab's side mirror on the way in. When I say tapped, I literally mean the gentlest of all taps. My elbow didn't even hurt and I only noticed it cuz I was wearing just a t-shirt so nothing to pad me out. And we were coming to a stop. So I knocked on the dude's window, yelled that he hit me cuz he didn't roll the window down, he ignored me for a bit then said something I couldn't hear that looked like a denial. And get this, when I rapped on the window, the backseat passenger threw her arms up in frustration like I was keeping her from being somewhere. I was angrier at her than I was at him, the stupid, entitled b!tch. Anyways, I made a big show of getting his hack no. so I could report him, smiled at him the smile that says, "You're screwed dude!" and rode off.

When I got to work, I called 311 and found that if I filed a report, I'd have to come in for a complaint hearing to testify about what happened. Since I only got the gentlest of taps and feel I got off lucky, I'm not gonna pursue it. Now if what happened to Slvoid happened to me, I'd pursue it, but since no harm was done, I'm not gonna bother. Yeah, yeah, I know, he needs to take responsibility for his actions, the next person might not be so lucky, etc., but realistically, if I walk in w/ no evidence of harm, and no witnesses, it's his word against mine.

BTW, I figured out what that voice was trying to tell me before I left. It was trying to tell me that my shoes don't match! I have a black pr. and brown pr. of the same model shoe. I put one black and one brown on and now I have to spend the rest of the day walking around like an idiot.
FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUDGE!!!

Curious, did that make it particularly warm?

ROTFLMAO (@ you). :beer:

West Kentucky is having a very dry fall - great for riding. Beautiful ride in today (I make a loop out into the county before heading for the office) for the most part - temps in the mid 50's around sunrise, dead calm under stalled high pressure.

Downside of dry - color is spotty as trees turn - some gorgeous, some going from green to brown. Big worry - when the leaves finally drop (they are late now), and if it doesn't rain big time, lots of fires are likely.

Speaking of fires - tobacco curing is in full swing, interesting smell, hope there's not too much tobacco crud in the smoke. Smoke went up today, not laterally into a ground hugging haze when we have not only high pressure but a cold air inversion system overhead. Hopefully this industry of death is experiencing its last gasp.

Yesterday I decided to ride the 35 miles home instead of my 18 miles and 15 by bus. I arrived home 10 minutes later!
The only bad thing was the road cyclist who yelled at me. Stupid me for not paying attention. Stupid him for over reacting. I was not even remotely close to him :(

This morning's 18 mile ride in was fine. The hills are getting easier and easier. The only problem is my lower back on part of my right leg. Thank goodness my boss is a licensed massage therapist. :)
She does it as a side job. Lucky me :)

First and last commute for me today:

I've been riding all year to get in shape, working up my recumbent legs more recently, using my Dad's recumbent. I spent an afternoon with Google's hybrid maps a month ago finding the safest backway route to take. I've been driving the route to and from work to become familiar with it for the past 2-3 weeks, and rode it on the recumbent last Sunday to test it out (it's a beautiful ride). It's over 21 miles each way. I've cleared out the storage closet here at work that has an old shower stall, bought and installed shower hardware and spent a couple of hours scraping the decades of filth off of it, and scrubbing repeatedly to catch glimpses of the Almond fiberglass. I brought my clothes, toiletries and extra lunch in yesterday, and went to bed early last night.

I was about half way along when I was nearly hit intentionally for the third time, and I called it quits. Each time it was a truck; with a company logo painted on the side or carying a trailer or one of those construction workhorse "dumps" on the back. I was run off the road once, honked at and yelled at, each time it seemed that they were trying to see how close they could get to me without actually hitting me. I don't care if I have the right, there's no way to discuss it with them.

I have to say, I think the "Share the Road" thing means something different to them than it does me.
I don't know when the message is going out to these people, but if it does, I think our advertising dollars would best spent on the NASCAR circut. Gee was that discriminatory? Like I give a F#ck.

Redrom - I'm from Durham too, where were you commuting to/from? And what roads were you on?

No, the bottom level is cold. :) (According to Dante, at least... I think.)

Wow.. was really windy this am. I mean Really Really windy. Was blowing down the hill at 35 or so and the wind was still blowing past me. Had to hang on to a light pole at a crossing to keep from being blown over. At one point I have to backtrack a couple blocks and headed into the wind...It completely stopped me. I ducked into a residental neighborhood to got some cover and it helped just a tad.

Was blown uphill the last couple of miles, and that was pretty cool. Had to keep the tumble weeds from gettin sucked into the spokes.

The last 4 blocks were crosswind, and I knew by the cloud of dirt and debris that it was going to be bad. Rode through with a good 20degree lean just to go straight. Then a huge gust blew me into the curb and I macked my pedal. As a last valant effort to take me down, the wind blasted me with a shower of pebbles... not sand or dust mind you, but large, painful, 50mph pebbles.

I stopped, shook my fist at the sky and said, "IS THAT ALL YOU GOT ?" then pulled into the parking lot at work.

Cow Orkers were in disbelief that my bike was in the cube today... I was too.

Don

I live near Croasdaile in Northwest Durham, I work out on 54 west of Chapel Hill. I head down Cole Mill to Hillsboro Rd (Rt 70) which I get off of almost immediately onto Neal Rd. I was almost hit the first time, and then separately run off the road while I was coming up the hill on Neal Rd after it goes under 147. I then take Neal to Bennett Memorial Rd to 70 again for another spit to Old Rt. 10, where I had my third encounter and gave up. Ironically, this is where the ride gets amazingly beautiful; Old Rt. 10 to New Hope Church Rd across Old 86 and then to Union Grove Church Rd., back over to Old 86 in Carrboro (w/ bike lanes now) to Rt. 54 West (with a healthy paved sholder)

Amazing really, on Sunday, late morning I couldn't have imagined a nicer ride. :rolleyes:

You went to a lot of work to prepare for your commute and you definitely did your homework choosing your route. It sounds like you had a horrible first commute and I can certainly understand your frustration. But don't give up on it yet Redrom! Maybe some slight adjustments to your route will make a big difference and it's likely that it won't be that bad every day. Sorry you had such a crappy first commute though!

I'm afraid the route hasn't been created that will keep me away from ignorant motorists.

I wear shorts, a t-shirt, polar fleece hooded sweatshirt and a hooded rain jacket. None of it is bike specific, just stuff I had around the house. With both hoods up (under my helmet) I'm not quite warm enough when I start out. I just don't get a workout until after the halfway point. Once I hit the hills it's a different story, I warm up quickly and no longer feel the cold.

My wife had to point out the obvious to me, I can pull over and adjust my clothing if I need to. (after decades of car commuting that is an alien concept) I've been trying this, pulling over after the first hill and taking off the hoods, and that seems to make enough of a difference that I'm not overheated by the time I get to work.

While I was riding to work this morning, my wife passed me in her car on her way to drop off our daughter at school.

No big deal I guess, except that I left the house a good 15 minutes after she did. :)

Cloudy and cooler today. Found a new route that gives me a glimpse of distant coastline on one side and even more distant mountains on the other. Air quality is clearing this time of year in LA so the views get nice.

Gosh. Writing in this thread. Is sort of cathartic. Like a blog, but less about the writer and more about the topic. Nice. I will see how long I can keep this up.

Strong wind out of the south, southwest this morning - great coming in for the most part, probably gonna be slow going tonite though. Temps were great this morning, mid 40s I think, supposed to get up to near 70 today. Came up on two deer grazing at the side of the road this morning. Two cars had just passed them ahead of me, but they didn't budge. When I passed I probably could have reached out and touched them, I even said 'Hello!', the didn't seem to even notice I was there. Too tame or just deaf?

Are ya gonna tell us the story, or make us use our imaginations? :p

Maybe your are not used to with the constant rushes with death. Time will change that.

I wore my tights today for the first time ever.

Wow. I'm hooked. I'll never go back, never do you hear me!

Warm, comfortable, I'm totally sold ;).