Nice ride this morning, weather looks like it's going to rain soon but was nice for now. Couple of interesting points today....

First I had to stop and wait while a herd of deer meandered across the road. There were 8 of them and they seemed like they were in no hurry. Neither was I, so I just waited and enjoyed the scene.

Second interesting thing was when I over shifted onto the big ring and threw the chain... it was hanging on my pedal dragging on the road. Too lazy to stop and touch that greasy thing, I pondered if I could get it back on without stopping. So I backpedaled until the pedal was at 12:00 and the chain flopped back off of the pedal down the crank arm toward the big ring. I then shifted the lever to get it on the ring... cranking slowly forward, it rolled right back onto the ring and I just kept on riding. Anybody else ever pull this off, or am I just special in my own special way ?

Bad ride in. See my post on the main Commuting page for details. :(

Wow. Too scary for me. Glad you're ok.


My ride was great. We had heavy rains last night and it really cooled things off. I wear sandals during the summer and my toes could tell the difference in the temperature. :o
Supposed to be more heavy rains this afternoon and evening.
Will I get home dry??? :)

Nice Ride
 

A little cool out but nice. First time riding my refurbished Sekine (see the Classic forum) from home to my new job but I figured it's seen longer rides in the past week, and it's Friday - might as well go for it! It took the same time, or faster than the bus and given the coolness of the morning I barely broke a sweat. I didn't really push it, because I wanted an average time so I can plan arrival on regular days.

I've not used them, but we have showers here at my work so if I do get kinda sweaty, I'm covered. Must remember to bring a towel to work. Next purchase will be fenders and a rack so I can carry my laptop - way too heavy and bulky to do on my back.

edit: Forgot to mention - it was about 20km. Most of it was smooth riding, but a few patches of bad Ottawa pavement along the way, which I'll know about ahead of time next week. Also, the cage for my water bottle has been making a slow downward slide! Need to tighten that before the ride home.

Today is my day off from trailering the kids to daycare, so all bike trail until the last mile or so, nice to take a break from downtown traffic.

My 2nd to last block on the road before work, kinda weird, somebody's honking at me, it's a 90 yr old guy passing on the right (bike lane is between 2 car-go-straight lanes and car-turn-right lane) at like 50 mph (in a 35), honking away. I think he was just letting me know he was there. Weird part was that he was dressed like Snoopy's commanding officer, foreign correspondent shirt, cravat/scarf, beret...

ohh god, I set off for the first time ever on a bike ride to work.. 25km and boy did it rain on the way home... dohh doubt i wil do that again...

That was the style back in WW I.

Harry70: Stick w/ it. It gets better.

Cripes. I ride my fendered bad-weather beater for two cloudy days and nary a drop of rain.

No commuting next week... I'm off to NYC! Have fun playing in traffic everybody...

I commuted 100% this week, which averages out with last week to give me 50%. I was unhappy about not riding last week, so figured I'd just be stubborn and ride very day this week. No big deals this week on the road. Except yesterday and today I had massive headwinds coming home...what a PITA.

On the up side, my cow-orker that had stopped commuting due to (assumed) peer pressure has started commuting again...he was at 80% last week and 60% this week, so he still has me beat. We're going to start keeping track. Nothing like a DSW to keep one motivated. ;)

I've noticed that I tend to stay on the middle ring, in either 4th, 5th or 6th gear on the back (starting, spinning, cruising). I'm going to have to look in to that whole single-speed thing. Maybe I could convert to the SS equivalent of middle ring/5th gear until I build up massive quads and then replace the cog with a 6th gear equiv. Or, not. Wonder if there's any weight savings (like I care..heh).

Oh, don't give up so easily! Did it seem too long? It will get easier, and don't feel you have to do it every day, or even do the whole thing. You could drive part way and bike the rest. As for the rain - did you stay warm enough, or do you need to get rain gear? Or just pay closer attention to the forecast if you don't want to ride in the rain. But if you do, definitely get fenders.

Needless to say, lots of other good tips are all over this forum, or start your own thread if you have specific questions or just need encouragement. We'd like to see you succeed.

Don't give up yet. It'll take a while for your mind to get into it and believe me when I say, no weather will keep you from commuting

hot humid and sweaty. but this bike just flies. :) I found out a loaded pseudo messenger bag will stay in place better than a light one will. somebody dropped a huge mirror on the sidewalk along my route last week and it is still there in shards and pieces. next time I'll bring a brush to brush it out of the way.

beautiful 76 degrees in New York City, my ride to work (6mile O/W) was a real pleasure this morning. Sunny clear skies... let's hope it lasts... also
there were more cops on the 59th street bridge... I guess is the whole terror alert thing...

Had a fun ride home on Friday: a few hundred metres of wide and moderately busy street, ~3.5 km of lightly travelled paved bike path, ~1.5 km on a road with heavy and fast traffic but a decent paved shoulder and no intersections, ~2 km of a lightly travelled unpaved bike path (all uphill, pretty tiring), ~ 1.5 km through a cemetary, and then through some quiet streets and a private high school campus. Takes me twice as long as my usual on-street long (partly due to greater distance, partly to terrain and path surface) - but is a nice break from the traffic craziness. I tried to do this route before, but took a wrong turn and ended up staying on the "road with heavy and fast traffic but a decent paved shoulder and no intersections" for an extra couple of km, going uphill. This actually turned out to be a shortcut, but breathing exhaust is no fun when you're climbing...

I was actually chilly today. This evening, when I ran into town for take-out I was even uncomfortably cold on the decents. Ye-ha! The heat broke for the first time this summer. I'm waring a jacket. Going back up to 90º day after tomorrow, but that beats the hell out of 99º and super saturated humidity.

--A

24 on the road bike yesterday to try out the knee before the doc follow up on Monday... started hurting at mile 17, coasted most of the way home.

Commuted nice and easy 4 miles on the ss to breakfast with the SO this :am. Boiling hot out, lotsa glass but not a bad ride.

Ended up sitting next to a guy that noticed our cycling attire; kona baggies, LAB sock (they mailed me one sock! as a promotional), gloves... and the 3 of us discussed bikes and riding throughout breakfast... was very nice. Gonna go splash around in the pool for a little while then play with the Unicycle. Happy weekend all! :)

Alas, today's another very wet day in The Netherlands. Needless to say I arrived at work competely soaked. Kind of chilly as well, at 12 degrees Celcius. Thank heavens for warm showers.

First day back from vacation. :( Nice ride though. High 50s. I saw three commuters. I caught up to one, and stayed behind her for most of my ride. We caught up to another woman before I went off on my own.

The third pulled up behind me at a red light. We exchanged greetings and then I guess I dropped him on the short hill to my office building. :o

Another decent ride in, took 45 minutes same as on Friday - at least I'm consistant. I managed to get out of bed early this morning and hit the road before the major morning rush started. I got passed by two or three other commuters wearing spandex shorts and having calfs the size of my thighs, lol. :o
I was sporting jeans tucked into my socks with dress shoes (always stylish :rolleyes: ... but it was a little damp and chilly and I didn't want to freeze). It didn't bother me, really, I was in no rush. If I took two hours to get to work I'd still not be late. I'm sure I could do it faster if I wasn't trying to get back into riding shape after a year off and a late-season start due to technical issues with my old road bike.

Temperature about 17C (62F) clear skies and sunny. I just hope it doesn't rain on the way home. Fenders and a rack are on the purchase list for this month.

Great morning for a ride to work. Cool with temps in the mid 60s and a slight breeze. Took it easy but still made pretty good time. Didn't see any other commuters though. Had a car almost right hook me but they stopped and let me pass on their right before they turned. I gave them a wave to thank them for stopping and letting me go. Even though it's cool now temps are going up near 90 later on so it will be a hot ride home.

Oh no! School's back in session! I ride past one private elementary school right next to my neighborhood and it was impassible this morning. I'll have to hunt for a better route, which unfortunately means more hills.

But hooray for the great weather. Really comfortable this weekend and this morning. Hopefully the nice temps will hang around for a few days.

Kinda sucked at first when I obliviously rode into a dark construction zone and coated my tires with this evil sticky mud that was doing its best dogsh*t impression. Then had to jump a ditch in my new cleats where they removed a bridge. Then rode 6 miles on a freshly torn-up road where they left the "chip" without the "seal" and rattled my teeth crooked. But then this amazing crimson sun came up and lit the whole horizon on fire and I was sufficiently awed and inspired (yeah so I know this means it gonna rain like hell on the way home, but just let me have this moment, ok?) Got to work and realized I mistakenly packed my 7-year old son's skivvies -- you've heard of Jeans Fridays? I got a new one: Commando Mondays

GREAT laugh, indianatrails!!! Thanks for that.

My commute was nice this morning. I took a rest day yesterday, and my legs were strong. I made good time, assaulted the hills with gusto, and felt very vigorous. I also took down an Ace of Naught. LOL

Was sunny, but cool [54f] when I left the house. I was looking over the tops of the clouds, which meant it would be foggy once I dropped down the hill. Sure nuff it was foggy. Almost more overcast than foggy, but it had the same gloomy look. It seemed to make the bunnies lazy...they just looked at me as I passed by. Usually they run in random directions when I pass.

Finished and mounted my bike box on Sunday. I'll post a pic tonight in another thread. I'm waiting for the electronics kit for the flashing High Intensity LEDs that I'm going to install later. But the box works for now. It locks, and looks uber geeky. :) Now I'm pondering the build out of hard sided panniers with a quick release system for the whole mess.

Perfect week last week. Can it be done again this week?

There have been bike cops on the Manhattan bridge almost every afternoon, once in a enclosed scooter in the AM. I saw three bike cops one afternoon last week. Not one wearing a helmet. I rode through the deulge last wednesday. Felt like I was swimming.

Perfect week last week. Can it be done again this week?

There have been bike cops on the Manhattan bridge almost every afternoon, once in a enclosed scooter in the AM. I saw three bike cops one afternoon last week. Not one wearing a helmet. I rode through the deulge last wednesday. Felt like I was swimming.

The ride in was uneventful except for my turn onto 16 Ave. A woman, dressed head to toe in hot pink [including 6" platform heels] was crossing the street looking behind her. I thought to myself, "She's not paying attention - she's not going to see me", gave a hand signal to the cars behind me and proceeded to turn in front of her. I gave her 6-8' of clearance, enough that if I hit a patch of sand or something at the apex of the turn I'd slide right past her. A split-second after I went by, she yelled "Woooo!", I assume in surprise. I didn't look back.

Okay, I actually laughed out loud with this one. :D

Friday night a personal record on my commute home--15:05 for 3.5 miles. Of course a record is more about hitting the traffic lights than it is about riding faster, as my commute has about 4 stops and 6 slowdowns. Still, my sprint speed must be improving. :)