This morning's ride was warm and humid. I got pretty sweaty, thankfully I can stop at the athletic center and take a shower before work.

Last night was an absolute blast, it was raining steadly: My first commute in the rain :) I made great time (8.5 miles in 30 minutes), but I still got soaked. My panniers aren't waterproof, but they are water resistant, so I made sure to stuff my clothes into another bag or two.

Not quite sure where you are, of the tricities, I'm in the southern one :) My route takes me from the west side of the township to just north of the city.

Anyone from Allendale MI outside of GR? I pounded the gears this morning to make it to work other than that no problems

Ride to work was the usual gridlock mess. Got passed by two scooters in quick succession, both headed to different locations. I guess the price of gas has people turning in their SUVs for scooters. Or it's becoming more trendy.

I rode in a little early with my wife. She didn't sleep too well, and was both tired and cranky. The traffic volume when she normally rides in is disgusting! I almost never ride at exactly that time, usually 15 minutes earlier or later. There must be some sort of critical mass of cars or something.

This morning was slow. Brutal headwind. Warm. Humid. I just took it easy. I guess it's karma getting me back for chasing down a guy on a stripped-down roadbike yesterday afternoon. :o At least I had one of my fastest commutes home!

A little bit of both, I think. Scooters are just fun to ride, IMO. I can hardly wait to get a new one. I had to sell my '66 Vespa when I moved 'cross country. Not as much fun as pedalling, but riding a scooter still beats driving.


ss commuter-->geared commuter-->scooter-->car

Decreasing level of fun, left to right.

I found a 15 min change in departure time, for me, has a huge effect on the cars. I think it's the difference between 'can still make it to work on time' and 'can't'.

Yesterday and today I stopped taking the trailer back home after dropping the kids at the daycare, taking direct road route rather than semi-circuitous trail route; yesterday I biked them home, and today I just left the trailer for my wife to pick up when she gets the kids. Saves 2.5 miles, gets me into work about an hour earlier too (not sure where all the time was going; I had been packing clothes and laundry after dropping the trailer off, and apparently dawdling a bunch too).

Anyway, back on the road I re-discovered my 'race the car to the stoplight' game. They always pull ahead, but I can still beat them to the end of the road, 'cause no matter how fast they accelerate from the 1st couple lights, by the time they get to the freeway, they're bound to be behind a couple of delivery trucks. (I'm in a bike lane doing this, w/ pretty much no burning of rubber or other gestures letting the car people know they're playing this game with me).

Had to do the suckers walk last night. Came in without a spare tube, and of course the rear tube snuck around the crummy plastic rim tape and killed itself at some point during the day. The GF was involved in some sort of beautification project [nails i think] so it was wait or walk. I opted for a stroll with bike in hand. Made it 5 1/2 miles before she caught up with me.

Maybe it was destined to be...Before she met me, some stupid little poodle was running around with reckless abandon. He was running in the street, and just running around everywhere. I tried to catch him but he wouldn't come to me. I just kept walking then because I couldn't stand the thought of watching him get mushed. When the GF met me, and I loaded the bike in the car, here comes the little mutt and he jumps right in the open car door. Guess he wanted a ride home. So we called the number on his tag, and gave him a ride home.

Got some VELOX rim tape, fixed up both wheels. Rode great this morning.

Words of wisdom : ~~~ VELOX... Use it. ~~~
Plastic rim tape sucks as much as walking the bike 5 miles.

Another point of note... anytime I pass a cyclist sitting by their bike or walking, I ALWAYS ask if I can help them out. I've given away more tubes than I have ever used myself. No less than 5 fellow commuters rode past without even asking. Bad MoJo on them.

Are you all feeling the heat? Even all the way up here in Wisconsin, it's getting brutal. Strong headwinds this morning on the way to work. I was dripping w/sweat only 10 minutes into my 45 minute commute. I just didn't have any strength either. It just rained here and the humidity went up even more. *groan*

At least I'll have a nice tail wind gong home. *thumbs up*

I'm done whining now.

+1 (me too) :beer:

Heat. Humidity. Yes.
I have this to look forward to for my ride home:
Temperature: 86F
Dew Point: 70F (sticky)
Wind: 17 mph S (tailwind!)

Haven't ridden in over a week. My last ride in was last Tuesday, and my husband wouldn't let me ride home; he came and picked me up, because it was so hot. Since then, we've had temps from 106° to 113°. I am dying for a nice ride to work! I'm looking forward to this weekend, when it is supposed to go into the mid to low 90s, hopefully Monday I can actually say how my commute was....

Wasn't planning to ride today, as my wife had the first OB appointment this morning and I went along (dutiful dad-to-be!). But, after hearing the heart beat for the first time and seeing an early ultrasound, for some reason I just felt really energized. Imagine that! :D

Riding in 3 hours later than usual was...weird. Like one of those post-apocalyptic movies, where normally busy streets are mostly deserted. Still, despite there being much less volume of cars than usual, 2 people did the close-pass-then-cut-in-front move. One of them was a postal service delivery truck. I was tempted to report him, but I was in too good a mood. :)

Wifey decided she wanted to get to work on her own so I left the car and broke out the Fuji. I have new wheelset and so far so good...another commute for me yay!

No commute today, as I'm (hopefully) going for my first metric century tomorrow.

Good luck Dickseacup!

Ride home was just as snarled w/ traffic as the ride in. Traffic was so tight I could feel my backpack make contact w/ a truck's cab. Both of us were going so slow people on the sidewalk were moving faster than us.

Morning ride was wet, didn't do the extra loop, should have - nice ride other than being wet.
Evening - felt like I was going backwards - 33km/hr (20mph) headwind, hot and humid.

Woo-Hoo!!! Go Dickseacup!!! b!! :beer:

I have popliteus tendonitis goin’ on in my lil’ knee so I’ve not been commuting... wah
I took the Surly to my community mail boxes, just up the road, to get the mail tonight and got a flat
:rolleyes:

Gonna try on a 34/18 and see if I can commute next week :)

My BF commutes, apx 24 total daily. On his commute home tonight, while waiting at a light, a
cager decided it would be funny to lay on the horn... Then another, then another...
Soon several cars were beside him at a red light blaring their horns...
Until the light changed and they drove off... :(

In hindsight, would a defensive reaction be to call 911 from the cellphone with may be the hope the dispatcher would hear the commotion and the cyclist could recite the tag #’s... Or... No? :o

I often get the feeling that I'm the only one. I know I'm the only one in my office.

It's good that you guys are here. :o

Cooler today, nice ride both ways. I did sprints from light to light to burn off as little energy on the way home. Shocked looks from passed drivers.:) Ride On.

Slow commute today. Had to ride the SS mountain bike. I really like that bike, but it's a lot slower than my 925. This afternoon when I was getting ready for work, I went down to get my bike and I had a flat. Looked like a piece of glass got in the tire. I knew I couldn't ride my back up bike because the gears on it are messed up, so I rode the SS mountain bike. It's a fun ride, just a lot slower. I'm thinking about upping the gearing on it so that it rides faster. Still a great ride to work and home. The funny thing is I blew another tire when I got home and changed the tire on my 925. Now I'm running low on tubes, I guess I'll have to stop by the LBS. Have a good night.

The commute home sucked at the very end. I was waiting for the last light on my ride to change with a car behind me. He was acting very well-behaved, not doing a thing. Then this young woman on a bike rides up and just blows the red, which I think is kind of suicidal in this intersection that people in Portland call the "Seven Corners". It really has 7 corners - the traffic light is your friend here, really. After she does her thing, the motorist behind me makes a Jekyll-and-Hyde style change and starts to rev his engine fast, creep up way to close to my tire, yell that I am the anatomical area below the waist that is unique to females using the Anglo-Saxon term, and then slam on the horn the second the light turns green.

I've come to the conclusion that people who run reds and don't bother to stop at stop signs don't see a problem with it because they aren't around to witness the aftermath. I should have been able to catch up with the young woman as I nearly always do when someone runs a red, but it wasn't rush hour so there were few cars. That allowed her to blow through the next stop sign and I could not catch up. Given our radio show fracas here and all the resulting bad behavior on the part of riled-up motorists, I would have thought our local scofflaws might have developed a slight awareness of how their actions affect others, but not so with this woman.

I was cycling home last night about 6pm, climbing the hill out of town. I was only going 4 or 5 mpg because of the hill and heat. All of a sudden a Black Bear cub darted out of the woods and ran across the road about 50 ft in front of me! My jaw dropped open and I stopped and waited to see where Mama bear was. I didn't want to get between them. She didn't show, so I nervously started again. The cub was headed toward town!

Dodging thunderstorms on the way home last night. Managed to avoid the heavy downpours and lightning, so the little rain that did hit me was no big deal. Ride in this AM felt pleasantly cool. I'm guessing because, instead of 72F with 99% rH, today its 72F with 90% rH....either that, or I'm getting acclimated to the heat again. Supposed to be 96F w/ 50% rH on the way home, so I guess I'll see about that.

Couldn't ride yesterday. Had to pick up the latest order of t-shirts. :crash:
As I was leaving work yesterday my boss asked if I could drive again today. We are still in the midst of our mass mailing and a load will be ready to take to the post office today. I reluctently said I'd drive, but told him I had errands to do today (in L5P for locals) and a car would not be the best way to accomplish them. He suggested bringing my bike on the car so I'd have it for the mid-day errands and I could hit the post office on the way home.
I thought long and hard about this last night, so today, we are having a "come to Jesus meeting" http://users.telenet.be/eforum/emoticons4u/evil/210.gif about him assuming that my car will always be available for work related errands. BTW, there is a "company" car that spends most of it's time in his driveway. One of my questions will be, "Why can't you bring the company car to work for employees to use when we have these types of errands?"

Enough of my rant. Needless to say I'll be pissed off all day. I gotta sell that car so it won't be a reason NOT to ride. http://users.pandora.be/eforum/emoticons4u/sad/1318.gif