Its been rainy down here in south florida all day.. people at work that know I ride have been expressing their feelings of concern for me about my ride home ...

I tell them that its not a big deal .. but they say " its not safe, visibility is low, other cars might not see you " .. etc.. etc...

This may be true, but I still prefer to ride my bike in the rain than ride my car when its perfectly sunny !

=)

Rode in to start a round of interviews, hopefully leading to promotion. Ride in felt great, ride home front derailleur started rubbing. All good to go now. When I bought my TL-LD 1000 from Cateye, it didn't come with a clothing clip. Initially this wasn't a problem, but the way I use it now, I needed one. I contacted Cateye and it was in the mail the next day, no charge. That's why I have Cateye lights and cyclocomputers. Good customer service. Going to ride out now to ride home with my son. He likes riding alone, but enjoys my company.(He says:D).

oh man
i went in afew hours later. Ended up having this old lady in some beamer or bmw or **** honking at me for 4 minutes. And 3 houston cops 9protecting and serving) ignored her agressive driving / attitude. And one nearly ran me over. There is 3 lanes on Memorial but one of them is shut down with signs/equipment anbd stuff. Well I made the usual sign with my left hand to signal i needed to get into the next lane because of that. This Houston cop sounded like he was going to gun it to take it away. I ended up throwing a glance at hime quite a few times before he finally slowed down and let me jump into traffic. Typical cop mentality here. They serve and protect you by running you over.

Squirrel popped out of nowhere and ran it over with my rear tire (thankfully, I was using my MTB instead of my hybrid). Looked back and the little guy ran into his hole...

On a weird work schedule these days so haven't been posting. But some odd commutes. Yesterday someone tried to rip off my front wheel. My bike was parked where it's been all year completely untouched. They opened the qr skewer and then, for some reason, unthreaded the nib end and then realized (I guess) that the wheel was cable locked to the u-lock. They just abandoned everything and tossed (or kept?) the nib end of my skewer and left everything else, including the springs. I desperately looked for the little part of the skewer with no luck and was deciding how I'd get home since I was sure any bike shops would be closed since it was almost 7pm and the nearest one was quite a ways away. Called the nearest shop, which closed at 7! and booked on foot with the bike in tow got there with 2 minutes to spare, got my part and rode home. Rode the last part of the ride with a strong rider on a road bike and had a great conversation. I like when someone pulls up next to you at a stop and actually chats a bit.

Comm Ave is much better now that BU is closed- wow, what a difference! Had to take it in a couple of times when I was in a rush.
Little Canadian goslings out on the bike path- I understand that the recent Senate immigration legislation will require that the Canadian Geese register as undocumented aliens or risk prosecution, incarceration or deportation. Too bad, since they are doing a job few American geese want to do- fertilizing the grass along the bike path and providing scenic natural background for an otherwise urban setting.

Pouring and another flat. Ijust can't seem to get the tube to sit in the tire right on this new set of Armadillos :(

Meant to post this last night, but turned in early...long hours of late. My commute is fairly routine and peaceful other than the errant squirrel running out or dog in need of a water facial.

Yesterday morning a guy in a 4 wheeler and a mesh hat asked me "where do you ride to everday? I been seein' ya everday for years, now." I told him and he looked at his wife and said "dayum!" In explaining how it not only was good for my health it saved me tons of money on gas, He replied, "it's gettin' to the point where everbody's gonna half ta start a-ridin' bahcycles." We all smiled and nodded and went on about our business. His statements in print look like I'm making fun of his accent, but I'm truly not.

I was humbled at the amount of respect and admiration he demonstated in what he 'didn't' say. Those little moments of human exchange more than make up for all the flip-offs, honking, "get a horse", "get a life" comments and having ones sanity questioned by people who haven't been on a bike in 30 years and think they belong in the toy department.

Was feeling pretty good all day and as I started my evening commute...there it was...a flat...3 years since I've had one on my mtb commuter w/Mr. Tuffys and bullet proof rims. So, Mr Bigshot cycling commuter guy, whadaya think about THAT! Needless to say...I was humbled and dutifully changed my tube and found the tiny piece of metal that had worked it's way through the tuffys...the ride home was sweeter for some reason...

Nice commute this morning. Overcast but light winds and no rain. Around 60F. I caught up to a woman on a hybrid. I'm staying out late tonight and riding home with my wife (who's riding in to town this afternoon) so I let the woman keep pace at a relaxed 13MPH. :)

One guy on a svelte-looking roadbike passed us as we neared the end of my ride. We exchanged hellos.

I was so not-tired that I sprinted up the hill to my office building. Fun.

Long weekend! :beer: :p

Nice ride in this morning. Took the barricaded lane on the West Side Hwy setup for fleet week. Tried to hammer, but alas the chain skipped majorly and I killed my leg on the handlebars. Next week I am going to get this fixed.

It was so humid this morning toward the end of my ride (at 6:45am) that my sunglasses were completely fogged up and had to take them off.

Nearly got doored passenger style. You don't really expect doors coming from the left, sucks when it happens. Commuting in the city really sucks, I need to find a new route before I get killed.

I'M BAAACK!!! Well what started as 4 days off due to a vacation in Vegas turned into 7 days due to Vegas trip and then trying to get back into a normal sleep/energy pattern. I did ride in one other day this week, but I took the short trip both ways and lagged HARD. Thought I had lost my legs!

Today I was back with a vengance! Sprang out of bed right as my alarm went off, dashed out the door in record time, the whole way in no one passed me, I dropped 2 folks on hybrids, 3 mountain bikes, and 1 pretty hard core looking roadie. Paced with a guy I often see on an older road bike, before our routes parted, and made the whole trip in a pretty standard time of 1 hour 22 minutes. IT FELT GOOD!!!!

Oh, and no one tried to kill me, however I did get to give a guy in a big turbo deisal ford "the look" as I cut him off. it was very slow moving traffic, and I always take the lane at this spot and he tried to act like I didn't have a right. I wanted till traffic was completely stopped, looked him right in the eye, and then rode my bike between his front bumper and the car in front of him. THEN as things got moving again, I cranked HARD and left him in my dust, then turned off when about 4 car lengths still seperated us.

In street racing they call 4 car lengths "getting walked"!

Well, don't you know that riding a bike is dangerous? People can't see you, when it rains you can get wet, you could even fall and break a leg, I mean GOSH! You people who commute by bicycle are CRAZY!

Today was good, a bit cold and rainy but not too bad. I took a different route and added some steeper hills and about a mile and a half. Going home I am going to take another route that should give me some more hills and add some more mileage. Looking forward to my three day weekend next week (Mon, Tues, Wed for me) so I can take some longer rides in the country instead of commute.

So depressing. Light rain, dark clouds, kinda cold. All I could think of was my broken road bike. :cry:

http://www.girlscantoo.com/forums/im...otten/hand.gif...Didn't you know your commuting privileges were revoked while you were on vacation?

I'm back to work after a mini-vacation -- stronger and faster than before! Sometimes those bike muscles just need a short rest.

I took the long way to work, what I call my "Two Rivers and Two Lakes Ride." As usual in Michigan we jump right from cold winter to muggy summer without wasting time on spring. I think my commute home would have been a personal best time, but I forgot to start my stop watch, so I'll never know. :(

vr
When I'm repairing a flat I always put in about 20-30 psi, then press in on the sidewall while working my way around the tire. This pushes the tube away from the bead/rim contact area, I hope. :o I do this on both sides, then inflate to max psi.

Never had a pinch flat using this technique.

HOT!! I guess summer is finally here.


During the long weekend I'll be getting the summer clothes and summer cycling clothes out and packing away the winter stuff. Loads of fun. :p

Probably time to gather up the stuff I no longer use and post them on craigslist.

I did my first commute into work today. Been riding home for several days now and decided to try riding in today.

I took the bus part of the way and rode the rest. It was about 3 or 4 miles to work from the bus stop.

Felt good to get a little bit of a morning ride before work. Going to make this a regular thing.

It is now dumping rain in buckets. I can hardly wait for the ride home. Cold and wet whoopie!

So ends the 4th week of my Bike to Work Challenge to myself. I started at the beginning of the month doing a 16 mile round trip – 8 miles nearly all downhill in the morning with an 8 mile climb in the evening. By the time I left work at 530pm the wind was usually blowing hard and it was a head wind all the way!!
The first day I got down in about 25 minutes and home that evening in around 80-85 minutes, having stopped at least 3 times on the hill to admire the view and suchlike. Now I’m still getting down in 20-25 minutes but my ride in the evening is taking 60-65 on a good day.
Coming in this morning I found a new dirt road that had been cut towards some water tanks and this took about 5-8 minutes off my ride. I will try it going back up this evening as a change to my normal route.
I seem to be obsessed with time here but I have been using it as a gauge to see how much stronger I’m getting. I’m pushing higher gears and feel much stronger in my legs. The view is still great on the commute, weather is perfect but I’m still the only one doing it. Thankfully motor traffic is minimal here on Lanai so no worries there.
Thanks to everyone for the words of welcome and encouragement when I first posted. Enjoy your cycling!!

New job, new commute. It's not a roughly 6-mile-roundtrip from one part of Newton to the other, and I've made the unpleasant discovery of the roads near Newton Center. Not sure how to describe them -- they're like, large "plates" or squares of concrete, two-wide (lane-sized), and then asphalt filling in between them and on the shoulder. But they're, um, they're not very good roads.

Commute in: bright, sunny, hot and humid. Makes me contemplate a camelbak for the summer. Lots of minor rolly ups-and-downs between me and my destination, not used to that, left knee decided to scream a loud hello in protest.

Commute back: dark. Foggy, humid, cooler. Feels faster, maybe it's more downhill that way? Or maybe just because the streets were deserted and I practiced my dances-with-intersections routine with more confidence. (still not too confident on the roads, I'm a little afraid of four-way intersections, especially ones with turning lanes).

Ride home was great!

Hottest day of the year here in Anchorage. Whopping 74 degrees which is a new record high today. Breaks the record set in 1929.

I have seen it getting easier and easier, but my time has not changed much. Probably because I have been stopping to enjoy the view and take in some shade a couple times along the way. The hills used to get me and I had to walk a few of them, but today I only had to walk two. Few more trips and they will be no problem as well.

well, most of the week to catch up on, i guess.

i did ride on wednesday. this is because i worked my mind into some kind of unjustified impression that my son's game was at the park-just-down-the-road-from-us. once i got to work where i keep the schedule i discovered my error, and then they gave us the build-we-never-thought-they'd-give-us late in the day. so :cry: had to ride home to trade bike for car first, which meant i had to stop for cat food because i didn't have the heart to enter the house and leave it again without feeding the poor little beast. missed almost half of the game in consequence. didn't enjoy the ride home at all, but the game perked me up.

yesterday was uneventful, and a whole lot nicer from the ride point of view. no ball game, so i got to work relatively early (for me) and stayed extremely late (for me) so as to stockpile hours. result was that i got to come home in what i think is technically called The Gloaming - that last hour or so of light that's left over after the sun has gone down. i really like that time of day. no matter how urban my environment, no matter how rat-raced i am, being outside and on my way somewhere at that time of day never fails to make me feel like i'm actually on a road trip and nowhere near home. it reminds me of everywhere else i have been. i can persuade myself i'm taking a greyhound pitstop outside some little gas station near kapuskasing, or just about to set up the tent in an okanagan orchard, or waiting for someone to sell me some gas in some place like golden or trail. it can even remind me of african game reserves without too much trouble. i hurt my knee on wednesday trying to hustle myself home, so i just took it easier yesterday.

and on the fifth day, there was a ball game in the back of beyond, so she drove.

songs: singing the travels, traditional; thousands are sailing, the pogues; a new england, billy bragg.

No commute today. My wife and I had an appointment this morning and she dropped me off at the office. I rode the bus home. I guess it's been so long since I took the bus that they raised the fare on me. Hanging out at the bus stop downtown: interesting people-watching opportunity. And no commute Monday (it's a holiday in the USA) and I am off next week to attend my cousin's wedding in Chicago. Northbrook, actually, where I understand there's a velodrome. I may have to check it out even though I'll be bikeless.