Great ride. Low 50sF and sunny.
Had to ditch the arm warmers half way to work.

Heading downtown today to do a short (30 minutes?) bike commuting workshop (~1:30 PM). Hope all goes well and I don't get booed off the stage.

Started out swimmingly, with temps in the mid 60's and and negligible winds when I left early at 5:30 to ride out past the usual turnout into town to put in some extra mileage and maybe grab a 'spresso before the train. About 15 miles into the ride, I popped a spoke. I twisted the remains around its neightbor and wobbled back the the 4 miles or so to the train station. This evening I'll wobble it over to the good bike shop, which happens to be closest to the train station and put the wheel in for a respoking. It's ~10 years old or so, and I got it for a song, so it's likely due for new shoelaces, all around. Still a nice ride in, spoke and all.

It was really nice this morning, I mean really nice, pure blue skys and sort or almost warm. On the ride I missed the light so decided to cut down a different route, passing the school, as its closed now for the week. Without school, no traffic and very pleasant on this route. The ride took around 10 minutes.

As I am going on a trip this evening this is my last commute for the week. For the week I was 4 of 4 in bike commutes. For the year I am -5 for bike commutes in that I did not commute by bike this year on 5 occasions.

Truman, which is "the good bike shop?" I know of only one in my area of far north Fort Worth, but would love to have other options...

Thanks!

Ride this morning was awesome! Left about 30 minutes later than usual, so the sun was already showing signs of life when I left. Usually when I leave late the traffic is awful, but not today. Very cool. Hit 2 of the 4 lights perfectly (that never happens) and as a result tied my time for fastest ride in yet. Slight tailwind half the way certainly didn't hurt, but I'll pay the price for that on the way home in a couple hours...

I got the race bike out today, wonderful ride. I won't do this often as I worry about having that bike at work but for such a nice day it was worth it.

The warmth has come. 92 for yesterday's ride home. Forecast to be 97 today. (which means about 95 for ride home)

I guess the heat will be here soon.

Al

The bike was at work following a couple of atrocious work days so no journey in this morning but I rode all the way home again and managed that 11 or so miles in just under an hour.

I'm gonna be dead chuffed when I get this down to 45 minutes and people stop passing me

But then I'm curently about 250lbs, am riding a 26" wheeled folder and carry a dirty great crumpler stuffed with clothes and a laptop so I guess I'll be a little slow for a while.

Walked out the door this morning to find that I had a flat tire...on the car. BUHAHAHAHAHAHA! No problem!

'twas an average spring commute today:

temps in the 80s, bikini-clad coeds tanning on the quad, bike cops (with their bikes) in the men's restroom...

- oh yeah... what is up with that bag of poppyseed bagels at the intersection of Carolina and Hillsborough?
I found a half-shucked ear of corn lying there a month ago... what is going on?

and the pollen in the air is driving me nuts. really.

Fastest ride to work ever(18MPH average), marred by getting cut off from behind turning left into the driveway at work. I was taking the lane and signaling left. Highbeamed and yelled at them, contractors went in the back way to avoid me. On the way home I was almost left hooked by an oncoming car pulling away from a red light to make a left turn onto the highway I was crossing. He stopped in the middle of the intersection, so I drew his attention to my green light and said "My green light, Buddy!" Guess he missed the lights and bright orange shirt. No suprise, he wasn't bright enough to realize red light means stop. Picking up my new Giant OCR2 in 8 days, should really smoke the times I get on the MTB. Lived another day, rode both ways,can't complain too much. Ride on.

Beautiful commute today. I had a headwind downtown, and once out of the city, I had a nice tailwind (it's usually the opposite). A car full of high school girls shouted "Hey biker!" as they turned into the local ice rink. I laughed, because I would have done the same thing when I was their age.

Okay, it's a gorgeous day. One break in a long string of rainy days, so I have to get off BF, get all my assignments in, and sneak out for an extended detour home. I'll post about it tomorrow.

absolutely wonderful commute to work today. The weather was a little chilly on the way there, but a balmy 68 on the way home.

Overshadowed by an unfortunate cut-off by a driver which was far too close for comfort...drove me into a pot hole and blew my rear innertube. Walked it to the bikestore because I didn't have anything on me to fix it (got the bike a week ago, wife said "you can get the bike, but NO accessories). Had the innertube changed, spent $100 on accessories. I'm prepared for another dangerous driver to cut me off and send me into a pot hole again.

good commute today... I left later than I wanted to this morning, what else is new? it was in the high 50's and the ground was still somewhat moist from a passing thunder shower the night before. no water on me at all, thank you fenders! I was pretty slow due to being tired and taking it a little easy due to the wet road so I took the trail route in. sluggish pace, but pleasant and no problems.

it warmed up to the high 70's in the afternoon. got out of class late and did a two hour ride around town. hit up all my usual routes. passed a stopped car on the left at one point and was glad I chose to pass on the left (driver's side) as the door opened on the passenger side. then a little later on someone started to pull a left turn in front of me at a major intersection, I yelled "WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!" and the car stopped, and I kept going, heard bystanders shouting something that I couldn't hear. let's see what I could have done wrong... green light - check, right-of-way - check, taking the lane - check, bright yellow jersey visible for miles away - check, in broad daylight - check. I was expecting it, I usually assume that drivers are gonna pull the dumba** move and I was proven right once again. I'm sure it wasn't on purpose, but it still goes to show you really do have to think for two out there.

after getting back to campus I hammered back home through a 13MPH headwind, was considering taking the trail route back also but opted for the road. no problems there at all. during a rest stop in a parking lot I heard someone on the road behind the parking lot (a 45MPH road) do a sudden stop, with the loudest, longest, most gnarly sounding brake screech I've ever heard in my life. it seriously lasted for about 5 seconds, in my estimation. that must have been a pretty bad near miss. took the big hill slowly, and counted how many cars in a traffic backup on the other side of the road had single occupants. most of them did. then later on, while on the right in a WOL on my street I saw in my mirror (how did I ever cycle without it?) someone behind me with their right signal on so I slowed down a little and let em pass me and make their turn. chalk another one up for defensive riding.

really fun commute/ride, aside from a couple minor incidents with drivers.

So uhhh...let's see what happened on the way home. It was in the 70's when I left the office so I decided to ride south on the FDR MUP, make my way around the southern tip of Manhattan and north on the Hudson Greenway and then cut through Central Park and home. Now here's what happened:

1. At Chelsea Piers, watched a slow moving cyclist wander into the southbound lane of the MUP, directly into the path of some speeding roadies. Heard the lead roadie's brakes lockup and watched as he skidded into the wandering cyclist and exclaim, "You sonuva...!!!". Both riders were ok although one was a little steamed.
2. Saw a roadie drafting a fixie as they both flew past me. Dunno if the fixie knew the roadie was there. Interesting contrast in cyclist clothing and bikes.
3. Waiting for the light at 54th St. to cross the West Side Highway, a fellow cyclist on a new mtb asked me where the nearest gas station was. I told him, then looked at his wheel and saw he had presta valves. I told him a gas station's air pump won't be able to pump his tires and offered to lend him my pump. Spent 5 mins. trying to change the head from Schrader to presta. Then him, me and another guy who was walking tried for 10 mins. to pump his tire. Then I spent another couple mins. really changing it to presta and then the pump worked and he was able to pump his tire.
4. Got insulted by some fat-arse w/ Virginia plates as she passed me very closely. Since it was just after 7 pm when the park is closed, I thought that was rude, especially as she's from out of town. Too bad I couldn't catch up w/ her to spray her down w/ water and tell her to cool off.

I'm glad I took the long way home.

Nice.

great ride in this am. pounding the pedals on the way in and on the way home. trying to get my speed up a bit. Need to get some good long road rides in this weekend. a little rain this mornin', clear with a headwind this afternoon.

Easy ride. 3.5 miles to the train station, 2 miles through the Chicago Loop rush hour to class, 2 miles through the abandoned after-dark Loop back to the train station, then another 3.5 back to the house (including the always creepy detour through the pitch-black county fairgrounds). There was lightning in the distance the whole ride home, very pretty. My timing was perfect, marble-sized hail started coming down about 5 minutes after I got home.

Also discovered that my Bell red LED light apparently sucks batteries even when it's off. When I bought it I put in some old batteries, so when it didn't work a week later I though it was a fluke, put in fresh batteries, and did my ride. Now two weeks later it didn't work again (after only an hours use on a set of brand new AAAs). The light works well enough, I guess I'll just live with putting the batteries in right before I use it and taking them out as soon as I'm done.

54 degrees. Rain in mid-Michigan. 20.5 miles in 1 hour 25 mins. It absolutely poured for about an hour (most of the commute) of my commute. I was having fantasies of being picked up by my wife and driven the rest of the way into work. The lightening in the clouds was spectacular.

Sunny and warm at 60F. Kept getting buzzed by the same truck most of the way down Lex. until I passed him once and for all. Passed another commuter riding in scrubs. She looked a little wobbly so I helped her out over some rough stuff by taking the whole lane so she'd have room to maneuver around it. Later, a truck driver let me know he was making a left as he passed me so I said thanks, slowed up, fell in behind him and made the left with him since I was going that way too.

No ride this morning, but yesterday afternoon I got well and truly reeled in. First time that's happened in over a year.

Granted the guy was wearing full performance clothing and riding a bare-bones lightweight race bike of some sort, so he had a slight advantage. (My Peugeot with all the stuff on it probably weighs in around 35 to 40 pounds, and I have platform pedals.) He was also pushing hard. Nice guy though. I was watching him approach and I was coasting over some rough pavement, which let him catch me even faster. He slipped up along side me, matched my speed, and looked over. We said hi to each other and inquired about each other's well being. He was good. I was good. Off he went.

It's just so rare that I had to write about it.

Awesome ride today. ~58F when I left home.
Very light traffic. Is it a holiday? Must be. I'm only working a half day today.
Gotta go home and help the wife get ready for Sunday -- clean the house, cut the grass, wash the pollen off the cars, etc. We're having a few people over, including the m-in-law.

That is an unusual experience. Most of the Lance wanna bees that I see on my commute hardly give me a second glance.

A bit cloudy, a bit cool. It was nice to shake the cobwebs out of my head from being up too late dancing last night. Waking up this morning was worth it though.