Mid 40s and clear for the most part this morning, though I did get rained on for like a minute. Funny how that works sometimes. I forgot my cap, but luckily had my winter skull cap in a pannier pocket, so my head stayed warm - too warm near the end when I took it off to let the cool wind dry my hair.

I tried out the $18.99 wind jacket that I bought yesterday at Kohls. I just had a long-sleeve baselayer shirt under it and I was warm, but not roasting, for the whole ride. I usually wear a cotton/poly or wool sweatshirt over a base layer this time of year, and my heavier winter riding jacket when things get really cold, but when temps are 35-50, it's hard to find a combo that is just right - this dirt cheap jacket seems to fit the bill just fine - and it's water resistant too. http://www.kohls.com/products/produc...=1130776462426

Low 50's and rainy. My creed is to never drive on Halloween...no matter what! True to form, traffic was backed up for 20miles in the inbound route....bike trail? only 2 bikes seen.

Hard boiled some eggs for lunch and tossed them in the backpack. Upon arriving 45min's later, the eggs were still warm and the clothes felt like they came out of the dryer! Cozy. In spite of the wet streets, a very nice ride!

Off to enjoy an hot breakfast. Nice change!

That worn feeling is probably from riding day after day at a very high heart rate or perhaps consistantly from not eating after your ride. Also the racer people tell me that biking performance goes in streaks and like every 6 weeks or so your performance may drop for awhile.

If you don't already have one, how about a heart rate monitor? I've been using one for a few months and am surprised at how high my HR was on the hills (though legs feel OK and not out of breath).

I started commuting to work a month ago. First week, on Monday, second week on Monday and Tuesday and then third week from Monday to Thursday.

My commuting is 18 miles round trip and the traffic is light at the time I am out on my bike: 9:15 AM in the morning and 6.50 PM in the evening.

At first I got honked almost once or twice a day. Now, nobody cares about honking at me anymore. I guess I have become a constant nusance they think they have to live with. :)

I really enjoy riding my bike and have the workout in the morning and in the evening wired into my life style. I felt much more energized and it's llike a addiction now.

Right now, I am commuting on a 1985 Schwinn World Sport that I bought from Ebay for 25 bucks and cleaned and painted myself for another 60 bucks. I learned how to take the bike apart and service it and put it back together on this bike. I will soon graduate to a Scattante R-550 I purchased from SuperGo.com. I love the specs and weight (19 lbs) and it probably will make my climb a little bit easier and I get through the dreaded intersection much faster.

I am commuting along Plano parkway in DFW area and it seems to me I am the lone bike commuter along the three-lane road. Hopefully someone else, seeing that I am still alive doing bike commuting, get inspired and join me on the road.

Nice to join you die-hard bike commuters.

By the way, I am from China and have commuted there in the past. But the commuting scene is totally different from what we have here.

Overcast with a gusting wind today. My hands were pretty cold for some reason - I should have worn mitts. When I ride home after my workout, it will be extra dark out. I put my headlight on my helmet last night, where it shall remain for the next 5 months. Now to find the charger...

Welcome! I bet we'd all love to hear your observations of commuting in China as compared to here in the US.

Thanks, chipcom

It was 20 years ago in China. The bikes are almost all one speed roadster style with bell, chain case, (mine with fully enclosed chain case), fenders. I don't think I got any lights on the bike. It's very slow riding, about 5-7 miles/hr and you have to share the bike lane with other bikers, a lot of them. We wore normal clothes not the fancy jersey and shorts we have here.

I lived in the northern part of China, so we also rode on snow and ice. Every year I got 2 or 3 crashes on ice at low speed, but embarrassing nonetheless.

One of the horrible experiences I had is to ride into a construction hole (no yellow tape around it to warn bikers) and got a lot of body parts broken at one shot.

I had only one brand new bike bought (26 inch wheel) for 120 chinese yuan for a monthly wage of 45 yuan (actually my father paid for it, even I started to earn wages). Before that I had one old bike I didn't know how old it was, functional but ugly.

It's kind of different now, but old bikes are still ridden more than the flashy new bikes, mostly because bike theft is really bad and you can't afford losing more than one bike.

I guess that covers the start of the story.

I will probably post some interesting pictures of bike commuting in China in the future.

Have a nice ride back. It's raining cats and dogs here and it could be my first riding in rain in the US.

This is my first time posting pictures. Here you see one of the most ridden commuters in China called "Forever".

http://www.cnforever.com/wmdcp/images/TDL975-2Z_m.jpg

The electric bicycle is popular in China for daily commuters now.

I don't ride with a HRM but probably should, at least for my weekend road rides. The last three weekends I have missed my saturday road ride and I am wondering if that has anything to do with the lethargy. The power I had in September isn't there right now. Of course, I rode all but three days in September so that may also have something to do with it. Two of those days in September were my first ever crits.

it's time to commemorate the end of "the drizzle". the good times of sporadic very light rain that you could time commutes around.

enter, the rain. the bona fide 60 - 90% daily precipitation from which there's no escape for months.
at least temperature'll be relatively mild for some time. of course that means feeling like a steamed oyster under all my rain gear :D


... went through a HUGE puddle today. didn't see it coming :(

today sure is lookin' good out there. Ride in was tiring - still haven't recovered from racing and festivizing this weekend.

any nyc locals know if the cops are still aggresively ticketing?

ticketing bicyclists?

It's strange. Supposedly after a long arduous physical exercise like biking, you should have felt refreshed. I feel more energized every time after I have biked for more than 10 minutes. Supposedly the adrenaline generated during the riding exercise keeps you high for a while. If I drive home after a day's work I usually feel worn out, but riding bike home makes me feel fresh and high spirited. Perhaps it's because my daily job is all sitting in front of a computer and the change of air gives me of boost of the day.

Cool morning in the upper 30's, but with the time change it was very sunny. Ride home will be much darker than usual, and could be almost dark depending on when I get out of work. I will probably start leaving home earlier in the morning. Saw another cyclist out for a morning ride at 7am when I left.

This is true but muscles need time to rebuild otherwse they get overused/overtrained. The HRM let's you know when your heart isn't keeping up with the demand. You've suppposed to cycle within a zone but while commuting it distracting... I just have mine beep when the HR goes over the limit for too long.

I see what you mean. I guess in my case, 9 miles at a time is not long enough to overuse the muscles. For me, excercise keeps me from falling asleep working whole day in front of my computer.

the commute was awesome today... both there and back

temps were in the high 60's this morning and have stayed there all day

no problems at all

It was sunny today and hit a high in the low 70's which was nice unless you were ice skating which I was at lunch. The sun melted the ice a little leaving puddles in the sun drenched areas, but in the shade, the ice didn't melt. Either way, my pants were wet at the end of it and my front calf muscles were sore from being used after taking the last few years off. Oh well, I got all winter to get 'em into shape. And it's fun!

Ride home was not too dark when I left, but dark enough to turn on my lights when I got home which was about 15-20 mins. later. No problems encountered, which is nice for a change.

Very nice. Although, with the time change I have to leave an hour earlier to make it to work in time to watch the sun rise over the bay. Clear, cool, weather all day. 50 this morning on the way to work and mid-70's on the way home. Had to make it a long ride home and swing through the bank drive-through to cash a check. The bank tellers didn't bat an eye. Got my business done and headed on down the road to pay the electric bill. This little side trip added about 9 miles to my regular commute. :)

I won't get into how stupid some cagers are, passing me on my left after I just signalled a left turn, in a double yellow line, no passing zone. It's okay though, he's fat and stupid and I have his plate number. Whether I decide to have it run and what I choose to do with that information is entirely up to me. And he doesn't even realize it. :D

Happy Halloween :)

Very fast ride in today, but I got pwned by a fellow commuter. I was on his wheel for a few miles (with his acknowledgement), and about 2 mi from the end of the commute we got stopped at a light. I said "I'd be happy to switch places and pull for a few if you want" and he said "sure." Well, a mile and a half up is the biggest "hill" on my commute, it's actually an overpass over the train tracks. But it goes up pretty quick, and as we were booming along at 27mph or so, I went anaerobic up the hill, just absolutely giving it everything I had. Flew up, flew down the back side topping out at 32 mph for a bit. He split shortly thereafter, and as I came to make my left I realized that he had "let" me destroy myself for the toughest part of the ride! I really pushed my anaerobic limit, I was shaking and so forth and took about 10 min to calm down.

GOOD FUN!!!

I woke up an hour earlier today due to time change, so had some extra time in the morning. Rode the bike near a construction site today so now it's covered with mud... not a pretty picture. The ride back was great - it is really warm out there tonight... great for the trick-or-treating fun (I saw some of the little 'uns going around in scary costumes as I rode through some residential streets). :)

Experienced rain of Biblical proportions this morning. There was lots of standing water & the bike lane was completely under water in several places where the water was up over the curb. I mostly rode in the outside car lane as traffic was very light. I was forced into the bike lane by heavy traffic near work & shortly hit something as I navigated through some 4 inch deep water. Should have slowed down more as it really jarred me & when I arrived at work, I heard the tell tale hiss from a pinch flat. I changed it ouyt & put in a new tube for my lunch ride & when I rode back the water had gone down enough to spot what I hit...a small skillet! Lucky only the rear flatted. I stopped & tossed it out of the bike lane. Watch out for those puddles.

cool, grey morning ride. lovely - it rained all ever-loving day yesterday, and i kind of thought i was in for it. there must still be others commuting by bike, but i don't seem to see them anymore.

i was keeping track of the time change, but the traffic patterns on my way in made me forget about it. seemed to be a lot of drivers around, so i guess my subconscious went back to thinking it was around 9am. nice surprise when i got to the health club and saw the real time while doing my little-laminated-card-for-towels trade.

this health club deal is kind of fun to me. my access is just a courtesy bulk membership that comes with working for this company, but most of their clientele are squash-club people, and they're a complete flashback to the types i used to come across in my dad's tennis and sailing days: late middle-agers who don't seem to have jobs, hanging out with other unworking late-middle-agers they've known forever. strange life. while showering, i got to overhear four of them this morning. 'jack has one of those frankenstein masks. he kept it on all through our match with helen and roy.' heh. i think i like jack.

traffic just dead on that bridge, all the way. doing my bike-rider thing, i got reminded that it was that bridge that made me decide to start riding again. i'd see other people slipping by in the cloverleaf or moving steadily up the mup, and think 'that's my kind of commute.'

detoured to store to pick up november bus pass for kid on my way home - yay me, i remembered. stopped to talk to a very small kid out trick or treating with his mom and baby sister. he had a spider drawn on one cheek and a bat on the other, but while i admired them he was only interested in the blinkie on my helmet. i'd forgotten it was there, and now i wish i'd given it to him. kids everywhere on the bike paths, and fireworks going off in front yards all through three miles of my ride home, and just generally careful riding under the circumstances. kind of a shame because it was a lovely night.

today the scale says i weigh 134. i enjoy that scale.

songs: eh. pogues all the way.