vrkelley

arg...you might want to keep an eye on your mileage. If it happens again in under 200 miles check see if it's flatting in the same place...it so maybe it's the rim or rim tape.

vrkelley

Excellent ride...working on HR which seems to be dropping slightly on the ascents... HR is staying more in aeorbic. Will gradually build the speed back up cuz it's taking 4ever to get to work at these dog-slow speeds

Excellent weather past 3 weeks...foggy in the AM...fall is in the air -- oh so soon!

dmarcoul

got the 17mile commute down to around 50 minutes, depending on my energy level, traffic, etc. and i am so looking forward to tomorrow's ride.

RonH

Looks to be an awesome day for commuting. No rain in a few day, temps in the low to mid 90s, lots of sunshine. What else could you ask for? How about a day off from work? Not a chance, so I'll be heading out the door in a few minutes.

skijoring

Got sick, missed my commute today and last Friday. *Curses!*

vtjim

I don't like Mondays. (Boomtown Rats!)

The commute was nice. Low 60s. Sunny. But I still don't like Mondays. Saw a lot more cyclists than normal. Most were heading in the opposite direction.

Lots of mourning doves out & about. Plus a flock of seagulls. (The birds, not the band.)

meldex

Good ride in today. Kept a good pace until I got stopped by a train. Ended up having to go around to a bridge (damn train stopped).

oboeguy

bayareawheeler, three flats just like that? Something's wrong there. When you changed out the tubes, were you very careful to check for whatever caused the flat? Crazy getting three flats like that! If they were all pinch flats, new tires may be the least of your worries (maybe your rim is toast?).

No commute this morning for me. The rear wheel on the the Dahon is being rebuilt at the LBS. Should be done in time for the commute home (this shop is closer to work than home) so I brought my bike gear with me on the subway.

luckysnafu

Had a nice ride to work this morning. It was nice and cool. I forgot my water bottle, but didn't turn back for it. Last hot afternoon today, then mid 80's the rest of the week.

Stubacca

Easy ride in today. I didn't ride over the weekend but did a stretch class at the gym, so the legs were feeling good and fresh. I wasn't paying much attention while going uphill on a concrete road, and the front tyre fell into the large gap between the lanes. Fortunately it popped out again pretty quickly and didn't bring the bike to a grinding halt!

Saw 5 other commuter cyclists, 3 roadies out training, and an older couple out for a cruise on their hybrids.

Longhorn

That's the exact length of my commute. Could you fill me in on what yours is like -- terrain, traffic, etc? I'm curious whether I can ever aspire to do my route, which has no traffic but is full of hills, in just 50 minutes. Thanks!

carail

Its getting colder here, can't wear shorts anymore so i had to put pants on this morning for my commute .

rickwilliams

Oh, to have transit to supplement my bike commuting. The buses in my town don't run to where any of the bike shops are located. When I have to leave my bike in the shop I have to drive it there (which always makes me feel distinctly unclean). I'm fortunate, however, to have a backup bike to use while my commuter is being worked on.

The commute today was fine. The weather was cooler and this morning there was even a hint of fall in the air. My morning commute - starting at 6:30 a.m. when the air is fresh and cool and the traffic is light - is nearly always mental hygiene of the first rank and one of the high points of my day. This evening I made near record time - no headwind and I made nearly all the lights.

hester

i've decided to suit up for work from now on. no more get up and go... button up with tie, nice loose skirt and flats. tough luck riding in this get up (i looked hella cute though!). i guess i'll have to start bringing a change. i was so uncomfortable, i biked two quick miles downtown and hopped the subway to the other location (my job requires a lot of daily travel, thank god!).
on the way home from there, i took an another route on a smaller street and encountered massive traffic on a two - lane residential lined with parked cars. give me hollywood blvd. any day! this street was horrible! not only was i terrified that i was about to be doored at any moment but a bus kept alternately passing me and cutting me off. there was a stretch of road full of construction pebbles (not gravel, but marbles), and some vato yelled at me to get on the effing sidewalk!
by the way, if anyone knows the best way to pass buses and other cars lined up in the right lane at a red, do tell. splitting lanes like a motorcycle seems safer than sticking to the right because of right turns, but is this the correct procedure on a bike? and what of left turns? is it best to bide your time behind the other cars, or should you take the right side up to the front?

dmarcoul

the commute today was so so so so good. 52 minutes, and i dont have a computer, and havent driven it out yet, im pretty sure its around 17 miles.

but yeah, had a little issue with my rear wheel rubbing against the frame, couldnt get it to sit right, so i bought a spoke wrench and im going to fiddle with it soon.

the best part of the commute is the return cause its late, generally after midnight and i get the roads to myself, maybe 5 to 15 cars the whole time. cool too. and there is this view over a lake and above some trees that makes me swoon and im sure one day will cause a crash. sigh.

oboeguy

On Riverside Drive today, as I was passing Grant's Tomb (heading South, BTW) I had an interesting exchange with an idiot, I mean driver. There are two very wide lanes there. I always take a full lane there for that very reason -- I can without disrupting traffic and it is of course safer than riding anywhere near the door zone (and often cars pull-up there momentarily, which means they pull out often as well, you get the picture).

Anyhow some moron decides that the left lane isn't good enough for her. And start to honk at me. I ignore it, of course. The bleeping bleep then decides it's a good idea to drive up to me, between lanes, honk some more and wave at the sidewalk. I didn't get a chance to say "learn the law before making a fool of yourself again" because she promptly drove off at high speed. At this point I didn't feel very threatened (I was really amused) so I lofted the one-finger salute. I was rather impressed to see a return salute from the driver some 50+ meters away (sharp eyes, if not sharp intellect).

It was dumb to flip the bird, but it sure felt good. Call me a wuss if you will for flipping it only because I didn't feel threatended by the driver.

vtjim

Another nice morning commute. Low 60s. Sunny. Light headwind, nothing terrible.

On my ride home last night I came upon two heavily-laden recumbents. Lots of bags hanging off the back of their rides. Looked impressive.

And from the weird side of things: I've noticed more and more bicycles turning up in odd locations and staying there for days. Unlocked. Lying in weeds. Leaning against street signs. Stolen and dumped, perhaps?

WonkerJaw

It's been a while since I've posted here because it's been a while since I've been able to ride. This morning was good I felt great all the way in with 81 degrees and no wind and very light traffic. We shall see if the heat goes above 100 today… this might adversely affect my ride home.

Cheers

Map tester

Had a bit of a 'terrorist moment' this morning. I was crossing a bridge right next to one of our rapid rail stations, packed with people waiting for the train and buses, when I hear: Bang! Bang! I'm thinking, oh sh#t, what was that? But nothing else seemed to happen, it must have been something like a car backfire.

Lovely living in our modern world. Although this isn't the future I signed up for when I was a kid (flying cars, vacations on the moon, and robots to clean the toilet), any day I can ride my bike to work is a good day. Happy trails!

* jack *

It's been a good commuting week so far. Temperatures have cooled off to the lower 90s
I made very good time this morning, though I pushed myself to the 'overheat' point.

Kids are slowly moving in before the semester starts next week, so a bit more foot traffic to
avoid on campus. They finished some construction last week, and I have resumed my old route
through campus, on a pathway that was reconfigured and slightly redirected. Now I get to see Duke
field hockey practice every day

Late August is also rather dangerous on the roads, because of the massive influx of out-of-towners
(Duke parents and students) coming back to town and driving like maniacs. But summer is kinda
dull around here, so I look forward to the insanity, also.

Have a good week, everyone!

Stubacca

School's definitely back. Plenty more cars and peds around the local high school. If anything, it makes it easier for me - I have to make a turn out onto a major road, and the extra cars slow the traffic down enough that it's far easier to navigate.

A bridge I cross going into the state park has suffered a but of erosion underneath one side, so I'm taking a slightly longer route these days. My standard morning commute is now about 14 miles, and the afternoon 16-20. Happy days!

RonH

It started out as a typical Tuesday morning - trash collection day.
I think my heart rate was over 200 trying to pass two garbage trucks before the smell got to me.
Great ride until I went thru the university campus. Got passed by a shuttle bus again. The driver crossed the double yellow line to go around me and then immediately pulled in front of me so he could stop for the approaching stop sign. I pulled up beside him and asked what the hurry was and did he realize what he did was against the law. He sounded foreign and gave some lame excuse.
I was pissed. This is the second time in two weeks that some moron driving one of the university shuttle buses has done this to me. So I headed over to the parking office and spoke to the supervisor of the shuttle bus drivers and explained the situation and told him the driver's name and bus number. This wasn't my first visit there. As usual he said he'd talk to all the drivers. Don't know if it will do any good.
The rest of the ride was great!

If these ****ing foreigners don't learn the rules of the road I may log on to BF one morning and report that I was taken to XXX hospital where I expired at 9:35 am EDT.

RonH

Hi Jeff,
How's the new job going?


Last week when I had my blowout, my boss (who was riding in front of me) thought someone was shooting in our general direction.

caloso

The mornings have been gorgeous but work has been so crazy that I've been too tired and stressed to be able to take a detour. Either in the morning or the afternoon. Sigh.

Erick L

In the last couple of days...

Two days ago when my co-worker offered me to use his car because he hit some heavy rain showers on his wayto work (we had them at work minutes before). He said he had to drive slowly. I declined, telling him I was going faster when it rains. Finally, I didn't get a single drop.

Found another route through the industrial park. No more riding on the freeway service road and no more jumping the fence and bike-carrying on the closed-off pedestrian bridge. I like riding in the industrial area. Mega-wide streets, big but slow trucks. Winter commuting might be possible.