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. :mad: 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. :p 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.

Thursday PM I snapped my rear derailleur cable. Friday it was replaced. Now she shifts easily and smoothly. Took me a little while to get used to it. New brake pads, too.

Had one suicidal squirrel incident this morning. The little guy ran out from the trees in front of me, froze, thought better of it, did a 180 and bolted back into the trees. All this in the timespan of about 1 second. :)

Summer is hanging on around here. Temperatures supposed to be in the high 80s this week.

Lovely, lovely commute this AM. I think its been 2 months since I've bicycled to work; today I saw my first significant wildlife on the commute - a deer in the river bottom & a wild turkey on the side of the road. Now, I live within the city limits of Minneapolis, so I don't expect much for wildlife. I saw the deer as I was riding over the Mendota Bridge, which crosses the Minnesota/Mississippi river valley right at the confluence. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that we see so much wildlife, given the river valley, but its still somehow bizarre. Yesterday we saw a couple hawks, who briefly perched on a tree right outside our porch for a few moments, before a squirrel scared them off (?!?). Then watched another one take down a chickadee or something in a yard across the street.

Anyhow, it was nice to get back on the bike; none of my usual excuses panned out; despite being disorganized & wasting 15 minutes packing, I was still able to get to work on time.

WAAAY too flippin' early, that's what. Out of the house at 4:15. Didn't see much traffic, though—managed to run every stop sign and red light between home and work. Saw two skunks, a feral *****cat, and a jogger.

Had a nice, cool ride in to work this morning. Lots of traffic out since I left later than usual and I hit every red light. I am going to start riding the "back" way to work from now on, especially since they will be repaving the main road I use.

I loose my "boyscout" award for today. I was not prepared for the mid 30s temperature this morning. Was supposed to be mid 40s. Amazing how much difference that 10 degrees makes! So, I turned back and drove. I'm so ashamed. :(

Time to get all the cold weather gear together and back in the Panniers.

Nice'n'easy recovery ride today (did the NYC Century yesterday).

Had an incredible commute into work this morning. Up at 5:15, left the house at 5:45, drove to my departure point (I live 26 miles away from my work, so I split the commute...half car, half bike), and left my bike departure point at 6:10. It was a clear, crisp morning...first morning of the season here in SC that I wore my jacket...it was in the low 60s, so about 50 degrees as far as "skin feel" on the bike. I tried a new route today that allowed me to warm up for about 3 miles before hitting some pretty nasty hills that require a higher heart rate...I was much better prepared for them. The rest of the ride was pristine. G-d I love commuting by bike!!

Wow, it's HOT in Toronto these days! I am heading for the beach tomorrow!

I left the house pretty late as my first and only class today started at 12:30 p.m. and I felt the effects of the temperature for sure. But I am glad the warmth is hanging on - we have plenty of cold weather coming, there will be enough time to get sick of it...

On the way back I saw a couple of kids, aged maybe around 12 or so, who were actually riding bikes in the street on the right side of the road. The road is a residential one, but there were quite a few cars there due to rush hour. The kids weren't extra confident, but they were following the rules of the road - until we came to an intersection with four-way stop signs. They seemed to be letting every car go and didn't cross themselves! At first I thought they were just waiting for ALL the cars to pass (stupid, stupid kids!), but then I overheard a conversation - it seemed they wanted to make a left turn but found themselves near the curb and weren't sure how to do it. So, of course, they didn't handle the situation perfectly, but still good for them, for they are actually trying to learn proper cycling techniques, and I am sure by the time they are my age they'll be much better vehicular cyclists than I.

bleah and double-bleah. must be monday. nothing wrong with the ride or the weather, just me. awake at 7:16, got paranoid about packing enough lunch/snack/etc, not out of house till 8:30. was slow starting, slow getting there, and slow getting myself down to my desk. once over the bridge i followed up on a previous idea and deked one block down to do the last part on a more peaceful road, which is good only it doesn't go the whole way. seems like my destination area really is set up only for car commuters and trail/rec biking, nothing between those two things. bleah again.

slow leaving because slow getting in. just under an hour coming home though; surprising considering i only intended to get over the bridge and then take a bus. home. starving. eating half a cold pizza and thinking my birkenstocks probably can't stand up to this.

also notice (tentatively, hopefully) that i'm not paralytically terrified of that bridge anymore.

Great ride to work and home . Did not see any other commuter today .Made good time on the ss today .
Days like this I wish by ride was longer .
Have a good nite .

Two stories, one from yesterday's return and one from this morning.

So yesterday I'm crossing Midtown on 45th St as is my custom these days. I've just navigated Times Square (always a hoot) when a "fancy taxi" (like a fake mini-limo) pulls out from the curb right in front of me. OK, so I stop about 8-10 feet behind him and really have nowhere to go: if I go left around him, I risk getting creamed by cars coming out of a parking garage, and if I go right, well, there isn't much room there. So I wait about 5 seconds as cars start to accumulate behind me and what happens? The moron starts to backup! I gave my best frantic "HEY!!!!!". The guy looked surprised and annoyed and at this point I took my chances going left and made it through.

Today I was feeling reeeally good on the way to work so I decided to go for the mythical "three green lights in a row in Midtown", which I've never pulled-off. I've just crossed the second light and am really getting my mojo going, dodging jaywalkers and potholes when I feel something fly off of my person. I make a quick decision to ditch the three light attempt and pull over to the right. I look back and OMGWTFCELLPHONE!!! Yeah, my phone which I had only loosely secured in its little pocket on my backpack (intending to later stuff it in better, ha!) had flown the coop! A quick-thinking ped attempted to go for it to save it from oncoming cars, but was unable to get in. Amazingly, only one car slightly brushed it with his tires and the phone survived intact!

Had a nice ride in, passed two other commuters. Had one of them draft me for a bit, which just pushed me harder.

Not related to cycling but I had some dude do that to me. I pulled out of a gas station and this big, bad ass 4x4 pickup, waiting at a red light, suddenly started backing up,and backing up and backing up and backed right up into the front end of my Malibu. Some drivers make you say WTF.

The days have gotten humid again here in Houston. Last week was awesome (low 50s% humidity). Today and yesterday...94%!

Yesterday on my way home, I was going under an over pass. The lanes are such, far left = left turn only; center lane = left turn OR straight; right lane = straight or right turn. Since I am turning left and want to stay to the right side when we complete our turn, I stay in the center lane and take the full lane (so anyone going straight does not hit me). I am in the front of the pack waiting for the light to turn green. When it turns, I stay in the center of the lane and move through the intersection and gesture my left turn. The guy behind LAYS on the horn the entire time he is behind me while going through the overpass. I turned around and the guy (and his wife) must have been over 60 years old. Was I in the wrong or are they just further testimony of the road rage here in Houston? I have navigated that intersection almost two months straight and that is the first time someone did not maintain proper restraint.

Anyway....today's commute was yet again uneventful....BUT FUN! My ride to work is only 6.6 miles, but the commute is joy enjoyable I have pushed it to 10 miles both ways.

Later,

Chris