Another nice commute this morning. 40F, nice and still. Between my bike commutes and my evening weight program I'm pretty challenged, so I'm letting my body adapt and don't push too hard; I just spin and get to the office nice and easy. Now with the Hakkas there's no sense trying to push it either. Can't wait for Spring to put the slicks back on. :D

GreenAnvil

No commute today...I planned on doing a short commute in from a commuter lot since my headlight is on its way back to Nashbar for replacement. Since daylight savings it's too dark to ride all the way home without a light. When I went to take my bike out of the car it had a flat tire! This is shocking since there's over 1500 commuting miles on my Armadillos with no flat. I have not yet had time to determine the cause. Oh well, I guess it's better to have had the car instead of mid-commute so I was not late to work. This 4 mile stretch to work which normally would take 15 minutes on the bike took 25 in the car!

Nice this morning. Sun coming up, blue skies. Low 40Fs. A little bit of a tailwind. I reeled in one guy and saw a few other cyclists going the other way.

One nice thing about knobby tires on dry pavement: The peds hear me coming and move before I need to ring the bell. :D

Saw a car with obvious curb damaged rims and two flat tires abandoned on the side of the road a couple of hunderd yards from an spot where cagers cut a corner so sharply they often hit the curb. Cutting that corner saves them at least 1 or 2 seconds since they don't have to slow down. Must be some pretty tight schedules these people keep...

Warm ride in today and it's supposed to get warmer by this afternoon. Was passed close a few times by cabbies and livery drivers jumping into the bus lane to get ahead of traffic. Must be the stress of All Saints Day.

edit: Forgot to mention the ped that walked into my back tire while I was stopped at an intersection waiting for a green light. Glad he's not driving if he can't see where he's walking.

Lots of candy wrappers on the neighborhood streets and beer bottles along the roads near campus.
Seems to have been a big night for the trick-or-treaters - Indian Summer weather. Should be in the high 70s again today.

I bought a used XR800 2 days ago and got to try it out this morning. Slower than my road bike with the fat green tires, but more comfortable and less twitchy. 21F this morning with some wind, but I was warm except for my cheeks. Face that is. Love that L&M ARC HID :).

No commute today. I'm at an all day training course for Governor's Office of Highway Safety grantees. I drove to the closest MARTA station and took the train to downtown Atlanta.
Back to the bike tomorrow. :)

Mixed mode commute this am. 24F is too cold for me to ride 28 miles. Took the bus halfway in and rode the rest. *yawn*

Yesterday afternoon I rode home from work due to doing the same mixed mode am commute. I forgot to pack food and hauled arse for 28 miles to get home and pick up the bike trailer. Then on the way to the day care center I had a few symptoms of a pre bonk. A little dizzy with no energy. Thus, I slowed down and eventually made it to the day care center. Once at home I ate a few items and then took the kid trick or treating. The little bugger made out like a bandit and had a blast. I am still tired from yesterday. ugh

Lots of broken glass in the street this morning. That's just so depressing.
Man, the traffic in downtown DC last night was SICK. I've never seen so many drivers, driving crappily. That was depressing too.
Beautiful morning though. The temperature said it was high 50s, but I felt fine in shorts and a short-sleeve.

First ride this week. 24f this morning but very sunny. I've been running my DIY Whelen taillight just to be sure that I'm noticed with everyone squinting into the sun.

I'm starting to remember how to ride in sludge again. With the rear tire down to 35 psi, I can leave the front at around 40 and not be as squirrely. It was -15C today, but it's supposed to be up above freezing by Saturday. Hopefully enough snow/ice will melt that I can get back on the skinny tires. Wheee!

Sprinkly.

Hit a car last night on the way home, I had a horrid commute to work (almost killed), and a sucky one on the way home. Guy took a left right in front of me, and I had no time. Just jacked on the brakes, and hit his front wheel at about 20 mph. Bikes ok, so am I.

Awesome that he started yelling at me, for running into his car, when I had a green light, and was going straight. I farking love Atlanta drivers. I was going to let it slide, while I picked my bike up, just smiling at his dumb a$$, but then he decided to call me a cracker. Threw my bag off, and was going to tango, right there. Idiot got back in his car. I had HAD it that day. Luckily no one else did anything else stupid, because I certainly was not in a good mind set at that point.

Today, was great. Kinda tired, but that's to be expected with 4 hours of sleep on the last day of my commute cycle. Also, weather down here... What's the deal? It must have been 70' by the time I got to work. Probably go out for a smooth spin tommorrow, and just chill. I need to clean my chain. It's horrid.

Last year I discovered a really easy way to make my own neck gaiter...Take that worn out pair of cycling shorts that you never wear any more due to holes or thin fabric and cut off one of the legs at the crotch seam. Wear it around your neck with the crotch part of the leg tucked into your coat. If the riding gets really cold you can even pull the "gaiter" up over your mouth and nose to keep your face warm. Works quite well for me with XL shorts. I guess if you wear small shorts, the leg opening might be too snug to fit over your head though.

COLD! Low 20s again. Supposed to cloud over and start raining tonight, back up into the 40s indefinitely...

Bummer! Glad you're ok. Typical of many Atl drivers. :crash: Did you call the cops?

Killer idea. I have a pair of performance shorts that I retired sometime ago that may fit the bill.
However, a scarf sounds like an intriguing idea. I bet roadies would find that entertaining. :p

Nah, I figured I was violent enough to be a toss up. I'm sure I had flaming skulls coming out of my eyes, and my fist turned into stone. I think I taught him a valuble lesson about people on bikes though. Oh, and I don't own a cell phone (I know, Ima alien). Good luck finding a working pay phone in downtown ATL, btw.

I had a great commute home last night.

There's a stretch of path that's next to a major road that is always really busy with bikes, but the start of daylight saving and a nice night brought heaps of people out, and I ended up in a pack with about 10 riders. Half of us turned up another path, and I managed to leave most of them behind.

At the top of a hill I got passed by a couple of guys on road bikes (I ride a MTB), and managed to keep up with them until I turned off.

OK- It's not quite winning the Tour de France, but I felt good about it :)

Good ride until I rear-ended another cyclist. :( Approaching an intersection w/ the light turning from green to yellow, the cyclist ahead of me slowed (I could hear her upshift and spin faster), and dipped to the right. I was wondering if she was stopping at the light even though it wasn't red or if she was turning right. I stayed behind and to her left about 20 feet back and closing so I could make the light. She then arced left in front of me. I hit the brake and started to swerve w/ her, but in the end, my front wheel hit her rear spokes and I heard her say, "Oh!". Neither of us went down although I did unclip and put both feet down to stop myself from falling. When I looked up, I didn't see her anymore. A passing ped asked if I was ok and I replied in the affirmative.

nice ride in this am. rode to Dorchester through the city streets in good time. then to downtown Beantown later and then home on the bike path. meeting up with my wife for a gorgeous ride along the river back home. Sweet weather- warm and calm.

much nice, though cut short (from extention).
excaped from work 2:30pm, before rush hr, got home and worked on gathering rest of info for bicycle club meeting tonight. friend stated he could ride earlier too, would be "right over" but t/c back while i was in garage prepping road bike. by the time i checked message, sun was too low = no post-commute ride.
i did get voted to "Bicycle Advocate" position in the club meeting. it's now official !!

Great commute to work and home tonight. Didn't do any extra miles tonight, just wanted to get home. It's great to have it stop raining for a while. I've got almost 2600 miles this year riding and most of it is commuting. I hope we have a mild winter, at least light on the snow, but I do have my winter bike ready. Have a good night.

On the ride in had a knucklehead in a truck try to squeeze me to the curb while yelling at me to get out of the way. I leaned in his window(I'm not a little guy), and he decided he had to be elsewhere. Had to laugh. Then a coworker tried to spook me with his SUV and was surprised to hear me bust out laughing. Don't people realize that each car sounds different? I knew it was him. New PI legwarmers worked great for warmth, but the hem came out on one leg. Back to the store they go. Only lasted one day. I'll try a new pair Friday.

This morning was my first no-joke below freezing commute. 26F, felt like 24F. I know that's not cold for some of you real northerners, but it's cold for us out here near Seattle! I had two near-mishaps on the way to work. The first was at the stop sign at the end of my road, I tried to go but just spun the rear tire, the second was on a shortcut through the Safeway parking lot, actually turning in. The backend tried to go around while I was slowing & turning (whoops!), but I saved it, barely. Needless to say I spent this afternoon getting my MTB ready to go, fitting it with a new rack (yay!) and toe clips. I also picked up a couple more pairs of wool socks this evening, and an exercise equipment mat, so I can park my bike in the house and my wife won't get as grouchy about it being on the carpet... ;). This afternoon's commute was pretty good, mainly because I got the rack for the MTB, and because it was pretty quick. Good day today.. :)

http://www.hjsstudio.com/redbala.html

:D :D :D :D entertains the heck out of me, especially option c).

not a typical commute this morning. as someone noticed already today, lbses all open at 10 am. so 10-something am i'm there with my wounded bike. it turned out that the pads were worn all the way down (big surprise) and the additional intermittent rub thing was something to do with alignment. i left it with him and went up the road for coffee.

meanwhile, the second unusual thing. coming down the main road to the lbs in the lane beside the parked cars, i passed by someone's cell phone lying on the blacktop. so i stopped, went back and picked it up on the basic theory that it wouldn't do it much good to stay where it was in a rush-hour road. then of course i didn't have clue what to do next. when you have a phone that's not yours and would like to give it back, you keep wanting to phone the owner and tell them to come and get it. i considered just leaving it on the hood of this giant ***wit truck that it was lying beside, but in the end i took it with me and promised myself i'd think it through later. forgot about it until it rang in the coffee shop.

turned out it belonged to mr ***wit truck himself, and he came down and got it from me at the bike shop. dunno if i could justify why, but i took a kind of satisfaction in getting to say 'sorry, i'm waiting on my bike repairs so you'll have to come and get it from me.' so mr truck came down (in his truck; sheesh) and got his phone from ms bike, and thanked her garrulously. and i hope it caused him to reflect on the important role we bike people play in the smooth operations of this great world. or something. it was early. i don't usually have to talk to people before 1pm.

one more odd thing about this encounter, that's just dawning on me. he asked where i'd found it; i told him; he said, and i quote: 'yeah, see - usually i put it between my legs when i drive, and i guess when i got out . . . ' this late in the day and my mind's going 'say what? you do what??' if i'd known that's where it had been i'd never have picked it up. all in all, none of it raised my opinion of the iq of people who drive those kinds of trucks.

the rest of the day was pretty uneventful, by comparison.

Nice ride, 3rd day in a row. I purposely overdressed this AM. The low was ~55, but with a cold front coming through the PM temps may actually go down instead of up. I missed the rain this AM too, which was a good thing. Might be the last warm weather ride of the year for me. Looking foward to a sweet tailwind on the way home

:D :rolleyes: We found a cell phone once while out drinking heavily. One of the more outgoing people in our group started calling numbers, starting with "Mom." Good times...

Mid 30Fs this morning. Still wearing shorts, and no gloves, but I did wear my headband for the ears.

34F this morning. Contrary to vtjim, I'm layering up pretty good right now. :D Works for me; I'm staying warm while only sweating a little.

Last night I was tired and decided to relax... ended up doing better time than when I'm huffin' and puffin'. Some clown @ work may have decided to pull a joke on me and released air from my back tire. When I went to the parking lot last night the back tire was almost completely flat. I put some air in it and it hasn't leaked any air since so I'm ruling against a puncture of air leakage of any type. Rode in this morning and the tire's still good. So I asked building security to scan their surveillance tapes.

GreenAnvil