Fun ride home last night, wind was with me and the temps were comfortable around 45-50. I saw the same commuter that I had seen coming down the hill in the morning. This time we were coming up to the hill. He spies me and puts the pump to the pedals. Jeepers, why does it always gotta be a race. He had a block or so lead on me so I just hung back pacing and conserving some umph for later. You see, this is one of those hills that get steeper as you go. When I hit a small flat spot, I put the hammer down to get the speed up, hoping to maintain it on the last killer section. The strategy worked, and I reeled him easily. I rode by with no hands and gave him the "howz it goin" With his beet red face and a drop of sweat dangling from his nose, he replied "great" I never saw him when I hit the red light at the top. :)

This morning some fool made a feeble attempt to take me out. It was dark going down the hill and in my mirror a see a car drifting toward the crub. This is an area where the right lane is at least 30' wide. I though it was just some fool buzzing me, so I headed toward the curb. He passed within a foot or so of me then continued his drift toward the curb after he passed. Just before hitting the curb, he pulled back out toward the center of the lane, then started drifting toward the curb again. He was going way under the speed limit and repeated several times. I couldn't catch him to see what was going on. He must have hit the bong too many times when he got up this morning. Crazy kids these days...

I'm not commuting to save $ really,... just helps get a little cardio in and being only 6 miles, I figure, eh, why drive... I always use a charge card to put gas in my car, just easier for me to make one payment and not tote the cash around. I was paying bills last night.... Last fuel bill: $115... this bill $14.29....

...was a sweet ride in this morning :D

Lovely warm morning ride...at least the part following the fall on the ice in my driveway.

I'm pulling away from GGDub in the local commuter challenge points category. Ha ha! Take that, you CAT 3 racing bastid! :D

Cool...rode in on the fog this morning. The park portion of my commute isn't quite as pretty as this one, but here's what the conditions looked like. :)

http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/22785/savannah_fog_3.jpg

It was nice this morning, cool, but just barely cool, bright and sunny. It took about ten minutes to get to the office.

I am off on sick leave tomorrow. For the week I was 4 commutes of 4, and for the year I am 20 for 20. A good start so far.

Wet streets but no rain and surprisingly warm. I yelled at a kid riding his BMX on the sidewalk. He nearly took out a pedestrian coming out of a coffee shop.

Another nice commute this morning. I was taking it easy, having gotten in a fun ride before breakfast. Sun was shining, and plenty of commuting cyclists were out and about. Very pleasant. Then the hill on my ride showed up, and it was time to get into hill-climbing mode and hammer. I guess hills just do that to me... I was intending to sit and spin, but that lasted for about 30 feet before I decided it would be like any other commute and stood and hammered. Funny thing is, on my morning non-commuting ride, I went ahead and sat and spun. Maybe because it wasn't right at the end of the ride.

Good commute today! clear & cool with the Green Lights on my side. A nervous couple of moments though. A Tow Truck decided to pass me down the "Car Door Alley" portion of Comm. Ave with car in tow. An M.I.T. officer pulled out from a garage and nearly into the bike lane (and me) before he noticed my blaring twin beems :eek:.

Something interesting happened on my evening commute yesterday. I almost never get passed by a bike on my commute, not that I try to race everyone I see. If someone does pass me, I usually just try to follow them for a while to see if I can maintain their pace. I only pass back if someone is actually slowing me down. Anyway, I was coming down a slight grade, not pushing super hard, maybe 19mph, when this guy on an xtracycle loaded with gear blasts past me. :eek: Intrigued, I jumped anaerobic and followed him for the next mile. I think we averaged about 26mph. In my commute gear, that's about my limit. I know we slowed down significantly to take a rr track, and the lowest I saw on my speedo was 21mph. Just as I was about to blow up, my route takes a sharp right turn. He took it too, and had to slow down significantly to make it.

Me: "That was a pretty zesty pace."
Him: "I'm cheating."
Me: "What? How?"
He points to some kind of battery powered motor pushing a second chain ring on his left side.
Him: "This thing puts out about 200 watts."

We went on to have an interesting talk for the next mile or so until we split up.

Still on Lunch :D

Something similar happened to me this past Saturday during a solo ride. I was around mi 17 of my 21miler and I see this guy up ahead. Now, I'm not trying to catch him, but I'm clicking along at 22~25mph in some spots (slight tail wind me thinks) so I catch him fast. I ended up getting bottled behind him at the town center and eventually a red light, he knows I'm there.

When the light turns green, I just expect to go right by him seeing he's been glass pedaling the last mile. Wrong! he drops the hammer as I try to go around, so I moved to his rear wheel and waited for pace to settle where I proceeded to, drop a gear, stand and go!

He ended up getting back on (traffic) as we both yelled at the same car. We talked, he was toward the end of 40mi ride so that would in part explain why he was tooling along. We exchange niceties until the next major intersection where I went straight and he went left.

Sorry for the long post :o

:roflmao:

Sounds like a stokemonkey.

http://cleverchimp.com/products/stokemonkey/

Your in Madison right? Maybe it was this guy.
http://todd.cleverchimp.com/blog/?p=77

It was cold this morning!! Temp was 34, but I braved it and had a nice ride in. Missed yesterday because I messed with my front derailuer and ended up having to take my trusty steed to the LBS. Also this month, I am going to track my vehicle miles as well as my cycling miles. So automobile miles as of 2 Feb 06 - 40.6; Bike miles as of 2 Feb 06 - 17.0. So I am starting the month in a deficit mileage.

I'm almost positive it was that guy. He was wearing the same jacket, and that looks like his bike. He said the kit cost $1300, and that he was the only one in the area that had one, so that is almost certainly him.

Well, after 3 weeks of no commuting by bike I'm back on it again! YAY!!! I couldn't ride in to work because they are remodeling the bathrooms here and the one with the shower was off limits. I still rode on the weekends but it sucked not being able to ride to work. I missed it.

Anyway, the showers are operational and I'm back to riding my bike in once or twice a week. :beer:

BTW-My commute is 10 miles one way with a fair number of hills. I bring my work clothes the day before and ride in in spandex & clipless shoes on my road bike.

It was 45 degrees this morning when I set out. I wear my short sleeve jersey, full length leg warmers, arm warmers, a windbreaker vest and I have toe covers on my road shoes to keep the wind out. I was chilly at first but once I got warmed up I was fine.

Ride home last night was great, but I was feeling it by the end - took me 6 minutes longer than the ride in. First time I've done the full round trip, so I don't know if that will be the norm or not, but there was a distinct headwind for a good portion of the ride, and I'm pretty sure it's more uphill on the way home.

Anyway, intended to ride this morning, but was running very late getting out of the house, so threw the bike in the truck with plans to drive halfway and ride the rest. Hit the 4-way stop at the local high school (I never go through there at that time of morning) and waited - NO LIE - 15 minutes to get to the front of the line. Long story boring, I was now too late to ride at all, and drove all the way in with the bike in the pickup. Looked kinda dumb getting out of the truck in my hi-viz vest and riding shorts with knee warmers, carrying my backpack with the hi-viz cover, and walking to my office... We're headed out on vacation tomorrow, so I won't need the truck - hoping I can wrap things up early enough to ride home...

Nice ride in this morning, 25F, snow/ice packed roads halfway and clear roads the other half. 38F at lunch time and sunny and all clear roads, took a long loop at lunch and plan on taking the long way home after work. I'm going to enjoy it because we are suppose to go back to normal temps after today.

:cry:
Even the worst day bike commuting (short of serious accident) is better than driving.
Like with many things you don't realize how great you have it until you can't have it any more (very bad knee in my case). :cry:

Al

Yup, that had to have been Mike, and the thing puts out more than 200W -- maybe it wasn't at the time though. His commute is 20 miles each way.

Todd, I swear your going to get me to sell my scooter and buy a stokemonkey.

He said his commute was 20mi each way and something like "this thing is putting out 200 watts". I may have made a phrasing error in my post above, but it sounds like it was definitely Mike. I didn't mean to imply the distinguished Stokemonkey wasn't capable of more, I was just trying to repeat what he said.

And if you're out there reading this: Hi Mike!http://community.the-underdogs.org/s...happy/wave.gif

The Ride Home:

It was dusk when I left work and soon I won't need my light(s) and newly purchased Hi-Vis vest, our course that is unless I get stuck working overtime. Fair commute, less wind than normal so I made good time.

Going up Comm.Ave (Slight Incline) I had a guy on my right driving a 80's Volvo beater like "I'm gonna park...no I'm not!...I should park here!...No...Not here...Maybe here...Umm...NO!". Once he notice I'd been trying to pass him for the last 100yards, he put his hand up as if to say "sorry, I'm an idiot".

Meanwhile, I have some knuckleheads on my left blowing there horn at me like it's my decision to make http://forums.probetalk.com/images/smilies/icon_no2.gif.

last night we got 2+1/2 inches of rain, so much my kitchen flooded. And the dirt/gravel road I ride on for a little while on my commute, was mud. It was fun watching the cars sliding around on the road ;) and I was sliding around too. Even with my fender, I had mud on my rear cargo. but once I got on the paved roads, even though they were covered in water, it was better.

The commute today? Like any other day. Get up, get dressed. Unplug bike from battery charger (for the halogen bulb, which can blind you.). Go outside. Turn on lights which are bright enough to signal the space shuttle. Get on the road. Notice that even though you emit the light equivalent of a lightsaber, somehow the drivers in the morning still can't seem to see you. Bike 4 miles to the train station, while noticing all the nut case drivers pulling 40 on a 25 mile per hour road, and of course, most drivers can't drive... either that or they feel that early morning is the time to break every rule in the book, especially if they're in a BMW, Mercedes, or Volvo. Lock up bike at the station, go to work. Come back from work, check to see that bike's lights weren't turned on to burn out the battery by juvenile delincuents in what is a largely white, rich, republican neighborhood with white kids who have tons of money and no discipline, and a racist attitude to minorities. Especially minorities on bikes. They are really clueless though. Being called a n!gg@r when you are completely asian has got to be the most messed up way to make a racial slur. And these are kids who go to private schools that cost as much as tuition at a university.

Anyway, I digress.

Get on bike, get on the road at night. Notice that you still give off enough light to make the Eiffel tower jealous. Notice that STILL, the drivers STILL DO NOT PAY ATTENTION, and seem to always drive as close to you as possible. Bike defensively. Bike home. Rest.

How's my daily commute? That's my daily commute. Welcome to the South New Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia. Bleah. I did this as a student and engineer in Boston. I brought home my lifestyle. Looks like I brought home the jerks in the cars as well! :(