Im Back!
 

Well fellas, I am back into commuting. After a 7 month hiatas because of a temporary move that took me 45 miles from work, I had to stop commuting for awhile. Well, my wife and I got out house built and I am living much closer to work now. Not as close as when I was commuting 7 months ago, but closer then 45 miles. My commute now consist of a 22 mile one way commute on backroads going down into the Ohio valley torwards downtown Cincinnati. Route home will be courtesy of Metro, (the local transit authority) making use of their bike racks.

So I am back commuting and loving it! Best thing is that I am not losing any commuting miles, before my commute was 24 miles round trip, now it is 22 miles one way.

This feels so good!

FYI: If you have a screwdriver handy, just adjust the high-gear stop on the rear der so it won't go beyond a comfortable cruising gear. Might be a PITA if you have hills to climb though.

I snapped mine last year as I was pulling into my driveway. Nice timing, that. ;)

Anyway, mid-40Fs for me this morning. Damp. Saw a guy on a road bike heading the other way at a good clip. It's rare that I see anyone on bikes in the morning, much less fast roadies. I got rained on yesterday afternoon.

Ugh, yucky morning. It was cooler than I prefer (though I couldn't see my breath) and there was a bit of drizzle. I'm glad I left a little early, since it just started raining a little harder as I pulled into the parking lot.

I hope the huge foam seat on my trike isn't too soggy for my ride home...

Forgive me forums, for I have sinned. Today I didn't plan well and was running a bit late, so I decided to take the motorcycle instead of the bicycle. Oh was that a mistake. The first two miles was solid, completely stopped traffic. I turn off onto a side street and get a mile of clearish road untill my next turn, which takes me the last two miles to work, through even more completely stopped traffic. I should have realized this would happen, but oh no, I got lazy and thought I would be able to get there just a bit faster. It took me 35 minutes to travel 5 miles. And now I have to do it again on the way home.:eek:

The good news is that I have just put an offer down on a house. This will knock 0.5 miles off my ride, but more importantly will make it much flatter and on bike trails the entire way.

Great ride today. Warm temps and sunshine. Who could ask for more!? Well, how about giving me the day off? :)

This was the first morning in a while that I haven't seen at least one other bike commuter. :(

I had a really hard time dragging myself out of bed. I barely made it to work by 9:00 this morning. Still, little trouble on the ride this morning, and it's supposed to be 25C by the end of the week. Hello long road ride on Saturday!

Pretty good ride today! I cleaned the drivetrain on my beater so things were feeling quite silky I must say. I couldn't back pedal without my chain fowling up. I'm hoping the weather holds off until I get out work so I can take the 20mile route home.

nice ride in today, did the 20 mile route, and was only a few minutes late, still having a hard time getting out the door, good thing work doesn't really care when I get here. I'm meeting my wife after work for a church thing, so it'll be a short 5 mile ride to her work. Still buzzin about the group ride I went on last Saturday, I can't WAIT to go again. gonna see how many strings I have to pull to be able to go again this Saturday, though we have plans for a "peace vigil" so I don't know if I'll be able to go.

good. ten minutes in the dark.

The weather was hot and my mood was hot.
Highs in the 80s, and I flipped off two cagers. Dang!

an adrenaline rush this morning! I had a dental appointment at ten and had to be at work at 12 noon. I got out of the dentist at 10:50, drove home and it was 11:10. I decided to ride to work on the bike, it usually takes me 35-40 minutes so I thought I would be fine. well, I was tooling down the sidewalk when I come upon some pedestrians and decide to get off the walk and onto the dirt beside it. as soon as I did it I thought, "Oh, no", got off the bike and looked at my tires-- they were studded with GOATHEADS. I carefully picked them out one by one.... none of them were embedded too deeply, I guess... I'd only ridden about three feet off the sidewalk before getting that feeling in the pit of my stomach, like, "I should not have done that!" I didn't seem to be losing air so I just thought I'd ride until I couldn't any more and then walk the rest of the way... but the tires held! I got to work OK. we'll see if the tires are still OK by the end of the day. F***ing Goatheads, I hate 'em.

I'm gettin armadillos, that's all there is to it.

^ Never heard of goatheads and had to google them. You learn something new everyday. Had a nice ride in this morning. Temps in the low 60s and going to be in the upper 80s today. Might be driving tomorrow if we get the storms they are calling for. Got a weather stick a few weeks ago and it was pointing straight out today and will probably be pointing down (bad weather) tomorrow. I am going to start using it to judge when to not ride in since the weathermen around here aren't worth a damn.

We have goat heads here too, (I'm in New Mexico) almost impossible to avoid them as they grow ANYWHERE, and often blow onto the MUP's around here. This is the method I use and it works great. I had an old pair of conti 3000's that I replaced with conti ultra gatorskins. The gatorskins alone helped but didn't completely fix my problem as goat heads would still get me once in a while. I had tried specialized pre-slimed tubes but the sealant just BLEW out anytime I had a puncture, worthless. What an old time rider recomended was cutting the bead off an old pair of tires and stuffing it inside my good treads. Making a "double thick" tire. I tried this and ALSO came accross some praise for "stan's no flat" sealant from www.notubes.com I found some in town though and put 1 oz inside a set of conti tubes that have removable tubes. I credit most of the flat freeness with the double tire method, but I think the stans is an extra safety net.

The right is a LITTLE rougher than it was with one set of treads, but after a while you hardly notice it (an extra layer of handle bar tape would take the slight increase in bumpiness out though I'm sure) And I havn't had a flat in almost 9 months now...so the bumpiness is WELL worth it :-)

A while back (ok 10 years) I lost both tires on my cannondale MTB to goatheads. Luckily I wasn't commuting, but I was about a mile from home and decided to cut across an open field - I made it almost all the way before I realized what had happend. I gave up on picking them out though and just bought new tires and tubes. We had just moved to El Paso, TX after several years in Germany, but I grew up in the southwest and should have known better. When I was a kid my most dreaded chore was having to pull a whole bucket of them after school every day. So Rando, I feel your pain - $%^##@#$ goatheads!

... commute, part two... I guess I dodged the goathead bullet this time because the tires and tubes seem to be OK. Rode home fine and they are still holding up. the commute home was a bit of a struggle with a strong head wind. at least no more goat heads. i'm sticking to the pavement.

3.2mile dst to work this am, 24.0 dst return pm (sunny, breazy, sane traffic, rim stayed true/round), a ZEN experience! grocery shopping (a bi-monthly event) = sticker shock, non so ZENish . Ying/Yang ?

Most Excellent!!! All the best in your new digs and your ride :)

sunny and bright on the ride in this morning. Then a ride to another location in the wind and light rain. then back downtown and then home in strong head wind and light rain. long work days combined with lots of riding and I'm a tired guy tonight.

Legs felt like lead both ways today, and I had a headwind. It was still better than driving.

commuting weather in spring is so . . . . nice. hard to find anything much to say about it.

Cold and wet commute today. Still not a bad ride. I think two other people at work must be commuting now because I see two more bikes in the bike rack. I like riding my redline 925. I hope it warms up a little bit. Have a good night.

phoenix is coming up on it's brutal heat soon, but today was beautiful and mild.easy mileage day. they vary as i teach at several different locations. got a rack and an arkel tailrider and i felt naked without my pack creating all that heat. oh, wait, i was naked. thus the cyclocros-like chase i led the police on for several miles.good thing i have a cyclocross bike, huh? this is great training as i am a newbie to cycling and hope to race one day. clothed even.
any other felt f1x owners? i really dig this bike. of course, i'm a know-nothing newbie .

Wet ride home last night, thank goodness for the bus and their bike racks. Bus ride home was relaxing. Ride from the bus stop to home was pretty wet, rain showers and a little wind. Cooled down quite a bit from the morning.

Ride in this morning went better then I thought. Good weather, a little chilly but warmed up pretty quick once I got warmed up and going.

A little bit below freezing this morning, and a mild headwind. Nice sunny blue skies though. There was a cruiser bicycle with an orange pannier propped up next to a bench along my route. I scanned the woods behind the bike but saw no one. Perhaps someone needed to use the little commuter's room.

boston area--
bright sun.
35 degrees at 6.45.
great ride.
9 miles to work.
wish it were longer.
will go long home.
:)