Near disaster today as I rode up to work and began to dismount. I'd come to a complete stop and went to put my foot down when I realized I was clipped in! Panic ensued while visions raced of my falling down in front of a bunch of people. Then one foot unclipped except now I was leaning the wrong way to put it down. Some desperate tugging of the other foot and I was free before the fall started. All this happened in about a second, but seemed much longer. I laughed it off, locked up and went inside for some much needed coffee.

A guy with donuts riding his bike the wrong way in the bike lane made me havta swerve :eek: but other than that

Wonderfully comfortable in shorts and a tanktop about 76*, no wind, clear sky… a really nice ride…
saw two doves, um, mating… :o

Spring is in the air :)

16F this am, clear as a bell and calm....it made for a great ride in. Installed a new light last night [Planet Bike 10w], but it was too light this morning to really make a good comparison.

Kudos to Performance Bike... My NiteRider 10w died the other night on the way home. Was the battery or wiring or something. When I took it back, they gave me FULL CREDIT toward a new light. The old one was 5-6 months old. They had the planet bike 10w with smart charger on sale.. I walked it out the door for $35 out of pocket. Any time I've had an issue with anything, they give similar service. Again, Great service from Performance Bike.

[The preceding was an unsolicited comment and I have no relationship with Performance Bike other than spending too much money there]

Nice commute in this morning, 4F/-15C, clear skies. Day break is starting about halfway through my morning commute now and that's nice, and much later in the afternoon too (no need for lights on the way home). Still, I'm ready for spring.

Squeaky.

It rained on Friday, my chain was already dry, and I totally forgot about it over the holiday weekend. Result was an embarrassingly loud squeak on the way to work today.

http://www.nicomachus.net/images/canon/bent.jpg

http://www.nicomachus.net/images/canon/fixed.jpg

Planet Bike claims their Freddy Fenders are made of "Superflex unbreakable all-weather polycarbonate." I'll say they're unbreakable. I rode through one of the construction-related gaping holes in Main St. on my way to work yesterday morning, and the rear fender clip popped off the frame. The fender started swaying left and right, then grabbed my pants leg. Because my bike is fixed, I couldn't stop pedaling. My left foot quickly pulled the fender back, bending it, and pushed it into the spokes of the rear wheel.

By the time I was able to stop, the fender was nearly doubled back and clicking on each passing spoke. I was able to pull the fender out, and it instantly popped back into its normal shape. I rotated the support hardware along the wheel, and the fender easily clipped back to the frame. All told, it took less than 20 seconds to fix -- but still, I'd like to figure out why it happened in the first place.

Aaargh! A week off from work spent boozing and snowboarding my way across the BC interior has left me with a blatant lack of cardio. My knee hurts, and I gained fat. I'm also down 70+ points in the commuter challenge, and I don't think I'll be able to make it up before the end of the season. Oh, woe is me!

Cold and wet on the way in...will be wet again on the way home. That looks to be the week in a nutshell. Time to rethink my wet strategy. Can you say rain bike?

Yeah, but you went snowboarding!

edit: boozing and snowboarding!

A bit windy today. Mostly it was cross or tail winds so it wasn't so bad. Hopefully they'll die down before it is time to head home.

great riding to/from today, with lite wind and tempt at 43deg, what else to ask for?
after waiting at a school bus loading (flashing red lites) an a-ho cager passed car from opposing direction, but no incident. other traffic flowed, accepted my lane claims. no other bicycle commutors seen, still mostly a solo project here!

Rode in at a nice moderate pace this morning.

As I was locking my bike downtown I watched as an SUV did a U-turn in the middle of Boylston Street (a busy urban street) and came so close to taking out the cyclist who was behind him when he pulled his sudden and stupid move it made me yell. The cyclist avoided the collision and I listened to the conversation the driver had with his two friends who witnessed his bozo move- this was after he parked his car illegally. He seemed completely unperturbed by the event and expressed how ticked he was that the cyclist wasn't visible! The cyclist had on a bright yellow windbreaker and was very much visible. But the driver's confident demeanor and immediate blame on the cyclist was disconcerting to say the least.

I've completely worn out my commuting shoes, my pedals are falling apart, my helmet straps are fraying they're so old- it just feels like winter has worn out my bike. I got home and there was a big box with my new shoes, new pedals, new helmet, new tires for when the snow and ice are gone and tons of spare tubes- ah, the beauty of the internet.

great ride today! I slept in and was late today, but the upside to that was, I missed the morning rush hour! not having to deal with 30+ backed-up cars at Metzerott and University was just awesome. I was behind a bus for most of the rest of my commute, which was awesome because the bus cut down on my wind resistance a lot, but which also sucked because of all the carbon monoxide. overall one of my fastest and most fun rides in in a long time.

I got out early so my commute back was preceded by a ride around town and to REI to get some more chain lube since I was out, then up and down the Paint Branch. then a fairly fast and problem-free ride home, although I caught the tail end of afternoon rush hour and there was some traffic, it wasn't too much of a problem.

32F going in this morning. For some reason I felt unusually cold this morning. I almost turned around to get a sweater. I was warm in about 3 minutes, guess I chose right. The wind was blowing pretty strong this morning. One of my coworkers commented on the frost in my beard this morning :eek: . Funny, the rest of me was warm :p . The ride home was great, got waves of encouragement from many of my coworkers as I left work :D . One of my coworkers even said he was considering starting to ride his bike to work when it warms up :D . I guess the frost in my beard wasn't encouraging him to start any sooner. ;)

Great ride to work & home.I add about a mile on my ride tonite. I hope the rest of the week is this warm .
Have a good nite .

There will be no commute this morning, at least not on the bike. I've been putting off buying the fenders I know I need - it hasn't rained here in TX much at all this winter, and I was hopeful that I could make it another month or so. No such luck. I'm a firm believe that "the brown stripe is uncool" as someone said on another thread, so it will be the car today. Guess I'll have to run tonight to get rid of some of that extra food I ate yesterday that I was sure I could burn off this morning. I will stop at the LBS on the way home and pick up the fenders!

High teens (F) and a light headwind. A nice morning. Blue skies.

Late yesterday afternoon we had a snow squall blow through and it left a dusting of accumulation here & there. I didn't want to switch back to the ratty MTB so I stuck with the Peugeot. Didn't have any problems, but I was very careful. Besides, skinny tire tracks look cool in snow. :)

Trail should be cleared off for my ride home. Sunny and low 30s today.

Was that down by the Commons/SwanBoats? Most of Boylston is a oneway. Something similar happened to me last Summer, except the U-Turn was coming at me from the opposite side of the road :mad:.

Nice ride in BTW! Safe, Fast and Dry...what more could a man ask for?

How was it? Lots of imperfections: 1) forgot keys, had to run back inside house to get them, 2) accidentially reset total time, not trip time on my bike computer (good bye, 108 hours) 3) van driver tried to "educate" me by honking, then passing closely and swerving back into the right lane, despite left lane being wide open, 4) flat tire (rear), the morning after I praised the Panaracer Paselas on another thread. Like minor flaws in a diamond, though, still couldn't ruin a really nice morning to be riding the bike.

A bit colder this morning, it was 9F when I passed the thermo/clock thingie. But the sunrise and calm conditions made it allright for a great ride in. Come on spring time... I'm ready.

Met another commuter this morning [Joan] while waiting to cross at a signal. Chatted for a bit, then she was off like a flash. I was in snail mode this morning... not sure why that was, but who cares anyways. Some days are just slower than others. I'll probably make up for it on the way home.

Nice and warm, 55°F. Had another flat on my rear tire from a broken half-pint bottle of rot-gut on the bike path. :mad:

I think it is time for a new rear tire. I got more than 3,000 miles on it (Specialized Infinity), but the center section is starting to get thin.

Cripes... found 4 spokes loose last night when I got home, was a weird feeling riding home, like something was stuck in my rear tire... but it was just the spokes. I think it was from hitting large chunks of ICE!

On the good side... I found out from work, I am the Commuter of the Month! Wooohooo now where's my money? LOL

What a difference a day makes! I rode home on dry streets last night, only to awake to 4" of fluffy white snow this morning. It's supposed to snow all day. Some co-workers that came in on the train say that traffic was backed up in excess of 15 km out from the city core. It only took me an extra 5 minutes to get to work today. :D

Fine ride in this morning, mainly because I missed the rain by mere minutes. The drops were starting to fall right as I pulled into the parking deck. Hopefully it will stay wet during the day and slack of by this afternoon.

Nice ride this morning, brillantly bright blue sky. Getting a bit too warm for my wool undershirt, so I need to get a new one soon.