Commuting has been good so far this week :D This morning though... a little good and a little bad. The good thing was that I saw another commuter - COOL! The bad was I made my kiddo fall as we were heading out this morning because I stopped in front of him and while he was able to stop too, his dismount was less than graceful and down he went. Man I feel HORRIBLE about that! Then this afternoon, some yahoo passed me on the right going thru an intersection. It's one of those with a right turn only lane and a straight lane. I was in the straight lane towards the right but I guess I wasn't going fast enough to suit the individual behind me. He roared passed and scared the bejesus out of me.
My wrist hurts too. I don't think I injured it; don't remember doing anything but it's kinda tender and sore. I wonder if I need to adjust my handlebars??

Gotta take the bad with the good, I reckon, but we sure are enjoying our rides.

I pissed off a driver in an SUV. I was in the right lane and going about 15-20 mph but I guess that wasn't fast enough for the 25 mph road. There was another car in the left lane and he couldn't pass immediately. This really upset him. Me and SUVs don't always get along.

Technically, it wasn't on my commute but returning to the house from my early morning ride: I was out of the saddle and big-ringing it over an overpass and I heard a car sitting on my wheel. I looked back and it was 4 teenage girls all waving and smiling. They tooted and passed.

Hah! I still got it!

It all started last night when, after hitting the gym for a quick run to relieve some stress, I hit 32(36?)/11 and heard the most god aweful noise I've ever heard a bicycle make, and I've heard them make a lot...upon investigation I found my chain line was off...in that gear ratio the rivets were striking the inside of my front deraileur! GASP! Time to go in for my 30 day cable adjustment/lube job...oh, wait, I can't, the bike shops not open that late...hmmm, what to do what to do...

All of this goes through my mind while I'm sitting in the middle of the road like a nitwit trying to get my chain back around my crank arm (yeah, it came COMPLETELY off!). Finally got it and went nice and s-l-o-w the rest of the way. It's dark and a game just got out at the shool right by my house, so I think I'm going to make an adjustment and test it in the morning...I am worried about the kink in my cable, though...

Today's commute was great. This morning I actually passed someone on the up hill side of my ride. I don't ever pass any one. I get passed a lot. She looked like she was struggling a little, but I didn't know what I could do. I just gave her a "good morning" and "have a nice ride" and went on my way.

This afternoon it was cool enough that I had to put on my jacket. I wonder if anyone really reads all of these posts. I do. I had a good ride home, saw a couple of other riders. I'm seeing more and more riders. Could it have something to do with the gas prices going up and up and up?!? ...ummmmm. No dogs, no old ladies, no drivers getting pissed off at me. It was a very good day!

Great ride to work today. Also a great day at work, for once. On the ride home, I had to ride fast because there was a storm coming in. I beat it by about 10 minutes. There were actually two other bikes on the bike rack today. I think the most I've ever seen is six. I hope tomorrow is as good as today was. Have a good night.

Today should be great. I can bike to work. :beer:
Couldn't yesterday. Had to do a "Share the Road" presentation at a health fair/car show (a what??) in Duluth - about 22 miles from my house. Had to take lots of literature, bumper stickers, display board, etc. Many motorists were happy to see it and learn about sharing the road. The concept of "give 3 feet when passing" was new to many, :( but all liked the idea. A bike commuter was very happy to see the presentation. There aren't many bike commuters or recreational riders who ride the roads out that way.

I saw a bunch of other folding bikes on my way home yesterday (see latest post in my "Foldermania" thread in the folder forum).

I've had some nice rides lately, hence my intermittent attendance in this thread (heh, not enough to complain about :D). Yesterday there was a nice tailwind so I rode most of the way a full gear faster.

Last night on my ride home I yelled at a lady on her cell phone in her van who didn't use her turn signal and almost hit me. Then the car behind her comes up beside me to pass and the lady inside yells at me to not be so agressive on the road...umm...ok, but I just wanted the lady to use her turn signal, its not that hard you know :rolleyes:

This morning's commute almost didn't happen. I woke late, and discovered I had a flat tire on my daily rider. Having no time to change or patch the tube, I pulled out the bad-weather bike.

Because it's been relatively dry here as of late, the backup bike had been sitting for a while and both tires were very low. I pumped them up as fast as I could, and then hauled butt to work.

Since my backup is a converted MTB, I took some off-road shortcuts and hopped a bunch of curbs... it was actually quite fun. I should do it again sometime... ;)

Yesterday afternoon I had a good tailwind pushing me all the way home. Was one of my faster commutes. This morning it was sort of a quartering tailwind, and I was pretty energized for some reason, so it was also a good ride.

Legions of squirrels are out. Plus (domestic) cats. Saw 2 cats yesterday, and one this morning. Hunting squirrels?

Oh and I saw two deer this morning right after I left the house.

A good ride this morning a few slight variations to the route but I still pulled into the office in about 10 minutes. For the week I was 5 for 5 for commutes, that is 100%.

Lots of fog this morning. Had my flashing lights on. It's Friday, and I can't wait to start the ride home. The cooler mornings and evenings are nice to ride in.

I can make the hill on the ride home in 4th gear now. When I started it was shifting between 1st and 2nd, with one or two stops on the way up.

I do too. It's my favourite thread on all of the forums here. :)

I got slowed down on my way in by a headwind - not the worst ever but noticeable. Brought some dried fruits along to chew as I went and it worked out quite well, I'll start doing that more often now. The way back was rather fast although the wind was against me again! The traffic is much lighter on Fridays than on other weekdays.

I really like my new yellow biking jersey I bought just this summer (and wore today). When I wear it, I feel like a real cyclist! :) A lot of the time though I feel a bike jersey is too good a thing to wear on a thing so boring as the daily commute, so I get quite inventive. For instance, I regularly wear a bright pink top from a swimming suit my mother bought me (don't worry, it covers almost as much skin as a regular shirt; in fact, that's why I don't use it for swimming - I don't like so much wet clothes next to my body). :D

Not me. I just look at the pictures. :o

Today's commute was fun and annoying.

Fun because I felt energized, the weather was warm but not hot and I rode fast.

Annoying because on the way home as I approached a car ahead/right that was waiting at a stop sign (no stop for me) it kept inching forward and at the same moment a car behind/left in my lane is about to make a right turn in front of me and WORST OF ALL: A CYCLIST waiting at the same stop sign as the first car takes off and crosses in front of me just as I'm about 5ft away from him! Fortunately no one hit anyone and I passed through unscathed.

Just another day in the life of a bike commuter...I don't even get mad in situations like that. It's been a great week overall!

always read this thread. i love all the different kinds of commutes and the different people who do them.

rode to work this morning just to prove that i could after having been sick and because i didn't want to finish the week with only two rides in it. i haven't had that since the first week that i just tried it out, and i think back then i did three. it went fine; it was actually faster than some of my other rides have been, so i guess i'm getting a) stronger and b) more savvy about how to make it all smooth. pocketful of dried figs was nice to have along the way.

leaving about half an hour earlier really seems to help. easier traffic, easier everything at that hour except for the fact that glancing to the left gives you full-on sunlight, right in the eyes. couldn't see a thing, but i'm thankful for having realised that early enough not to do anything dumb or dangerous at intersections.

got turned round and sent home again for having been sick. decided i feel fine about that; it's pretty much the best of all worlds. the main reason why i went to work at all was because i didn't want to miss another day on the bike. this way i got the day on the bike AND i didn't have to spend a whole day expensively pretending to work for it. took the other bridge coming home, since i had all this lovely additional time for messing around.

grrrrrr. yeah, they got a nice wide SIDEWALK to cycle on, but just try getting to it. that was really freaking mental; nothing but dead ends for i-dunno-how-many-false-leads, and then finally a sidewalk that was locked. had to come down and go through the whole process again just getting to the one on the other side. got a taste of what people mean by 'headwind' on that sidewalk too. but then for dilemma the ride home from that side might actually be nicer in a couple of ways. the hill coming up off the first bridge - it just ain't normal, martha.

got home, turned round and went straight out again (by car) to have dinner with friends-i've-never-met from scotland. that was pretty darned cool; turns out neither of them has ever had a driver's license and the story of me-and-my-bike opened up whole fields of speculation and interest from them.

songs for the day: chain up the swings, michael marra, and freedom come a' ye, hamish henderson. yeah!!

Very muddy ride to work and home in spots. But still a good ride . Fills like it is getting colder out . I hope the weather hold on alittle longer . Have a good nite .

Thank you

I'm laughing at this one...thank you for brightening my day. :)

It was cold. Im not sure I am ready for winter yet

OK...so my commute in on Friday started Thursday when I go home from work. Because, since I joined Bike Forums I have been thinking about things I never thought about before. When I got home Thurday I did some cipherin' and figured out that I have a lot of redundent gears on my little Schwinn Mesa. Then Friday I did an es'peerment, really paid close attention to the gears actually used getting to work and then home again. Out of 24 choices I have for gears I use 9...that's it, just 9 gears. But the other 15 make my bike look really cool! (I guess) Maybe I think too much.
I do know that the gears I have decide to use make my ride a little easier. I didn't know, because I never thought about it, that it made that big a deal.
Beyond that...I passed the little old lady and her dog today. She had him on the leash, but I could tell he wanted to come and say hi to me. Thanks again to the two of you who responded to my "hidden message." It's getting a little cooler here each day and the weather man says that it is going to rain next week. I like riding in the rain. My co-workers think I'm nuts...don't tell them, but they're right.
I was asked today, by a new guy, "Do you ride year round?"
I said, " Yes, I do."
He just shook his head and walked away. I'm sure this 22 year old guy was thinking, "Crazy old man." (I'm almost 50.)
I'm sure, as he gets to know me, this assumption of his will be confirmed.
Weddings and chior practices have put my riding on hold for the week-end, but come Monday morning I will be back out there on the road.
Have a great week-end everyone!

Cycled home from work for the first time yesterday (drove in). I have been carpooling so I convinced my car pooling buddy he should ride too. I had mapped out what I thought would be the most direct/Least dangerous route using maps and satellite images. A few of the spots took us back through some rough service roads (dirt), over some railroad tracks, and then out through a very industrial area. We got through that, and then discovered this little paved bike path we didn’t know about. We were about to head up the path to see where it went, when POP! There went my buddy’s chain. …and my chain tool hasn’t arrived from nashbar yet (probably will today – go figure). So we were able to borrow some tools from someone in the area, fixed the chain as best we could (reused the pin) and made it about another ½ mile and then POP, there it went again. So I grabbed one end of the chain and he held on while I pulled him the ½ mile or so to a gas station, where he was able to call his wife for a ride. I did the last 5 miles or so on my own and had a fairly uneventful ride.

This morning’s ride in was much better. I found some better routes… down back streets, through a huge cemetery, back through a large corporate office park, a little off road action to cut through to some more suburbian streets, and finally the last mile or so finishes out on one of the larger roads. Made it to work in about an hour this morning (yesterday took about 2.5 hours with all the mishaps). I’m hoping to be able to get it down to 45 minutes eventually… legs are definitely feeling it.. will need to build up to that. I’m glad I did it and plan on 100% biking for getting to work and back. It’s about 9.5 each way. Thanks to all those on the forum who have offered such great advice to get me started.

My pleasure. My karma is set for the day.

Hope your buddy doesn't give up on bike commuting.