I've been having oodles of fun on my commutes since I got the Trek. There are lots of dirt trails I've been exploring. My ride home yesterday consisted of a trip through woods and then a field of 6-foot tall weeds on a path barely wide enough for the handlebars. I got home with seeds stuck to my jersey. I wife said, "Did you fall?!" I just grinned and explained what I had been up to.

I also found a very steep hill and went to the bottom of it, then decided to see how easy it would be to climb it. Low gear, and I spun right up, grinning like a maniac the whole time.

This morning I went up on a trail I've seen MTBers pop out of before. Nice views of Lake Champlain, but the steep, narrow descent back to the MUP was scary. I went sssssslowly.

I should bring a camera sometime.

No commute today. Ernesto.

The weather really wasn't that bad this morning, and one of the other commuters from my building rode today. But I have a pregnant wife.....

4C when I woke up. I over compensated with too much clothing.

Frickin' chilly! I saw my breath for the first time since April. I wore my regular gear and didn't overheat, but my hands were a bit cold for sure. Traffic was so light! Next week is going to be nasty...

No exploring. Took the new high traffic route to confirm that it is indeed faster. 10 minute improvement over my normal time with exhausted legs.

Not sure if warmer but definitely sunnier riding in today. Back on flatbar road-y bike after a week+ of mtn biking. Felt squished.

Nice ride this morning. I started chatting with another rider on the train. He and one of his coworkers have started riding part of the way to their job at the airport. The three of us teamed up for the first mile of my commute before I turned north and they continued west. It was nice to have a small crew of cyclists with whom to brave the most treacherous section of road. The rest of my commute was nice. Quiet today. Not alot of traffic. The legs were a little tired today though, end of the week and all.

One oddity of the ride had to do with air temperatures. It was weird. Mostly the morning was cool. But at random intervals I would pass through a little spot of warmer air, then it would dip down again. Almost like swimming in a lake where sections are warmer than others for reasons both natural and (yech) manmade.

I greased my chain before i went out to day and i don't know why i don't do it more often. My bike was completely quiet and the ride seemed easier as well. It was windy for the most part, but the 17km ride to and from the shop was great (except for a section of the road under construction).

Completely uneventful today. I did stop to take a picture of my bike and post it in the commuter bike pics thread, though.

Beautiful weather today! Today also marks my first full week of bike commuting. I only rode three days last week, but this week I got to ride all five. My total mileage was 52.3 for the week.

OK it's hot out!

Beautiful weather in the south today as well. This is our first full week out of the 90º's, we are even going to have lows in the upper 60º's tonight.

Had a run in with a major redneck this afternoon on the way home. He said he would kick my a$$. I told him to come on....and I'd be glad to call the police. I got his tag number and called the Alpharetta Police. The took down the tag number but said there was really nothing they can do . So now I've got the tag number and I'm going to find out who owns the truck. I hope its a business. I think an e-mail to the business owner letting him/her know how people are representing the business in public will do wonders.

Outside of the redneck and the police....the rest of the ride was good. I went an extra 10km to go by my LBS and pick up a new blinkie for the road bike. I'll put that on tomorrow.

I've been riding with my club's beginner group. Rode with the intermediate group last night. We were going so fast my HR monitor was showing my caslculated max HR, and they sped up. I just hung on . It sure made mew consider driving in today. The ride in was good for loosening up some seriously stiff legs. Ride home was nice. I'm working all weekend, so I'm keeping an eye out for drunk drivers. Ride safe.

yeah, it was. up all night competing in the Itch Olympics, so i was tired today. had to stop on the way home and buy some chocolate milk, then find something to lean on while i drank it. nothing worse than being stranded somewhere with nothing to do and nothing to read while you're doing it. i found a fragment of left-behind local paper at a bus stop and read obituaries for 15 minutes or so until i felt fit to go home.

nice weather. too warm for the alert jacket, but just right without it. noticeable thinning of the population in the bike cage these past few fridays; i guess people are taking their kids camping and stuff while the taking is good. it's so hard to believe that we're looking down the barrel of winter again, but impossible to pretend that it's still high summer. it's amazing how fast the year seems to turn once august is halfway over.

discussion with the business analyst, who bikes to work too. she goes about 5k each way, and lives in this flat part of the world. asked where i come from so i reminded her. 'oh god,' she said. 'you've got that HILL going home every day.' i feel vindicated

Today was probably the worst commute in a while. I started out 20 minutes late, which isn't a big deal since I leave early enough to allow for an unforeseen situation. I was all pumped to ride since I had just watched an alleycat video. Half way to work, I felt like I was riding on sand. Yup, rear flat.

Let me rewind here. Before I left, I checked my CO2 cartridge and it was empty and I didn't have anymore. So I threw my mini-pump in my bag on the way out. I looked for my extra tube, but remembered I used it last month when I got a flat. Back to the commute.

So I pull over and look for some shade which at 11 AM is basically non-existant. I get the flat fixed with a speed-patch. This is about the time I start cursing my POS mini-pump because it won't get the PSI up to where it needs to be.

Thankfully the LBS (lone bike shop) was on the way and a block north of my regular route. The lady in the shop (bless her heart) was so damn slow in finding the tube I needed. She pulled out six tubes, unrolled them all and checked to see how long the valves were even though the size was on the box and I was telling her I needed two 700X20-25 medium length presta valves. 15 minutes and $10 later I had short length presta valves. By the time I got the tube in, I had 10 minutes to get 5 miles. By some miracle I made it to work on time with a half inflated tube.

Cliffnotes: Left late, got a flat, fixed flat well enough to get to LBS, bought tube, installed tube made it to work by the skin of my teeth.

Been away from the forum for a while. Two trips - professional conference and 9 day bike trip in Pacific Northwest. Back to commuting regularly for the past 3 weeks, 26 miles per day. Teaching 120 students in a new classroom with no air handlers working - miserable conditions. Facilities group finally decided to do something about chronically wet carpet in my office. Have not been able to use my office for 4 of days this past week. Commuting rides were the only thing that kept me from going mad this week.

Had a nice ride both ways today. I checked the weather when I left. Supposedly it was 79, but I think it was closer to the mid eighties cuz I was sweating like a catholic priest at a little leage game by the time I got to work.

I don't get why people in cars yell when they drive by. Kinda reminds me of the stand up routine about guys that drive by girls and whistle at them done by Jerry Seinfeld.

Run off the road on the way in by a pickup. Guess my taillight, white helmet, reflectives, hi viz jacket etc, where not conspicuous enough. I was just right of center in ther right hand lane of two each way. Obviously he had to move over to graze me, wish he would have moved over to the open left lane. Caught up at the stoplight and bounced my bottle off the truck and started yelling to get the driver's attention. Probably was a good thing that he had his door locked (I checked)because I was gonna pull him out of there and I had no intention of playing nice. This guy almost creamed me. I usually love the Sunday commute. I have a huge purple bruise on my thigh from my frame hitting my leg when I threw myself over so that the truck's mirror would miss me. Seems a lot of the worst drivers around here take off their license plates when the have a temporary registration sticker. Now I know why. It makes them harder to identify. Ride home was nice.

First thing I noticed when I woke up yesterday was the wind blowing from east to west (normally it blows from west to east) so I knew something was up. Checked the weather and at 8:30 AM it was already 90*. The ride in was extremely fast thanks to the wind (thanks Hurricane John). At lunch I must've ate some bad Chinese food and felt like crap the rest of the day. Woke up this morning feeling like I got hit by a train, so I slept for another three hours and decided to just drive in.

oooooh--- holiday= no traffic. nice ride in today, plus it was under 100 degrees. yay!

Nice ride in today. After about 4 kms of my 15+ km commute I spotted a colleague heading for the bus. About half an hour later we happened to meet again as we arrived at the office door. I told him where I had passed him and he immediately pointed out it took us the same time to commute that distance.

He was only dropping his car there, his full commute would be 45 kms, but he told me he would really like to try and commute by bike. He had already made plans to maybe ride one way 4 times a week, and take the bus for the rest of the trips. All he needed was a reliable bike and some encouraging words, so we chatted about bikes and practicalities involved in commuting by bike for a while there. I hope he goes for it.

--J

Heck of a lot more traffic today....mostly cause it's the first day of school in Michigan. I'm going to have to trian a whole new group of people now Had one truck pull out on the road with some engine problems, he was spewing so much smoke from his pipes that I had to pull over and wait for it to clear. I couldn't see any cars in that cloud and I'm sure they couldn't see me.

Otherwise, nice ride

really nice ride in this morning. Kind of humid and low 70's for weather. People on the road were playing nice this morning and I was in a good mood. Took my time riding in this time. Made it in in about 38 minutes and not dripping sweat for a change

Finally got a rack for the back of my bike and installed it this weekend. Bungie corded my backback to it this morning. The balance shift on the bike was a little different but nothing to complain about. It was nice being free on my ride without the pack on my back.

Somehow shaved 5 to 10 minutes off the commute this morning - I think my legs are finally starting to get used to being back on the bike!