Very windy ride today , but still a good ride to work and home . Have a good nite .

Nice cool ride in this morning. I have been seeing more bikers out on the roads lately, I usually pass a couple every day. It's nice to know others are out there riding to work as well.

I hope you get to feeling better real soon...I know, it's no fun being sick. :)

Had to be on the keyborad at 5:30 this am, so I left the house at 4:45. The city was like a ghost town... was able to ride no hands down the middle of the 6 lane with not cars to worry about.
Weather.com called for 32 this morning so I dressed in my ski shell, hood, nylon sweats, and windproof fleece gloves. Turns out the temp was 44 and I stuffed all that crap into the pack just before the last 2mile climb. Stupid weather.com....DOH!

The ride is so much better that early....1 hour later and the streets are a zoo. The best part is that I'll get out of here at 2:30. That should be a better ride than the 5:00 crowd.

Y'know how some mornings it just feels grrrrreat to ride in? This was one of those mornings for me.

The lighting was odd, almost like a rainbow was somewhere.

wooohoooo.... Great ride this morning at 5am...

Last night when I got home from work (@9:30pm) there was a box on the porch... A pair of "Gator" Booties!!!

They came in handy this morning with the temp hitting about 38 degrees (F)

Felt great!

No bike commute for me today. Winds are SSW sustained at 30MPH gusting to 48MPH. I am going to error on the side of caution.

Beautiful cool morning here. At 39° it sure feels like winter is on the way. I need to work on my gear, I'm consistently dressing for weather about 5° warmer.

The ride home yesterday was hot (103) and tough! I have one of those personalities that does not let me just ride home. I have to do it faster than I did the day before. To my surprise I beat my wife home from work! I don't know exactly how much time I shaved off because I did not look at the clock when I left. I do know that I did not leave early and I got home about 10 minutes earlier than normal. WOOHOO! Thinking back I did catch a few green lights. Hmmm?

I was rather slow coming in due to a strong headwind, but had a great commute nevertheless! First of all, it didn't rain as the forecast warned me it might. So the coolth of the morning didn't bother me at all and, in fact, was actually very pleasant. And of course "early morning" = "few cars".

When I reached about the halfway point of my commute I got passed by another bike commuter. He wasn't going that much faster than I, so we had time to exchange "good morning"s as he overtook me. I must say I was surprised - I do get passed by roadies all the time but I say I move at a decent clip for a Toronto commuter. And this guy didn't even have clips and straps on his pedals and his bike looked like a 30-year-old ten-speed with flat handlebars... definitely not a roadie type. :) So I followed the guy fairly closely - not actually drafting, but not letting him drop me either. As we came to a long red light, we chatted a bit and then continued to chat as we rode abreast for the next couple of kilometers along a fairly quiet road. It turns out he commutes for about 10 km each way, and rides through the winter too! :) I told him I intend to keep riding this winter. Such a conversation never happened to me before on my commute and it sure was nice.

Then, as I arrived at the university, I met a fellow graduate student who gave me an amazed look and said that riding a bike to school was, in her opinion, "awesome". She asked me how far I ride and how long it takes and was surprised to learn that I am about as fast as public transit. :) She said she takes subway + bus to the university every day but really likes the idea of biking. She actually doesn't live so far from me, as I found out, so I suggested that she takes up bike-commuting and she and I ride together one day. She said, quite reasonably, that she is probably not ready to start commuting given the seasons, but that she'll definitely consider it in the spring. Hey, perhaps another commuter will join our ranks thanks to me! That would be really great!

Anyway, sorry for the slightly lengthy post, but I just loved the experiences so wanted to blab about them for a while.

This one post can cover yesterday also. Hot. Tuesday was perfect, then on Wed. the Santa Ana's kicked up and temps were in the 80's on the ride in with a strong wind picking up all sorts of stuff and throwing it in my face. It sucked. The ride home was super windy and hot, 90's I bet. This morning the winds were a bit less but the temps were in the 80's. There is a fire somewhere over towards the San Fernando Valley, and the smoke is blowing this way, the entire south view is covered in smoke, while the entire view to the north is a very nice shade of blue. Both days ride came in a 10 minutes or so.

Helped out another rider this morning after a crash. Approaching the wooden bridge at the outset of my ride, I noticed an oddly placed bike headlight-near or on the ground. As it was dark I had no perspective and couldn't really tell weather it was actually on the ground or just in the distance somewhere. As I approached I saw a guy collecting himself after crashing. I stopped, checked him out, helped him put his visor back on his helmet, and checked over his bike. He had hit the wood, slid into the chain handrail, and spun around 180 degrees before laying the bike down. He wasn't really injured (minor cuts, bruises) and appreciated that I stopped to help. He looked to have an all new bike and gear and I'm assuming he's a newbie to commuting (or at least this particular part of the trail), so I was more than willing to spend the few minutes with him. Many other riders and runners passed (a freak occurrance at this early hour) but none stopped to help, I guess at that point we just looked to be chatting. Any way, that's my good deed for the day. I hope it went a ways toward encouraging him to keep up the riding (if he was in fact a newbie).

Best commute ever for me! Temps of 72 degrees compared to 104 yesterday. I felt like I pedaled more and used the motor less because I felt more energetic, yet I made the 17.5 mile trip in an hour and 15 minutes, which is five minutes faster than before. And this is the first time I've commuted by bike all four days!

I even saw two cyclists going the other way on different stretches -- I usually see a cyclist about once every three or four trips but I'm seeing at least one every trip. I think fall is going to be a great time for commuting by bike! :)

I drove to work this morning...after clearing the cobwebs off my Explorer...literally!

The weather was beautiful today, cool and sunny with a light wind. The ride was splendid except for the close call.

On the way home I'm at a traffic light in a left turn lane waiting to turn onto a four lane divided road. I get the green arrow and start moving across the intersection toward the right side of the outside lane. The car behind me decides he can't wait and passes me on the right. Since this is the last thing I'm expecting and since I try to be considerate of cars behind me and get to the right side of the outside lane as quickly as possible, I almost get flattened.

Sometimes it's hard to imagine how people in cars can be such utter imbeciles. I'm coming to the point where I'm tempted to conclude that the automobile is a form of mental illness.

MMMMAAANNN!!!!!! I love the beginning of Autumn, especially when on a bicycle. A crisp 68 degree ride to work this morning, almost went back to grab a thin jacket. And I've discovered that sprinting all the time can help! What was my "stand and push" gear last week is now my "eh, I think I'll just relax on this ride" gear. I'm loving it! Can't wait till next month, though (which starts Saturday! YAY!), since the dolphins tend to come around in October so I do my beach training rides then....I love riding bikes!

:) i'm so easily entertained that i don't really mind being sick now and then, for a day or two. breaks up the routine. but this one's been ugly enough that i almost felt guilty in case i've been overdoing the bike thing and opened myself up or something. however. i did go back to work today (in my car) and found half the population is in the same state. i missed my bike something fierce this evening, and i feel like i could push over a mountain, so tomorrow it's bike or bust. i'm looking forward to it.

Less wind today ,More speed on the way to work and home .
Was a good ride to work and home . Did not see any one commuting today . But it was a little bit colder today .
Hopefully the weekend will warm up . Have a good nite .

Rain today & only got up to 60F. I'm still trying to get over a bad cold & about 1/2 mile from the finish of my afternoon commute home, I flatted very suddenly. The rear wheel was "thumping" every rotation & I just thought it was the tube bunched up or something but when I had walked it home & went to hang the bike I saw a 2 inch drywall screw sticking out of the tread! I'll check it out this weekend & see how much damage it did. Don

a day of firsts for me. first commute in the rain and holy **** did i get wet, the race blades worked great as fenders, but i need something for my feet and something for my head. and the second first was the ****ing freezing ride home. 45 degrees, not nice, not nice at all.

but that aside the rides were magnificent. cold, crisp, screaming excitement, chirping birds, and splashing in puddles.

The rain stayed away but I really thought I'd be caught in it. My ride was 6am to 6.50 - dark the whole time and wind in my face, but enjoyable all the same. Looking forward to the clocks going back for a bit of brightness in the morning, but that makes it so dark in the traffic going home.

Lorcán.

Looks like it will be another great day for riding. Lovely weather to end September with. End of September??? :eek: It was early June just last week!! :o
At least the morning low isn't as cool as the weather guessers had predicted - only 59F (15C). They were predicting 51F (11C).

Last night I stayed extra late at work so I could test out my new lights on the ride home. I got the Viewpoint dual setup up front and the single for the helmet. Last night it was just the duals. I felt like a little kid with a new toy on the way home. Very cool! Lights work well. Very bright, easy to use. I kinda wished they had the "sidelighting" like the L&Ms to give me a little more visibility at the street crossings. I'll have to find some reflecting tape for the sides.

This morning is very chilly - 42F. I'm all bundled up and ready to brave the elements.

Have a great day!

Mike

Well, the break from the heat finally came! A twenty degree drop this morning was a true gift. I actually had to work to get a sweat going. A welcome 70 degree temperature arrived with me at work this morning… Top O' The Morning To You.

Haha I was thinking the same.

Chilly this morning (see my "Brrrr!" thread :D). Between last night and this morning I had three obnoxious honkers, none of which made any sense. Last night, with literally 15-20 ft between the stopped-at-a-light traffic in front of me and the honker behind me, the idiot drops to neutral starts to rev his small pe-- I mean big engine. Dumbass. This morning on Riverside Drive, I'm flying "at speed in excess of twenty five miles per hour" (gosh I love Phil & Paul's cycling commentary :D) which is nearly the speed limit, and a driver in the fast lane honks all the way passing me. In my mirror I had clearly seen that that car had been in that lane the whole time it was in view, WTF? Finally after crossing Times Square with yes, another red light ahead and all sorts of trucks and taxis double-parked, etc (i.e. barely room for one car, let alone a bike and car) a taxi driver lays on the horn, passes me when there's enough room and slams on the brakes. Dork!

The good part is that I laughed inside at all of them and didn't say anything stupid to add fuel to the fire, so to speak. Getting jaded I guess. :D Anyhow, despite all that nonsense, I wasn't upset at all. Great commutes enhanced by the delicious (though chilly!) Fall weather. Last night's commute home is one of the best I've ever had. Very strong wind blowing with cloud cover cleared the Greenway of most peds. I drafted off of a strong roadie for a couple of miles (thanked him for it, of course) then was virtually alone in the fading light, with only the sounds of the choppy Hudson and wind gusts to accompany me. Fantastic!