I had to work an industry golf tournament this morning before going to work. I was told there would be breakfast. Yah right - black coffee and Doritos. I was so hungry I ate a lot of chips and drank about 5 cups of coffee. I felt gross when I finally got to ride into work. Bleagh.

nuther benefit of bike commuting:

it's pizza thursday around our house. i just took delivery of it, and instead of hunting up a clipboard analogue or trying to get through my (over-long) name against a wall before the pen ran dry, i just signed the (cobweb-thin) visa slip against my own (rock-hard) thigh. go me.

and maybe another, if your sense of humour is off:

on sunday we used the car (friend with art show having reception in back of beyond). on wednesday morning pre-work, i let myself talk extra-long to someone else because 'eh, i can always drive.' discovered a flat battery that way, and it was kind of fun listening to the bcaa dude when he asked the traditional 'when do you think you left your lights on?' and i answered him. i think it led him to think i don't have a job. and why don't bike people have a bcaa, we'd like to know?

so today was bike day for sure. really nice. it's just that kind of cool and grey now where i always start out in my neon-bright safety jacket, and always peel it halfway off while i'm waiting for the first light. it's too complicated getting a jacket all the way off when you're in a messenger bag with stability strap, so i usually just work the other arm free and let the thing wave behind me the rest of the way like superman's cape cause i still like the safety of the eye-bleed colour. no stops or detours this morning, just a really nice peaceful ride. i love that sensation of being just on the sweaty side of warm, when the air's nice and cool. i even found an actual free slot in the bike rack today, in spite of arriving so late.

coming home i just lollygagged. this is fun too, if you're feeling like it. stopped at a 7-11 and bought one of those trivial inconsequential little items you can't live without, and then just slobbed around outside like a teenager for an hour or so, drinking water and reading the georgia strait. got asked for directions by someone heading to where i'd come from, so it was fun to say 'well, i work there, but i don't actually know too much about driving there . . . '

eating cantaloupe and a salad with spinach in it. wtf is wrong with me?

Good ride home last night. Uneventful. Had a nice ride in this AM with a few notable events. As I was taking a hard right while doing ~25mph, my front tire slipped a little to the left. I heard it slide and felt my balance shift too, but thankfully I didn't go down. Never had that happen to me on dry pavement before. Maybe I had a little oil on my front tire after passing through the intersection. I also saw 3...yes 3!! other people biking this AM. I'm on the road from ~ 5:50-6:40 and on rare occasions I might see one other commuter, so seeing 3 in one day is unheard of. Maybe the cooler weather is bringing them out. One of them, an attractive young lady, was riding with no helmet (or lights) though.

Wet riding home last night and then again this morning. Really got pelted the last mile last night, at least I missed the *baseball* sized hail that was falling earlier in the day!

90% through first week of commuting M-F, 198 miles down, 22 left to go. With all that gas money I oughta save by not driving to work I think I'm gonna buy me some better rain gear...

commute this morning was great. Made it in record time. 8.3 miles in 36 minutes. Only one red light. Only one idiot in an F150 this morning who goes by me with about 4 inches to spare, then cuts me off by making a right turn in front of me. Thank God it wasn't a dually. The rear wheel well would have definitely taken me out.

Nice commute. Another cloudy, humid morning.
Saw a few commuters. Got stuck behind two block long backup. Usually only 3 or 4 cars at that intersection, so opted for the sidewalk to get past them. Let's see now, that's the third time this year that I've had to use the sidewalk.
Too many cars in this town.

Something's up with my seatpost. It keeps slipping downward. Any ideas how to fix it? The bike is 20 years old. I'm thinking of removing it entirely, cleaning it with a good solvent, and then putting it back in.

Or I can use it as an excuse. "Honey, my seat keeps falling down. I need an <insert expensive bicycle> ASAP!"

The lower seat works the tops of my quads though.

Played leap frog with a bus 3 times last night unitl I finally won when he got tangled in the traffic. suckah... Blazed home so I could switch out to the MTB for the Thursday night ride with the guys. We proceded to tear up 8 miles of Ute Valley Park off road action, climbing, hucking, and just general crazyness. It's all fun till someone bloodies up the trail Wheelied almost all the way across a long bridge with a curve in the middle. Some day I'll make it all the way.

61F and drizzle on the way in...way kind of nice actually. Threw the cover on the bike cuz I'm pretty sure that it will at least sprinkle and rain a bit today.

Gotta tune up the tandem tonight for the https://www.moonlight-classic.com/ ride in Denver tomorrow night. Need to hang lights, the new pedals, more lights, and then some more lights. The little woman wants to hang streamers on the bars, but I may draw the line before there.

nothing particularly exciting to report this morning, other than a cabbie deciding to pull in front of me, then straddling the bike lane and half of the right lane. Good times. I'm glad I was half-asleep and biking veeery slowly at the time, that could have really really sucked.
The 4 lane highway I cross over on my bike path wasn't as packed as usual this morning. Kind of disappointing in a way, mocking them usually inspires me to pick it up once I get on the trail.


Big Ron... where in raleigh do you live?

I live in Cary, near Harrison Avenue and work on the northen end of RTP..... How about you?

I'm in the D.C. area now, but my fam lives in N. Raleigh, right near creedmoor / 540.

I was just curious to see, the triangle isn't the most bikeable place. My brother may start commuting from N. Raleigh to Rex, though, which sounds interesting, especially if he takes creedmoor.

This morning I decided to take the lakefront path into work instead of the streets. I took it home for the first time earlier this week, and totally loved it - even though it adds about 3 1/2 miles to my commute, there's no stopping. Plus, the scenery is prettier.

Coming into work that way turned out to be a little different. Took me about 20 minutes longer, mostly due to the heavier winds off the lake slowing me down to an average speed of 9 mph (sucks!). But it was still much more gorgeous than riding on the street. The only problem is, I wasn't quite sure how to get off the path in a way that easily got me to my office (darn one-way streets in downtown Chicago!) so I ended up having to walk my bike for about a block.

It was great otherwise, though! A little worried about the ride home, as they're predicting "strong storms" starting around 3 PM. I think I'll bust out of work early

It must be Sacramento Sidewalk Riding Day. I must have seen 6 other riders today and I was the only one on the street. No, wait. I take that back. There was the guy going the wrong way on 21st Street. He was in the gutter and to his credit, he was on the right side of the road, the only problem is that 21st Street is one-way. Dumbass.

Instead of my nice new route, I stopped by the grocery store this morning. I can't believe how much I stuffed in my pannier. In addition to my pants, shirt, and small towel, I had a 12-pack frigdemate of soda, a loaf of bread, a 1-pound bag of pretzels, a large jar of peanut butter, a small jar of jelly, a large squeeze-bottle of honey, and a pound of chocolates. It was great on the downhills because I coasted faster, but made the uphills tougher.

Got my bike goodie box last night. New lock (NY 3000), mega horn, and reflective vest. The vest doesn't have the tail (bike version) so it goes back. The lock is awesome. And the mega horn is not so mega. I thought it would be louder. Oh well. I'll keep it and see if I like it better as I actually get to use it.

Mike

Weird commuting day. I had to be downtown first thing to sign some papers and that took longer than I thought. I was dressed up for business, but carried my bike with me on the train. So jumped on to ride back to my side of town. I needed some rim tape, so stopped by my favorite LBS and got that. It was pretty hot and I needed a new pair of biking shorts anyway, so I bought some, changed into them, and rode back to my side of town. Now I'm in the office until late and screamin' hungry. I need to go find some BBQ for lunch.

Great ride in this morning. Got a new wheel on my bike last night with a new set of cogs and a new rear shifter and everything is riding like butter. The traffic was fairly light and the weather was pleasant. Looking forward to a nice long ride this weekend.

Good COmmute in the morning nothing to entertaining cant wait for panniers to replace 2 diffrent bags being strapped to the rack

Greetings all. My first post here.

I had a good ride this morning. My commute begins at a train station near LAX Airport and concludes 14 miles north in Santa Monica, CA. The weather was cool and the air was still as I started north at about 6:30am from the train station on Aviation Blvd. Almost immediately I was cruising at a healthy clip. I have no computer on my bike but I estimated my speed at around 15mph. I was anxious to get off that road. There's no shoulder, no bike lane, and no sidewalk. And traffic is aggressive on Aviation. Once past the first straight away; however, my ride takes me along hotel row near LAX and then along a recently resurfaced road paralleling the north runway. Traffic here is fast but sparse and the bike lane is acres wide. I can negotiate this stretch fairly free of vehicular molestation.

I should add that I started commuting by bicycle about three months ago. For the first time since I started this experiment I closed the distance and passed another cyclist. Thus far it has been a considerable effort to achieve this little feat. This time I was well ahead of him before I realized that I had not even gotten winded. He never caught me either. It was a small victory for me. My endurance has definitely increased.

I glided through the little village of Playa Del Rey and then into Marina Del Rey. The light was with me as I crossed Washington Blvd. I slowed along one of the side streets for a rest before dropping the hammer on Venice Blvd. A street clock in south Santa Monica read 7:29 as I rolled into the final three miles and I walked in the door at 7:40am.

I crossed paths with no caged cretins today and even received an applause as I passed a homeless guy who stopped digging in a trash can to give me accolades.

Nice post, Kendell. And welcome.

Thanks, Caloso. It's good to find this forum.

I rode in with my wife this morning, and we kept missing lights. It was kind of nice not to have to put the hammer down and get all sweaty. I still got to work before 8, but was quite relaxed doing it. Very nice.

First day back commuting after vacation. Worked on cadence rather than speed. A "slower" regular passed me gleefully. Who cares! Felt so good to be on the road.

bah humbug. pending-all-week visit from some very head honcho indeed took place today, and everyone scurrying around dripping flop sweat and channelling frank burns at the troops since oh, wednesday at least. trying to put hospital corners on things that have no corners and banning the most ridiculous things. what is the matter with people? just realised have been in a hostile crouch all week waiting to be told by some wound-too-tight loon that i cannae bike tae work on The Day, a) lest vhh get to see me coming out of the elevator in my spandex and migraine-green shirt, and b) cause they want a nice tidy organised bike cage to show him, not some sloppy pigsty all cluttered with bikes that don't colour coordinate or line up in order from smallest to biggest wheels. didn't happen, for which small mercy give thanks.

but it meant i didn't want to eat my habitual post-ride bagels in the test lab, just in case someone saw a crumb fall and had a coronary. cranky and crabby all day in consequence. so on the way home i detoured to the neighbourhood that makes bubble tea with sluch and fresh fruit, and then walked my bike along the sidewalk for a block or so in search of coffee and halva and other such life-sustainers. seems pretty clear that someone who preceded me didn't like the bubbles in their bubble tea, because the sidewalk was littered with them. found one of them stuck to my rear wheel when i got home. i wonder how much iron there is in bubble tea.

For somebody who has been riding for 3 mo, that is quite a feat. I remember Aviation Blvd from being in LA on business. I didn't ride it (only drove) but remember the place. Good on ya!

Wow. Someone knows the road. Cool.

I do have a bunch of touring experience from my teen years. Youth Hostel tours of Europe and the Canadian Rockies. And I used to ride all the time back east so I am no stranger to cycling. But that was years ago and I am new to commuting by bike in L.A. It's a whole other monster from riding around national parks and New England bike paths. Aviation Blvd. is an intimidating little patch of real estate. It takes some getting used to. But with a little skill, a sprinkling of defensive riding, and some guts it can be negotiated. I'd actually like to see more cyclists doing it. It would give us a stronger claim on the territory if regular drivers knew that Aviation was frequented by cyclists.