Still had to come in early today, but I got an extra hour of sleep [missed my alarm]. Fast and clean on the way in, too warm for shants!

Nice outside and light traffic, but I felt like lead. I don't know if it is allergies or if I'm coming down with a bit of a cold, but I am so slow today. Ugh...

Luckysnafu, you might want to subscribe to the RTP bike commuters mailing list. It had several announcements about the ROS. It also has lots of info about other advocacy stuff in the area. The url is http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/rtp_bike_ped.

My commute: Better than yesterday's, when I broke a spoke just as I arrived at work. Got the spoke replaced last night, but it made me miss the ROS (plus I didn't want to tell my wife about the Ride. We have an unspoken agreement. I don't tell her about the incredibly stupid/dangerous things I see drivers do during my commutes, and she doesn't try to convince me to stop riding. Attending a ride to remember those injured/killed while cycling would be like waving a flag in front of her).

Rain. All 6.4 miles of it. 50F degrees. No wind. Instrument meteorological conditions. :)

There were still a few die-hard types out training for the marathon.

My bike is filthy.

jack, What you failed to realize is that the bumper sticker was an instruction to you and all the other vehicle operators on her road.

Bike-to-work day today here in the San Francisco Bay Area. My route took me to two Energizer stations. Got lots of freebies. One dude at the Fremont REI was just yappin' away with the station volunteer. I could tell that the yapper was boring the hell out of the volunteer. I don't think the yapper is a real commuter, just there to yap and get freebies. He was not in a hurry to get anywhere. :D

It was a good wind.
This chart shows the 10-min averaged wind speed for past 6 days in Tempe. Note the wind increase that occurs nearly every PM commute:
http://www.tempe.gov/wx/townlake/WindSpeedHistory.gif

weather station data here:
http://www.tempe.gov/wx/weather1.aspx

Al

Nice ride today, no dramas that I can recall. Potholes in the B.U. Bridge have have been paved out so it's easier to take the lane and stay with traffic. After work rides have been great. I put down 25miles yesterday, I'll do about 15 today and again on Saturday....my first Century is Sunday :D.

I missed my miles goal because of all the rain we had so I'll have to pace myself, I'm use to short hammering rides.

Big headwind today on my way into work. I hope that means I'll have a tailwind on the way back!

Getting Speedier
 

My daily commute, short though it is, involves crossing one major street. I usually wait with the cars at the light, then try to take off ahead of them and get going a good clip before we all stop at the first stop sign -- about a block away. My goal is to make it up to the 25 mph speed limit before reaching the sign.

Today was the best ever: 24.4.

I'm almost there!!

Other Durham commuters: come to Mad Hatter's at W.Main and Broad TOMORROW a.m. for Bike to Work Week stuff...

- free food, coffee and prizes for cyclists. The Durham Bicycle Chain will also be nearby with a free bike check-up station and prize drawings.

http://www.bikewalkdurham.org/

Bike to work week update
 

Well, looks like a 100% ride week or what I call a century week since my ride is 10 miles each way. Switched to an old Trek 820 Antelope someone loaned me as my AD-SLE died. Takes getting used to but after a while it is an even a better workout! For May, of the 280 potential commute miles that have passed MTD, I have biked 220 of them. Travel took 40 away, a Monday 'whimp out' took 20. Not bad so far for May. Looking like 80% for May. It is hard to do 100% with kids, work and graduation month!

Today was the only day I've commuted by bike this week. Combining moving, finals and horrific allergies just doesn't aid the bike commute process. However, an empty gas tank and need to do maintenance on the car does. So I rode in today. It was an uneventful ride the first half; made a stop by the post office. The second half, my allergies got the better part of me and before I knew it, I was a sniffling, snorting, sneezing, mucus dripping mess. Then I started getting nauseous, and almost felt like I was having an asthma attack. I think pubilc transportation is in the works for the ride home.

:(

Coming home last night as I rounded the corner onto shephard there was this homeless person. He goes "only 40 more miles". I couldn't help but smile.

Beat the rain by a minute. I know because a minute later I was walking in the rain to my car. Alternate side of the street parking sucks.

I decided to suck it up, deal with my allergies and just ride home. I had a short day, so I took my time going home. Almost got hit by an a-hole Suburban driver who ran a red light to turn right right into my lane. I saw him though and yelled "You wanna stop?!" I guess he heard me because he slammed on the brakes causing me to have to swerve around him nearly missing his rear bumper. He pulled up next to me and had his wife yell some explicits at me. I gave him the one finger salute and turned left behind him. Apparently I pissed him off cuz the next thing I hear is tire squeel. I look behind me and he slammed on the brakes and whipped a left right behind me. He pulled along side, wife screaming profanely. She stopped long enough for me to say "Be a man and stop having your b%$&h fight your battles." He finally passed me up and the rest of the ride was pleasant. If anyone in Sacramento sees a dark blue 2000ish Suburban with tinted windows being driven by a redneck looking guy with long hair sporting Indiana plates numbered 30 F 4121, watch out.

Thanks, mister. I'll be careful on the way home.

My commute today has been great, bright and sunny and cool in the am, I am about to ride home and it is nice and sunny and warm. Supposed to rain for the next week though... my first commuting in the rain, can hardly wait.

the usual, 6.5 mile dst, cagers seem trained! why does no one else do this (bicycle commute) in s nj?

Nice ride both ways, picked up a goodie bag and a banana at the Bike to Work energizer station. i hope to see some of these new commuters next week. caloso, did you ride with those representatives from Antioch?

and the theme of today's day was . . . vermin. extremely strange.

first thing that happened was that once i brought my bike out the door and turned back to lock it behind me, Something flung itself at my helmet, landed, and hung on tight. something sizeable enough to make me yelp. it was a pigeon. i mean, what? then it fell off, flopped around in the door jamb for a bit, hauled itself up and vanished into somewhere else, pursued by a crow.

second thing was the lovely discovery i made while in the shower. i believe i've picked up athlete's foot. bleh, sigh, and a detour around to the drugstore on the way home for the absorbine stuff. and god damn it, i guess this means shower shoes from here in.

very nice rides both ways though, aside from that.

Bugs and kids...
 

I was riding down the Manhattan side of the Manhattan bridge yesterday afternoon, doing about 25mph, when two bugs hit me in the face. I just saw these two dots, one about an inch or so higher than the other slam into my face. I was more stunned than anything else, I was just hoping it wasn't bird poop.


My mom watches my kids on Thursdays and I had to meet them at the doctors office for an appt in the afternoon. They were sitting under a bus shelter and saw me ride up from about a block away, and the kids were trying to bust out of the stroller yelling "BIKE, BIKE, BIKE!!!"

Moist commute this morning. ~50F. No rain, but the trail is damp. Big TStorms rolled through last night. I stayed up too late last night and had no energy so I just kept it in a lower gear and toddled along at 13-15MPH.

Supposed to rain later today. Usually I'm not bothered by rain but this weather is starting to bug even me! :mad:

63° and still. It's gonna be HOT this afternoon.
I'm hoping for a tailwind on the way home. A man can dream...

Cool this morning, but nice and dry. Trike time! Hopefully, it will be rain-worthy soon: I picked up an old steel fender on Freecycle and I hope to use it on the rear wheel. It'll need some steel wool and a few coats of black high-gloss, but it should work well.

Nearly 2nd crash in two weeks...this time in the rain :eek:

Riding through the second most dangerous part of my commute, Kendall SQ., where I turn on both beams. I really don't even know why I bother turning on my lights as peds are compelled to look opposite the traffic, usually yaking away with the person to their left. Today some guy steps out in front of me because he's 30 seconds late for work. I veer to my left to go in back of him. Well of course he stepped back so now I'm screwed because the road is wet and slick as shyte.

I hit the brake, the rear wheel locks, I go into a slide, my right foot unclicked and then my left. My left hand goes out to break my fall only to land on the tail of a pickup truck, I'm stopped 180° from the direction of travel facing oncoming traffic :mad:.

No point in venting I guess, fresh idiots are born everyday.

Beat the rain home last night and had a new record time in getting home, just 19.11 minutes with an average of just over 20mph :) Storms rolled through in the evening but luckily no hail this time (had marble sized hail last weekend). Ride in this morning was great again. This couldn't have been a better week for Bike To Work Week around here. Temps in the 50s again with the sun rising and a slight tail wind. Saw a biker this morning and a couple last night on the way home. There was a spot in Durham where they are giving out free breakfast to bike commuters. I wish they had something like that in Cary since it is deemed a bike friendly community until 2007 or 8.

Great ride this morning. Whatever was bothering me yesterday went away, and it was free breakfast day as part of Albuquerque's Bike to Work week. I went a bit out of my way to stop at the nearest station, met some people, entered the drawing, had a bagel and some juice, and picked up a free patch/lever kit and a really bright dork band. I was amazed at how many other commuters there were.

I didn't see any bike commuters on the ride in today. I did catch up to a courier though. An older guy, he's been doing it for years - I remember him from the 90's. There are a few stalwarts who are actual professionals - they are couriers by choice. They don't seem to take many unnecessary risks while riding, in contrast to the summer couriers who are all over the place.

Have a good weekend everyone! :)