Took the mtb and wore regular shoes today. Riding clipless for the last few months it felt weird not being attached to the pedals. Almost mowed down a couple peds crossing in front of me when I had the green light. I wish people would actually look before they crossed the street.

Okay, I laid in bed trying to find excuses to drive in but I pushed on and got on the bike. My first leg is a mile where I wait for a bus that drops me down to a great trail. At first I was concerned because I couldn't find my gloves but I just wiped the sweat off on the seat of my pants every few miles . TMI? I saw a fox jogging along the trail ahead of me before it turned off. The ride was good and felt marvelous. This is week 3 for me and I feel stronger and more confident. I found my gloves when I got to work at the bottom of my backback under my work clothes. 24 miles roundtrip. 1/2 done. 1/2 to go.

Weather was crummy but the ride was beautiful, thanks to the new chain on my fixie -

- smooth as silk, and so quiet I was sneaking up on the squirrels. Joy.

(KMC Z610HX 3/32)

Nice ride today. I took it a bit easier than I normaly do, and remembered my towel. I'll take the long way home this evening, since I am trying to work up to the Santa Fe Century in two weeks.

I'm still fighting alergies, took some decongestant last night 3 hours before I went to bed, worked better that way cuz I was able to breath and sleep, but didn't wake up with medicine head.

ALMOST got out the door in time to do my long ride, but given the semi-****ty condition of my system, I decided not to push my luck and just took the short route into work. Nice cruise in, very slow (average speed like 12 mph :-) and I got in a half hour early. It was kind of nice and different to have my commute be casual and enjoyable, instead of being a training ride :-) I'll have to remember to do that again once in a while.

Bloody cold this morning. I got into work at a reasonable hour today, which means I get to leave at a reasonable hour and hit the gym. I'm thinking about going to a bigger gear - 42x14. My knees seem to be okay with the 39x14, but I don't want to push my luck. Maybe Friday...

Really pleasant ride in. I felt fast, for whatever reason and got to the train 3 minutes early, despite having to go around part of the park, still closed from last week's festivities.

Caught up, after a 6-7 block pursuit, to a bonehead in a TrailBlazer that just had to gun it around me to pass on the right in a closed lane amongst downtown pedestrians, then cut in on my with feet to spare. He couldn't quite bring himself to make eye contact with me while stopped at a light. Jackass. Still, that didn't detract much from a lovely ride.

They say going home, there might be large hail - whoopee!

It was drippy this morning, and it took about 10 minutes to get to the office.

Yeah, doncha love it when you give The Look to some jackhole in a landyacht and all of a sudden he's fascinated by a tree on the side of the road.

A gorgeous, gorgeous day that can't be ruined even by the redlight runner in the Honda Accord at 21st Street and 2d Avenue who nearly took off my front wheel. Clearly, she was on some Very Important Errand, possibly even a Mission From God, such that she needed to take great risks with the lives and limbs of others. Godspeed, Redlight Runner!

On the way in yesterday I got dropped BAD by a young woman on a touring bike with panniers. :o My only consolation was that she was 25 years younger than me, and I was coming to the end of a 90 minute ride. Still, it stung a little.

She passed me on the right with no warning. I didn't know she was there until she pulled up even with me. I wanted to chew her out, but I couldn't catch her! :o

On my midnight ride home, I saw lots of cyclists. Most were young guys whizzing around the city. Only one of the 15 had lights, and most were riding on the sidewalk. Some of them whooped and hollered when they saw me with my lights. I hope they get the idea. Anyway, if they keep riding all summer, I should get some great late-night races! I just hope they're not as fast as the girl with the panniers. :)

Heh yes it does feel a tad weird not to have clips. Thats why I don't ride my Wally's world bike to work and only ride it on the weekends.

There is this overpass that has random joggers who like to cross the road without clearing it. Sop they'll be half way into the first lane which is what i'm in before they see me. and they're like #$@^@!#%

Nice sunny cool morning ride in. Feeling a little slow compared to the end of summer last year, but it'll get better...

Early ride home today because I had a dentist appointment at 3 pm and was done by 3:30. Went home early instead of returning to the office to finish off the day. Took some streets home I don't usually take and zig-zagged around traffic all the way home. It's fun moving so slowly and yet still beating cars in traffic. :D <--- Actual smile

All the Beantown commuters take it easy going home, it looks nasty out :eek:

Beautiful day today in MI, which made for an easy 6.5 mi. into work and an easy 6.5 mi. back home. I had a ~15 mph headwind for half of my homeward commute though, which made the last part of my day quite difficult.

I fixed up my GF's bike this weekend (new chain), so I'll be riding it and returning it one of the days this week since she lives close to where I work.

Interesting and eventful ride home today. To start with the weather, DANG the wind was 36 mph with gusts to 47, it was wild. And bowing North and west, north is normal, but west is pretty rare, but turned out to be fun. I had to fight the winds down the hills, and across the flats, but it blew me uphill on the last stretch, Normally the downhill/flat section accounts for about a half hour of my ride and the uphill is an hour. Today it was the other way around. Kinda like riding up hill in a vacuum. Crazy

Then there were the crazy drivers/riders. On a two lane road I saw one car slow down unexpectedly and for no reason (the well intentioned moron) to let a cyclist a hundred yards ahead of me or so cross a street. Just as the rider started to pedal again, a car that was BEHIND the one that had slowed down, went to pass (cutting into the bike lane...not that anyone was in it, the other rider was crossing it) Anyway, the rider, once he saw the first car was slowing down, never looked again, went right on across and narrowly missed getting clipped. Crazy people everywhere.

Anyway, good 20 miles home, made up for the short ride this morning.

Nice both ways, can't complain,

Working at the college bookstore this week without classes; so my commute is only about 2/3 of the way I would usually take. It's not even a commute! Well. Anyway. This morning, 50s and windy and chilly. The forecast was for "rain likely", and because I did not expect a monsoon, one was graciously provided for me by the time of my return commute. Heavy, cold rain and winds. It's not, I don't think, the headwinds which are worst, but the ones that come and hit you broadside. Some of the days when it's been very windy west-east, I've nearly been pushed over!

I am excited for the change in environs to come next week when I go back to Newton. :)

Nice ride today .

Excellent both ways...rack'n up those miles for the Cascade Bike commute challenge.

chilly in the morning and I hadn't commuted for about a week due to illness so I was pretty rusty. took the fast/road route in and was pretty wiped out at the end of it. still a very good ride in though.

much warmer in the afternoon... called the bike shop and they told me they had the new rear rim I needed (my old one was cracked) so I rode over to the bike shop and they put the new rim in on the spot (my bike shop rules) and I rode around town for a couple hours and did the PB Trail with the new rim. I was a lot faster than I was in the morning and the new rim is great! the trail was very buggy and crowded today. the ride home was fast and smooth.

Are you at Salem State? Welcome back to Newton in any case.

And yes, the weather today was fierce. I had a vicious commute in and out of Uphams Corner in Dorchester from Newton with heavy rain, wind gusts of 35-40 mph and busy city streets. Rode back to over by BU with a friend and realized I can commute alone and barely think about the traffic but to watch how close some of the cars and trucks came to him was very disconcerting at times. It was the kind of rain that hurts your face when it hits.

And FormerBMXer I did your Comm Ave route on the worst of days but fortunately without hazard. One of my favorite moments of the day was when I was down on Mass Ave in Dorchester and a cyclist on the other side of the road yelled to me through the wind and the rain, "What are you, crazy?"

Yaaay, I got myself back on the road bike the last two days after having not ridden anything but the Townie for the last 3 months. :)

Thinking I should be flying on this bike compared to the Townie, I was somewhat disappointed on my first three rides to work and back. Then yesterday, as I was leaving work, I realized when I switched to computer over to the road bike I never reprogrammed the wheel diameter. :rolleyes:

After realizing I was going faster than the computer said I was I felt much better and pushed a little more, going even faster on the ride home yesterday. :)

:o :rolleyes: D'oh!

Nice ride this morning @ 50F, and no wind. No cyclists out today! I guess the talk of rain scares away the less adventurous.

Animal sightings: One beaver, swimming. A female cardinal attacking a large worm. The usual herds of squirrels.

My drive train is going south on me, I think. It's getting more and more clicky and noisy. Yesterday I cleaned it and soaked it in (unused) motor oil and it's still making noises. It's the original chain and gears. 20 years old. Not sure how many miles. Way up in the 4 figures, for sure. The teeth on some gears are rounded and worn. The chain is probably stretched obscenely. I'm just not sure I want to spend the money for replacements. Been thinking about a new bike.

Maybe I should go fixed. :)

Such a nice day yesterday, I wish I could have ridden a bit more than I was able to. It always seems like I have something else to do. Maybe a diswasher will help.

This morning was great as well, and the weather today will be fantastic. Unfortunately, I'll be stuck inside this virtually windowless building all day, lamenting my choice of not becoming a landscaper or something... *sigh*