had a real uncomfortable ride to work yesterday, but after i readjusted the handlebars the ride home was fantastic, new route, great speed and almost made it up all the hills on my fixed. tonight, those hills are going down. ha, well not literally.

It was cool this morning, I bet around 61, with a nice ocean overcast. The ride to work came in at 1.8 miles, I was able to take off .3 miles by going straight. I managed a high speed of 21 mph, as I took a different turn at another point in the ride. As i will not attend work tomorrow, this is another week of 100% bike commuting, I think its been a month straight now.

Absolutely perfect morning for a bike ride this morning. I just wish mine didn't end at the office....

Beautiful day today, and no no irate drivers. The only problem was...

I forgot my pants!

Luckily, my office is near a TJ Max, so I stopped there first, and bought a pair of jeans.

[QUOTE=vtjim]Skijoring I was riding home once last year and there was a massive snapper on the trail. Earlier this year I stopped and escorted a little painter turtle out of the street.

(snip)

Coming back from Acadia in June... We stopped along a Mass. Turnpike and I hustled a wayward turtle right back into the shrubbery from whence it came. I believe it was a common pond turtle, but there was no doubting what it was as we were flying along at 65 mph...Its neck was sticking out, smelling 4 lanes of traffic.

Rain here yesterday and today. Haven't seen rain around here in so long that it took me a while to figure out what it was! Riding in it is quite cathartic, really...

Chewed through what was left of my brake pads on the way home yesterday afternoon. Ah well, they were up for replacement soon anyway . New ones on today, so am experiencing stopping power rather than just a slight *********** effect.

Had a motorist make a rude comment on the way in - "you're riding your bike in the fast lane". We were at an intersection with one lane turning left, one going straight, one turning right. I was in the middle lane, of course. I guess he thought I should be in the right turn lane, or on the sidewalk. I told him that this was the only lane going straight. He flipped me the bird, thus declining serious discourse regarding the matter.

On reflection, I was pretty happy about it. Why? Because, in one full year of bicycle commuting and vehicular cycling, that was the first rude comment from a motorist. Thousand Oaks is a great town for cycling.

I've been using my Bianchi Axis 2004 with fenders as my commuter, but I think I'll switch to my new Madone SL 5.2 until it starts raining again. The weather's been so perfect lately. I'm just dreading the beginning of school in a few weeks when a lot of streets on my route become clogged with parents ferrying their students. Hardly any kids were driven to school by their parents when I grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago in the 70s and 80s. What's up with the lack of school buses out here?

Another hot day today. Still a good ride to work and home. Didn't see too many cars tonight, traffic was light. Have a good night.

In our neck of the woods, it's lack of money. Routes are consolidated to the extent that kids may spend up to an hour and a half on the bus! We live in a rural suburb of Austin and my kids were lucky to be at the front end of their route so they could get home in about 40 minutes (ten minutes by car) but getting them up that early was a pain so we took them, especially after I started teaching in the district. No way could they have ridden bikes -- the only route into town is a four-lane U.S. highway with speed limits up to 70 mph and no shoulders.

Before I left work yesterday, I checked my tires and discovered(!) a front flat. Fixed that and had a hot, humid ride home. Today I rolled in ahead of some ominous clouds (cue Wagner). Supposed to clear out by this afternoon.

Had a nice ride to work this morning. This has been the first week I have been able to ride all 5 days Last night on my way home, I saw a cyclist without a helmet on with a red shirt that said on the back, stay back 500 feet. Got a chuckle out of me, but I then watched him run a red light

How is it that people can be that stupid?

My commute was one of my fastest. I was reeling in another roadie who was pretty far ahead and seemed to have roughly the same performance characteristics as I do. I guess you could say I eventually caught him because he stayed on the trail through Burlington's Waterfront Park and I went up the street that runs next to the park. I had a straight line and smooth pavement. He had curves and some bumps. (Which is why I don't stay on the trail there.)

It's humid, too. 78 right now, dewpoint 69. Yucky.

I too had a faster ride in this morning. Didn't have another rider to catch but I beat my previous best time. This has gotten to the point that I come to work just for the ride.

First commute and first bike ride in over 10 years this morning. 5 miles, light, steady rain, humid and 15 minutes late. Best morning in a long time.

Now could you say that had you been in a car?

That is awesome. Enjoy!

This was my fifth straight day of my first week commuting. Like Chambana, I have had the best mornings and evenings at the pedals of my bike.

TxBiker and Chambana: Welcome and keep it up! I agree that somedays, the best part of the day is the commute.

This morning was weird. Funny how somedays you feel like you're struggling but you're really not. I was riding pretty slowly along Riverside Avenue heading toward downtown. I felt like I was really laboring but only going about 15 or 16 mph. I could see that the light at Broadway was turning (I guess I was probably 300 or 400 meters from the intersection). I thought to myself that if I want to make this light I better hustle so I put it in the big ring, stood up and hammered a bit.

After I sailed through the intersection I looked at my computer and it said 30.5 mph! Man! I think I was still in the 13 cog too. I think I might be in better shape than I thought.

Yesterday I was almost hit three times in the same manner -- by an SUV turning left against traffic, right in front of me. As if they'd looked, seen no cars coming, and not noticed me in my bright blue jersey barrelling along towards them. Good thing I assume I'm invisible and behave accordingly.

On the other hand, I think my new clipless pedals are helping... Cresting a hill with my heavy bike, I was passed by an unladen road biker. (Typical for me.) But on the way down, I passed him. And going up the next hill, I stood up in the pedals, turned on the speed, and left him waaay behind. Wow -- I can stand up now! Never could before...

Some bastard must have snuck into my garage last night and filled my frame with lead shot. Flats felt like hills, and hills felt like mountains.

But I was still on the bike, so all is happy with the world.

Well, I was going to wait until I sold my car to start commuting but reading these forums made me anxious so I planned out my route yesterday and commuted in to work on my bicycle for the first time today.

The ride in was great and is the perfect way to start the day! Weather here in SoCal couldn't be better, blue skies and the sun shining with a nice breeze.

Thanks to advice from you commuters I planned a route that avoided major roads where autos travel 45 mph+. This made my commute much more relaxing and enjoyable.

It's about 9 miles from my house in the Temecula Valley to my office bldg. I took it nice and slow since it was the first time I had traveled that route on my bicycle so it took me 30 min. to get here but I could easily shave it down to 20 min. since it is mostly downhill. The trip home will give me a good work out.

I'm definately going to do this every Friday until I sell my car and then I plan on commuting at least 3 days a week if not the whole work week. The only problem I see is keeping my clothes from wrinkling. Today wasn't a problem since my office has casual Fridays but during the week it may get tricky. Especially since I'm a little OCD about wrinkled clothes.

I appreciate all the advice given in these forums!

This has been a great week. Yesterday I felt tired but beat my fastest time by about eight minutes.
Today was another story. Big thunderstorms rolled through last night and there were trees and power lines down everywhere.
I got stuck behind a line of cars on one of the side streets I take. It took ten minutes to go three blocks. The main road it emptied out into was blocked by a downed tree.
I managed to get past that only to get stuck in more traffic at a construction site on the college campus I ride through.
I finally got to work but only about 5 minutes later than usual.

I was riding back to work after lunch, and three ladies were in a crosswalk. I had timed
my approach and measured my speed perfectly to avoid them, but as I sped by, (behind them)
I could hear one of them say in a strong Southern drawl, "Dang, don't hurt us, fella!" I just
had to laugh at myself... I didn't want to scare any pedestrians...

As much as I try to slow things down during the dog days of summer, I just can't help
trying to go as fast as I can... back in my office now, overheated, dripping with sweat.
Can't wait for cooler weather... but I still remember how frikkin' hot it was last summer.

Have a nice weekend, everybody

As I was changing into my riding clothes, I was hoping for a nice ride home. Then I heard what sounded like thunder. Holy crap. It was thunder. Oh well, that's why I have fenders, right?
I got 3 blocks from work and the rain started. Another mile and the road was blocked because a tree fell across the road this afternoon (it wasn't there this morning). Some city workers were clearing it out of the road and taking way too long. All the cars were turning around to get home another way. Not me. I got on the sidewalk and walked the bike around the tree. Then got back in the street and headed down the road with NO CARS behind me. The rain continued until I was about a mile from home.
This is getting to be too regular of an occurance. I've been rained on once a week for the past month. Don't the weather gods know that Atlanta is supposed to be dry in mid-summer?

djgonzo congrats on your commute, it sounds very pleasant.


i had good rides all week. i drove Weds because I had some errands to run and wasn't feeling 100%, but that's one work-day out of the last 15 (3 weeks) that I've not ridden.

I went to LBS and splurged on 2 new pairs of 8-panel chronos and 2 jerseys yesterday. I only had two sets of clothes and it was just getting too nasty to re-use the same shorts 3 days a week.

Sixth day in a row of riding. Fifth day in a row of commuting. Pretty long work week though. Good ride to work and home tonight. Saw two other commuters at work today, very unusual to see two other people that commute at work, hopefully next week will be as good commuting as this week was. Have a good night.