FormerBMX'er

Imagine getting pinned to the inside of that red car .



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.



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.

urban rider

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.

Itsjustb

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.

buzzman

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

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.

ctoddrun

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!

caloso

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.

o-dog

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.

vrkelley

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.

noisebeam

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

mrhedges

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?

Mr. Jim

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.

jyossarian

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.

spidercyclist

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.

scottmorrison99

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.

buzzman

yesterday, the in-law visiting commute. Did some round town errands on the commuter and then threw the removable rack on my road bike with a change of decent clothes in a rack pack and did a nice, fast, rolling 26 mile ride out to Framingham via Weston, Wayland, Concord and Sudbury. Very pretty.

capejohn

It gets a little better every day.

gapowermike

My first real commute was today. I loaned my backup bike to a coworker a few weeks ago and it was in my office. I decided that I'd leave the company truck at the office and ride the bike home. Beautiful weather here (sunny, 90F). Very little traffic since it's Easter sunday. I'm riding back in the morning for my first round trip commute day.

By truck the ride is ~7 miles & 13 minutes.
By bike today it was under 19 minutes.

At that rate I can afford to take a detour.

Cheers,
Michael

buzzman

Hip hip hooray for the MBTA!

MBTA is the Massacusetts Bay Transit Authority, which like many places in the US allows bikes on it's commuter trains in the non-peak hours.

Today rolled over to the grocery store for two bags of groceries on the commuter bike. Made the big Easter brunch and then off to Providence, RI for the Easter dinner with family. Did the 48 miles with gusty winds that seemed at times to come from all sides. Caught the 9 pm commuter rail in Attleboro back to Boston (for $5.50 incl. bike) rode over to Cambridge where my wife was working and we biked home from there in the windy dark night.

Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Happy Spring, Happy Biking.

RonH

Non-peak??? Atlanta, Bicycling magazine's worst city in America for cycling (for the third year ) can beat that. Bikes are allowed on MARTA trains and buses 24-7.

Anyway, no commute today. I worked a short shift on April 8 & 9 and taught a cycling class on April 15 so I'm staying home today. My "commute" will be from home to Stone Mountain, do a few laps, and then back home.
Maybe I'll see a few commuters heading home (to Tucker and Stone Mountain) when I'm headed back to Decatur.
It's supposed to be ~90F (32C) so I'll be the guy with the big smile, bright jersey, and Camelbak.

ctoddrun

Awesome ride in this morning - almost no wind, comfortable in shorts/sleeveless, and traffic was light and well-behaved. I wasn't particularly excited to hear the alarm this morning, and almost elected to sleep an extra hour and drive. Instead I rode and shaved almost 2 minutes off my previous best time - glad I decided to get my decidedly lazy butt out of bed.

jyossarian

Legs are still tired from this weekend. But a light bike makes up for the tiredness so my commute time was about average.

vtjim

Nice commute this morning. Temp around 40F and a quartering tailwind. I made good time.

I'm sort of back to thinking about buying a full suspension MTB. The Peugeot is a decent commuter & all, but the pavement seems to get rougher every year.

jyossarian

Riiiiight. A FS mtb for commuting. Suuuure. We believe you vtjim.

Itsjustb

A little chilly--not cold enough for the tights, not warm enough to be warm. Legs a little tired from also riding both Saturday and Sunday.

Only one idiot driver this morning. I'm in a right-turn-only lane and need to change lanes to continue straight. I check shoulder, see I have plenty of room on the car behind me, and signal my lane-change. Suddenly I hear a "throaty roar" as the driver guns his car to pass me and nearly clips my outstretched hand.

Second time in as many commutes a driver decide to pass me on my left while I was signalling a left turn or lane change.

On a lighter note, saw a great bumper sticker Saturday night:

Your child may be an honor student
But you drive like an idiot

TexasGuy

I had this Big bad ass white escalade pickup like vehicle that decided to do 45 miles an hour right at non-stop traffic. Was quit humorous watching him stop in an attempt not to rear-end traffic. I thought at the speed he was going he was going to pull in front of me. I'm glad he thought better of it.