This daily commute may not be your usual cycling fun and excitement, but it sure
does keep me fit and strong! Last year I wasn't commuting, as I lived in Oxford. My
fitness levels this year are really amazing compared to last year!

I commute 7 miles each way and it takes me about 30 minutes.

We have a cycle track here along the very busy A40 to Oxford, but the traffic noise is horrendous!
At least it's safe though.

Man, it's so nice to have the sun up earlier. It seems to motivate me to ride faster. But alas, my legs were hurting from the race I did on Saturday. That was the only real problem I had today.

This little sausage of a dog ran after me from his carport - like every morning. I taunt him and call him names for fun: "C'mon you sausage with legs." "Pick it up fatty!" Stuff like that. I always have fun with him. Hopefully, his owner ain't standing there listening to me. Oh well.

Then like some mornings, I waited for this bus in Shelby that stops for an young, autistic girl. It brings a tear to my eye sometimes watching her mother struggle to get her on the bus. God bless that mother and child.

Had a fast ride home last night with a tailwind and added an extra mile to my ride since it was so nice out, upper 50s riding into the sunset. Cool this morning for the ride in, got a wave from a girl waiting for the bus, which must have been late since I usually don't see the kids by the time I go by. Can't wait for the mid 60s this afternoon.

The ride home yesterday resulted in a few curse words uttered under my breath. And some, not so under my breath! It had nothing to do with the cars though, and everything to do with equipment failure.

The road I ride has been getting worse all winter. Potholes the size of cantaloupes, I kid you not. They seem to grow every week! And the worst part is, the city can't fix them until the snow is gone. My rack bag is attached with four strips of velcro, which due to "velcro fatigue" and all those potholes causes the velcro strips to loosen over the length of my ride. Often I arrive finding that at least two straps have come off. Well yesterday, I finally found out what happens when all four come off: bad things.

While navigating a particularily bone-rattling section, three of the straps (I assume) came apart, swinging the bag to ose side of my rear wheel. The bag was then sucked into the space between my rear wheel and the rack supports, tearing free the last velcro strap and permanently lodging the bag against the spokes.

Now, this is one time when I'm really glad I ride a trike. If I'd been on two wheels, I would have been flat on my butt in the middle of the road with a bus bearing down on me like a tiger on a rabbit. On three wheels, it just felt like I'd thrown an anchor out the back, though I'm sure there's one spot on my rear tire that's a little more bald than the rest! After realizing I was stuck in the street and not going anywhere, I quickly hoised the trike onto the sidewalk and proceeded to dislodge the rather crumpled-looking rack bag. It took some effort, too. Fortunately, nothing seemed to be bent or damaged.

Needless to say, I am now in search of a new bag, or at least a way to repair the one I have.



Oh, and the city still hasn't cleared the side streets of snow, lazy asses..... grrr.....

Around 3cm of fresh snow. Took it pretty easy, there were some sketchy spots. Had a hockey stock strapped to the bike and skates on my back, which added a bit to the adventure.

Beautiful ride. 40 deg F and sunny. Spring peepers were peeping in the swamp. Passed three fellow riders and found one other bike at the rack at work.

One of the three riders I passed looks to be a homeless guy, looked like he slept under the bridge where I passed him. With his limited means, he had engineered some clever cargo carriers on his bike.

High this afternoon will be in the low 60s, so soon it'll be time to start bringing riding clothes.

Yesterday's ride home was gorgeous weather. At the 15 mile mark or so I saw Charlie the recumbent rider headed the opposite way, so I waved him down and we chatted for a while. (I had a light-up belt to give him.) While we were talking another cyclist came by who had passed me earlier in my commute (we were on the return leg of his training loop I guess) and so we all hung out for a while, talking bikes.

Nicest commute home so far. ^_^

This morning's commute was uneventful, except for another clipped in fall. *Cough* We won't talk about that one.:o

It was the second commute of the year for me. The weather was great: a nice clear sky, a bit chilly but not too bad, and no wind. I took an alternate route that goes by where my office is moving in a few months. It will shorten my commute by a mile or two and one big hill. Getting rid of the hill is nice, but I would be happy to keep the extra miles.

More snow today! It was enough to make cagers sketch[ier than usual], but not enough for me to worry about traction. My wife is pretty cranky with all the snow. She wants to switch back to her road bike in the worst way. With temperatures in the -10C range for the rest of the week, it won't happen until we're back from vacation.

Right around the freezing mark, with damp, salty streets with slushy patches all the way in. Yay for CX tires! But the wind was light, so it was a good ride.
Walter.

Talk about cold! My first day commuting from my new home and it was cooold. Took the MTB as there is still a bit of snow/ice/slush on the ground and was glad I chose it.

2 miles in 19 degree weather. Do-able but I sure hope it warms up soon... :)

Gorgeous morning during this gap between two Pacific storms. Yesterday's closed down all the trans-Sierra highways and tonight's is supposed to be even heavier. But this morning was beautifully clear and crisp (37F when I left the house).

Lots of birds on the American River Bike Trail this morning: Canada geese, valley quail, doves, ducks, herons, redtail and Harris hawks.

Today was my first commute. Dense fog. Pleasant temperature. Round trip is 18-1/4 miles.

rain, rain, rain, rain, snow(!) rain, hail.

Yuck.

Miserable spitting sleetsnow stuff.

Pulled 5 yr old to dentist in trailer, that went a lot better than I'd feared, it's been a while since I've trailered up any amount of hill. Only 1 kid, not both, that might have helped.

I caught a break in the rain yesterday doing an hour and a half commute/training ride to school yesterday. It just started to rain very lightly as I pulled up to class. However, on the ride back it was raining considerably harder. Taking the shortest route back from City College to the Panhandle it started pouring right after I passed Haight. As soon as I pulled onto the Panhandle it was hailing in sheets. Dark, hailing, soaked, cold, with a load of books on my back in a heavy crosswind: the only way to train.

First commute of the year and still February. Slightly chilly 19 degrees when I left home. Took my dirt road/trail route expecting the mud would be frozen solid. It was except for a short section of one road, but my fenders work great. Fortunately the trail was solid (I hate to carve canyons in the trail).

Rode home on the pavement...cool at 38 degrees, but nice. Glad to be commuting on the bike again!

29F No snow here HardW. But my water bottle was nearly frozen upon arriving this AM

That's impressive. Nothing but straightahead downpour heading home. I've been munching for 2 hrs straight getting body temp back up.

congrats K4LK on your commute. :beer:

I clipped along this morning on the street ride in and did the bike path on the way home. The DCR did a pretty decent job on the plowing so the ride home was not so bad.

I was envious to read that some of you are hearing spring peepers already. Oh, that is a sound I long to hear. :)

That was the coldest 33.8 degrees F I've ever experienced! No wind though. Thank goodness.

Well I have only ridden once in the past two weeks. MY kids brought home RSV from preschool and it has been killing me for about a week now. I'm especially disappointed to miss the past week because my work is moving this week so I will be doing a new commute.

I hope to be posting about my new commute on Monday.

I was chilly when I left the house, but warmed up by the time I got to work. I wanted to just keep riding at that point...

Got up this morning, roads are fairly dry, salt fairly well washed away, no rain or snow in forecast, temps in the lower 30s supposed to get up close to 40. I gave the snow bike a pat on the fender and saddled up on the singlespeed. Yeee hawwww, spring is coming!

Winter is back. Flurries this morning and 28F with light headwind. I rode studs this morning for the first time, and it was like pedaling through molasses. Added about 5 minutes to my commute.

I had to go in 30 minutes early, so traffic was a little lighter. The snow has made 50% of my ride dicey, since the city's overtly agressive sanding has made piles of crap pop up everywhere.

I probably didn't help cyclist-motorist relations this morning: I was waving a black VW Jetta to pull through so I could merge into the left lane, she hung back, and I kept waving and yelling Go! Go! Go! I think she was just trying to be nice, I was trying to be safe and efficient but I probably looked like an impatient and ungrateful jerk.

Except for that, which came at the very end of the ride, it was a wonderful ride in. I left at 6:40 and was able to get in a 20 mile detour by heading towards the Delta. I crossed over the Sacramento at Freeport, headed south towards Clarksburg and then took a 2-mile jaunt along a creek on a gravel levee road. I felt like an old-timey Tour de France rider bouncing across the dirt on my lugged steel fixed gear bike.

Lots of birds on the levees and creeks: robins, redwing blackbirds, ducks, coots, herons, and a redtail hawk.

Back onto the River Road and then down onto Jefferson Boulevard where you make a trade off: better pavement and a tailwind but a lot more traffic. But by this time it was getting on towards 8 and I needed to get to the office.

In the end, I had 25 miles in 1:20 for a very respectable 18 mph avg.

I got back on the roads today to see if the W&OD trail had been cleared off. It was pretty good, EXCEPT for the section between Maple Street in Vienna and Gallows Road in Falls Church.......which was pretty much impassable. I had to walk the bike for over 1.5 miles. Sucked. Took 2 hours to get in this AM. I've got a detour that I'll take for the ride home, which should go better.....

cold, wet. Started really snowing once I got to work (whew), now it's stopped and the clouds are very very bright, maybe sun will break through and I will go for a spin at lunchtime.

edit: nope, blinding snowsquall, God is telling me to finish this report.

February: 18 work days (1 holiday, 1 sick day) 15 commutes by bike. Fixie today.

83% for Feb, 93% for YTD.