My commuter is an old steel Schwinn as well. At first I felt the need to upgrade, but now it's starting to grow on me for commuting.
I still secretly lust for a Bianchi :love:

I'm just out of the habit of pushing a double. I ride a triple the rest of the time, so it's an adjustment... It's heavier than my cannondale touring bike, but somehow I think the Schwinn fits me a bit better. I'm more comfortable in the drops.

The main thing was keeping it from looking at all appealing to the talented NYC bike thieves... a 26 year old Schwinn is not eye candy for those guys. Add on a nine pound lock and I'm good to go (I hope).

Just about got side swiped this morning while leaving my apartment complex. A woman in a car turned onto the road and I guess didn't see me until she almost put the front corner of her car into me :rolleyes: I turned my head and glared at her, I think she was a little freaked out :D Had a nice ride in, slower than usual since I had to carry my laptop in my backpack after working at home yesterday. I saw a dead cat on the side of the road :( Temps in the mid 60s already so the ride home should be very nice. TGIF!

Well the wife and kiddies all have strep throat so took the car to get prescription... some other errands. Also don't want to make myself any more vulnerable to getting sick... sucks ... only 2/5 this week. I only actaully have six more days of work left for the year but if I ride all of them I will make my goal of 1000 miles since August.

Really hoping everything is normal next week. I'm sure with the 3 munckins in won't be!

Went back to basics a little this morning. I never used much in the way of cycling specific clothing before the advent of the Internet because I either didn't know it existed, or couldn't justify the expense. Last year was the first time I ever used tights in the winter, and they were OK, as are the J&G Patrol Pants I've been using this year - but it's still a pain in the neck to have to change when I get to work and change again after. Well this morning I said screw it, put on my jeans, secured up the cuff, and off to work I went - and I am going to continue to do so! I'll still use the patrol pants for bad/real cold weather, but over the jeans, rather than over tights! Ya know, sometimes when you get to making more money and being able to buy so much neat stuff, you just end up making your life more complicated that it has to be. I'm done with that noise...blue jeans have worked for me for many decades - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. ;)

Here's what I learned from day 1:

-Pedestrians cannot be underestimated. You never know what they are going to do next
-Busses are the one thing that I am most uncomfortable around
-People definitely notice an HID :) I had three people yell out something about the light on the bike (I'm running it with a Cygolite Dual Cross in addition, as a backup in case either battery runs out, I still have a spare, spoiled spoiled spoiled.)

Tired out right now, thinking about getting a rack mounted for panniers as my back is killing me from the backpack, but it was a hell of a fun day :D

congrats!
it will get easier and faster. i'll be starting full week #3 from 3 miles each way to 13 miles each way (job relocation). quite an adjustment, but getting better.
keep it up!

Good ride to work & home. I had only one problem, I had a broken spoke. I had to take my other bike to the lbs anyway. So took both of them. I hope the weather holds a little longer:) . Have a good nite.

slightly unusual morning ride. i had a fixed be-there time for once due to meeting, so it's the first time i've ridden in rush hour for a long time. enviro can was threatening wind but i didn't notice too much of it until i got to the other side. then it was a few k of the most serious headwind i've seen in a while, and little fluffy balls of hail started to come down part of the way into it. just as i re-locked the bike cage behind me, the wind suddenly doubled itself and the hail came in sheets; by the time i got to the main floor from the parking lot and looked out the window again it had stopped. i had the fastest shower in history and was in all kinds of time for my meeting.

went home at rush hour too. boy, am i out of practice at that. recommend it to myself as a re-motivator if i ever need one again. blocks of backed-up traffic .. . . i was all slightly awed, and then i remembered that oh yeah, this is just what the local radios call 'traffic moving steadily' during rush hour. YUCK.

i can't figure out 'filtering up'. if i'm a vehicle, i should act like a vehicle and just keep to my place in the line - but in that case, what's the point of going by bike? and i increase the congestion too since i have to put a foot down and then it takes me a bit longer than a car to re-start every time. on the other hand, i feel ignorant if i slide along the right edge of the road because now it's me not giving the cars 3 feet of space. i end up getting stopped anyway soon as i meet a car that's too far to the right to get past. then i'm pushing back in in front of a driver again, and i don't feel right about it. take the leftmost edge of the lane where there's the space between two rows of cars to play with, and i'm in an unkosher position as soon as traffic's moving again, unless i deke suddenly in front of some car on the left to get back to the edge . . . dilemmas.

a nice roll in this morning.

I'm not making much speed these days and keep debating whether I should put my other tires on but I'm sure that the fact that I put my studded snow tires is the reason why the northeast has been experiencing such unseasonably warm weather. So, I'll keep them on for the sake of my fellow New Englanders.

Nice ride home tonight.

Take 'em off already! People are waiting to go snowboarding :rolleyes:

I'm a little south of you, riding in Taunton. Only on the weekends I work though, because of the darkness and city commuters. Winter Solstace in a few of days and we will be getting more daylight. I figure by the middle of January I'll have the light to commute and the road conditions will determine if I do or not. (Snow and ice narrow the roads too much sometimes).

Today was nice and tomorrow will be even better.

I'm still feeling a little fuzzy headed from the concussion, but I rode today. Ride in was nice, 28 degrees F. Ride home was a toasty 41 degrees. Lots of police pulling people over tonight. Gotta watch out for the drunk drivers. I compared my Christmas party picture from last year to this year and WOW! The weight loss is amazing. I'm staying a HHCMF.

Ride in was cold, 25 degrees. It's a new record low for my commute. Now that I dress properly for riding in I don't over heat or freeze. It makes for a much nicer ride.

Squeezed in one last commute for the year as I have to work today and tomorrow before taking vacation time. Might be able to ride in tomorrow as well. Hit some patchy dense fog today, but otherwise a fine ride. It was 48F, so was plenty warm. Supposed to be ~70F with a 5 mph tailwind on the way home :-)

Switched back over to the Sorrento with knobbies. I guess there's supposed to be snow this weekend, so I'm taking away any weather-related excuse I might have for not riding my bike all week.

Of course, it's the heaviest bike I own, on heavy, low-pressure, inefficent tires. It was a slow but steady ride to the bus. Too bad it felt like I was pedalling through molasses. My legs are gonna get SORE this week. It'll be good for me.

About a mile into my ride I hear a snap and look back to discover that by rack had snapped. I pulled over, did a temporary repair with duct tape and a pencil and then rode back home and switched to the car. :(

16F this morning but no wind until I got near work. Had same trouble as usual with frozen water pack valve. I tried out the Kashmirs this morning, and while better than MTB shoes and booties, my toes were cold by the time I got to work. Maybe try some liner socks next time.

First commute in a while. It was a nice ride in. Mid 40's and expecting mid 70's this afternoon. Gotta love the south :) .

Put soome Wally World battery operated christmas lights on the rack this weekend. They are not very bright. Also, the battery door keeps falling open, so I am not sure where I lost my christmas lighting this morning. I think a little electrical tape should fix that problem though.

Felt good to get back to human power instead of dead dinosaur power.

I thought you were going to tell us that your temp repair was good enough to continue on or else you went home for the backpack. :o


Nice ride today. I'll probably remember all the details of cool/cold weather dressing the last day of winter. My toes were cool all the way in. Otherwise a very nice ride. All the cagers behaved better than usual. Maybe they're getting the Christmas spirit. :lol:

I'm looking forward to another awesome ride home. Temp should be ~68F (20C). Very unusual temps for mid-December but I'm not complainiing. :)

Steady ride in w/ some extra lane splitting and lane changing thrown in for good measure. Locked up by the Salvation Army volunteer and donated some water to her so she could take her medicine.

Cagers usually grab any available space they can wedge themselves into so I don't feel bad when I filter or lane-split. Just because they can't fit in that 3' wide section doesn't mean I shouldn't ride in that "lane". If the car could fit through that small space, the driver wouldn't hesitate to filter through.

This morning's ride was unusually warm for this time of year. Supposed to hit 80* today adn there is a chance of rain later. But it felt like my body just didn't want to do it today. Maybe due to not getting enough sleep last night. But, that is another story that I wont share here. The monotony of the day is here already and I haven't even started work. The ride home will fell much better I am sure.

My first day back after a week long cold. I overdressed for the near 50F temps.

I had to stop and wait for Sen. Kennedy and his two poodles to cross in front of me. :rolleyes: I get a kick out of watching some poor junior staffer walking his dogs at lunch time out by the Senate fountains. Otherwise an uneventful slow ride.

Mid 30Fs and a light tailwind. Saw a couple of loons swimming around. Also spotted a large camping tent set up on the beach near the MUP. No idea what was going on there. The door was open and there was nothing inside. Oh and there was an old beat up MTB lying on the side of the MUP, not related to the tent. Strange...

I overdressed too. Verizon temperature said it was 45 degrees when I was getting ready to leave, but clearly it was trending higher, because I was heating up within 15 minutes. Uneventful other than that. Had a few friendly greetings with other bikers.

I'm just north of you in Austin, so today was a warm one for me as well. I've recently reconfigured my fixed gear bike with a set of chopped and flipped drops and a single brake, so I rode it in today. Uneventful ride and I made the 16 1/2 miles in about 52 minutes which is good for me.

10F this morning. A dusting a snow fell yesterday with a thin layer of ice underneath. Roads and bike path were fine and the ice really wasn't an issue. Overdressed a bit. It is hard when you start out feeling so cold.

Fine Friday (warm and sunny) and today (cold, FROSTY, cloudy). The tree I had to carry my bike over Friday had the branches stripped off it today, so I could cross it higher up where the trunk was narrower w/o snagging my panniers.

A lot of traffic lights are still out. Cars seem pretty good about using the dimmed intersections as 4-way stops for each other, but don't seem to like letting bikes take a turn.

I had another 50 km/h tailwind coming in today. It's great and all, but it's mostly downhill as well, so I know I'm going to get punished on the way home. At least it's pretty warm out, and I am getting a decent workout on the way back. I'll stop complaining now...

Left about an hour later than usual this morning since my gf went home for the holidays and I have to take care of the dog. Had a nice ride in though, temps in the upper 40s. I got so warm I stopped to take off my jacket. Temps are in the low 70s now so I will enjoy the ride home in a little bit :)