tchazzard

It was a very foggy ride in this morning with lots of black ice on the bike lane. I hope to make it home before the rains which are supposed to hit us hard tomorrow through Saturday.

nathank

this morning's ride was extra great! had to go by and pic up my EU driver's license so that was about 5km warmup. then i elected to try another route and experiment rather than returning hme and taking one of the normal routes... anyway, wasn't the most efficient and added a few kms, so in the end i rode 27km this morning (normally 10-13kms).

it was a beautiful day with a few clouds but clear crisp blue sky behind them. near the end of the ride i noticed my feet were a little cold and was puzzled. then as i got out of town so away from the heat-island effect i saw people scraping ice off the windschields - hm. ws it really that cold? checked the cycle computer and it was 1C (34F) -- i was wearing only a short-sleeve jersey and my windproof jersey/jacket which was zipped done plus my gloves --- wow did it feel warm in the sun!

Ed Holland

Fairly uneventful ride, except I noticed a cyclist stopped at the side of the road, way ahead. When I got closer, it turned out to be the guy who offered help with my puncture yesterday - he'd picked one up as well. Of course I stopped to ask if he was OK, luckily he had all the bits to get going again.

Cheers,

Ed

Sailguy

Stopped again for coffee today, and took a leisurely ride in. I'm going to try going straight from work to my gym for a spinning class this eve, so I want to make sure I still have energy for that little demonic instructor. I suspect my quads will be screaming at bedtime.

brennser

**!!!&%#@@@@!!

What a day - rode in this morning excited about being 4/5ths way tpwards meeting my goal of riding all five days this week - got a flat - tried to fix it but despite having fixed many flats in the past for the life of me I could not get a small part of the tire to bead into the rim - pumped it up anyway and wobbled the remaining 4 miles to work

THEN I had to sit in a succesion of meetings from 10am to 5.30pm with only a 10 minute break for lunch so I haven't had time to try and fix the wheel - I may just give up and metro home tonight

somebody shoot me........

Hants Commuter

This morning threatened to be wet and windy. Fortunately it seemed to stop just as I got out of the door.

Lovely cycle in apart from the wombat in the cage, that forgot to give way to me at a roundabout. He preceded to make matters worse by stopping across my exit

Ed Holland

I had a great tailwind on the way to work this morning, so the ride was a real blast. I have also been trying harder recently, and am beginning to feel stronger again. I am trying to avoid, as far as possible, the inevitable winter-time drop in fitness that comes with poor weather and reduced weekend rides. The commuting really keeps me going.

Have a good weekend,

Ed

mrfix

It's been a tough week for me, all the flats at the beginning of the week, the good thing was the new wheels and tires. Last night on the ride home I was enjoying the new tires and the smooth ride they give compared to the panaracers. As I started a fairly steep climb, I droped a gear and the Sram chain snapped, it wrapped around my front derailure and bent it severly. I hate to admit it but, I called the wife to pick me up. It was the first time ever and I feel defeated. Well, the chain came apart at the snap link, this is the second time this has happened to me, I have never had a shimano chain break or come apart on a road bike so I put on a new CN 7700 XTR chain and straightened the derailure. I hope it works ok, it was bent pretty bad. I drove my truck to work this morning, I have to go to the dentist, I'm ready for Monday. Have a great weekend all.

pinerider

I've had a great week, 3- 22km commutes and 6- 12km. Rode the 22km this morning, +6 C (42 F) with a 30km/hr (20mph) north wind (not quite steady head wind, but certainly no tail wind). I bonked (not the Australian variety) on a couple of hills out in the open due to head winds and fuel shortage (no lunch yesterday, just pizza for supper).

I have to take a week off the bike commute because of standby for work. This should allow me to do some work on the bike; a good cleaning (chain is really gunked up), and new headset bearings (regreased 2 months ago, still a little clunky)

Hope everyone has great rides next week!!

ChipRGW

Ok, 1 word describes the ride in today... Ugh.
I don't ride in to the office too often, but this morning was wet, windy, and, yes, chilly.

I know, I know... "South Florida... what the "f" does he know about cold", but everything is relative.

But the headwind the WHOLE way warmed me up nicely.

Sailguy

Today and last night were quite frustrating. I got all geared up to ride home last night to get to spinning class, and when I got outside the display on my light controller read "test". This is normal if I am just plugging in the battery, but I thought it was odd that it was just showing that, with no other action.

I went to turn the lights on, and the 6watt setting came on. I thought something wasn't right, so I turned it off, and re-connected the battery. After the test, it showed that the battery was empty! I wasn't about to do my ride w/ no lights so I had to call home to get a ride. I did make it to spinning, which was wonderful since at least I got the time of my normal ride home in, and some killer hills in the class

This morning after charghing the battery overnight, I plugged it back in (after I was all geared up for the ride to work). The battery displayed empty again (actually one bar of power). I plugged in the charger again to see if the computer was wrong or if the battery was really dead. After 5 minutes, the charger turned off. I plugged the battery back in.. it showed two bars of power.

The only thing I could figure is that the new bulb I put in messed up the calibration of the computer to the battery level. So I started the calibration cycle, and after sitting at home for 15 minutes, it was still going (15 minutes at full power would have easily drained the mostly-empty battery).

But to not take any chances today, I drove. Hopefully the battery will get calibrated properly and I'll charge it tonight at test it out tomorrow. Looks like I'll have to put in some extra effort this weekend to make up the miles lost.

Andy, have you had any sort of similar issues with your system? Has the battery calibration always worked as designed?

Pete Clark

It was the makings of a near-perfect ride into work this morning, according to my standards: about 40 F and dry, though there was a headwind developing.

But alas, I left 5 minutes late; the headwind turned a bit gusty, making me even slower. As much as I hated to do it, I turned into the train station to catch the train and make up for lost time and avoid being late.

Then I hopped off the train about 3 miles from work and got here right on time. Total mileage was 7+ miles, about half a ride broken in two, enjoyable but too short.

The ride home will be neat if the winds line up behind me. NW 10 - 20 mph., they say. So if I head north for a mile or so, into the wind, I might be able to follow the "wave" all the way home, travelling SE. (These things are not always predictable, though. It may turn out to be more of a north wind, or NNW. At least it won't be a headwind.)

toolfreak

I was late today and had to ride hard to be on time.
Dispite the fact i was late, it was a good ride, full moon and excellent weather.
I did some running after i got home and right now; i`m broke
Time to get a beer, have a good weekend you all,

ngateguy

Boy I have been out of touch I haven't posted anything on this thread in awhile. It has been a hectic Fall in my life, Dad spent some time in the Hospital, then mom hurt herself and ended up there at the same time. For the first time in my life I feel our roles switching and now I am the parent. But I digress the commuting has been well today it is foggy and mild and very light on the traffic. I have increased my ride from 14 miles a day to 20 and will add to that here next month. I had to put some serious change into an over haul on the commuter and on top of that I have put some money down on a new Bianchi Grizzly I have been looking for something to ride around on the soft pack trails around here and this one is light fast and of course a steel frame it will also make a good commuter during our wet and dirty winters we have around here hopefully I will have it payed off just after the holidaze. Until then I just go in there every couple of weeks give the LBS my wallet on drool over the new toy.

Andy Dreisch

Finally got a ride in. Done with basketball for the season and my knee's in good shape so I can pick it back up to pre-basketball and pre-knee injury mileage next week.

For today's ride: damp and foggy. Quite wet when I got in. Fun, actually. Dirt and grit on the bike. First time in many, many months that I got to ride in damp conditions.

Sailguy, I've never experienced the problem you mentioned regarding recalibration, etc. I have a NiteRider Digital with "Nickel Metal Hydride", whatever that means. Dual lights in front. I've had this light set for probably 5 months now. No problems.

Ouch !

My first ever apologetic driver whilst commuting, The guy pulled out in front of me causing me to brake hard and just stop in time, He waved an apology then rolled down his window to say sorry and instantly my fury was disappeared.

Apart from that, the weather was wet this morning but the skies cleared up for the journey home, no wind (always a good thing) and because it's saturday less traffic than on my normal commute.

Hants Commuter

One word describes last nights commute

Wet.

Things didn't start off too bad but then it started raining (with vengance). But never mind, the beer and curry for dinner at a friends house more than made up for it

John C. Ratliff

Weather is nice for November here. Rode my bicycle to the Honda dealership to pick up my Accord, and spent $416 on a new starter. The bicycle looks better all the time!

John

LittleBigMan

Over the last year or so, I've spent over $3,000 on my wife's car repairs.

sheesh.

danr

A little chilly and a bit windy, just the way I like it. I went to work at 2pm. It was about 55 F. I don't ride too hard since I wear a light shell over my clothes. Don't want to get all sweaty and have my clothes wrinkled. I'm a supervisor, so I'm suppose to set a good example.

However, the way back, it's always on. About 11:15 PM, the temp dropped to the 30's F, it was pitch dark, and a little windy. Plus, I get to go uphill. I stomp on the pedals. Today was especially fun since the weather was nice.

naisme

Lousy wind, lousy head cold, new ride though, got the Cannondale fixie together and am doing some good times. There is no winter here in Minneapolis, St. Paul. Folks at work are worried about what I'll do when it snows. I just say it hasn't yet and carry on. I think Thursday night it was blustery(a Whinney the Pooh day) and few flakes and bits of ice were tossed about, not unnegotiable.
With it's inevitability, I am working on getting a winter/snow bike together. Planning on using an old steel MTB frame, and a Suzue hub for the fixed gear, giving me a lower center of gravity. If the snow holds off though we will have a four month snow range rather than five to six.
The winds have been mostly westerly, meaning the colder mountain air, but we were to have a low pressure dropo down for this week out of Canada, offering up colder temps, in the 20s.
I will be changing my hours of commute in a week, I am no longer on the 4-12 shift, I'll be heading in with traffic at 7am, and coming home with traffic at 4pm. It could mean a change in my route too, added 7 miles to it for my Monday and Wednesday rides.
Vacation this week! It will be fun to just ride without having to be anywhere.

John C. Ratliff

I rode the bicycle to church today, and got several comments about it too. It seems a bit unusual for someone to purposely ride a bicycle to wherever he needs to go instead of driving. But you know what, it feels good too. The weather could not have been better for November, cool with a bit of a breeze, but sunny. How's that for Oregon?

John

Ed Holland

Welcome back to work...
Not a very pleasent morning here in Oxford. It was very foggy this morning, so I figured that lights would be a good idea as well as my fluorescent jacket. I feel sometimes that taking steps like this during adverse daytime condiions does buy a little extra consideration from many motorists. No, really!

Cheers,

Ed

Sailguy

I took it easy today, but still made good time. I did a 50 mile ride up to the 92/280 interchange for the Canada rd. Sunday ride and back yesterday, so I am a bit stiff today. The weather still is quite nice. I am usually cold when I leave, but by 3 miles out I usually take off my wind jacket and stuff it into my shirt pocket.

I got my light problems fixed. It looks like it was a messed up calibration. I am curious what caused it though.

Over the weekend I also did some maintinence on my bike. I replaced the chain, cleaned everything out and tuned up the rear derailer. It now hums along and gives a quite nice ride.

thv

Back in the saddle again...

Rode yesterday..... Took the longer route to work as I figured I needed the exercise. I was tired from my 2-mile run on Saturday (gasp!) and so the going was slow.

Took a new route to work and found that a) it has less traffic, less lights/stop signs, and hence faster. I wont be tenmpted to ride like a kamikaze cyclist anymore (recall my accident of a few weeks ago)..

Rode again this morning, a wee bit chilly but good... I liked it... Got blasted by a roadie on SW Marine Dr. That felt bad and made me want to buy a good touring bike with slicks for commuting. This coming summer maybe, if I can find a steady job.

I will take the longer route home as I figure it will be a good way to get some much needed exercise. My (small but detectable) belly is embarassing me...

Cheers!
Narayan.