luckysnafu

Had a nice ride to work after picking my gf's mom up at the airport. A little warmer and sunnier than I am used to, but it was nice since there was less traffic.

Hickabod

That feeling never seems to pass, even when I've had a week where I don't even hate my job.

I caught a nice sunrise as well this morning. I had several uniforms to carry in this morning. Instead of riding the hybrid (with the rack), I just used the stabilizer strap on my messenger bag to hang all my pants like a clothes line (my MB is small, it's all I usually need). It worked great.

10ch

Ride in was a bit tougher this morning, but I just checked and I averaged a slightly higher avg speed, so maybe I was just working harder.

There was a squeak on the bike for most of the ride, which was annoying and a little disconcerting. I'm guessing it's the rear fender, so I'll take it off and see if I still hear it this afternoon.

I weighed the bike for the first time this morning and w/my backpack on it's 48 lbs. Seems like a bit of a load -- is that typical? (aluminum 17" frame, just carrying a set of clothes, wallet, etc. no shoes)

Ed Holland

An early start was in order this morning to make the most of the beautiful late summer weather. I tried a totally different indirect and very quiet route to work along the country lanes. 17.5 miles of bliss, about 10 miles longer than the most direct route.

...Fantastic! How many other people (present company excluded) these days have desire to lengthen their commute?
Have a good weekend.
Cheers,

Ed

Lone Prairie

10ch,

Weigh it without the wheels - you might be surprised at how much they weigh. My bike prolly weighs about that much without the load which adds another 10lbs (not to mention my fat arse). I just look at it as "that which will buff me up". Though I may switch to a lighter bike with multiple gears in the cold months.

Best,
e.

TxBiker

Great ride this morning. It was in the 70s, but seemed more pleasant than usual. With five weeks of commuting everyday under my belt, my average speed and cadence is going through the roof. I started averaging around 13.0 mph. Today.....15.7.

I am hoping enough folks in my office building keep asking about my commute to schedule a commuter awareness class one evening. Since we are in the 'burbs, I am confident most people live near the office building.

Chris

noisebeam

A crazy ride home yesterday. A dust storm was approaching, as I was ready to get on bike, rain fell hard. So I waited a bit and it let up (these cells are small and isolated) so I headed out, 76 F. Hit completely dry road and 85 F in two miles. This lasted about 4, then another storm cell hit, and hard. Rain hurt, even with me at a stand still, visibility dropped massively, ~2" of water on the street. Then I turned east and hit an incredible headwind, struggled to go over 10mph, trees were bent over, water was now well over 6" deep and being blown up by wind, temp now at 70 F. Very intense last mile home. Just as I pulled into my driveway, it let up and sun came out. Turns out several telephone poles and trees were blown over only a couple miles from my route home.

Al

bikebuddha 

Great rides today, legs were a little wobbly after the long layoff but I springing back nicely.

eastbaybob

This morning was actually cool. I would bet high 50's. It felt so nice. There was fog along with the cool. It was a thicker, moister fog, than our typical on-shore flow stuff. The ride itself was good. I was able to ride a bit quicker as it was much cooler, and I was to be out of the office for the morning. I also hit the one light and the school area was much less SUVed up than yesterday. Total ride time, a bit less than 10 minutes.

5 of 5 for bike commuting this week, it don't get much better than that.

detrieux

Another 5 for 5 week of commuting. Next week is only a 4 day week then a couple of weeks of vacation. Hopefully will get some extra riding in during the vacation. Was concerned that the remains of Katrina would interfer but only had rain and no storms so really lucked out.

Krazy Koz

I spent a lot of time on my commute home thinking of my commute to work, because my commute home was absolutely miserable. The sun was right in my eye, and I had to work twice as hard to peddle because the wind was really blowing directly against me. I really loathe strong winds. Do you remember when you were a kid, your older brother would pull on the back of your shirt when you were trying to run or race him (well, I kind of do)? That is exactly how a strong wind feels to me: annoying, because you can't do a damn thing about it.

rob3rto

Since my commute is only about 3.5 miles, I'm always looking to add more miles. Unfortunately, the town is configured so that its not easy to find continous routes -- but I'm sure I can find some mileage. Since I've only been commuting a couple of weeks, I'm always thinking of the ride when in the car. Scoping the scene, so to speak.

spidercyclist

Six days of riding and 5 days of commuting .Came out to my bike to nite and had a flat tire . So I change it and rode home . Still agood ride . Have a good nite .

ahpook

That was me on Aug 5, and that Wednesday (Aug 3) was the only day all month that I didn't ride. Aww yeah.

Metieval

I had an awesome ride this AM and this PM.

I avg 19.2 my best so far on the way in and a 16 on the way out. It was a very beautiful day. of course this is only a 4 mile ride (8 round trip)

I went past work in the AM and picked up a coffee at speedway. But when some kid moved from an out of way place to stand by my bike when I walked into the store I got nervous and walked back out. I stood by the door watching him watching my bike. I was wondering if the coffee was worth the worry or worth now being late to work. I have a cool boss though I ended up getting my coffee and my bike didn't get stolen.

My highlight of the day was on the way home. This minivan buzzed me and as I leaned away from it my tire cliped a rock and flipped it straight into the side of the van.... PING!!!! I was thinking "score" And then another goood thing. When I got to an intersection where I make my left hand turn. There was a truck sitting at a stop sign on my right. They had plenty of time to pull out in front of me but they decided to wait. Ok I'll be curtious also. I came off the saddle took the lane and made their wait as short as I could I then waved, and got a wave back.

Minus the 18-20 year old ish kid acting funny and eyeballing my bike, I wish we had more cloudless beautiful weather days, that are not to cold and not too hot like today.

hester

rather than gearing down for the dreaded elysian park hill, i kept it in 7th and stood up to the pedals. glory be! then i carried the damn thing up three flights of stairs. gotta get a lighter bike.

Wiswell

Well, Friday was my first "official" commute. I've commuted in when I've had to work weekends, which is informal and without full staff. It's about 7.2 miles, a slight downhill the whole way. Today was so foggy that each stoplight I had to take and wipe off my glasses (temperature about 58). Any advice to combat? Then after a while the fog burned off. When I got in, the stars were aligned - an elevator was waiting (a rarity) and I didn't have to ride with anyone but the bike. Took me about 25 minutes which includes stoplights and cobblestones. Beautiful and energizing start. I'm going to try to commute this way whenever the weather holds, no meetings, and every Friday.

* jack *

I drank too much last night, rode too fast and hard this morning...
and my head is throbbing now, as I languish in my office Uggh.

Funny thing happened early this morning, when I stopped at my neighborhood biscuit stand
for some breakfast, some construction worker saw me climbing atop my bike and remarked,
"I gotta get me one of those, the gas is killing me" - I didn't bother telling him I hadn't filled up in months.

Have a good week, everybody

oboeguy

Ahh, to be back in the City. After a long weekend of cycling in the Fingerlakes area, where drivers courteously give cyclists wide berth on the on the road, I have a story from today. Short, but ugly.

My commute to work involves me driving by UPS' main facility in NYC so I contend with their crazy drivers on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong, my UPS guys at work and at home are quite nice fellas and some of the drivers appear to have some sense, but for the most part, they act like they own that part of town.

So a couple of avenues down from the facility (this would be 8th and 44th now), I am getting close to an intersection where I always just make the light. Well, UPS man drives up next to me, holds his position for a bit, and then attempts the classic right hook.

I never, ever trust a car right next to me to not right hook, so it wasn't even close (compared to previous close shaves), but it could have been very ugly were I less attentive. I rather lustily cursed the guy out along the lines of "what the bleep do you think you're doing?" to which he replied "what do you think you're doing?!?". A hearty belting out of "getting your number to get your stupid a55 fired" made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Does that make me a bad person? I didn't really get his driver or plate number because I was in a hurry to get to work and this kind of crap happens too often to spend my time on it. However, it was nice to see a ped also yelling at the guy for his stupidity. Glad somebody pays attention!

10ch

Beautiful morning! Weather was wonderful, cars not too nasty. Students on campus not too oblivious.

Great "Monday" commute.

chephy

Today I tried an alternative to my usual commute. It was rather pleasant in some ways - instead of getting 6 km of a very busy major street with long stretches of NASTY pavement job I had to get only 2 km of it (and avoided the worst of the pavement too). However, other kinds of difficulties arose. First, I was confronted with a lot more stop signs. Stop signs are annoying! Also I discovered that this alternative route goes by an elementary school, and, my, was the street bustling with cars unloading the little passengers! I remember, when *I* went to school (not so long ago but in a different country) there was at most ONE car in the parking lot at any time - that of the shop teacher. A few parents dropped the kids off and drove away immediately, but the vast majority of students took a bus or walked. The school was about a mile from my house and I walked there and back every single day, not once was I driven there. When I was too little to walk there by myself, one of my parents accompanied me to school before heading off to work (yes, by foot also)... Oh well, anyway, just a little rant...

All in all, some variety in the route was nice though - taking the same old streets, especially if they are boring and unremarkable, gets very tiresome. I welcomed the change, despite the fact that this new route takes a few minutes longer.

djgonzo007

Fast commute today. I averaged my best time and speed yet. For my 9.5 mile commute I averaged just over 19 mph today and shaved about 2 minutes off my best time!

Not like I'm in a hurry to get to work but pushing myself keeps me entertained and getting faster is always a good thing.

caloso

Today I rode in my newly rehabbed POS. I'll post a pic and a description in the appropriate thread.

Coming down Capitol Avenue through Midtown this morning I hopscotched a gigantic Ford Expedition several times. It contained one petite driver, no passengers. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense: 5700 lb. vehicle to convey 120lbs of payload.

eastbaybob

This morning was nice, it was cool, I think winter time is starting in Ventura County. The ride was good. I like it when I push the stop light button and it changes immediatly, as it did this morning.

My bike commuting week is complete, 1 of 1 for another 100% week.

vtjim

I haven't been posting here because, frankly, there's nothing worth reporting. But this morning was the first of the season when I felt like fall was around the corner. Low 50s. My hands were a little chilled, as were my arms, but they warmed up once I'd been out for a couple of miles.

It's squirrel season! Be careful out there. They're looking for nuts...