drier than yesterday!
commutes were 2 of the hi-lites of my day (usually are)!
1 a/h buzzed me in am (+/-8") on way in, off-set now, but i'm primed. (not packed)!
i like riding in the rain!

Nice day, and cooler than the day before. Had two people thank me for biking. Seems I'm some sort of inspiration to them when they are at the gym, which was nice of them.

--A

Nice ride home tonight on spare steel frame road bike. Seat was annoying - rubbing right thigh. Noticed it was slightly off center and my wrench set was on the other bike - duh! It was the goodbye ride on the Centurian; it sold tonight to finance a riser bar, adjustable stem, and erogon grips on my MTB. Had to have them to alleviate hand pain - riding C&O this Sat/Sun.

up earlier than usual to poke the kid out of bed for first day of school. ergo, left earlier than i have been and arrived earlier. bike cage still stuffed by the time i got there though. had time to go look for some food at the supermarket and then just mooch around eating it before i got serious. all very nice.

after work, took some paper towels outside and spent some time to clean my chain a little and pump the tires back up while the wax set. i discovered this ridge of crud on both sides of both the little derailleur cogs, so i cleaned those out too with a match. strangely satisfying. we're definitely in the equinox month; there was serious sunset taking place by 7:30. left my jacket at home and didn't miss it going or coming, although it is cooler than it used to be. i should start thinking about reflective tape for this bike.

First commute since 8/25. It's been a while, but still felt strong. Nearly broke the 45 minute mark for the 13 mile route (45:12). Glad to see the dense fog they were forecasting never materialized. Hit a pothole really hard around mile 6 and the impact must have shut my blinkie light off. It was quite dark, but apparently all the drivers could still see me as I didn't have any close calls. Got to watch the blood red full moon setting as I was riding...very nice! Will be riding in MS150 this weekend, so am taking tomorrow and Monday off. Sounds like the weather will be quite nice.

Enjoying the light traffic and cooler temps. Get to work and put my bag down to lock up the bike...and my soda explodes all over my clothes.

Either I can clean them up well enough to wear, or I guess it's very casual Thursday :(

Foggy this AM! Helmet lamp was producing quite a light show thu it; made for a wide-eyed experience. Lots of sleepy/daredevil birds on the back roads occasionally freaked me out. Yeah, the blood red moonset was awesome. Made good time @ 2:01 for 38 miles.

About 55 F, right on the fringe between gloves/long sleeves and not. Was fine after 5 minutes but couldn't feel my fingers at the end. The PM commutes are 100% wonderful this month.

:eek: :D :o It'll be funny later, once you have new clothes on.

My commute was fast! 50+ mph! In my Tacoma. :( Have to go from work straight to the airport for a pre-checkride flight with my instructor.

I was going to ride up some single tracks and steep hills this morning but I realized I needed to drive or I'd never make it to the plane in time after work. Oh well. I'll do some fun riding tomorrow.

I did see a bike commuter on my street as I was pulling out of my driveway. Never seen him before. Maybe one of these days we'll ride in together.

Fine ride in this morning. Very cool temps, but I was still sweaty by the time I got to work. Only one very minor incident. Slight wardrobe problems at work, I need to get my emergency clothes box back in order.

Terrible. One of those mornings I wish I could redo. It was super foggy out, so I'm glad I had my lights. My glasses however kept getting wet/fogging over.

One mile from the house something in my seat broke. Instead of being flat, it was pointing up at a 10-15 degree angle. As a guy, allow me to say, that's a painful experience for the next seven miles.

When turning into my work place, I signaled a right turn, brought down my hand, and smacked my helmet mirror. Broke it in two. In an attempt to fix it, I may have made it worse:(

Gaarrrr

Wow...a nice ride in today...was able to eliminate some slowspots/stopspots along my route. Took 4 minutes off of my 18.5 mile commute to work reduced riding time to 1 hour 15 minutes, and I felt like I did that leisurely. Should be sunny, cool and only a 4 to 5 mph SSW wind in my face for the ride home...YAY! :D

Pleasantly cool weather, big orange moon setting, foggy going through the woods again. Did the entire ride (4:50 - 6:20am) before sunrise--need to get that 12V lead/acid powered DIY halogen light system I started building finished to augment the white LED ones.

Saw one semi-serious (head & tail lights, dressed in cycling clothes, but no helmet) commuter this morning, pretty rare to see anyone. (Well, there's the occasional no-lights, no-helemt, dressed like a street slob, wrong-way-riding, maybe-they-lost-their-license type, but I don't generally count them.)
--
Pseudo-Random Commutting Thought of the Day: Keep your RPM's up and your breakfast down.

This morning was pretty good. Stopped at a lot of lights with other commuters (usually I only see one or two on my new route), and shared a few cheery "good mornings!" Plus, I tried pacing with a couple of them for a while, and really upped my speed. This unfortunately resulted in a sweatier Mugsy upon arrival at work.

Funny thing happened on the ride home last night. Was was riding home from work, and as I was coming over the bridge on Damen (about 3 miles from home), I was coming up to a red light. So I started to slow down, and heard someone behind me honk.

I got ready to turn around and give them my cyclist version of the bird (aka "wave and smile"), thinking "who's this jackass who's honking at me while I stop for a light?"

But it was my fiancee, driving home from work. Ha! I kept pace with her for quite a while - but then she caught a light at Roscoe that I missed, and that was the end of that. Still, she only got home about five minutes before I did

Light rain last night on the way home. The trip home is pretty quick, so I just rode it out in my Tshirt. It's only water anyways.

Had some fool trick me with his blinker.... 4 lane section and he was pacing behind me to the left with his right blinker on. There was a turn lane to my right, so I figured he wanted in the lane but wasnt sure. I moved left into the lane to signal my intent to go straght. He followed me [straight] up the hill at 30mph [in a 40] with his right blinker still flashing. Lesson learned...Blinkers are a lousy guide of a drivers true intent. But I suppose I already knew that.

This morning's ride was was like playing Frogger... cars everywhere. Seemed like every cross street had someone waiting to pull out. Packs of unleashed dog walkers, etc. I put the flashing LED headlight on the bars this morning and I believe it kept the whole lot of them at bay. It's pretty bright and obnoxious. :)

That "4-letter" season is on the way. :crash: Slightly overcast and getting less warm. :(
This morning's temperature was cool enough that I probably won't be wearing my sandals much longer. I hate that. :cry:
Only saw a few commuters but had a great ride. :beer:

No commuting tomorrow. I worked on Labor Day so I'm taking tomorrow off. :p
I'll be "commuting" on my road bike to Stone Mountain for what I hope will be a great day of riding. :)

I felt like I was seriously drag-@ssing it this morning. Heavy legs, tired feeling, couldn't wake up until a mile or two into the ride. Of course, my g/f and I went out to a concert last night, and 5am rolls up on you quick when you don't get to bed until midnight.

The concert rocked (Matisyahu/Polyphonic Spree/Street Drum Corps) and feeling sluggish this morning is a small price to pay for such a fun time.

I had a lovely ride in with my wife today. The weather was great, the sunrise was red from all the forest fires in BC, and traffic was quite manageable. It's nice riding with her, since I ride at her speed and don't get as sweaty. We can also blow kisses to each othe as I make my turnoff for work. <awwwww>

Very short and painful today. See this thread for details http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=226363

:(

Brisk. Gray but not foggy. Nonetheless, out came the headlight. Pretty dim bulb after spending the summer in the garage, but it's charging now.

Socks man! Socks! all black looks like regualr shoes - well as much as any bike shoes look like regular shoes. icebike.com lists sandals as one of the icebiker options. just strap them sandals under som toasting layers and get pedalling... ;)

As I approached the most dangerous intersection on my commute this morning, I noticed a slightly longer than normal line at the light. After waiting in line for a few minutes I decided to slowly inch my way forward between the cars and then noticed several wrecked vehicles blocking both lanes in my direction. There was a four car crash (two looked really bad) that must have just happened because emergency crews were not yet on the scene. A few motorists were out of their vehicles and helping those who were injured.

There was no way to ride through so I decided to get off the bike and cross ped style. Lots of emergency vehicles started to show up as I was making my way across. I was running a little late this morning, but now was glad that I wasn't there any sooner. As always, be careful out there.

Uneventful commute this morning. Rode in later (9:15) than usual because the Thing's 2nd ultrasound was this morning. Happy to report that everything looks good. :)

Virtually no one on the road at that time of day. Too bad I can't ride at that time every day....

Perfect ride home. Left work early (allowed to work from home); minimal traffic on the roads. Set a new PB of 67 minutes on my 22 mile commute (19.1mph av). Woot! :D

Another great day of commuting. Cager in a Lincoln Navigator was in a really big toot this morning. Ran a stop sign, made a left turn and slammed on his brakes after about half a block. Tried a u-turn but couldn't make a clean one. He had to back up twice to get the thing turned around. Guess his cage wasn't equipped with the latest GPS gizmo.

Finally decided to chime in on this thread, been reading it for a while. My commute is 22 to 26 miles each way depending on the route I take. Currently trying for twice a week with a goal of 3 times a week. Wanted my first post in this thread to be a positive one but today's ride home was kind of crappy so I'll post about that instead.

I got out of work about a half hour late so took the shortest route which includes a short stretch I don't really like for several reasons. One of them being a railroad crossing that is right at a switch yard. Tonight at rush hour traffic they are rearanging box cars blocking the road for a good 15 minutes. So after standing there for 15 minutes now I have this humungous line of cars behind me on a road with a highway crossing that goes back and forth from 2 lanes to 4 several times. So I get through that with just some lost time. Next I'm on part of my ride that is a bike path that runs parallel to a major freeway in Metro Detroit. At the major roads where there are entrance/exit ramps the path has to cross the streets. The worst of these crossings has a go signal for the path preceeded by a right turn arrow for the auto traffic. So basically when I get my green I have to interupt a steady flow of right turning traffic whose light just went from green arrow to green...sounds safe eh? Normally I ride out into the intersection making eye contact and forcing someone to let me through, which they normally do once they see me. Tonight was the first time I actually made eye contact with a driver as I slowy entered the intersection and she just kept on coming. So I let her pass, give her look and I'm on my way as the next car lets me through. Lastly I'm about 3 miles from home on a two lane semi residential street. I hear this clang like something broke on my bike followed by this hissing sound. I still don't know what I road over because I didn't see it and didn't take the time to go back. No tube with me today so I walk the bike down the street and find a decent spot and proceed to patch my punctured tube. First time patch job for me but it went OK, took a little long, like 20 or 25 minutes.

Sorry for the long post, just one of them days.