oboeguy

Speaking of nuts, I crunched a few acorns on the Greenway part of my commute. I can't say that I've ever had an acorn-induced flat, but I will be more careful in the coming weeks!

I agree: it feels like Fall is right around the corner! A bit cooler, a bit darker this morning. I'm not complaing; Fall is probably my favorite season, in fact. There is nothing in the world like a Fall ride as the leaves are starting to fall. Just cool enough for arm and leg warmers and to feel the cool, crispness of the air in the lungs. Ahhh! I'm looking forward to it.

Lone Prairie

I made it home before the rain started so the commute was awesome! I switched from my clunky old cruiser to my '87 Schwinn Tempo so the bike weighed half as much as usual - double awesome!

Best,
e.

Rogerinchrist

Be VERY careful!!

chephy

Yes, I guess I notice this in the morning and in the evening. But the days are still very hot here in Toronto - I had a take-out lunch outside today, and was desperately looking for some shade.

rickwilliams

Low 60's in southwest Virginia this morning. Like vtjim the arms and hands were a bit chilled. But I didn't mind. I love riding in the cool weather of Fall. The bad news is that drivers around here seem to be less patient and more aggressive. In the past I've had drivers going my direction yell at me to get on the sidewalk. But today one going in the opposite direction slowed down -- tying up traffic in the process -- and yelled at me to get off the road. This was on a section of road where there is no sidewalk and no paved shoulder. So I reckon he was telling me to stop biking. On a happy note, every day for the past week someone at work has casually struck up a conversation about my bike and then asked some form of the question, "So, how often do you commute and how do you manage it?" I've never seen so much interest in biking before.

oboeguy

Great commute this AM. Again, nice and cool. I rode part of the way with a lady roadie who apparently has spotted me on my route in the past (hard to miss on my hot mango folder). Had a nice chat before going our separate ways. She was pretty strong so I got to work fast today.

It's rare that I ride with anyone in the mornings. A couple of evenings I've ridden a few miles with someone, not many, but more than in the AM. It's nice once in a while.

BlueBikeRider

Hey, I just moved to the finger lakes area. Any tips on some good rides?

BlueBikeRider

Hey Oboeguy,

I just moved to the finger lakes area. Have any tips on some good rides?

luckysnafu

Cool and windy ride in this morning, but overall pretty nice. Cars passing pretty close to me lately, don't know why that is.

mjw16

Cool, foggy, and dark. The smell of the cut grass by the sailing marina reminded me of "back to school" time. I considered wearing a jacket but knew that I would soon get too hot and have to lug it back home. My headlight now stays on the entire ride in--a sign of what's coming: winter. I'm recovering from tennis last night, after playing a Junior National Team member who's half my age and put it to me last night. I did a pretty good job considering I'm just picking up the game again after about 10 years. My legs were good and sore with half dollar size blisters on my feet. The ride home should be very nice today.

tkiisel

What a great morning for a ride! My commute is about 7 miles one way and it is a great ride in. I don't pass many cars, the traffic isn't so bad, but I sure feel a lot better than they do when I arrive... and I'm not paying almost $3 bucks a day for the pleasure of driving my car. I figure I get about 20 MPG in my truck and a 14 mile commute is about $2.50 or so for the day at $3 a gallon. Needless to say, I have on my happy face today.

Stubacca

Slow commutes yesterday and today. I'm not certain, but maybe it has something to do with the copious quantities of beer drunk over the weekend...

david.l.k

Today was my first day riding to school again, yesterday I took the TTC. What a difference. I biked all of the warmer month's last year. But yesterday I had to show someone how to get to school. Because my school is a good 9km from our area. This morning the temperature was nice and cool, the sun was just right, and it wasn't as humid as usual. My comute to school is more downhill, and a rough section of the trail was repaved over the summer, so I had the best ride ever and I felt great when I got to school. Comming back it was nice and hot, but not too humid so I worked up a nice sweat without feeling overheated. I also had no breakfast but drank around 3 liters of water during the day so my energy level wasn't as bad as it might have been.

truman

frickin' painful.

Had a catastrophic blowout (front) in an intersection, with an SUV directly behind me. I had the green light and I was fairly flying through on a slight downhill grade. Tire dismounted itself and stopped the wheel, and I augured in and scraped all my elbows and knees. A rough estimate is about 18-20 square inches of hide lost, overall. The sidewall of the tire tore, so it's ruined, cheap sunglasses crushed and my Swiss army watch was pulled, nylon band and all, from my wrist and run over.

The SUV lady DID slow and sincerely ask if I was okay.

neopipil

My commute yesterday was awesome.

In the morning I decided to bike in via the shortest and most pleasent route. I biked to the ferry in Wehawken and took the ferry to 38th street in NYC. Then I headed south on the bike path to the World Finacial Center.

Before leaving work in the afternoon, I had not decided which route I was going to take. I wanted to do the long route for a while now and had not gotten to it. This afternoon I felt good and decided to go for it. The long route is five times my normal commute.

I headed north on the bike path along the Hudson from the World Financial Center. I rode the bike path up to 133rd street. From there, I switched to Riverside drive. I rode Riverside Drive up to 165th Street. At 165th I switched over to Fort Washington Ave which took me to the George Washington Bridge. Going over the bridge was awesome. The views are spectacular. On the Jersey side, I headed south on River Road all the way down to West New York, NJ. I headed into town via 60th street.

This has to be my best commute ever. I am looking forward to doing it again. Next time I want to do it round trip. I want to take the time to take some picture because the views are great.

juliebeanpie

Quick'n'easy, as usual. I am so blessed to be able to ride through a park to get to work! The air was cool, and smelled clean and fresh. I'm sorry to get off the bike and go into work, I just want to keep on riding.

I hope you heal up fast, truman!

truman

Thanks, Juliebean. Only about 3 of my 11 miles are on streets, the rest is river side paved trail. On the positive side, changing the flat was much easier by street light's pink glare than it would have been on the trail in utter drakness, save for a feeble halogen bar light.

bhchdh 

Truman

May you heal well, and soon.

mjw16

Mid 80's, low humidity, and sunny for my ride home. I stopped by the bank, then by a friend's to drop something off, then to Giant, and lastly, to the corner store for a sandwich and Fig Newtons. I love the idea of running errands on my bike on my way home from work.

jyossarian

My commute home included a stop at EMS for a new camelbak bladder for this Sunday's NYC Century. My old one had some stuff growing inside it that was resistant to anti-bacterial detergent. On the way home from EMS, I was following a motorcyclist who was squeezing between cars when he stopped suddenly. I hit the brakes and my rear tire flew up. Luckily I was on my feet when that happened. I heard the passenger in the taxi next to me say, "Whoa, cool!". The motorcyclist turned to look at me, saw I was right behind him, and promptly ignored me. The rest of the ride was uneventful.

ahpook

Nice rides except I got stung by a bee five miles from home! He got trapped between the top of my ear and the helmet strap, stung me and then buzzed off. OUCH. Good thing I'm not allergic, I just let out a big [DELETED] and kept riding.

santiago

Today's highlights.

• I woke up with plenty of time to make a café au lait. That's always a great way to start the day.
  
• I also had an easier ride in as I found the time to change the knobbies on my mountain bike to my slicks last night so no rumbling noise and more efficient pedaling.
  
• The mornings here have been getting chillier (15C) so I put on what has become my favourite piece of clothing - my MEC zippered cycling sweater. I love this thing so much that I bought one for my wife and she loves it too. The other bonus to the cooler weather is that as the sun rises, it doesn't get super hot so it's a nice comfortable ride.
  
• The pain in my left knee from Monday's fall trying to climb a steep rock on my mountain bike is tons better. Very glad about that. It was killing me durying yesterday's ride to/from work.
  
• I really, really enjoy the ride in. My commute is along a bike path that runs along the river and about 5-10 kilometers south of me is the congested highway I would be stuck on driving in to work. The gorgeous weather we've been having has made it even more enjoyable.
  
• I only had to wait 10 minutes for my commuting workmates at our designated meeting place. Bonus.
  
• The ride home as equally good.

spidercyclist

Nice ride to work & home . I didn't see any other commuter today . But had a realy good ride .
Have a good nite .

RonH

No commuting this week - I'm on vacation.
But yesterday on my way home from my recreational ride I saw a commuter about a block ahead of me who seemed to be having some sort of difficulty. She was walking the bike rather than riding. So I pulled up beside her and asked if I could help. Before looking closely I assumed she had a flat or her shifters weren't working. Then I took a close look at the bike. There was a motor attached to the left side of the rear wheel and a huge battery in the middle triangle where her water bottle was supposed to mount.


She explained that she was a new "bike commuter" (her first day) and hit a pothole a ways back and the motor stopped. Now she was faced with the dilema of walking/pushing/riding this very heavy contraption ~2.5 miles to get home.
After a short conversation and checking for loose wires, etc. she got it going again.
She said she bought the bike to save on the cost of gas and to lose weight? How do you lose weight riding this type of bike? I gave my best sales pitch for REAL commuter bikes and she said she would probably get one once she got rid of the excess weight.
Anyway, I mounted my trusty steed and passed her 1/2 block later. Hit the next hill and never saw her again.

Walkafire

Great ride into work today! Beautiful Weather!!!

Last night, got off work, rode home on my 10 mile commute... made it a 20 mile commute... I just wanted to keep going... was very nice out!