pinkrobe

Bumped up the gearing on the SS to 42x14 [~81" gear]. I could feel it on the flats, and I have to muscle it just a little more when I start off. I'll get used to it. Otherwise, a brisk ride in.

vtjim

Much cooler than yesterday. 63 degrees and low humidity. Saw some cyclists out. I caught up to a guy on a hybrid. Passed him eventually. 13MPH downhill wasn't doing it for me.

My drivetrain is a horrible mess. Must clean it. There's a grease stalactite hanging from the rear der.

Bluelens

First real post here...aside from the intro post....

Pretty decent ride in this morning. This is my first time back on the bike since last Monday (a combination of migraine-hell and excessive heat..which has the potential of bringing more migraines). It felt great but I could tell I had been away for a little bit. But at least I did take the Metro on the days I didn't bike in.

This was only my 5th time biking into work so I still have a way to go before I get the good stride.

I have about a 13 mile ride in from home to DC along the Mt.Vernon.

MyPC8MyBrain

Last night was a race against the death cloud that had formed by in the part of town where the house is. I could see the line of hail falling. I hauled the whole way and beat the madness home. Just got a rained on a little bit was all. The hail and fury hit 5 minutes after I arrived. Thank goodness for dopler radar on the web.. i could see it coming and bailed from work.

Ride in this morning was nice. Left the house at 6am so it wasnt too warm yet. Got pumped off by some oldster climbing the hill, but I was in cruise to work mode so I really didn't care... too much. Maybe I did, since I'm writing about it.

If I ride every day this week, I will hit 1,000 commuting miles for this year when I pull into the office. I expect that they will have a band and maybe some balloons when I arrive. I'll have to wear a clean jersey that day for the photographs.

HardyWeinberg

Good ride in this morning until I found that the bike trail was closed, just past the halfway poiint, so I had to detour over to the 5+ lane main drag that annoys me so. Looking at the solid layer of glass chips for ~3 miles was a kind of reminder that cars don't watch for each each other any more than they watch for bikes. And, I saved half a mile.

Dickseacup

Third day in a row commuting. My ride in this morning was cooler than yesterday, but still warmer than usual. Then again, it is mid-July. Saw two other commuters, one female, one male, both riding on the sidewalk. Funny thing is that when they saw me (I was in the road, stopped at a stoplight, waiting for the change), they both came off the sidewalk in to the road. Weird. Anyway, the woman turned in front of me, so I drafted her for a couple blocks, but passed right before the downhill part.

My ride home this evening was equally uneventful, although I set a personal best time. I wasn't even feeling like I was pushing that hard. Must have been a tailwind. <shrug> I put the new tires, fenders and rack/pack on tonight. I'll post pics on the other thread as soon as I get some.

Oh, and Mr. Manly-Man SUV stopped in to my office this morning to bust my chops about wearing a helmet. <sigh>

riedelmeister

It's been rather humid here in Milwaukee for the past few days. Monday was brutal. I just installed a new Brooks B17 and today was the first day breaking it in. Funny how changing a seat throws all the settings out of whack on a bike. I stopped 4 times in 11 miles tweaking this and adjusting that... The seat already feels better though. My aching sit-bones!

Allen

Miles on a unbroken Brooks are memorable. It sure makes you appreciate the cloud of a seat it's going to become.

When exactly did we move to Venus? Hot, and the air quality alert is in that "lung bruise purple" range.

spidercyclist

Good ride to work & home . Went the long way home .
Pickup about 2 more miles .I hope the rest of the week goes this well . Have a good nite .

Big Ron

Had to dodge severe T storms on the way home last night. Managed to ride the 13 miles with just light rain hitting me though. Was actually a pretty pleasant ride, and I made it home drier than I would have been if it were the usual 95F and 60% rH. Mildy damp from the rain, but not soaked from sweat-my feet were soaked though from the road spray. Took the bike out on the back deck and hosed it off and then did the same with my legs, and socks to remove all of the road grit.
The ride in this AM was nice, but unremarkable. I put the trusty old Cygolight back on the bike and am now leaving home @ ~5:45 instead of waitng for it to get light enough to ride without lighting.

jyossarian

Cooler and slower today than the past few days so I didn't arrive a sweating mess. Ended up riding down the middle of Lexingtion behind a messenger so we managed to carve out some space for ourselves while keeping pace w/ traffic.

On last night's flight home, I saw Henry Kissinger. He's getting real old.

tulip

just dandy.

MyPC8MyBrain

Last night a car that I passed at the signal by the office didn't catch up to me until I was about 1/2 mile from home climbing the hill. Blazing the bike past the traffic crawl is rewarding in it's own special way

This morning was a nice cool ride in. Catching the morning sun coming up against the mountians reminds me that I really do live in a beautiful place. People come here for vacations, but I get to live here

I think the Ipod makes me ride faster... I haven't been noting the times, but when I arrive I am much more tired and sweaty. Songs of note this am were Rock you Like a Hurricane, Bohemian Rhaposdy, something by the gogo's.

centuryman

Great ride in this morning. Called Park & Rec dept. yesterday and requested that deep sand from recent heavy rains be removed from the bike path. This morning the paths were clean. Saw a coyote on path along a flood way. Thunderstorms predicted to form early so will watch the local radar.

pinkrobe

The ride home last night with the new gearing was pretty good. I felt the difference going up the hills, that's for sure. Riding in this morning, I made a light that I normally wouldn't make - normally I'd spin out - but today I just squeaked through as it went from green to yellow.

billh

Huge storm rocked St Louis, MO last night, swooped in from the north with 80-90 mph winds, many big branches and trees 2-3 ft diameter were down. 400,000 without power (metro area is 2 million). Traffic was snarled this morning with stop lights out and trees strewn across streets. I was able to navigate the yellow tape on my bike and kept my same route. Already families are starting to congregate in parks, which I'm sure will increase as the day heats up to 100F, 116F heat index. I love riding my bike on "disaster days"!

Bluelens

Boy was the weather beautiful for the ride in this morning. I was able to hit 40 going down the first big hill...of course I always dread going back up it in the evening. I would much rather have the climb in the morning and the decent in the evening...but oh well.

caloso

Fine and Freddish this morning. I spent last evening building up my tri bike and as I was debating with myself over red or white bar tape (or maybe red on the bullhorns and white on the aerobars), I realized that I was dangerously close to OCPness.

So the antidote is to ziptie a milkcrate to the Bomber and cinch up the pant cuffs with packing tape for the ride to work. And ride in very casually. It was just great.

There was a story in the Bee yesterday about high gas prices and how some people are actually forced to take public transportation or carpool! Shocking. (Not a word about bike commuting, though.) My first reaction was "Have gas prices gone up? [read in Johnny Carson voice] I did not know that. "

HardyWeinberg

Nice ride in today; 1st time taking 'correct' detour to avoid mongo hole dug in bike trail (yesterday I just diverted to the main street). I found the detour going the other way last night on the way home, so had a better idea what to look for this am.

Only 3 days commuting this week, other 2 days, carpooling for fieldwork, so, no biking but I do get out of the city.

cooperwx

Substituting commuting for lunchtime riding for the next few weeks, due to new baby coming last week. Did a 4.5 mile loop from downtown up to UNCA.

Its nice riding to parts of town that I dont go to on my commute, but driving the pickup from home is less fun...

DataJunkie

Decent commute. It appears that either my temper is shorter as the week grows on or people are just freaking idiots. Being passed too close is getting annoying.

Anyhow, the LBS I bought my bike from reminded me that I need my warranty tune. Going to ride there and meet the wife and kid after work. Then pick up tile for our bathroom floor.

On a related note: I purchased this bike in late March. 4 months later and I hit 3000 miles. All but a few hundred are commuting miles.
Yippie!

RonH

Finally got a chance to post something.
The ride in was VERY different. Yesterday a water main broke under the road at a BUSY, BUSY intersection near the university I ride through. I always avoid that area by riding on a neighborhood street. The water main was still broken (being repaired???) this morning and the east-west road was closed to traffic.
Well surprise, surprise!! As I rode through the neighborhood I noticed a lot more cars than usual. When I was ~3 blocks away from where I usually turn off I came to a screeching halt. There must have been 50 cars ahead of me. Usually there's only 2 or 3 cars on that road. It only took 3/4 of a second to decide that I wasn't waiting behind all of those idiot cagers. I passed ~48 cars on the left and then cut back to the right between car 48 and 49 because I was making a right turn at the intersection. Continued on my way with no other problems for the reat of the ride.
I hope they have that *&@#% water main repaired before the afternoon rush hour starts or I may find a similar nightmare on my way home.

jyossarian

Ride home was interesting in that I saw a bunch of other people riding their bikes the same way as me. Traffic was the usual mess, but when I got home, I had a USPS slip telling me I had a package at the post office. I grabbed my beater bike w/ the rack and bungees and picked up my package from Nashbar w/ my new Lake sandals! I put the cleats on them, grabbed my roadie and hit the park for a couple laps to try 'em out and give some love to the Bianchi. Ended up riding all three bikes today.

rando

it was good. I didn't get heat stroke.

diff_lock2

Cold, windy, and it was raining (on the way home) to work t'was cold sunny and just a hint of wind... damn wind chill/ vapo chilling, all exposed skin was numb... i was in a t shirt and pants lol... lost some rear traction on a few turns, almost fell but recovered nicly... car behind probably thought WTF is he skiding for lol... fenders rocked no road water on me...