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.) :o 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. :D

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. :beer:
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. :o

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.

Imagine getting pinned to the inside of that red car :eek:.

http://www.bikexprt.com/massfacil/ca...dge%202001.jpg

I took my latest build out for its Maiden voyage this morning so I was more cautious than normal. All systems were fine aside from some cross chaining on the big chain ring causing a slap on each rotation and slightly off centered bars. I decided to take the lane over the B.U. Bridge because traffic seemed fairly light. Once on the bridge the cagers came along on my left and began slashing into the right lane for this right turn.

http://www.bikexprt.com/massfacil/ca...U%20Bridge.jpg

I unclicked and kicked in the direction of minivan that threatened to pinch me up against the curb. They immediately backed off, but now I feel like I over reacted a bit. The bridge is very uneven and I was on an untested steed, I simply didn't want to take the chance of getting pinched and tipping over the curb.

I had two great commutes to work. Maybe the weather here in Michigan is begining to break. Yesterday it was 49 degrees at 7 a.m. in the morning. Today it was 56 degrees. After spending the morning riding into work I can take an irate client yelling in my face, because she forgot to take her psych meds.

Strange commute today. The garbage disposal died last night and I left a message with the plummer. As I pulled the bike up to the rack this morning, my phone rings. It's the plummer, wants to know if I can be at the house at 9 (it was 8 o'clock, and my commute takes about 20 minutes). Go into the building, check email in my biking clothes--with helmet on! Go back outside and get back on the bike to arrive home 5 minutes before the plumber.

One other thing, and this was a new one. The road leading into my neighborhood has a lane in each direction and a center turn lane. I have to turn left to get into my neighborhood. I hear a car coming from behind, check shoulder, realize I have enough room, signal and move towards the center turn lane. I hear the car coming closer and check shoulder again. The car I'd seen before is now closer and about to pass me ON MY LEFT even though I'm still signalling for the left turn. The lady driving looked me in the eye and waved "Hi" (no, I don't know her) then continued to pass me. I sat up in the saddle and did the shoulder shrug of "WTF?" but I have no idea if she saw me or realizes what she did.

Do drivers really not know what a left-turn signal looks like? I knew they don't know a right-turn signal from a wave hello, but this just amazed me.

Screw the red car I wouldn't want to get squashed by that bus. :eek:

I LOATHE crossing the BU bridge. I do it sometimes when accompanying my wife on her commutes to BU, in which case we ride the sidewalk, which is used by many as an extension of the Cambridge side bike path. It's a conundrum though- tons of pedestrians, many at least as aggressive as the worst of the drivers, a windy bridge, uneven road surface. I've resigned myself over the years to slow to the speed of the pedestrians, take a big dose of patience and roll across on the sidewalk. It makes it real tough though when you want to go straight off the bridge down Brookline Street to Central Sq.. To do that I'll resign myself to riding on the road part of the bridge. I hammer hard across, hold my lane by being right out there, keep my hands on my brakes, my head up and maintain or increase my speed as I head for the light. If I get the light, I hold the lane by getting right in the middle of that right lane (not at all an easy thing to accomplish) and when it changes I try not to let them run me off (or over), I just get out there and make sure I'm visible. But you have my sympathy if you use that bridge every day and want to cross it at anything more than walking speed.
Use good judgement on that bridge and be careful!- you're right to be concerned and not alone in finding it difficult to come up with an appropriate strategy to deal with the multiplicity of problems it presents.

As for my commute- I didn't have to work downtown today. My commute was from Newton to Wellesley and I took Washington Street, which sucks to tell the truth but I survived it. I could've come up with a more creative (and slower) route but I left late and had to haul. On the way back I stopped at Harris Cyclery (made famous by Sheldon Brown) bought a couple of spare tubes for my commuter and came home.

Ride home last night was pretty nice. Headwinds were fairly stiff again, but I left all my stuff, including the backpack, at the office - amazing what a difference that makes! Came across a stranded roadie out for an evening ride - had a flat, no pump, ran out of CO2, and was waiting for his wife to come pick him up. Fortunately for him I have a pump AND carry a presta adapter since I'm preparing my old road bike for a commute, and have planned to simply move the seat pack from one to the other. He was up and running in 5 minutes, able to call his wife and save her the trip. Nice guy, felt good to be able to help someone out, and got to put in a plug for commuting as well... pretty cool. Then saw a guy I've seen at the LBS out for a ride with his girlfriend on the local recreational trail, riding one (right) handed, talking on his cellphone on the other hand, looking over his left shoulder to make sure his GF was still with him. Lots of families/kids/other dangerous moving targets around, hoping he didn't run anyone over!

I had a great ride home last night. I didn't get out early, but was out of the office by 5:01pm. I headed west across the Tower Bridge into W.Sac. and then south towards Clarksburg on the River Road. Lots of people fishing the banks of the Sacramento and quite a few other cyclists. I made a point to wave to them all.
It was so warm that I rode barekneed and barearmed for the first time since, what? October?

A wonderful ride.

the commute was good today also... cloudy and in the 50's in the morning. took another route today from my usual one, following the shoulder of 45MPH University Boulevard. someone stopped for me when they had the right of way at one point on campus, took like 8 seconds of waving them through to get them to go. heard the dudes in the car behind them say "aaaaaawwwwwkkkkaaaarrrrrrrrddddddddd" as they passed by. otherwise, the commute in was fast, pleasant, and uneventful.

no recreational ride on the way back today, just a 20 minute hammerfest home (on the University Boulevard route once again) in a successful attempt to beat the thundershowers, which were supposed to start at 11 but still haven't started yet. had to pull over shortly into the ride because I forgot to put on my gloves and reattch my lights and frame pump but other than that the ride back was also fast, pleasant, and uneventful.

Good commute although windy and rainy. The new crank, cassette, brakes and wheels really make the bike feel new again. I still don't know now that crank got the fracture when the crank joins the chain ring.

Time to take advantage of a Severe Weather Alert from the NWS. This wind is coming from just the right direction to push me home, yeeehaawww... see y'all later.

"A POWERFUL COLD FRONT IS EXPECTED TO MOVE THROUGH SOUTH CENTRAL
ARIZONA BY LATE FRIDAY AFTERNOON...WITH THE POTENTIAL TO GENERATE
STRONG SOUTHWEST WINDS...SUSTAINED AT 25 TO 35 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS
UP TO 45 MPH. STRONG GUSTY WINDS WILL CONTINUE INTO FRIDAY EVENING
AND EVENTUALLY DIMINISH TO LESS THAN 15 MPH AFTER MIDNIGHT"

(sorry about the all caps, its a cut and paste from NWS who always publishes these things in all caps.)

Al

80 degress
 

I left the house today to my roomate in his briefs sunning himself in the backyard(sorry no pics) it feels like summer again the air smells lovely david bowie is on the radio I feel like going to the beach with some beer and friends but instead i'm doing my radio show stuck in a stuffy basement studio. The 10 mile ride was great I love summer and its coming so soon. Can you dig it?

Good commute today, first day in shorts this year. This no doubt startled several drivers and caused them to swerve towards me at the sight of my winter white legs. At least I think thats what it was.

Ride home was wet and drizzly. Hit my pedal on the curb as I squeezed past a minvan causing me to provide uproarious laughter to the occupants. I'd have coasted, but I was going up a hill. Oh well.

Lots of cars today. Must of been a baseball downtown. But still a nice ride. Six days in a row of riding. I hope next week is as good for riding. Have a good night.

No ride yesterday, found a flat when I got ready to leave for work. I replaced the tube when I couldn't find the leak. Today was nice and fast both ways, even dry for a change. I pick up my new road bike next Friday. I'm going to relegate the MTB to rainy day duty. Now if only the rainy season will end already.