I was in the same boat during my ride home yesterday! I've been taking the long route home trying to get in more miles. Yesterday I had to shorten my "long ride home" because I didn't have my hi-vis vest and didn't want to ride in the dark, the wind was just relentless.

I Strained my groin yesterday as my foot slipped off the pedal whilst attempting to click in. I think I need to replace my cleats as I'm having the damdess time clicking in. With that said, another easy ride in today, traffic was a bit wacky as some chick was in the left only lane, but then decided she wanted to go straight and turn two lanes into three, she stopped before she hit the median :eek:. Lots of pulling into and out of driveways and parking spots so "Achtung" was the word of the morning.

It's spring and more commuters are coming out of hibernation. Got to work a little early and snagged the last spot at the hitching posts. Meanwhile, all the other regular commuters that did this all winter will be scrambling to lock down at signs, trees, whatever. Also saw some semi-famous guy walk out the bldg and get into a limo that thoughtfully made sure to park so the rear door would open directly into some bicycles. I'll ask the security guards who the semi-famous guy is later.

Cold, wet, drizzly... I was really enjoying it. No really, I was. We had such a mild winter here that I feel cheated. I'm not ready for it to warm up yet, so I was actually enjoying the ride in this morning.

Until, an oncoming white Cadillac starts crossing the center line to turn left. It would turn left into an apartment complex parking lot right about the same time that I would be passing the entrance to the parking lot. She slows, acts like she sees me. I keep going straight ahead.

She pulls forward some more, and the front bumper missed my panniers by inches. I let out my usual, "the f*ck you doin'?", loud enough so that she can hear me through all the glass that keeps her oblivious to her surroundings. Only, her window is rolled down (on a morning like this... why?), so now I know she heard me clearly.

She's yapping on the cell phone and stops just long enough to say to me, "sorry honey."

Honey? Lady, hang up and drive.

Decided to drive in today since it is rainy and cold. Rode home in light rain/drizzle last night, and this is all I have to say:

No fenders for me = "W" "E" "T" :p

On the ride home last night, I decided to take the long way. I looped around farther south than I usually go and climbed a different hill. Then I sprinted a couple of other small hills. I'm going to try it again today on the skinny tires to see what less rolling resistance and an extra 20 gear inches will do for me.

Ride home yesterday was really windy, but this morning was clear and calm. Quite nice.

After myself, and the condo, being lashed by torrents of rain last night, I awoke to pure blue skys and fresh air. It took about ten minutes to get to the office.

Lay in bed this morning thinking that i should take the "cross" tires off the commuter this being spring and all. Karma got me good. I got up and it had snowed an inch or so and was still coming down. Half way through the day it has all melted. But i think the knobbies will stay on for another week or so. It was a pleasent ride this morning with the fresh snow.

I woke up and it was raining, but I thought it's nevada, rain never lasts long.. well as it got closer to the time to leave I thought, maybe I will skip the ride today since I don't have rain gear or fenders... but then the rain started to slow down then stop.. Sweet! I thought as I grabbed my stuff and threw on a little plastic poncho to keep the water off my butt... Then it started to rain again, and my wife said are you still riding? Of course I did, and I showed up to work with soaking wet pants and it was even kinda cold slushy rain, but I loved it.. Even had a guy from work pull up halfway through the ride and ask if I wanted a ride, but I was already wet and wanted to keep going.. He thought I was nuts... It is an addiction...

What a beautiful morning. It rained quite a bit last night but by dawn it was clear and the streets were drying. I totally overdressed, of course, but it wasn't a big deal. There may be a little more rain this week, but hopefully spring will finally arrive and I can put away the tights and toe warmers for the season.

Great ride in today, I managed to get up in time to do my longest route (20 miles) it felt really good, I paced myself on the flats so I'ld have good energy for the uphill portions and it worked out a lot better than thrashing all the way. like I do on my shorter commutes (4 and 7 miles).

I'm going to try and do 20 miles in again tomorrow, gotta ramp up my rides if I don't wanna sag on my June Tour!

Oh, also re-adjusted my itialian bicycle mirror at lunch today, it wasn't at a very good angle this morning, but now I think I have it pretty dialed in. It's pretty sweet, I'm kinda wishing i had oversized bars though, so it would look even more stealth...

During my commute to work I rode against 25 mph wind. I was wondering what was taking me so long to do only seven miles. While I was changing my clothes I noticed parts of my body was red. It is it Spring yet? March in the the Midwest is a monster.

had to happen. got a ride home from co-worker (did ride in). another flat rear tire. i did not have the drive (no pun intended) to fix it AGAIN today. this broke my 2006 streak of 100% bicycle commuted to/from work, until today. oh well.
also, i needed to get to school (32 miles each way) this afternoon to talk to professor about ind study direction/focus. both feel to me to be legit reasons (excuses). i do need to complete mechanical maint on all of my bikes anyway (justification)

Ride home included a stop at a hole in the wall bike shop to check out a road bike. They didn't have the models (steel) in stock so I talked to the sales guy instead. Then I went to another LBS, but it's closed on Tuesday. It's also a hole in the wall. Oh well, I'll check it out tomorrow.

Ditto... took me friggin' forever to ride a few miles in Chicago today with the 25 mph head wind.

Good commute today .I hope the rest of the week goes this well. Have a good nite .

not a real commute, since i'm still a free man this week and next. but i went out to get a business bank account and found the bank closed, so i eh, pretended i was going to work just to see what it will be like.

i'm hoping to change something this time. there are two bridges i could take to get where i go. the one i used last time is a stark, barren pig: a shorter ride, but unrewarding to ride and basically makes the time spent getting to it a write-off, since it doesn't take me near a single useful thing at any point. this time i thought i'd go look at the other bridge. got a very safely fenced-off bike path that's as wide as a full traffic lane (!!!), comes home past wonderful things like grocery stores, the ball park and (!!!) the diamonds where my kid played last year. !!! days he doesn't have a game of his own i can stop off on my way home to hang out with last year's coach. :D :D :D

two drawbacks: somewhat further, and if i was coming from the other end i have no confidence whatever i'd be able to find the bridge, let alone the right side of it for using the path. but i can find it from my side, so that's what i set off to do. didn't make it, since i stopped somewhere for something and forgot my watch was two hours ahead, so had to turn round and scuttle home.

but ooo, i like my new bike; oh yeah. beautiful. i dropped the saddle about an inch, and the harsh feeling from my first ride home on it just vanished. gear changes are solid and accurate, but so smooth i kept having to look down to see that they'd really happened. brakes nice, balances nice, feels wonderful. . . and yeah, i think it's going to be an easier ride.

yay spring!!

songs: for jfk, rfk and mlk, shawn phillips; bigger than real, janis ian; made in taiwan, michael marra

Had a nice ride in this morning. Still pretty cool around here, temps in the mid 30s and I had a nice tailwind for most of the ride. I put the car cover back on my car this morning before leaving since I plan on riding in the rest of the week. I will most likely have a strong headwind to deal with on the way home though.

http://girlscantoo.com/forums/images/smilies/rant.gif Is it me or have cagers lost their minds lately? I've been taking the long way home lately so yesterday morning I posted about a lady in the left only lane going straight turning two lanes into three. Well, during the long way home yesterday there was another chick in the right only lane who also wanted to go straight and turn two lanes into three http://girlscantoo.com/forums/images...eadscratch.gif. The problem is she nearly pinned me between her car and a truck to my left. As she got in front she looked into her rear view mirror where I proceeded to give her the "One Finger Salute".

This morning: Aside from the women who caged her way through the crosswalk while the arrow was red, and then stopped as I waved my hand, and the pedal mashers who appear will self destruct if they can't get by, all was well. Argghh...I think I may drive the rest of the week :( .

Wow, unseasonably cold this morning. I was starting to readjust to the warmth and humidity, so I completely walked out without my gloves or cap. Oh well, these should be the last throws of winter.

On another note, heading up to DC tonight through the weekend. Hopefully the weather will improve for my touristing.

Fun ride in today. I decided to press my old Schwinn Suburban into service for communting because it handles the rotten pavement so well. I swapped out a bunch of the steel parts for aluminum, and even after adding fenders and a rack, took 9 lbs off the bike. I also noticed that I was spending much of my commute in small ring/small cog or big ring/big cog combos, I ditched the 53 and 39 rings in favor of a 44t track ring. Perfect. The 44T ring cost more than I paid for the entire bike some years ago, but now I probably have the only 1x8-speed Suburban in Chicago. It still has the "gaspipe" electro-forged frame, and rides like it. Sweet. Walter

Not as good a ride as yesterday, could NOT get out of bed...cold house, and didn't get to bed till 11:00 last night so I was pretty tired. I didn't get up in time to make my 20 mile ride, wich was just as well, since there are 20 mph winds and snow flurry's! and yesterday was SOOOO nice...go figure, guess that's spring. Hope it REALLY gets here soon.

So I took the 7 mile option barely made it to work in time, pretty lousy weather the whole way through, head and cross wind, VERY cold, and then as I came out of the building I shower in to head over to my building, IT WAS SNOWING. LOL, the cold I felt made the "your freakin' crazy" looks I got from people worth it.

I need a massage.

Had to come in early, as I'm training some folks. I think we hit almost every light green on the way in. It was a fast ride - fast indeed!

Temps in the 20's and a steadfast headwind made the ride in tough. Glad I saw it through though, I'm doing great now.

15-17F. Nice and warm commute. Not many cold days left. Freakin' sweated like a mad man.

I forgot my BELT! When you have not purchased new pants after loosing a few inches in the waist this can be quite annoying. Sitting around in my jogging pants and my outer poly shirt.