Dead legs from last night's brick workout. But a beautiful morning nonetheless.

I had one of those typical moments all bike commuters have: a driver rides your wheel, you can feel their impatience, and then they swing out to pass you and really gun it, only to have to stop at the red light. And then you ride up alongside, easy as pie, and give them a nice wave and hello! But you're saying under your breath, "Good driving, Bub. You get to wait at the light 20 seconds longer than me."

Great after swapping out 42t middle chainring for a 39.

I just got home from my first week of commuting.

I managed 3 days out of 5 on my commute (36 miles round trip). Putting the seat up 2 inches today certainly helped, and I'll be buying some mudguards at the weekend after riding home in the rain on wednesday.

Best accessory I've bought so far: Lycra shorts

Another set of congratulations!

It was good. Got to work and noticed I had 2 broken spokes. ??? I guess I am walking next door to Bike and Hike for my lunch break.

I am new to the term "cager" (which I learned on this forum), but was laughing to myself on the commute today "darn cagers..." when I had the inevitable run-ins with crazy drivers. Helps to know I'm in solidarity with all the rest of you on here, and that helps me to keep the road rage in check.

I did notice something I think I've read here before, though - that many cars (especially taxis) have an uncontrollable urge to catch up with me when I zip past them on city streets. One taxi was especially obnoxious about it today, and it was obvious that not letting me pass him was his motivation.

Anybody find this to hold true?

Sometimes I wind up racing buses (or, rather, being raced by buses, I mind my own business), and they really cannot speed up enough to pass me between lights in downtown traffic.

Day 2 of my commute saw mid 50s morning with sun and almost no clouds. Very light traffic; I pulled in behind another commuter (older guy on a beat old Fuji...I'm jealous) and then the two of us formed up behind a third commuter on a hybrid. Two blocks later and our pace line split with the leader going left, the middle guy going right and me going straight. I'm sure that looked interesting to the woman waiting to turn left on to the street we were riding. I rode 7.5 mtb miles (moderately hard) last night and wound up with a nice ~5" long gash on the back of my right leg (achilles/calf area). It keeps splitting back open. :( What a treat to ride on.

My wife picked me up from work at 4p, we went and ran some errands, went to dinner, did some shopping and then she dropped me back at work at 8p so I could 'finish my commute.' Riding home, even just 3.7 miles, on a stomach full of nasty restaurant food is not recommended. At least not in 90 degree weather.

I suspect I shall sleep well tonight. :)

Was good until a car full of people buzzed me REALLY close while blowing the horn at me. I fire back the usual obscenity, only to have them pull over up ahead and have a 6' 3" big black guy get out, walk into the street to stop me and threaten to "knock my ***** arse out" and push me. Doubtful a physical exchange would have gone in my favour, i yell at him saying "you nearly ran me off the road! Ive got a right to be there too! Share the road"....and started pedalling again. He made no further attempt to stop me.

Really screwed up though. I was only 2 feet from the curb when they buzzed me. It was like he had no idea that i was legally allowed to be there when i told him. Glad i didnt cop a beating though. Im average height and build 5' 10" 190lbs. This guy easily had 50lbs on me.

I am not a doctor, but that cut needs stiches.

Road bike had to go back to the LBS for a warranty replacement of the bottom bracket. It loosened up again, this time on a 32 mile group ride on some steep roads. I rode the old MTB in today, it was a lot easier than I remember. No complaints, and my road bike beat me home.:)

Whew, well I'm glad he made no further attempt to stop you AND may be you educated him and he rethought his actions.. wouldn't that be nice...

wouldn't it be nice if he further proceeded to explain to his friends that cyclists are actually allowed to be on the same road with other vehicles and next time give more space between his vehicle and another person on a bike :)

here's the last week and a half or so of commutes:

6/28:
leg-burning hammerfest on the way in. temps in the high 80's. went to the LBS on the way back to pick up some new sunglasses and then to the metro station to check out my new bike locker then back home. got a flat about a mile away from home and decided instead of walking the bike back home to find a cool spot behind the church and change the flat. took me forever as I'm still a noob at changing flats (haven't had to do it much). rough commute.

6/29:
still hot and muggy. today was my return to the Paint Branch Trail after I swore it off due to bad conditions a couple months ago. almost made a light that is never green for me but had to brake for some idiot who was drifting into my lane, and the light turned red while I was doing that. I was really tired in the morning so I decided to take the "trail" route in. it's still in pretty bad condition but it's such a beautiful, scenic ride that I couldn't stay away from it forever. I'll still be not riding it as frequently as I did before. anyway the ride in was slow and leisurely. there was a big tree that had fallen across the trail near the Lot 4 exit at UMD, had to walk the bike around it on the grass. on the way back I took the trail again and this time rode the whole thing. pretty rough conditions but it's still a great ride (if only MNCPPC actually maintained the trail). then I headed home.

6/30-7/4:
no commutes. I drove in on 6/30 for various reasons and the rest was the holiday weekend.

7/5:
wet roads in the morning but at least the rain had stopped. packed the rain jacket and wore the rain pants because the call was for rain and thunderstorms in the afternoon. good ride in other than the roads being wet. hammered like hell back home on the ride back in a successful attempt to beat the thunderstorms. my rain pants still haven't seen a minute of actual rain use.

7/6:
still hot and muggy. didn't get much sleep last night so I was really late and a tired wreck... decided to take it easy in due to the latter condition. took the trail route in. they finally got that big downed tree off the path but there's still sticks and branches and crap all over it. rode around town and the trolley trail for a bit then did the Paint Branch after class then home. good ride all around.

7/7:
it's cooled off a little finally. temps in the 70's in the morning and they warmed up to the 80's in the afternoon. really fast ride in in the morning, but since it was cooler I wasn't as sweaty when I arrived at school. rode over to the LBS to have some minor adjustments done then over to my parents' house. the public works department is finally starting to repave the streets that WSSC tore up in my old neighborhood. some of these streets were closed so I had to take a walking detour around them, but I'm just glad they're finally being repaved! might save me some repair work in the future not riding on a bumpy piece of crap road. they should repave all of them. great ride today!

Interesting. I was riding with a coworker out of downtown. She has this very slow mountain bike from when she lived in Alaska and we were actually on our way to a LBS to look at something for her that is better suited to commuting here. Traffic was heavy and everyone was cranky. Coworker was going slow, but it wasn't slowing anyone down at all. We were stopping and going like everyone else. This guy in a minivan kept honking his horn and yelling at her to get off the road, she was too slow, the usual miscellaneous profanities. She finally snaps when we're stopped at a red light and they begin to exchange profanities. We're right in front of a bar near the federal courthouse that a lot of the court and corrections officers like to hang out at after work. A bunch of them are sitting at the outside tables with their beer. We happen to know a few of them because we treat their mentally ill & chemically dependent supervisees where we work. I could see they were ready to intervene if it turned really nasty. My coworker, who is a dual disorders therapist, finally finishes her tirade with "and you, sir, need anger management classes...and I can give you a referral!" The guy stops dead in his tracks. He starts smiling, then laughing and replied, I know, I know, my P.O. tells me that all the time." End of road rage. The corrections officers start laughing so hard I thought they would choke on their beer. Light changes and we continue to crawl along.

Thanks. I work at a hospital (not on the patient-facing side, however) and have picked up a few tricks. Superglue is my post-mtb ride friend. I only have one small section now that needs a re-application. :)

That's awesome! :D

Studies have shown that methyl-2-cyanoacrylate (SuperGlue and CrazyGlue) degrade fairly rapidly upon contact with living tissue. This leads to the release of formaldehyde and a toxic response. 2-octyl cyanoacrylate degrades much slower due to its longer organic backbone which slows the degradation of the adhesive enough to remain below the threshold of tissue toxicity. Due to these toxicity issues, 2-octyl cyanoacrylate is used for sutures, not commercially sold products like Superglue and Krazy Glue.

Wiki

Coffee and a bagel. Unfortunately working overtime, so not too relaxing. But a wedding this evening. It's less than a mile away so if it stays cool I might be able to ride over there in my suit.

-here's my week of commuting = NONE. went to ride 7/3 and rear tire flat = P/O + sol. tues, no work(holiday). drove rest of week (ignore flat, did not go away)! repaired tire today (ripped stem) = ready for monday!
-now i have not commuted by bicycle 7 days this year and cowokers were shocked (no one else bike commutes).
-lead by example!

Better today. No encounters with angry motorists :)

I doubt he took anything from our encounter yesterday. He struck me as the kind of guy that was smug to his friends afterwards because he taught that stupid bike rider a lesson or something. I think ive decided that next time someone like that walks into the street to stop me by gettign in my path im going to accelerate out of a saddle and put myself on a collision course with them. Might result in a crash, but i think THAT will make them think twice before hasselling a potentially insane bike rider for no good reason next time :)

Saturday traffic is always slow here. Nice weather, nice roads, good ride.
--A

Fast and smooth. Hot enough that I need a shower when I got to work. I hope this new bottom bracket holds up.

The heat and humidity is back. I don't LIKE it, but I'm not bothered as much by it as much as most Michiganders are. But all the people outside partying in the streets on my midnight ride home do bother me a little, as I have to slow down. More people barhopping in their cars too. Well, tonight being Sunday, most should be sleeping or on their porches by midnight.

Started commuting the 1st week of May. It took a couple of weeks to get "Back into IT", but now I long to ride. I've only got a 10 mile round trip commute...but going home, I usually manage to slip in a few extra miles. In fact one day last last week I slipped in 20 extra miles after the night shift. It's hard to believe that I had actually forgotten how much fun riding was(is). This mornings ride in to work was GREAT!

Just got back from work (about 5.5 miles from my place, 85% of it uphill). Did pretty well, but this guy in a pickup stayed behind me for like a half mile. I signaled for him to pass but he never did. I finally pulled over (he was making me nervous) and he flipped me off as he passed.

ugh...

wave back, open handed! (rise above)

Great ride both ways. I love Sunday conmmuting.

Howdy,
My commute is pretty nice this time of year, high 60's in the A.M. and mid/upper 90's P.M. a few scattered thunder storms in the afternoons but so far I've manged to stay dry.
I've been exploring different ways to commute, last week I found a route that is just a tiny bit longer (less than 1/2 mile) and about 3 minutes faster 45 minutes for 16.5 miles as opposed to 48 on the old route.
I also kinda like the change of scenery and the different traffic paterns.

M.R.

Yesterday was the first time I had to commute from house to work and back during the daylight hours.
07:30 AM departure was mildly warm and no wind coming from anywhere.
16:00 PM RTB was 110 degrees and a 15-20 mph cross wind coming from the south.
Luckily, my 10 mile round trip is primarily East-West, vice-versa, so wind doesn't have to be dealt with as bad.
Hopefully, these daylight-only commutes won't be that common.
I love the starlight and the clear streets to coast all over.

A couple of crazy's this morning. And of course they were on cell phones. One was an aquaintance and she will be getting an earful next time I see her. Weather's nice with a little chance of rain/thunder this afternoon. Maybe I'll finally get to test my new jacket.