Beautiful morning in our nation's capital today. 50 degrees, sunny blue sky, and Friday morning rush-hour traffic wasn't too bad. Great time.

*^#@*. I'm tired of winter. :crash: WINDY and cool (almost cold) again this morning.

I broke down and wore my mtn bike shorts today. :eek: I usually wear bibs and thought I'd give the shorts a try before the big ride tomorrow.

I have to drop off a 30 pound package (24"x20"x8" Box)... I don't have an extracycle or the time to get to UPS before work. Car it is. Ugh. I hate traffic.

I only got in two days of commuting this week. :(

But today is one of them so I'm a happy camper. :)

Which style?
http://www.atlantabike.org/images/bumper-sticker.JPG

This is a sheet of bumper stickers. Got scissors?
http://probicycle.com/15cutbk.gif

or the SBL style?

The top one. I've never seen the bottom one.

The new route is from work (King/Spadina), taking Adelaide east to Sherbourne, north to Bloor, east to Chester and then through some side streets (Arundel/Logan/Mortimer/something else) up to Cosburn and east along there to Main. The long steady slope on Sherbourne is what slows me I think - Cosburn has a nice smooth surface mostly, and so I can cruise usually over 17mph (unless there's wind, which there has been of late). The is 'new' compared with my summer route of through by Cherry beach, etc.

Ride in today was pretty brutal, stationary didn't really notice a wind, but I got blown about a fair bit and had a fairly heavy eastern wind blowing in my face - I knew it'd be a slow ride, and didn't get bogged down in the mental aspect of it all. 38 mins 12.5mph avg.

Heading across the Bloor viaduct I got honked at (and a window was down, though I didn't hear anything) for overtaking another bike (had to come out in the lane to overtake) - presumably because the traffic was basically stationary, they were irritable. I certainly didn't make any dangerous moves. They got a "F*&^ YOU!" over the shoulder. I motioned a "huh?" with my arm, and as I was passing, looked in and gave a huge beaming smile :)

Got yelled at again around the corner, when moving across the stacked up lines of traffic to get into the left-turn filter lane (which had only one car in it, at the front) "You're supposed to" and that's all I heard, I turned and yelled "WHAT?" but nothing.. I think she was trying to tell me I was supposed to do what the bike signs say, which is an alternative pedestrian method of taking the intersection (Bloor/Sherbourne) - seeing as I know that westbound traffic has an advanced-green in rush hour, I prefer to take the road - I get through nicely, and there's never been a problem.

Still, enjoyable ride - didn't tire myself out with the headwinds and hope for a nice tailwind tonight (yeah right!) :)

Left earlier this morning, about 6:30... much less traffic. Made for a good uneventful ride. Just the way I like it :)

This is the time of year when cow-orkers give you funny looks when they see the bike garb about your cube. LoL it's only down to 32 in the mornings so far.

hiya! i'm fairly new to the commuting thing. i usually just ride to enjoy life. but i guess i commute to school. it's not a long trip at all. 6 miles there, 6 miles back. i'm trying different routes. i try to make the ride 2/3'rds of the time.

i've finally found a great route for the first half of my ride.

the second half of my ride is still annoying. there aren't any good "back roads" to take, it seems.

on top of it all, i've decided i need a bigger bag. tallahassee does start of chilly in the morning, but you have to layer it up and by the time i get where i'm going, i'm in a t-shirt and pants again. it's getting tough to fit all the notebooks, spare kits, tools, phone, keys, jackets, long-sleeve shirts, and lunch into this one small bag. but hey, i'm poor, and it's worth it. i feel so great the rest of the day.

so, today: low to mid 40's, crisp, sunny! much better than wednesday's cloudy, warm(er) and wet.
i tried a new way for the second half of my ride, and maybe i was just tired, but i was so beat afterwards, and it seemed to take longer. the good part: not a single honk, "hey-man-why-dontcha-ride-on-the-sidewalk", or flying birds at all! that's a first in the morning.

No commute for me. I am using up excessive PTO before the end of the year. 3 day weekends! Yay!
I will probably put in a decent 30 mile ride after I visit a rec center. I need to determine how to get from the platte trail to union station so that I may take the new light rail line on monday.

First below zero ride of the year!
 

I rode in the short way this morning about 15 miles of road/trail mix. Good conditions with some glare ice in spots. Scared myself when I turned the corner to see two big yellow eyes staring at me in my headlight. It turned out to be a husky instead of a wolf!

My shifting was slowed up by sticky cables. This is the first time I've run into that in the cold. They probably need a lube job. Lowest temperature on the route this morning was 5 below zero (F.) No wind, but I still had cold finger tips wearing a pair of liners and lobster claw mits. My toes eventually got cold up through the pedals. I'll have to get out the warm gear I guess.

My water bottle thermos of coffee stayed hot! The ride took 70 minutes. Not bad for studs.

That's one of my favorite things about bike commuting. The cow-orker shock. :P

"Isn't it too cold for that?"

As I hang up my jacket, I reveal a sweat-soaked base layer and retort:
"Does it look like I'm cold to you?"

Then grab my comb, hair gel, change of clothes and deoderant, then wander off to change.

What a fun morning it was for the ride in. Had a guy in a large boxy delivery truck pull our right in front of me causing me to hit the brakes to avoid hitting him. I was so mad that I followed him and he pulled into a gas station less than half a mile away. I pulled up as he was getting out and asked him if he knew he almost hit me. Of course he replies I wasn't any where near you and I told him where I was but he still didn't understand. At one point he said he thought I was on the sidewalk which I wasn't. Anyway, I don't think he learned anything but maybe he will keep an eye our more for cyclists. TGIF :)

62 degrees. In Vermont. In November. WT*?! :eek:

Quartering headwind. Nothing too horrible. Didn't slow me up too much.

Since it was so warm, I wore my other stylish beer jersey from U Medvídků :)

Nice and clear today, no wind and a balmy -3C. Unfortunately, I was [and still am] quite hung over. :( Oh well, live and learn.

Yep, I learned that this morning :)

A beautiful day, and I ran into a friend whose daily commute was only a rumor to me before this morning. But New York on a Friday morning is sometimes nuts. The traffic was snarled. Drivers lurched and jerked. A cab suddenly stopped in front of me — just as a parked truck flung open his door. I wouldn't have been doored but clotheslined! I had to brake and paddle along the truck's side panel to keep from going down. The trucker who nearly creamed me gave me the thumbs-up. "That was amazing!" he said. I couldn't believe how oblivious he was. Also, New York smelled like cheap gasoline today. I might just have to ride at lunch....

Ah yeah, I hear you. :) Funny thing, going the other way I can never get up to speed either because of lousy pavement, lights and buses and pick-up trucks in the bike lane. I usually have more fun going down Church St. When going south, I've been able to keep up with cars there for several kms. Yeah, even in early morning before rush hour. :) But then going north of it is probably the same deal as Sherbourne: a loooong slight frustrating uphill. You don't even get a sense of satisfaction after reaching the top 'cause it's so damn slight! :D

Anyway, if you want to vary your routes, you may try crossing the Don Valley elsewhere: Queen, Dundas (if you like bike lanes :)), Gerrard (if you like bike lanes on bridges but not elsewhere :)). Something like Adelaide -> Victoria -> Shuter -> River -> Dundas -> Logan -> Cosburn, or Shuter -> River -> Gerrard -> Jones -> Donaldson -> Cosburn might be fun for a change, although not necessarily faster. But it's tough to beat the Bloor Viaduct for view... :)

(Mods, how are we doing? Is it time for us to migrate to PMs for this stuff or the Toronto thread?)

Wow, and the new route is still slower despite the longish detour you take if you go the Cherry St. way? Cool. I guess that summer route is pretty well-flowing, essentially uninterrupted, flat and on good pavement now that I think of it. :)

Yepper. I always wondered what kind of methhead put such a sign there (of all places!) It's one of the more civilized and bikeable places in Toronto, there are no deathly streetcar tracks, no 80 kmh traffic, you're not going to slow anyone down much, if at all - and yet somebody put a "cyclist do the ped left-turn" sign! I haven't seen another one anywhere in Toronto... Hell, I haven't seen another one ANYWHERE! :D Somebody connected with Toronto advocacy groups should consider bringing that sign up and arguing for its removal.

Yep, I rode my bike to a library recently, on a wet but pretty warm (for November) day, to meet up with a student I tutor. She looks at my helmet in one hand and my seat post in the other and asks with amazement: "Did you bike in today?!" I told her I drove. :D

Sunny again, and actually pretty much dry on the ground too. That can't last. Actually it's already grayed over.

Had to make my kid get off the bike and push it across the last intersection to get to his school, 1st S then E. He was doing these crazy not quite diagonal crossings freaking out the drivers (who should really have more stop signs but...)

Great commute today. Morning was in the 50's and dark but traffic was light. I was able to get off early so I went to Santa Monica for lunch then took the bike path to Venice Pier, turned around and up the coast to Topanga Canyon blvd. Climb up was tough but the weather was great. 70's on the coast and 80's inland. Once I got the the summit there was contruction and a pilot truck, spent about 10 minutes waiting but the pilot truck driver let me go ahead. This is a curvy downhill section where a bicycle is usually faster that the cars. I had the whole road to myself for the entire way down. It was great, taking the curves marked 20 a tick under 40. Lots of fun! No hostile drivers and a fair number of polite ones. 53 miles total today.

Felt cool tonight, might've been the slightly damp shoes (which I forgot about, and didn't make any effort to dry!). Did a couple of stop-offs at two local-to-work BSs (Bikes on Wheels & Urbane Cyclist for locals) then looped back down to Adelaide (where the traffic was nuts) to continue my regular route. Pretty much a 10 mile run home, loved every minute of it and had a really enjoyable, relaxing ride. 47 minutes riding time in total with a 12.5 avg.

one word.

COLD

I got a new set of wheels yesterday and tested them out today. All I have to say is I love my Mavic Open Pros! My bike rides like a Cadillac but is still super light (thank you CF). The ride was great minus the jug of ice thrown at me. I took the long way home so I could get in some hills. All in all, great ride and I can't wait to do it again.

nice commute today. over to Dorchester for an early morning show. buzzed home at around two. had to return for a later show but made the mistake of catching a ride with someone else. Ended up subwaying home and eventually catching a cab for the last part home. cost a total of $24!

found a tiny snapping turtle crossing the bike path today. (I almost ran him over) Picked him up and put him on the edge of the river.

i don't work with any cows . . . suddenly feel like i'm missing out :D

this morning's ride was a long time ago. i don't remember it too clearly now. it was probably raining - oh yeah, it was because i wore my taiga bootees and discovered they're not lying when they say rain can get into them anyway. also it's pretty clear that my rain pants need to be retired-slash-replaced.

other than that, it was nice. one of those days when the whole world seems to be full of water. i've been trying for weeks to put my finger on this and haven't managed it, but somehow something about biking to work always feels exactly like being on vacation. every time, at least once in every ride. no matter what the rest of the day or the week is going to be like. it must be some distant association i haven't tracked down, but i enjoy it even if i can't figure it out. it's this little escape hatch i get every day.

part of it, i realised today, was the direction i go in. i start fairly high and head south most of the way, towards what i think of as 'inland'. the cool thing about it is that i'm riding with mountains at my back and heading towards much flatter ground, so if there's any light in the sky or any clear spots collecting between the clouds, i get to look at it all the way in. it's a very neat feeling; makes it seem like there are infinite possibilities, even while the rest of me knows it's a perfectly mundane trip to spend another mundane day in the trenches. and this time of year absolutely everything you look at can look like a painting, if you look at it right.

nothing much happened today. i got reacquainted with a security guard i used to see a lot of when i worked for the other company at the other end of the business park last year. first words from him were 'you're not still biking out here, are you?' i love saying 'yup' to questions like that :D

it rained hard all the way home. i stopped to pick up doughnuts.

yesterday (friday) was my last commute for the week. came back from a 2 day conference in north nj, ride home was at nite (+/-9pm) so lighting sets were in force. at one point, a truck (+/- 1975chevy/gmc? w/2 passengers) passed me to follow through attempt right-hook as they rushed to auto parts store. i again ADVOCATE "airZound" technology. this truck STOPPED at the zounds and i had to proceed to follow through w/passing on drivers side, narrowly missing the vehicle. if he had followed through w/turn and i was going slower, or unaware, impact would have been unavoidable.
rest or ride went well, even had a driver signal (w/flashes) that one of my headlights were dimming (?)
another good week! job site is moving to 13.0 mile dst each way tuesday, 11/21/6 (was 3.2 mile distance) each way. another challange!!

I really didn't want to ride today. I was dead tired, and just wanted to sleep. Alas, I dragged myself out of bed, and rode in anyway. I pulled the opening shift today, and streets were nice and empty. I figured they would be; Sunday morning and all. I made the ride in in about 30 minutes. By the time I got off, I was so tired I didn't care how long it took to get home. I fought a head wind for eight miles, but only took ten minutes more to get home than usual, so I guess I really wasn't going as slow as I thought.

28F when I left, snowing all the way. Never felt cold or anything. Hakkas worked as expected, IOW, I didn't noticed any slipping of the tires (which I had experienced a few times on wet roads with the slicks). Visibility was a slight problem as sometimes snow was falling hard and the Night Explorer's light beam would light up all the snow flakes and I could barely see the road ahead of me.

Ran into another commuter and followed him close during the last mile of my commute. I don't think he noticed me; then I pulled out by my work place and he kept going; wonder where he works.

GreenAnvil

Today was one of those sub 30 days where it's really clear, so everything is bitterly cold. Other then that, it was fine. I was running very late, so I really pumped the pedals today....got in almost on time :)