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.

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.

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 . 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.

I awoke to a glorious morning of deep blue skies and mild temps. It took about ten minutes to get to the office.

Nice ride this morning, not too cold or windy.

Cool with a high overcast. This is the second day I've ridden my magic gear fixie and I'm liking it very much. With luck my clients may leave me alone to get my work done and I hope I can sneak out of the office with some daylight remaining. It would be nice to get in a few more miles this afternoon.

gettin' tired of people at work commenting on my clothes as i walk in the door from the commute.

"you look like you're ready for a trek" (meaning journey, not the bike)
"whoa, you look like an alien"
"wow, you look all suited up"
"you look like a peruvian bike herder" -- a friend said this last night. i had a baja on... that's about all i can figure prompted her saying that.

just gets old. and the thing is, i just wear tights under baggy shorts, a slim Marmot jacket (or baja), reflective sunglasses, and a helmet. and somehow this get-up conveys that i'm prepared for anything.

LOL I know what you mean, I dress about the same...but I guess our "look" conveys "I'm hard core take notice" or something....if these people are all so fascinated with cyclists, why don't they get there own darn bike and stop staring! :-) (or at least notice us on the road!)

Snow in New Mexico today. Hurray! After having the driest winter on record (+100 yrs), the 4-6 inches of snow is more than welcome, and I'm happy not to ride today. It won't last though. Going up to 50 degrees tomorrow.

I had only 1.5 hrs of sleep last night so I didn't ride this morning ... Do you guys think that was reasonable? Or am I just being a wimp?

Dude, you've just got to post some pics now!!


The only comments I've ever gotten have been on my super-duper bright HHCMF shirt.

OK, I guess I opened myself up for that one.

Pics to come later...

Sunny day, perfect for riding. So I jumped in my car and drove to NJ for a meeting (40 miles). Was envious of all the commuters I saw on the WSH MUP. Also had to dea with 2 cagers cutting me off. The first came from two lanes over to make a left in front of me. He stopped directly in front of me and that's when I saw he was on his cellphone. I honked and he didn't look my way. Second cager decides he needs his Starbucks at the last minute so from the right lane and signaling a right turn, he cuts me off and gets into the left lane to turn into the strip mall instead. He also got a honk. Cagers are idiots to everyone, not just cyclists.