Yesterday both my rides were in total darkness; rain in the morning and fog at night. Good thing that my Night Explorer light held up to close to 2 hrs of light @ 15w and 25w on some stretches. I still would like to have a power hub so I don't have to worry about charging the battery or it running out of juice if I forget to charge the battery.

Today was warm! Wow, I can't believe how warm it was for this time of the year! I'll take it.

GreenAnvil

Watch out for those wet leaves! It was drizzly this morning, and had rained hard all night. Most of those stubborn oak leaves finally came down and riding was a hazard. One mile from work I took a bad fall, thankfully no cars were around. I was daydreaming, swerved to miss a big pothole, then bag to miss the curb, then I'm going sideways at a 45 degree angle (hockey stop) thinking this is not good. Fortunately, the leaves prevented any road rash or ripped clothing. Everything appears to be intact. Don't daydream on wet leaves!

45F and foggy. 8th of a mile or less near the lake. No wind. A nice commute, actually. The MUP was still wet from yesterday's rain, and had lots of Evil Wet Leaves :eek: but that was about it. My riding glasses kept fogging over.

I used my headlight and rear blinkie on the road(s).

Last nights commute home was....uh...windy. I dunno what it is around here, but I guess as winter sets in, it blows from the south up (right in my face on the way home). Ah well, at least it was a nice, uneventful ride.

This morning it was about 45, slight wind, nothing much. Drivers were pretty nice today except one dork who was in the lane heading towards me (opposite side of the road), and decieded to swerve and honk at me....he didn't come anywhere close to me, but I can't figure out what the heck he was trying.....
Hrm

Windy ride home last night, but uneventful. Overdressed this morning for 37F and arrived very sweaty. Nearly got hit by a car crossing the MUP. Driver and passenger didn't see me at all, but I braked in time. I wish the city had just put bike lines on the road instead of creating a MUP. Hardly anyone walks on it, and it makes for more dangerous rides since cars never look for bikes while crossing it.

Legs feel like rubber today. I worked late last night, so I really pushed on the way home. I took a longer route to avoid heavy traffic when it was so dark out. I managed to average 17 mph on a Wally World mtb for 15 miles.
Also found that some mud still remains in places from the rains we had monday night and tuesday. Front wheel tried to slip out from under me while I was "going native" trying to get around a series of school buses that were so far over to the right that there was no pavement at all beyond the tires. They were all turning left and I wanted to go right, so I went over into the grass and mud area to get around, but there was not much grass.

Did some stealthy ninja riding on the commute this morning. Split lanes and slipped into the small gaps between cars to get around cagers that can't seem to stay in their own lane or didn't leave enough room for me to split the gap completely. I'm sure I took a bunch of drivers by surprise as I just slid in front of them while keeping up w/ traffic, then slide right back out to get ahead of the car in front.

Also slipped through a crowd of pedestrians crossing from both sides that were crossing because I was the only one coming to the intersection even though I had the green. Kept my speed, picked a spot that was gonna be just wide enough and became a blue blur to the oblivous woman crossing the street against the red.

First ride in the dark. I loved it. The traffic was super light, the air was pleasant, and the backpack didn't seem quite as heavy.

This time of year makes NC worth living in. The fall colors and cool, but not cold, air makes the trip so worth it.

:( I really over-dressed today. Temp was ~46F (8C) and I dressed with the same layers, etc as usual for mid-40s. :o Had to stop at wife's work to drop off something she forgot. I was burning up so stripped down one layer and put on thinner gloves. The rest of the ride was bearable.
The weather is nicer than it was earlier this week so saw lots of bike commuters.

The ride home should be nice. Low 70s (~22C) for the afternoon high. :)

Well I made up for your over dressing by underdressing. This was my first commute of the season were I felt cold the whole commute. :( I much prefer to overdress so i don't think I'll be making this mistake again. ;)

Wow.. nice - I ride a similar el-cheapo MTB, I feel that pain ;) Good job!

I've seen that youtube video of the crazy NYC courier/messengers.. nothing but admiration and awe how you NYC guys manage to keep the nerve to split the lanes in moving traffic, etc. Crossing the intersections just looks like a lottery - people doing whatever they feel like, etc. :p Keep safe! :D

Ride in was fairly brutal today, felt cold when I came out to unlock and get on the bike, a good sign, as I need to be cold/cool before I get going - I sweat like a hog anyway, so... Cooler wind was noticeable, as soon as I went up over the railway at Main & Danforth/Gerrard I was warm. Had a terrible headwind heading west into downtown, a guy caught me up at Dundas/River and I did some windbreaking for him, which he then offered to takeover duties on - that was nice, I felt some good cameradery (sp?) with the guy and it was nice he recognised the drafting/windbreak thing :) He went straight on Sherbourne as I turned onto Richmond - without a bye, but I hope I see more of the same! :)

Average speed was up today, despite the horrible wind and me getting pretty huffy/puffy for parts, 13.3mph at 33 minutes and change (until I'm sub-30, I don't care for the seconds).

Another wet morning ride in but I had a nice tailwind so I can't complain. I have made very good time the past two mornings due to nice tailwinds. Of course on the way home it will be a nice headwind most of the way but at least it will be warmer. Low 70s today and upper 70s to near 80 tomorrow :eek:

Inspired by Tokolosh:

Snow in Mt. Royal
My slick tires have no traction
Cars and bikes both slide

I noticed something was amiss on the way home yesterday when my skinny bike started drifting toward the curb despite my best intentions. I managed to avoid falling, but I couldn't climb the hills to my house through 2-3" of wet snow that was beginning to ice up.

This morning we switched to our studded mtn bikes, although I managed to get out of the house before noticing that I forgot to switch the pedals as well. The ride in was fine, despite the fact that the roads were completely iced over. 3" of snow + freezing rain + -5C = skating rink. My wife bailed trying to stop for a pedestrian. I have the advantage of being 60 lbs heavier then her, so I had more traction. She left a 15' long skid mark from her spikes on the ice - note to self: locking up rear wheel on ice is bad.

Fine commute this morning. Temps were way higher than I expected, I nearly overheated with just a wool long-sleeved shirt and windbreaker. I was running late so traffic was a bear but no confrontations. A bunch of idiot teenager peds around the highschool as they were flocking from the Chik-fil-A to class. For whatever reason my geared bike was especially comfortable today. It's shifting beautifully with it's new derailer.

Union Pacific
and the Regional Transit
impede my commute

Going up hill in the dark this morning - a 6 foot bank on my right. I thought I saw a darker blob on the bank so I pointed my bike at it. There, about 15 feet away was a black bear! Luckily he was more scared than I.

Glorious morning after 3 days not commuting (at a meeting in a hotel). I had so much from work at home, my wife dropped it all off this am on her commute (in a car), so I came in w/ no panniers. Fly! And dry (other than puddles), in the sun.

Yesterday was blinding sun too, except for the 20 min it took me to bike to and from my kid's kindergarten to pick him up in the pm, at that time it was raining exactly like it was Monday.

I got rain under one of my handlebar grips and it floated off, now it slides around on the bar, held roughly in place by the bar end on one side and twist-shifter on the other. I think I'm going to yank the bar-end and pull the grip off to dry it though. Hope I don't need to properly torque the bar end when I put it back on.

You're going to have to carry a 12 gauge with slugs. Maybe use an ATV scabbard :).

20 min faster by just spinning????

I'm not a fast rider so I'm happy to just hop on my bike and get to work. After I put on the Hakkas I became considerably slower, doing an approx 10 mi commute (one way) in about 58 min. I wasn't pushing it really, but there was no use, or so I thought, because I felt tired and would burn out if I tried to go faster.

A curious thing happened today... there was considerable wind blowing in all directions, so I decided to go to a lower gear and spin. I'd build some momentum but then I decided to stay there and continue spinning. When I felt I was losing momentum I'd shift to an even slower gear (1 to 3) and spin more. If I felt I was spinning too fast then I'd switch gears again to a higher gear (4 to 6). But I was spinning most of my way.

Guess what? I checked my cyclocomputer and I covered the route in 38 minutes! A 20 minute improvement just by spinning? Is the computer wrong? Am I dreaming? Is this really possible? With the Hakkas on?

GreenAnvil

I've been a bad boy, busy things in home life keeping me in the car.....10 days without commuting. Seeing these posts is invigorating me to get back in the Seattle rain tomorrow morning. Thank you, all.....

I had my first dog charge me this morning.
Riding through a park next to the national guard armory and this mid size dog comes from out of nowhere snarling and barking at me. Scared the living hell out of me. My response was a very loud "HEY! WHAT THE F&*K!?
Scared the heck out of the dog. Then I noticed the incompetent owner and yelled "Get a f'ing leash!"
No big deal. Been a quiet week. *yawn*

Had a good ride home, wind was kinda in my face going up Sherbourne (a slight incline - which I'll have to measure on that site sometime), but mostly had a tailwind, which was awesome.

30 mins 19 seconds, I'll mention the seconds as I've knocked a good couple of minutes off tonight - fastest time yet since I've been back at it. Average of 14.3mph, I'm not surprised at that one - I put in a fair amount of effort racing some cars and a van along Cosburn (I was in a bikelane).

The look on this van drivers face was a pearler when I came barreling past him again, he looked so confused.

I decided to air out some of my 'crazy' tonight, and was doing the crazy incidental music thing that Jim Carrey did in The Cable Guy at the end when he's up the tower, heh. That felt great fun :D

Said another Hello to a couple of riders, one lady I caught up with at the lights by Bloor/Parliament, just small talked but it was nice. I always try and wish them a good ride if I have enough time to converse.

Thanks! I attribute my mediocre wannabe bike messenger skills to video games and the desire to not get stuck behind cars all morning/evening/ever. ;)

For whatever reason, cross traffic was blocking thru traffic at a lot of intersections which meant me leaving a lot of cars behind as I rode in between the gaps created by the traffic blocking the intersection.

I was feeling a tad bit under the weather this morning, so I had my wife drive me in today. No shame in that, though, because we had a lot of errands to run on the way home. Unfortunately, it was a day that was well worth riding, clear & cold, about 35F, but not a drop of rain to be found. The last week it has been raining profusely here, so much so that my car flooded out on the passenger side, but I fixed that (after a moment of sheer terror/panic!) this afternoon... my car hadn't been driven since last Tuesday when my wife & I went out to dinner. I also filled up with gas... got 40 days on this tank, though only 265 miles on 12 gallons... my car gets much better mileage on the freeway (33 freeway/19-22 city). Oh well... I'd still only get 265 miles to a tank that lasts over a month than have to fill up every other day, yet get 400 miles to the tank...

This is about yesterdays commute, as it seems like I'll be carpooling a bit more often at least for the next couple weeks. As it turned out I did crack a rib on Monday when I dove over my handlebars. Doc says I should stay off the bike for 6 weeks, I told the doc no way, so we compromised somewhere inbetween.

Yesterday I took my Gary Fisher Wahoo (2001, last of the steel framed Wahoo) as it has gears and is a bit of an easier ride so my aching side wouldn't be such a big deal. I got a late start so I pulled into the bus depot just in time to see my bus clearing the light at the end of the street. I give chase for about two miles when I finally catch the bus at a stop next to Highland Mall. The whole sprinting on a mountain bike with a (not known then) broken rib was no fun. Elated at catching the bus, I got to relax for about 8 miles until I arrived at my destination stop. The rest of the ride is 6 miles of some uphill and downhill (mostly up on the way there) but I took it at a slower than usual pace and it didn't bother me too much.

The ride home was a trial, as I tried to take a shortcut and ended up with three huge thorns in my tire. I actually only found and patched the first two as the third had broken off underneath, so all together it took me 15 minutes to find the three holes and by that time I just said to hell with it and busted out my new tube. Next time I'm just going to skip patching until later and not chance missing the bus. Which I did. I rode about a mile past my usual stop (so a little over 7 miles total) before my side started really bothering me so I stopped at the next stop I saw and waited another 25 minutes for the bus. On my last ride home I had some ******* honk at me and turned around to see what was up and it ended up being a tattoo artist friend of mine. Heh. Besides the pain and the tire my ride was really pleasant. The weather was nice and I didn't run into any thoughtless or evil drivers.

Tomorrow I think I'm gonna carpool again though. :(

bus-rider's limbo
for thursday. meditate on
penitential haiku

it's traditional, sorta. kinda. in the sense of 'not really'. some time ago someone failed to commute by bike and posted a haiku to confess and atone. or something.

bike will be back in my life tomorrow!

rode into Dorchester this morning then to downtown Boston then back to Dorchester and then home. This is the last of the long 16 hour Thursdays. I managed to keep riding while on this whacked out schedule and though at times the bike was wearing me down a bit I think it kept me sane.

Beautiful ride home yesterday PM. The weather was perfect, ~70F, 50% rH, little to no winds. Very enjoyable. Some knuucklehead in a minivan kept trying to pass me while I was going downhill doing ~30mph in a 25 speed zone. That irritated me enough that I took the lane, floored it and dropped his ass. Speed topped out at 42mph, much faster than a minivan could move on that stretch of road. He caught me as the downhill became an uphill of course, but at least then when he passed me he was doing 30 and I was doing 15....
Ride in this AM was very pleasant as well. Looking forward to a sunny and 78F ride home, and hoping to break the 1.5 hour round trip commute time for the first time since my shoulder injury in Sept. Need to average 17.4 on the way home to make it happen.

Tailwind on my ride home yesterday. Tailwind on my ride to work today. Life is good. :D

I think I'm getting faster on the Liquid, finally. Yesterday I caught a roadie with aero bars no less. He was moving along but he lost his head of steam on a hill. I didn't pass him though. I was concerned he was playing with me. :eek: :p This morning I caught a guy on a hybrid. He was funny, waving enthusiastically to the other MUP users. Nice to see. I don't usually wave but I'll smile and say hi instead.

Man it was bitterly cold this morning...and it was only 30 degrees. I think it has to do with the fact that it was a clear day and a light wind that made it seem colder. Nice ride in...the sun certainly seems brighter at 730am when its cold out :)