On today's ride in I encountered yet another Wrongway Cyclist. This one stopped and waited for me to pass so I took that as an opportunity for a little peer-to-peer education. "Mind if I give you some unsolicited advice? Ride with traffic, not against it. I know it might seem safer this way, but really it's not." He smiled, thanked me, and we got back on our bikes. After about 30 seconds, I looked back and guess what? He was still going the wrong way. I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Then, not 50 feet from my bike locker, I was nearly taken out by another familiar character of our daily drama: the Well-Intentioned Idiot. A woman was standing next to the gate at the entrance to the parking garage. I was trackstanding behind a minivan, waiting for the driver to get her ticket and go through. The gate went up, the van went through and I followed. I go through this thing every single day and I know exactly how long the lag is before the gate comes down. And even if it is down, there's enough space betweend the end of the arm and the curb for me to squeeze through. Except today, the Well-Intentioned Idiot jumped off the curb and stepped directly into my path holding out her hand. "Look out for the gate!"

I didn't have a lot of momentum so I nearly fell. And I don't remember exactly what I said but it was along the lines of "WTF?!?" And she said, "Well I didn't know if you saw the gate and I didn't know how much time you had."

So I swung around in a circle and said, "Look. I park here every single day. I know EXACTLY how much time I have." She said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know."

I said, "I know you didn't know. That's my point. I appreciate your worrying about me, but don't step into the path of cyclists, okay?"

Sheesh.

Lots of beautiful weather, lots of short commutes stretched into long rides. I had to work a double shift Wed. night :( so I rode home at 5:30 AM. It was still dark but the birds knew it was time to wake up. I know a lot of you rearly mornings all the time, but for me it's a big deal! :)

Great ride 70F no rain

That's EXACTLY my point. Some people just don't get life in general, let alone cycylists, if they had half a clue, they'ld realize we are all TOTALLY insane, and they'ld just stay away from us! :D

Next time make your voice sound ******** and yell "I LIKE YELLOW" I like to do that sometimes.

No ride for me today, had to drive to see a client this morning. It's a shame too as it looks like the rain is going to hold off till later on. Might get out to a bike shop this weekend for a new helmet and some much needed tires.

:roflmao: :roflmao:

I could not resist the joy of the weather today, even though I had only one fifty-minute class on campus. Bright, sunny, breezy, about 76 when I left and rising eventually to 81 or so. My commute home was largely one great big detour via the town of Marblehead, the Atlantic ocean, and the local rail trail. I'm still pretty nervous about riding in the street but getting much better; my biggest nervousness is around four-way lighted intersections, the multi-lane variety where you could have one lane that's going to be turning right. Mostly an irrational fear, and I'm trying. :p I'm getting better at that today alone. I also tried out, after constant knee pain, raising my seat by an inch or two. Wow. What a difference that makes! I'm a whole lot faster and in a lot less pain immediately. Ah, the obvious solution, always the best.

absolutely perfect weather. the commute was pretty darn good. Traffic was light, Tried out different gears on the way in... my pedalling is improving and my stamina as well. loved the ride today! I raised my seat too and practically flew home, it seemed like. my weight must push the seat down and I'll have to raise it on a regular basis... even though I really don't "sit" on the seat and most of my weight is on the pedals or bars...

I started riding a month ago. Today, a first happened. I hit a fast pace without feeling fatigue.
Might not sound like a big deal, but I was cruisin and having a blast.

Awesome! Keep going!

Encountered 3 pushy newbies along the home route. At the light they squeezzzzzze by on your right. I nearly tipped one over..."I MUST BE FIRST" attitude ticks me off. Wanna race? Go the velo (less than 1 mile away)

Commuted 5 days this week. It was a good week to commute even if I didn't get much sleep. I hope next week goes as well, and I hope I get some sleep. What's up with all the freaks out on Friday nights? Have a good night.

I only commuted 4 days this week. It was rainy most of the week, but for the most part, I was able to stay dry.

I only commuted one way today. I decided to stay my GF's place which is so close to work I don't consider riding from work to her place a commute. There were a LOT more gnats buzzing around. I inhaled a few multiple times. On the way in, I passed a kid on an MTB who had his helmet on the bars. I told him "the helmet works better covering what little brains you've got." I don't think he cared. While on the street one of those TrailBlazer SUV land yachts drove by. The passenger hanging out the window like a total idiot yells "yah, pedal that bike! hahahahah.." When I caught up to him at the next light I yell over to the guys "So how much you spend on filling up that beast?" "Uh... last time was almost 60 bucks." They must've realized my point because their faces went from :lol: to:mad:. Priceless.

did everything in a whole different time frame today because I worked at home. did a road ride in the afternoon of about 50 miles then came home and stared into space for about 1/2 hour then rode the commuter to the market for groceries came home and cooked dinner then rode into Cambridge to pick my wife up at her job- she was getting out at 10:45p and didn't want to ride home alone in the dark- fine by me, got a nice extra 14 miles in and I love riding with her. We bike pathed it home in the dark along the river, which was still as glass and dodge the suicidal rabbits of the night. We even had another cyclist come up out of the dark (no light all dressed in black) looking terrified who yelled to us, "watch out for the rabbits!" We got a good laugh out of that because we've been dodging these rabbits for years and he looked like our nightmare- that the rabbits go mad and start attacking people- remember Jimmy Carter in the canoe?

no commute wednesday due to ball-game. the weird thing is that even though i knew there was no other way to do it, and even though i didn't really want to do it, my mind kept on all morning absently trying to fit the logistics together in a way that said 'bike'. i've written six-hundred-and-bloody-something test cases since tuesday noon, so no wonder i kept forgetting to eat this week.

fixed that on thursday night with an entire pizza. there still isn't really too much to say about nice-weather commuting, compared with the way winter always gives you something to gripe and snivel about. i'm enjoying it, particularly the way both ends of the day still have just enough crispness in them to make it fun. only two noteworthy things have happened this week: yesterday i got honked at twice for using the road, and the lock on the bike cage went missing last night. of all the people the security guy got to empty everything out of their bags 'just in case you forgot to put it back or something', i'm pretty sure i was the only one to decant a half-knitted sock.

tomorrow's ball game is cancelled! yee hah. i'm going to schlep round at home in the same clothes until monday morning.

songs: jesus (the missing years), john prine; these dreams of you, van morrison; two little hitlers, elvis costello.

Took a shorter commute today. I had to take a CPR/BLS class today to recertify in my search and rescue unit. Only 3 miles each way, but I put a 19 mile road ride on the end of it. Rode over to look at an 1850 adobe house at an old Rancho that is usually gated and locked up. Looks like they are getting ready to restore it as a museum. Great local history. Hit 31 miles per hour on the flat today, maintained 27 for a while, not bad for a fat boy. Climbed some decent hills, wind seemed to be in my face both ways. I know it couldn't be, but it seemed so. Ride On.

had a good ride to work, but the ride back was eh.
it was much later and darker out than i wanted and my rear light popped off.

but i got home in one piece :)

This is actually from Friday but better late than never. On the way back from work everything was great. Good weather, I had the bike path all to myself and then at about the halfway mark I almost get plowed over by a group of three dudes all riding recumbent bikes. I have nothing against recumbent bikes in general but these guys passed me way too close without even shouting an "on your left" or anything. They put me off the path and into the dirt and luckily we were on a flat portion because just a little further up and I would have tumbled down the side of a hill.

I suppose I can excuse it by telling myself that all three were beginners and didn't know any better?

41 degrees; slight tailwind (yeah!). 21.5 miles in 1 hr 32 minutes. Nice commute except I hit a bump hard at the railroad tracks and lost a blinky. :eek:

Cool enough for a jacket this morning. This wasn't a problem comapred to my chain nearly disintegrating. I noticed the chain getting sucked in by the front chainring, just 150m after leaving the house. I stopped to check it out, and found that one of the links in the chain had nearly completely separated! It was bad enough that I couldn't fix it with the multitool I had with me, so I had to walk the trike back to my house (how humiliating!) and ride my other bike to work. On top of this, a mild case of the flu (or was it three hours of weeding the lawn?) made my legs ache the whole way there...

Despite this, it was still a good ride.

I rode on the new path by the sewage plant!! Someone pulled down some of the barrier over the weekend on both the north and south ends. So much nicer than the service road.

Good riding weather in Milwaukee this morning. Strong winds out of the south ahead of a storm front coming in tomorrow... made for a tough ride to work ( I ride south to work) looking forward to the ride home. weee!

Legs were a little sore from yesterday's 5BBT, but it felt good to pedal anyways and didn't take me any longer than usual. I think the road on Lexington south of 50th to 44th St. is getting even worse. It's really chewed up. I hope the city fixes it soon.

I made all of my lights today, which is something that hasn't happened in a while. It might have something to do with raising my tire pressure from 60 to 100 psi. My wife was grumpy 'cause I made it into the bathroom before her, so I let her go on ahead to work by herself. The only drama on the ride was when a truck stopped to let out a passenger, just as I was pulling in behind it. The passenger came around behind the truck and then tried to cut in front of me as I was still moving forward. I gave her "the look" and she gave me a disapproving "pfft" as I rolled by. I really want to be nice, but find somewhere else to randomly stop in the middle of traffic.

Did not want to ride this morning - back was stiff, no motivation, tired from the weekend (supposed to be the other way around, isn't it?) But I promised myself at bedtime last night that thunderstorms were the only reason I wasn't riding today. So when the 2 yr old woke up in the middle of the night, costing me almost an hour of sleep, I decided that wasn't an excuse. Woke up praying that it was raining. No such luck. There were storms in the area, so I checked the radar half a dozen times over the next 45 minutes, but nothing. So dressed, loaded up, and rolled down the street. Thought I was in trouble when it got darker (big storm to the north a bit) about 4 miles from the house, but didn't get rained on. Met another commuter in full length pants and a long-sleeve jacket (temp was 65 when I left, and I was in shorts, sleeveless, and sandals - quite a contrast) and had a good conversation for a few hundred yards before he turned off. Found wet roads with about 3 miles to go, and got rained on a bit for the last mile, but all in all was ok. Wind did beat me down a bit, but I'm getting used to that, finally...

Read an article in a recent runner's world last night about "streakers" - people who have these incredibly long streaks of running every day - some of them north of 20 years. The topic of motivation was covered in the article, and they all had good stuff to say. The most appropriate for me, I think, was something to the effect that "if I just don't feel like going, I'll promise myself that I'll really take it easy today. Once I get moving, I'm fine." And "I try to remember that I always feel better at the end of a run than at the beginning." Both are true for me, and apply to both running and cycling. I definitely felt better when I got in this morning than when I left.

Oh, I rode, I rode like the wind this morning and it took about ten minutes to get to the office.

40F and blue skies. This week is called something "Way to Go" week.

http://www.waytogovt.org/

I don't know if it's because of that, or just nicer weather, but I saw 3 cyclists this morning. That's about 3 more than I usually see. :) Two women, and one dude.

No commute today, had a GREAT group ride on Saturday though, but then saturday afternoon my nose started running like a FAUCET! I was blowing my nose like once every 15 minutes for the entire afternoon. Woke up with a sore throat from post nasel drip, then the sneezing kicked in on Sunday. I took decongestants last night so I could sleep, but woke up after 5 hours of sleep with my heading feeling like a football in zero gravity. So I opted to go back to sleep for an hour and skip my bike ride. I kinda wish I hadn't as riding always makes me feel better and I still feel pretty lousy. But I probably needed the sleep.

Dang alergies, guess that's what I get for "not beleiving" in them all these years....

I hear you, NM-NewRoadie. I've been suffering seriously with allergies for weeks now. Except mine has gotten down my throat and causes terrible coughing fits. It was so bad I thought I had bronchitis and had my doctor check my lungs. Nope, just allergies and he prescribed Clarniex. It helps a little.

I also had a great group ride on Saturday and surprised myself by taking a long pull on the way out and making the top 5 in the finishing sprint. Except that I have no sprint. I can roll it with the best of 'em but my legs got no snap. Well, something to work on at the stoplights.

Very mellow ride in today on the fixie. I saw a few other commuters and that's always a nice thing.