Back to winter-like conditions. Woke up to some powder on the ground. Switched the blinkies back to the winter beater and headed out. High 20Fs with a nice tailwind. (Not looking forward to the headwind for the ride home.)

Today I almost took an off-trail detour onto some single track paths that wander around near the lake. I've never done that before, but today it looked interesting somehow. Maybe I'll do it on the ride home, just as a break for the headwind.

Almost ran over a ped that popped out from in front of a truck. He was crossing in the middle of the street and I hit the brakes hard and he was completely oblivious. I also almost ran over a woman who just started to cross the street and didn't bother to see if traffic was coming or not. Sometimes I think peds are more dangerous than cagers. They don't even look around to see if it's safe for themselves. They're like brain damaged lemmings, just following whomever's in front of them with no thought for their safety.

Ride home last night was a bear.. 25mph headwinds made it difficult to even go downhill. Oh well, I'm in it for the workout anyways.

The payback was that it became a nice tailwind on the way in this morning. Record time to the office. Also met another commuter that I've chatted with a couple times before. Today she slowed down a bit so we could chat for a while. Had a nice chat before she dusted me off at the top of the hill.... one of these days my goal is to beat her to the top. I'll probably have to plan ahead and haul 2 days of stuff, and leave the laptop at work. The extra weight is a pretty big anchor.

Bracing for big headwinds on the way home

Beautiful morning - cool, crisp, calm. Spring break has decimated the traffic. :) I reached campus early, so I continued into town - another mile - to use the ATM, then meandered back. Dawdled at the bike rack taking off the lights and putting on the chains.

Head winds will be serious this afternoon. Bring it on!

Bah! Chain tension got me down.

I swapped out most of the parts from my old Bianchi to my not-quite-as-old Specialized road bike. It's really light. Unfortunately, I could not get the chain tension right, as the distance from the rear axle to the BB is shorter on the Specialized. The chain skipped all the way to work, so I'm going to go pick up a chain tensioner today at lunch. I was going to try a rear derailleur, but I haven't had much luck with those in the past.

On the plus side, I can't believe how much better the Specialized handles than the Bianchi. No more sketchiness at low/high speeds - I was stable enough going down the big hill this morning to turn around and shake my fist at a guy who tried to cut me off. :D Also, the brakes! Who would have thought that 10-year-old dual-pivot calipers would have so much more stopping power than cantis? I'm going to have trouble running fenders with 28C tires, though. :(

Todays commute was good, it was bright and sunny although I had been led to believe that it was to rain today. It took about ten minutes to get to the office.

Today's ride in was good, sky lightening up as I got to work. When I got to work I was informed that they needed me to transfer to the opposite day shift schedule for a while to cover for someone on a leave of absence, possibly for a couple, 3 months. They paid me for 4 hours for 5 minutes at work, and I finally had a ride home in the sunlight.(Rain filterted as it was). First day in the neoprene booties and I am very pleased. Warm and dry cannot be overrated. Polite drivers both ways, but some needed to be signaled to pass or take their turn at the intersection. I don't want special treatment, just equal treatment. At least they're giving me room. ;)

Nice ride this morning, sunny, still cold and windy but its a tailwind in the morning. took extra time to run some errands and found that a road i was avoiding because of traffic is pretty slow at this time of the day. Could be a good route for when I am running late.

it was a beautiful morning-- 64 degrees, sunny, slight headwind,saw some beautiful wildflowers in a desert landscaped front yard. almost fell when I didn't turn sharply enough and the concrete lip of the driveway curb caught the side of my wheel, but I recovered and didn't spill. first time riding in a while. felt good! 5 miles, about 35 minutes to work. I take side streets so very little traffic...

No bike commute today. Blah.

Temp was in the mid 20'sF this morning. Had a light dusting of snow and encountered several snow flurries on the trip in.

windy day II ! flew in, slower return.
going home, at state road 47, in the dummy lane for left turns, i informed a ford ranger truck driver of his low tire pressure (drivers rear) when i noticed a police car behind me (rear view mirror). last week i was told by a "police officer" i was not supposed to be riding on the road so my mind started thinking about responses to this officer, if he stopped me, of local and state laws/statutes i now have. the left-hand-only signal did get tripped, the cop respected my space, there was no issue.
a hard work day and good commutes = happy biker!

Ride to work was fine. Then I took a trip to Brooklyn at lunch to pick up some Proofide. I should've known to call the store directly before heading out to make sure they had it. Turns out the Manhattan store assumed the Brooklyn store had it when they didn't. I didn't find out til I walked in and asked. Oh well, got 10 extra miles out of it, but my legs were tired going home.

Good ride to work and home. It was windy on the way to work and on the way home. I hope I get to ride tomorrow.
Have a good nite .

Sudden hail=brain freeze.

20F with a stiff tailwind. Made good time today on the Peugeot.

Strong headwind the whole way home last night. Had a good ride in this morning. Low 40s but more humid today than yesterday made me hotter and sweat more on the way in. Should be a nice ride home this afternoon in the mid 60s with less wind.

Beautiful this morning - 63F, light wind that didn't bother me at all, light enough to take the MUP for a bit and avoid a left-turn stoplight. Not quite record time, but within 30 seconds even though I wasn't even pushing hard. Awesome! Already looking forward to the ride home...

Nice ride this morning! 33F with a fair tailwind, I'm amazed at how windy it has been the last week. During the commute in yesterday I nearly flatlined that truck driver, well on the way home I nearly nailed some chick ( NO! not that kind of nailed :beer: ) running accross Comm.Ave. She stops half way, says sorry and then giggles. Traffic wasn't too bad this morning so I took a bit more lane than usual, all was good.

Gorgeous outside. Don't know why I drove earlier this week.
On the down side there was some idiot cager halfway in the bike lane, which I use since traffic is always at a stand still most of my commute. Tapped on the windows as I went by.

Day 4 this week. Boy, I can't believe I took such a long brake from bike commuting. Even in the cold, it is good.

23F & light winds this morning. Managed to race a school bus from stop to stop. I finally won!

Got my chain issues sorted out last night, I used the Ultegra derailleur as a chain tensioner. A cool trick I learned about on BF was to use some old der. cable and just run it from the barrel adjuster to the normal cable clamp. I had already adjusted the limit screws, but using the tension in the cable to get the last few mm worked very well. The barrel adjuster allows some serious fine-tuning. Sweet!

We started getting ice fog last night, which turned to snow in my neighborhood. I still took the skinny tires out, as it was about 1cm of accumulation. 28mm slicks can pick up a lot of snow and fling it onto your shoes with alarming speed. I only got a block before my feet were coated. Other than that, it was an easy ride in.

first time in 3 weeks or so, I had to put gas in the car... :(

Traffic. Lots of it. And bad truck drivers making 3 part right turns. Added an extra minute to the commute.

pinkrobe: how's your no-handed, birds up trackstands coming along?

Nice ride in today, I should change to smooth tires but I want to put 700 wheels on the old fuji and am waiting on my new wheels. It is getting too hard to find a good tire selection for the 27 inch wheels.