everyday it gets easier.

I found a new route to my commute, that makes it more interesting. I usually commute on De La Cruz blvd in San Jose, but today I found out I can avoid it and it's multitude of trucks by taking a more scenic route through San Jose Intl. Airport. The factory smells along the route kill me though. Smells strongly of plastic and cardboard boxes.

Nah, you just get faster. (paraphrasing Greg Lemond)

The commute was 2^n times better today with no highway overflow. What a difference a day makes.

Glad you got your road back, oboe.

My commute this morning was uncomfortable. It had nothing to do with my staying up too late last night and drinking lots of beer. I swear.

Temps in the mid 50s. Cool and enjoyable.

Had knee warmers and a light jacket on. It felt like early fall out there. I'm going to have to carry a shovel and clear some skunks off the road. Ugh...Plus, saw the group of turkeys again by St. Michael's. Gobble gobble!

Last night on my way home from a bike maintenance 101 class at my bike shop, I broke a rear spoke! That is the second one in 5 days. The guys at the bike shop said I should replace my rear wheel with a double wall rim and go to 36 spokes.

Other than the spoke issues (which have all happened during errand trips to my LBS), week 3 of my commuting to work has been great. I have only missed one day of commuting since starting 3 weeks ago. Today was on my backup mountain bike. MAN, what a difference slick 700c tires make in your ride. My 26 inch mtb knobs felt like I was clawing through the streets to get to work. All in all, it only added a couple of minutes to my commute.

I hope the expense of a new rear wheel won't be too bad. I commute everywhere now (dentist visit, after work dinners with family, errands, shopping, etc). I have a greater appreciation of my road bike after this morning's commute!

Yesterday morning a fellow commuter (who looked mid-to-late 20s) caught up with me and we rode together for about a mile. Then we came to the hill that always kills me. I said this is where you'll probably leave me (I'm 60), and he did. He was over the hill before me and took off. Oh well, we would have parted company after another 1.5 miles anyway.

Today I rode into downtown Decatur (about 3.5 miles out of my way) to meet a co-worker who is new to the area and isn't comfortable riding alone in Atlanta area traffic. I let her lead the way most of the time since I was riding her route (parts of it were new to me). We got to work and my computer said the ride was 10.9 miles. That's better than my usual 8.5 miles.

Today was great. I was a little earlier and it was much cooler than yesterday. Just a little over an hour for my 12.5 miles. Only about 15 minutes slower than driving.

How old is the wheel? Could just be old spokes! If so, a wheel replacement will cost less than replacing and re-truing after every spoke-snapping.

No coffee in the house this morning, so today's commute included a sidetrip to Starbuck's. Coffee and a blueberry scone while doing the NY Times crossword (very unsuccessfully!). The Starbuck's route adds a mile and a quarter to my usual 3.5 mile one-way commute, but it's a nice treat.

This route takes me on an MUP that parallels a busy highway (Fairfax Co. Pkwy). At the one crossing I have to make, a car slowed to a stop BEHIND the stop line and checked for bikes and waited for me to cross before attempting her right turn. Very unusual for this intersection and refreshing.

A great trip in!

Mike

It is a 2003 Fuji I stored in the house (dormant) until realizing I needed to get my fat butt on my bike and commute. I have put more miles these last three weeks than I ever did these last two years. Another suggestion my bike tech suggested was taking the spoke and moving it over so that it crosses 3 or 4 spokes. That way, I keep my 32 spoke setup, just have to deal with a single-wall rim. This is not the solution he recommended. I think a wheel replacement is in my future.

Thanks.

Hey aadhils -- I bet that's the fiberglass plant at lafayette & central expy you're smelling. Except for the first couple of blocks there by the airport, I'll take almost any excuse to bike along Central. It's one of the south bay's hidden treasures.

My rides lately have been uneventful, except that every week Caltrans gets a little bit closer to completing the San Tomas Aquino Creek bike path between Scott Blvd and Mission College Blvd, so I can avoid the nastiest part of my commute (San Tomas over 101). I check it out on Friday afternoons to see the progress, which works out well except one day when they had tilled but not graded the dirt and I toppled in loose 6 inches of topsoil!

Its been a great summer weather-wise though and my body & my sanity are grateful for the daily biking.

Had to take a sick day yesterday due to a migraine. I was all set to go, packed, dressed, and ready to ride, but the headache and the nasty stomach that goes with it just kept getting worse. If I had a car, I would have taken the car to work as I could have worked through the migraine after slugging Pepto-Bismol and Excedrin!! Today, I rode in despite the lingering affects of the migraine and was OK. Now, I'm paying the price for taking a day away from work -- this SUCKS!!

Took a spill on a bridge in the trail. Funny that it was the same spot I fell down last winter when it was slightly icy. Same pose and angle as well. Wheel bent a little, went to the shop and they say you do that the same way again, you're getting a new wheel. Gotta be careful.

Yesterday at lunch I had a new experience. We had a lunch meeting in another part of town so rode to the train station wearing Docker shorts and an Izod shirt. When we got to our stop we rode about 1/3 mile to the restaurant.
After lunch we got back on the train and my boss couldn't get his bike free for our stop (he had it locked with a handicap restraint so it wouldn't roll around) so we ended up going to the next stop. Ended up riding thru a crappy section of town. I hit a pothole (didn't see it - I was watching a car that passed me really close). Had a front blowout two blocks later. Put in a new tube and continued on to work.
Let's see, two bad no-nos:
- riding in semi-dress clothes
- missing our stop and riding thru the wrong part of town


But the ride home was awesome. Just missed the afternoon rain by 10 minutes.

I've been having a broken spoke problem with my Dahon. Apparently the wheel wasn't built properly. The solution is not necessarily to get whole new wheel, at least in my case. I'm dropping off the bike on my way home to have the wheel rebuilt, in fact (same rim and hub).

Commute today was dandy again. The cooler weather is pure delight to ride in at 6:30AM. I imagine come winter time it will be, ummm, interesting at that hour.

I saw something really funny today. At RSD and 79th, a dude was on a hybrid/MTB in regular clothes, helmet hanging off the bars, left hand controlling the bike, right hand holding... Starbucks! It looked like maybe a Frappuccino (haha like I can tell). The guy made a right turn and head for what looked like the highway. Maybe he knows of a entrance to Riverside Park that I don't, maybe he was just nuts.

Not so funny, though was a few blocks from home. A guy with MD plates zoomed ahead of me while I was dodging a dollar van standing in the bike lane (BL nazis STFU -- I ride far enough left, trust me). It wasn't a really good buzzing, more of an honorable mention. Anyhow, this dude then slows his car to a crawl and eventually pulls over into the bike lane. WTF? Well, at the red light right there I actually stop (red light crowd goes wild!), to wait for the cop going the other way. Light changes, I flag down cop and ask him to tell the guy parked in the bike lane to get out of there. The cop had the onions to tell me "He's not parked" because the dude's engine was still running. W - T - F? I'm pretty sure the law is that no standing is allowed but this cop, who was in one of those little traffic-mobiles, not a cruiser simply didn't give a bleep. And they wonder why 1) people don't like them and 2) we don't want to give them a raise.

This morning I went to work very early, 5:00AM. It was nice, very cool and dark. The ride was quick as staying dry is not a problem when work starts early. 8 minutes 37 seconds later I was at the office.

Once again I completed a week only commuting by bike, I feel really good about that.

Definately is something to feel good about. I got 4 out of 5 days this week. But the best news is that my car will be sold on Monday! My wife has an SUV so I won't be carless but I'll be commuting to work 100% of the time!

I had a beautiful ride in this morning. The sun was out and shining bright which was a warm welcome after all the fog and overcast days we've had all week.

Cool and breezy in the Capital City. Lucky that it was a tailwind coming in.

First time I did all 5 days commuting. With gas prices, may have to ride 5 days a week for quite some time.

Bad day for commuting, got 3 flats ya three damn flats and only had 2 tubes- going to buy some different tires tomorrow morning. Was a hell of a experience walking around east palo alto in lycra shorts and a bright yellow jersey (talk about a humbling experience) looking for some patches - then i find a autozone buy some patches and start to patch up flat number 2 (number 3 was a pinch flat) while attempting to air up the tires with the Co2 I noticed the tires were not inflating...so i held my ground (and the button heh) BANG!! the damn inflator deal blew apart and the Co2 cartridge shot off somewhere, never did find it. Lady in a car next to me thought a gun went off and was ready to cry. So now im like faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawk and start digging for my presta adapter - of course there is none to be found...where in the hell (had just bought 2 days ago)

so im screwed. called a buddy that was nice enough to hit up a bike shop and bring me parts...by the time this was all said and done it was 1:30 so i fixed up my bike and turned around to head home. Just got off the phone with the boss and am calling this day a wash.

im going to go pound about 6 beers right now


on the flip side this is the second week ive successfully commuted 3 days a week for a total of 150 miles per week (approx 50 miles a day)

cheers
kj

40 mile round tripper......need to get some padded shorts.

Sounds like a rough day!



My hat's off to you... that's quite a commute.

Another "all ride week" for me. Although my engine's a little tired today it feels good to be completely independant of the car amidst these crazy gas prices (Metro too-goes without saying). Got caught in a moderate drizzle on the way home, but it felt good-good and cool.