today's ride
 

Rode in again today, took a much more mellow route through side streets, over the Manhattan Bridge, then up 3rd Ave. I leave the bike in the garage where I usually park the car(hopefully the car commuting will be much more limited), they take 10 bucks, beats 30 to park the car. I ain't about to lock my bike up outside the building. I think maybe it's crazy to use an expensive bike (specialized Roubaix) to commute, but right now it's what I have, and boy do I love the ride.

Ah heck. The server ate my post.

Anyway, last night I had to work until 8:30 or so and I put on my light and blinky, but I really didn't need it. You gotta love summer. This morning, the ride in was totally unremarkable once I settled on which bike to bring (fixie won over the bomber).

I decided to take the day off today because (1) I woke up late, and (2) the forecast the night before predicted sever thunderstorms starting early afternoon and running until tomorrow morning. So I drove in. It was beautiful, and now it turns out the storms won't hit the area until 7 or 8 PM. Bah. I wish I would have biked.

Interesting ride this morning. I couldn't seem to keep any pace, couldn't seem to keep spinning at a regular cadence, the head wind sucked, but I still managed to get to work 10 minutes earlier than usual. I guess I am getting used to the distance.

Funniest part of the commute was getting passed on the street by some young guy wearing surf shorts, tennis shoes (no socks) on a beater with platform pedals and a rack with a single small bag. I was cruising nicely at 19mph and this guy passed me like I was standing still. Didn't even look like he was working hard. I tried to pace him, but I was 28 miles into my commute and I just didn't have the legs.

51F and slightly rainy. Excellent!

Yeah they do that....he may have been just cruis'n a mile or two. It's pretty easy to toast someone been on the road for about 30mins or so :o

I took the extra long way home and took it nice and slow and it showed, averaging 11.3 mph on the cyclocomp. Got close to home and saw one almost accident and one actual accident, both involving bikes.

The almost accident, a livery cab almost T-boned a delivery guy. It was the delivery guy's fault cuz the livery cab had the light and the delivery guy was looking the wrong way as he wandered into the cab's path.

The actual accident was a slow speed rear ending involving two cars and a bike. Car 1 was double parked. Car 2 was sliding past the double parked car while the cyclist was following behind. Car 2 hit the brakes, causing the cyclist two serve into car 1, rear ending car 1. Both drivers got out to check on the cyclist. Car 1's driver wanted to know if there was any damage and car 2's driver wanted to know if the cyclist was ok and to apologize. For the record, the cyclist was fine and didn't fall over. His bike looked fine too.

usual brightness!!
one a##hle cut me off (near where i was hit 7 years ago). i just yelled "excuse me!", wish i had applied more enthusiasm! she just smiled....while other cars on the road (with simular rights-of-wayl) stopped as well for her "blonde moment'
besides that, another great week!

warm in the morning. as I was chugging up a hill on my street I see this really stoned looking dude walking down the street the other way. dude seriously looked baked. had a car behind me for a bit at one point not wanting to change lanes, so I waved him around to pass, which he did, fully in the other lane with a full-fingered wave (well, three fingers, but a friendly wave nonetheless), and I saw the car had California plates and was driven by a guy who looked sort of like Tom (the Myspace guy). possible celebrity encounter on the commute? other than that, the commute was the usual great ride in. awesome commute!

it was really hot when I left in the early afternoon but I decided to go to REI to get a pair of rain pants since they're calling for a couple of thunderstorms next week and I'd rather not ride in the rain in shorts again. probably will be a handy thing to have. rode there and back, then did a loop through old town then back to campus via Guilford Road then home via University Boulevard (on the shoulder of course). was invited to attend Bible study by a nice old lady while taking a rest stop in the parking lot of a church... I'm not religious but I politely told her that I would think about it, since I would feel like a heel otherwise.

great ride to REI and commute back... no problems at all.

Nice ride in, fast! :-) left work early to meet with my wife and our real estate guy to write up a purchase agreement! Then ran around like a madman getting stuff from the bank, signing an extra set of papers (lead based paing) now we have to hold our breath and see if the seller accepts! I hope! we should know monday! only did 10 miles total, but tomorrow I'm going on a longer ride...ONLY A WEEK TILL BTC!!!!!

it sucked almost got hit by a truck, again

It was overcast and cool, pleasant. I am trying out my new novara cycling underwear, is ok for riding, not sure if I will be able to wear it all day... we will see

I'm almost back to speed after 2 injuries and 2 weeks of rehab riding. It feels great to go fast again! Especially on my midnight commute home--when the air is cooler, the traffic lights are blinking, and there are some pretty thuggish characters out riding too.

I'm glad I can ride faster than the average crack dealer. Sometimes one yells at me, "I want your bike!" While I'm whizzing by, I yell back:

"It ain't about the bike dawg!!"

I saw 3 deer and had a nice encounter with a fox. Most of my 13 mile ride is very rural but the last 2 miles are on a busy road with (thankfully) wide shoulders. I was going along with cars flying by. At one point there was a break in the cars in both directions. This fox comes running across towards me. He didn’t see me at first because he was WATCHING FOR TRAFFIC! He looked just like a pedestrian, looking both ways as he crossed. When he got to my side he ran in front of me and then paralleled me in the field next to the road. I was glad to see that the wildlife has learned how to cross the highway.

Minneapolis: Rode in to work on Friday, but a tremendous storm, with sheets of rain, grown trees and electric wires going down, and manhole covers blown off by geysers of water discouraged me a bit in the afternoon. My husband had biked home just in time to miss it, and he kindly drove over and gave me and my folding recumbent a ride home, just as the storm eased up for a half hour. I might have been able to splash home through the puddles if I had realized the gap would be that long.

Not really a commute report, but lots of utility riding this weekend. The weather has been great and yesterday I took a long ride out of town to a friend's housewarming BBQ party. A coffee trip this morning to distract myself from having to do work for the rest of the day. I consider that weekend commuting.

Great commute , 30 miles.

Just got home from my commute. It's now 11:08 p.m. Best ride I've had in a long while. Not hot, very few cars on the road, my lights were more than adequate. Night riding makes the extra 5 hours at work not such a bad thing.
--A

First commute with clipless setup (egg-beaters & shimano sh-mt20).
went well. didn't fall. didn't even have to clip out more than 3 times.
commute was 5 min less than normal (60 min., today 55 min.). don't know if it was because of the clipless, or the slight tailwind. don't tell me tailwind, let me keep my confidence and self-esteem.
also wore (for the first time) x-mart brand compression underwear. I don't know if I particular like them. felt like I was signaling left-turn during the whole commute.

Got to work, but not without incident
 

My usual route is from New Malden (Surrey, UK) to Hammersmith, London, through Richmond Park. This tends to be a great ride, even through the winter.

This morning was warm, but with a little light rain as I set off. Not too much to worry about, I thought. But I made the mistake of taking a left hand bend, downhill at 20 MPH on my flat-bar road bike (Ridgeback Genesis Day 02) with slick Michelin Erilium tyres. Down I went, my hip hitting the road first. My shoes unclipped and the bike slid away from me. My first reaction was to look up and behind to see if any cars were coming, but fortunately nothing had followed me. I was able to get up and retrieve my bike, and make my way to the side of the road.

Bike seems OK, but I have a nice "pro" style rip in my Team Italia bib shorts :-( and a nasty case of raod rash on my outer thigh (which now aches). There were many cars around at the junction where I was turning - only one kind 4x4 driver wound down her window and asked if I was alright.

BTW Does anyone has any tips on what to check on a bike after an incident like this? The steering seems slightly stiff and tried adjusting the headset (Ahead style) because the handlebars were a tad out of line.

Anyway, I have now learnt something new about riding my bike (take care when the roads are wet), although I do know that I have only ever fallen off through my own actions...

I commute late at night (I work 3rd shift) so I never have to worry about traffic or anything like that really. Had nice weather for the first time in a few weeks and I was feeling like a good ride so I took off a half hour early to get some extra time in before I got to work. I guess I'm just off cause I couldn't keep cadence or maintain a good speed at all. Hopefully I will feel better in the morning and have a much better ride. I hope this weather lasts!

A fairly eventful morning. I left ten minutes late because I got stuck watching the weather channel for impending doom. Then I almost got buzzed. Had my shaking-fist ready, but luckily I didn't have to use it. And I saw one of our superstar Atlanta racers going the opposite direction. At least I think it was her, she went by me in a blur. Ah humility.

The air is sticky! Moderate headwind but it didn't seem to bother me.

I had just left my house and stopped at a stop sign. Looked right, nothing coming, looked left, no cars but hey, here's a young lady on a road bike wearing a mini flowery sun dress. :) Exchanged hellos, and off I went.

I think someone was trying to reel me in toward the end of my MUP ride but the person failed. ;)

Warm this morning, with a bit of rain. I had to pull a plastic bag over my rack bag so the contents wouldn't get wet. I also put a few strips of duct tape behind the seat so the tire wouldn't spray my back with road water... Other than that, a fine ride. I'm still convinced that I'm faster on wet roads, must be the reduced friction.

H&H and I got a flat, probably from bunnyhopping a pothole in between a bus and a car or from a metal strip I ran over. I got to changing it only to realize I should've tested out the valve extender for the tube I had. I couldn't pump the tire all the way so I still ended up walking the last 1/2 mile to work. I'll hit the LBS up for a new tube w/ the proper valve at lunch.