Yeah if you make a mistake, you end up inside a cave with an impetuous duck and an irate Arab! :eek: :D (Some readers will understand.)

Nice commute this morning. Roughly 60F and overcast, but no wind. I passed the same group of three commuters that I passed a couple of days ago.

Wet, Windy today, a real challenge not to overheat. I've set my Lemond Reno up for wet weather so I'll be riding that the rest of the week. I plan to ebay the frame (too big) and grab one of those new XRP Comp frames from Nashbar.

Everything was great until i wiped out on a freshly painted crosswalk. Yeah, don't flame me, but this crosswalk wasn't at a normal intersection. It is the only way to get across a fork onto a curb cut and a MUP trail. It just started showering, traffic was clear and I didn't notice the new paint. It's worse than ice. Wham! Road rash down my left side, cracked my helmet. But I was concerned more about my bike, and only the brake hoods got scraped up.

Made it the rest of the way to work, cleaned up and now more bruised ego than anything. I hate road rash...

No ride today. http://users.telenet.be/eforum/emoti...d/boese069.gif My m-in-law fell again yesterday (3rd time in <3 weeks) so I have to leave at lunchtime and help my wife get her to the doctor.

GT -- the truck thing -- I know what you're talking about. Same thing happened to me last week.

Soaking rain and wind, but otherwise great.

Perfect weather: 15c, sunny, no wind. Unfortunately, motorists are progressively becoming more aggressive and dangerous. Stopped at a red light 15m beyond where the bike lane temporarily stops, I watched a car in my rear-view mirror race along in the bike lane behind me, squeezing between the line of cars in the through lane to his left and the line of parked cars on the right, next to the bike-lane. Naturally, he roars right up on me and honks for me to get out of his way when the light turned green and decided to accelerate past me two inches from my left. The woman in the van who made her left turn right in front of me a short time afterward seemed startled that my AirZounds horn was so loud as I swerved to miss slamming into the front quarter panel of her van, but still thought it was worth it to risk my life rather than wait two seconds while I passed in my ROW. Other than that, a fine ride. I need a drink. Sigh.

Yesterday after work I raced a haboob home.
Riding NNE, I made it just in time as it aproached from the SE at 30mph.
Pics from local news.

Here is a direct link to the ch12 newstory video: mms://wms.azcentral.com/kpnx/news/0606dust10pm.wmv

I did my very firsy commute today! I am dedicated to riding my bike to work from now on. Everyday. I ride a LeMond Reno with a 105 group. it's only a six mile ride but at 20mph it takes less time then it did in my car!!! I love missing all the traffic.

Ugh! Fish Guts!?!?!
 

Riding to work Monday morning I noticed that someone had left a wad of plastic bags filled with what appeared to be fish guts / fins / etc. on the side of the bike path - presumably to rot in the sun.

This morning, I could tell that the offensive material was still there, at least 200 yards (downwind) before I saw the pile. I called the city to have them send someone out to clean it up, but I'm not optimistic that it'll happen anytime soon.

http://www.omba.org/forum/images/smiles/puke.gif
(added, with many thanks to LilSprocket)

Yikes! My commute was fast and good both ways, no haboobs.:) No maniac drivers either, maybe because I only had to work half a day. The nuts are still working.

It was cool, overcast and misting this morning when I left. Most of the ride was into a steady headwind. Even then, it only took me 4.5 minutes more to complete the ride (33.85 miles).

Seeing as this is only my second full week of commuting by bicycle, I'm still learning what pace I need to keep in order to get to work in a reasonable amount of time. Right now, I'm around 14mph average for the distance. My goal is to get my average speed up to 17mph. That would make the commute a nice round 2 hours.

No commute today (carpool day) but last night's ride home was fun since it included a stop at the Y for the Wonder Twins' first swim lesson. That was fun. And boy, did they sleep well last night.

Thanks LilSprocket, you captured my sentiment exactly!

The commute home was a little drizzily, but lucky me remembered to bring the jacket and glasses, so it was fun. The morning commute was bad, the roads were wet, the rock roads were mud. You get the picture.

Nice ride home yesterday, rode home with a newly recruited commuter to show him the ropes a little and show him a different route that I use.

No ride today cuz we're shopping for a house BIG TIME and found one close to work I wanted to look at. We got an offer and accepted it yesterday and are now on pins and needles to see if the net out is going to work for us, keep your fingers crossed for me! Housing market in Albuquerque is insane right whiterabbit!?!

I guess my post about the commute today was deleted... that's weird.

anyway, I was up late last night because I was running a show in VA the night before and it ended really late so I had a hell of a time getting up this morning and was therefore running late. but boy if there was ever a day to be running late this was it... this was probably one of the fastest commutes I've ever done. a light I usually wait at forever was green as I was approaching it so I was able to stay at speed going through the intersection. awesome!

after class I rode over to downtown CP to run some errands then to the metro station to check out the bike locker I'll be renting soon. then home through a pretty stiff headwind (so that's why I was so fast this morning). that slowed me up a little bit. oh well. fun ride home though, for sure.

WOW! :eek: That's freakin' awesome! Glad you made it home...
I couldn't imagine being outdoors, attempting to breathe in a "haboob"

I had a great commute all the way around today... Mostly respectful cagers, even a few smiles and waves! No flats, beautiful weather... said "hi" to a commuter that pulled up to me while at a red light, he said 'hi' looked both ways and went through the red :rolleyes: I waited for the green light... saw another femme commuter YAAY!!! while I rode home... I was singing aloud as I approched a few peds along the way... they all smiled :)

Lots of heavy rain and standing water everywhere, I could see the just the tops of park benches and rubbish cans to my left as I avoided countless ducks and geese along the muddy river path in Brookline. If it doesn't let up soon, the bike path will be under by morning. I don't mind riding through some shallow water, but there are slimy sticks under there it can be challenging. I once "splashed down" while riding a flooded path because of an unknown submerged entity.

Matt

My first Minneapolis commute!

My bikes (finally) arrived from Anchorage a week or so ago and I had to invest in a lock because I used to be able to keep my bike in the office, but not so at the IDS Center. It's a trip to park at the IDS Center (the biggest sky scraper in Minneapolis). There are bike racks in the ramp beneath the building. To get there, you have to go into the ramp like a car, spiral around as you go deeper into the basement, squeeze by the gate and then toodle through a parking garage to the rack. It was fun to have a big SUV behind me as I descended.

Lots more traffic than Los Anchorage but it is managable. I will look for a longer, more scenic and quieter route for the ride home (probably River Road) but in the early morning, the run straight up Park Ave. seems fine.

WoooHoooo... back in the saddle again!

man, that haboob looked ominous!

here in the Northeast it was constant heavy, heavy sheets of rain all day long. We've been getting soaked lately so the water has no where to go. Rode through foot deep puddles on the bike path. It was like a mountain bike trail with stream beds for my ride today. Strong winds- a real Nor'easter. Didn't wear my little ankle gaiters and paid the price with wet tops of my socks. And my REI rain jacket, that I just washed in special $9 detergent and sprayed with special $12 waterproofing, did me little good with what was basically like swimming on the bike the rain was so heavy.

So glad to hear it, Scott. So much for all those claims about cycling and impotence, huh?

Sorry to hear trhat RonH. Hope she's feel'n better.

Holy shiat at the dust storm!

Anyways, great commute today, I manage to shorten the time from 30 minutes when I first started to just over 20 minutes, and I also managed to climb the "unclimbed" hill on my morning commute.

To RonH, I hope she gets well soon, I have a grandma, and everytime I heard any older person fell, my heart skipped a bit.

don't wipe your nose on the back of your hand
use your sleeve like a civilised man
- michael marra, angela gunn

i biked to work today despite it being a baseball day. had a vague intimation this morning that it might be a mistake, what with the game location and the hard deadlines looming at work and all that, but eh. when it came down to it i just couldn't convince my morning brain that all that automotive to-do would result in a smoother day, whatever the last-night logic told me.

so i biked. still very very nice commuter weather, in the mornings at least. clear and sunny, but still cool enough to give you goosebumps for the first couple of miles. then by the time they wear off, you don't notice the heat until you stop moving and producing your own climate-control. going down that bike path in the mornings feels exactly like swimming in a lake: there's always just enough of a headwind tunnelling up it to give you the same resistance you'd get from water, and it has the same sudden little patches of cold and heat that lakes will give you. that feeling of being in cool water when you're over-hot, and letting it carry your body heat off . . .

ride home was warmer, of course, and it had some pressure on it. i made it home in good time though, and i don't think i hurt anything. then i traded the tights in for jeans and wore my hhcmf shirt to the game. just in case suv-lady was gonna be there, and she was :D only missed the first three innings, and by the looks of the score i didn't miss much.

tomorrow i'll probably rest. that's what i'm saying now, anyway.

Hoped to see the sunrise from my bike but just couldn't get out of the house in time (4:47 am). Warmer than yesterday but still jacket weather. Saw a flattened hedgehog on the way out of the city -probably due some kid on a moped...