Had a nice ride in this morning, except that I hit every red light along the way. Oh well, I will be taking the back way home so that will be nice.

Saw two commuters (I'm guessing) this morning. Passed them as their cruising speed was less than mine. One guy was a major clydesdale on an older road bike like mine. Made me look like Lance, and I'm 6'2" @ 195. He'd pedal for a bit, coast, and repeat. Must be a newbie.

Then I came upon an older lady (older = gray hair) on a comfort bike. She was obviously posing so I gave her the look and dropped her. (Okay I'm only kidding about the poser/look/dropping stuff.)

Nice weather, too. Bit of a headwind. That is all.

Had a lot of fun commuting today. I had to be at the university at 8:30 for my class, but I got up at 5:30 and left around 6:40 to be able to go to the swimming pool before my class.

The commute this early in the morning was pleasant - not too many cars, coolth, half-darkness... Then, when I was about 2 km from my destination a real bad thunderstorm hit. Left me completely soaked. Had to stop to wipe my glasses as I was not able to see anything.

So I arrived at the uni around 7:40, run to the pool (getting even more soaked on the way) and... have to stand in line for half an hour to get my stupid access card for this year to use the facilities! Argh! So, no swimming. In fact, I barely made it in time for class - changing into my "respectable" clothes and getting to a building at the other end of this huge campus takes time.

I am not sure what I am going to wear on the way back... The biking garb will not be completely dry, and it's not a hot day today...

I was at the office until 11:30 last night. I knew my wife and kids would be asleep, so I took a little detour just a few miles past my house, into the midnight Delta breeze. The streets were empty and silent but for the wind and the whirring of my tires against the asphalt.

Left five minutes late this morning. Passed two women on cruisers (I'm not saying that's difficult), one says "wow, that's a fast bike". I thought to myself, no, that's a fast me on a bike. Got to work five minutes earlier than usual....

Good commute, great weather, interesting day. Some cretin contractors at Duke were painting my building and got some overspray on my bike It cleaned up easily (latex), but I was irate.

On my ride home for lunch, I saw what appeared to be a fly-fishing gym class practicing casting on the field hockey court. That was a wierd and funny thing to see.

I can't wait to get home, 'cause a friend of mine just called to tell me that he picked up an old '60s Triumph (Raleigh) and just dropped it off at my house. Sweet!! It's good to have buddies that rummage for you. He was probably thinking, "Hey, look at that old piece of junk... Jack would like that!"

See ya at the Century.

Commute was mostly uneventful today. A guy on a road bike passed me on Riverside. I let him go for a while, the chased him. Just as I caught him he turned off. And I wanted to drop him because he didn't look anything like Lance. (sorry couldn't resist the parody -- see Road Cycling forum to be ITK if you have no clue of what I mean)

I did have another of those moments where I wish the cars would go on the sidewalk where they belong. They were in the middle of the lane getting in my way, WTF? Aren't cars for kids, you know, Matchbox, Hot Wheels and all that? (caused me to miss a light, dang it)

Ah, parody is in the air!

I was out the door and on my bike by 6:45. We had mackerel sky here in Ohio, extending all the way to the horizon. As the sun rose, the light lit up the clouds; the sky looked as if it was set afire. Unfortunately, I had no camera on me.



It looked something like this, but the clouds covered much more of the sky.

I left work at noon, and rode home under a clear noon sky.

See you there! I'll be wearing a bright yellow shirt with the stubborn remains of some weird puddle I rode through on the E79 St. CP transverse and riding the awesome Haro Vector with the early 90's paint scheme.

No report on the commute since I worked from home while waiting for the bits and pieces of my Yakima roof rack to arrive. As soon as it gets close to 7 pm, it's off to CP to ride around the big loop.

Good ride... but sure is getting light later...(Grrrrrr)

Today was the fifth day that I made my easy 5 mile commute. I got a Trek 7200FX almost two weeks ago,first bike since high school in 1987, with a rack but still waiting for back-ordered panniers, so have been inventive with gym bags and bungee cords. Broke down last night and bought a cheap (but bright) backpack from WalMart to get me through, I had tried to carry some papers in a folder under one arm but that was NOT fun. Usual newbie problems like the first time I tried to pump up a Presta valve and twisted the stem off, also haven't gotten up the courage to try taking the back wheel off to put on a fender, though the front wheel isn't so scary now.

The info about commuting gear and routines I've read here has been most helpful. I can see that buying accessories for one's bike can become a serious habit. Almost got rained on today, am still not sure how much damage it does to get the bike wet and not be able to really wipe it down until the end of the day.
But I'm definitely hooked on biking and hope I can get a refund for my yearly parking fee at work! I've certainly been more awake all morning after riding in.
Russell

Late-summer weather pattern blew a ton of low clouds in from the coast this afternoon, straight S->N up my commute corridor. Oversized Jumbo SuperPatriot Flag at the truck dealer (Stevens Crk & San Tomas for the locals) was pointed straight at me, pinned out flat. Barely made a 13mph avg and that was a lot of work. But there's so much traffic since school started up again that I was still keeping even with the traffic, so that's a comfort

You posted a picture of MY bike! How do you lose weight riding such a bike? You pedal! It's just a regular bike with a motor but there's no rule that you have to use the motor all the time! My 17-mile commute is one hill after another so I got the e-bike to help me up some of those hills because frankly, it wasn't much fun. I think it's great that some folks love the hills but I hate them. Maybe I wouldn't mind ONE or TWO now and then but there's no such thing where I live. As heavy as that bike is, I HAVE to be getting stronger. I probably use the motor about 20 percent of my commute and I pedal while the motor is running, too. So do I get credit for the 13.6 miles that I pedal alone?

My motor cut out on my the first time I rode it all the way home. Turns out I had a bad battery pack. Anyway, I rode it for another four miles without the motor. But it was 97 degrees and I had several big hills left so I finally called my husband and he rode it the rest of the way home while I followed. Had it not been my first commute and so hot, I would have been able to make it.

Today I had the most fun since I started commuting in June. It was only 84 degrees and lower-than-normal humidity. It felt great!

Great ride today, I saw another bike in the bike rack at work. It's unusual to see another bike besides mine and another rider's. Some of the other commuters take their bikes into the office and work areas. I think out of 2000 employees, I think there are about 4 of us that commute. Have a good night.

Stupid me: I'd forgotten that school started up this week and I violated my rule of not riding by an elementary school during the morning commute. On the positive, I noticed a lot more kids walking to school. On the negative, still way too many distracted parents driving giant SUVs and vans.

I'm missing out on the first weeks of cooling weather riding - truly the nicest time of year to ride here - because I trashed my front rim, the other day. The road bike I'm building up isn't ready yet, needing a new BB. I'm afraid I was quite the surly driver on the road, this morning.

(sad, sad pumpkin)

Went to downshift before pulling into my driveway yesterday afternoon, and *snap* went the rear derailleur cable. It was the original (1987) cable, so I guess it lived a full life.

Unfortunately the der "defaulted" to the 13-ring, which was going to be an issue. I want to commute, not do time trials. I got her up on the rack, manually pushed the derailleur in so the chain hooked up on the third-largest cog, then cranked in the high-gear screw to hold it there. It's my 16MPH ring, and I could shift to a larger front chainring if I need to go taller. Even with that, I was spinning too fast at 20MPH, so I was glad nobody tried to catch me, as I would have been an easy mark.

I still managed to pass two other riders. I was almost scared to do it.

Replacing the cable today before the ride home!

Happy Friday

1987? That's a long-lived cable.

No bike commute today. Took a day off to rest-up for the Century, plus have plans for after work that aren't bike-compatible.

I rode out the rest of this short week today even though I'm leaving early for a week long vacation. I had planned to drive in, pick up my friend in DC, and leave directly from here, however, I decided to simply leave work a little earlier than usual so I can still get my riding in. I don't want to miss any riding, especially with such perfect weather. I'll miss riding next week, but I need the time off. My left knee has been a little tender and, since picking tennis up again, my legs have been unusually fatigued these last few weeks. In fact they felt like rubbery lead this morning and I've found myself wondering (on several occassions) if I had a low tire, hung brake, or something else slowing me down. Of course it's just the fatigue and the time off will do me well. Looking forward to my afternoon ride home and some last minute errands.

Happy weekend everyone.

Yesterday was a work-on-the-bikes day for me and my SO. We cleaned the chains and also shortened them some (they were too long for our bikes). Then we put his chain back on - and find that somehow the gear shifting (which was fine before) is all screwed up! Spent a while mucking with that, having no idea what caused it - didn't have much success at for a long time. It looked as though my SO was going to take the subway, which he didn't want to do at all. Then during some little jiggling procedure, which was carried out for diagnostic purposes mostly, things just snap into place! Again, we never figured out what we did to solve the problem.

Anyway, today he rode to work, and reports a fun ride and extremely smooth, clean shifting. Yay!

Overcast and cool this morning. A nice break from the heat. The pearl izumi arm warmers were a good buy!

worst commutting week ever.

On the way to work on tuesday, a dump truck rear ends me in the left shoulder as I wait for the light to turn. I yell, and get mad, he then gets furious and proceeds to try and pinch me into parked cars as I continue to ride. I get scared an sprint the hell out of there. Yesterday(thursday) On my way home from work, riding through good old boston traffic, an old lady decides to stop about fifty yards short of a stop sign as I get into her lane and I end up ass over teakettle in front of a high school and a hospital, I yell and get mad, and her granddaughter flips me off. Screw drivers.

worst commutting week ever.

On the way to work on tuesday, a dump truck rear ends me in the left shoulder as I wait for the light to turn. I yell, and get mad, he then gets furious and proceeds to try and pinch me into parked cars as I continue to ride. I get scared an sprint the hell out of there. Yesterday(thursday) On my way home from work, riding through good old boston traffic, an old lady decides to stop about fifty yards short of a stop sign as I get into her lane and I end up ass over teakettle in front of a high school and a hospital, I yell and get mad, and her granddaughter flips me off. Screw drivers.

I was unlocking my bike as I left work for lunch, when a student rode up and asked, "Do you know anything about brakes?" I said yes, and looked at her bike (an old Spec. Hardrock).

It had no front brake pads in the caliper arms, rear pads were at least an inch away from the rim, it had a rusted chain, and front tire was lucky to be inflated to 30 psi. All cables were rusted and practically shot.

I wanted to move the rear pads up to the front, but there was no brake cable. I wanted to pump up the front tire, but the valve stem was poking through the rim at a 45° angle, and blocked by a spoke. I deflated the tire, and moved it into correct position, then inflated it as high as I could with her frame pump.

I fixed her brakes for her and set her on her way, and encouraged her to go to the LBS ASAP! Poor girl was riding around town on a death trap... but at least she's a bit safer now! And yes, I told her if she's gonna ride a bike with only one set of brakes, they should be on the front rim. I don't think she believed me...

Great ride to work today. Got to work a little later than usual, had to wait for a train. I had a feeling today that I should use my heavier locks, so I used all 3. Didn't have any problems. The ride home was really nice, no problems either. Have a good night.