Congratulations! Now you can start counting down the days to the first birthday when you can take the baby along in the bike trailer. I only have six weeks to go until 'lil Chuck can get strapped into the Chariot. I bought a helmet for him this weekend for his first birthday.

The warm weather brought out lots of commuters on the Mount Vernon Trail this morning at 7am. Yesterday was 28F, today was a balmy 55F. Tomorrow it will be back down to freezing again. You have to really watch the weather forecast this time of year.

I think I saw about 20 other commuters this morning. I guess springtime really is here. There is a chance of rain tomorrow and Friday. I know I'm crazy but I'm looking forward to some inclimate weather. After months of cold and snow it is hard to go cold turkey into nice weather!

Not really a commute today. I had to take my car to the mechanic so I put my bike on the rack, drove over, dropped off the car and rode my bike back to my apt. to work from home. Saw more people on bikes on the QBoro bridge than I was expecting which was cool. They all looked like commuters.

The 7 mile commute this morning was very blustery with a nasty wind chill, so I had my wind-proof
jacket, gloves and a woolly hat under my helmet on today. It's been snowing since, so I don't know what
kind of conditions to expect later tonight, as I'm meeting a friend in town before cycling home.

Going home last night was definitely cold and wet. I am just toting that extra pannier around jammed w/ weather stuff, so I had a rainjacket, which was good. As the year progresses, I think 1st I will drop the extra pannier then, eventually, the headlight. Then my bike will probably drop to like 40# loaded...

Beautiful again this morning though, so again I did a 10 mile detour past work. Is it 'hill repeats' if you repeat the hill on consecutive days?

Came in before dawn this am, very brisk and windy,:) but it was behind me. Rarely do I get that priveledge in the am! The dim light made it hard to see black ice so I was quite careful on the shiny MUP spots. I stayed upright and made good time. I got a good cadence going--boy the bike just feels smoother in the cold, quiet mornings. No one was on the MUP. Could see a hint of the sun on my last leg of my ride, peakin' through the horizon. Quite nice.:)

I had an excellent commute this morning, got a boatload of skin care tips from a homeless guy in the Village. I was stopped at a red light waiting for the intersection to clear, down by NYU. This guy launched into an extremely elaborate routine, complete with a magical flipping cardboard sign which looked like the indicator board from a train station. Somehow the subject disintegrated into the fact that he was turning 46 this week and his wonderful beauty secrets for keeping a youthful appearance, black soap and shea nut butter from head to toe, yes, even in your hair, which he gets from a street vendor in Brooklyn (Don't get the processed crap from a store!) He even shared testimonials from the old ladies at his church who have tried his method and not only "had the youthful vigor returned to their step" but "had their arthritis cured" as well. I was on the verge of skipping out of work for the morning and heading over to the Fulton St mall to pick some up! If Juan Ponce de León had gone to Brooklyn instead of Florida, he just might have found the Fountain of Youth.

Couple of interesting things on the way home today. First, I must have picked up a shard of glass in my front tire. It flashed at me several times, perfectly positioned to reflect the setting sun into my eyes. I was so mesmerized by it I didn't stop at first to pull it out. Thanks to Mr. Tuffy, it was just an interesting diversion, not a show stopper. Then I had another biker pass me while I was waiting for a light. I didn't want to re-pass, only to get re-re-passed at the next light. So I hung back for a while. At one light, I saw an opportunity to draft a station wagon (square=turbulence=good drafting) which took me past the other cyclist and, of course, I got stopped at the next light and re-passed (I wasn't trying to show you up, honest, I didn't even give you "the look"). Finally, when I got home, I found that my windpants had bid a fond farewell and ejected themselves from the bungee cords on my rack trunk somewhere along the route.

First my chain broke, then my chain-tool broke. The bike gods have been frowning on me since this weekend when I got a flat tire near the end of the single most hellish ride I've ever been on and my frame pump broke. After this latest debacle I decided it's time to upgrade the bike and slap on some new components, which means commuting on my mtb for the next few weeks...ugh...

Unexpected rain, hail, sleet and snow on AM commute. Rain gear held well but I needed face protection from the hail.

Today was quiet. Fine-tuned my route to go through a public park and get away from some busy, dangerous streets. Rode behind Great American Ball Park, where the Reds play, and it was completely empty. Nice so far, let's see what happens this evening, during rush hour!

COLD!!! It's about 34 degrees out! not too much traffic though

Here's a mea culpa from the ride home last night. I was cruising down a neighborhood street and was farther to the right than I usually am. I rolled a stop sign just as a guy from the other direction started to turn. Words were said but we both continued on. I got defensive, but really should have been paying better attention.

Nice ride in today. Started out really pushing it hard today. Then half way to the office, it dawned on me, I don't even want to go to work today. Why am I riding so hard to get somewhere I'm not really interested in being this morning? So I slowed down and took it easy. Even rode on the sidewalk for part of the way, but very slowly (maybe 8-10 mph). Still ended up with an average speed of 18 mph for the ride in.

Oye, this morning was sore. Last night's jujitsu took a number on me:) It was chilly, but not as bad as it has been the past couple of days. Tonight it's supposed to be almost 50, reallly looking forward to that.

I left the house a few minutes earlier then normal, amazing how much of a traffic difference that is, barely any cars out there. When I came up on the MUP I use, I saw some sort of canine on the pathway. I swear it looked like a wolf, but I don't believe there are any of those here. It took one look at the freak on teh bike and ran into a field. That was the only living being I've seen on the MUP in a week :b

I was anticipating commuting this morning. However, I was taking a look at my saddle to fix a noise last night. Low and behold I discovered that the plastic bottom piece had split width wise in the middle of the nose. Not entirely unexpected but annoying none the less. 8400 miles and my butt is going to miss that saddle. Now I need to break in a new one. :( The noise turned out to be caused by me overtightening the seat post clamp.

Still recovering from my wreck last Friday and also now suffering from allergies. All things considered I am going to hold off from commuting till next week. Plus, I need to hunt for a new saddle. Yuck.

No commute (and no haiku either). Taking the baby to the doctor for 1-month checkup.

When I looked out the window this morning, I could see a little bit of snow falling. "No problem, it will just melt - skinny tires FTW!" By the time I got two blocks from my house, I couldn't see more than 10' ahead, and was in the midst of a blizzard. I didn't feel like going home, so I soldiered on. The snow kept falling, and it's now about 4" deep according to my co-workers who came in later. I hope it warms up, or I'll be walking up all the hills. :(

I rode in from the south and the side roads are awful but the main roads are kind of like soup so they are managable. It should hit 7° C this afternoon, the sun is coming out and the snow is stopping. You'll be fine.

I didn't realize how cold it was until I got to work, after tacking a 10 mile out-back onto the 6 mile commute, and found my fingers were killing me after I took my gloves off, and it took me a while to be able to type reasonably accurately. I did notice at one point that the aluminum bar-ends were sucking warmth from my hands that the rubber handlebar grips were not, so that should have been a clue (besides all the frost and ice, I mean...). Beautiful sunrise.

Again logging right after Hardy :)

37F and frosty or foggy in a lot of places. Nice ride in. Gas prices are up so there are more bikers on the road this week.

Same here. Looking outside now looks bright, should be up around 0-5C by home time.

After a day off yesterday, still felt a bit weak today - with the lakeside wind cross blowing into my face/right side (heading East) it was a little tough - with the big bag on the back (college books + usual) it may've made a difference. Had a great ride though, cursed at the wind once but that was all - had to stop on Lakeshore to wait for a gap in traffic to traverse the lanes to get into the left-turn lane, was unusually busy for about 3 minutes which meant I couldn't get over there. Finally the lights turned red and I got over as the traffic was slowing for that. I need to explore the path/trail further east instead of this route - might be more pleasant too - I was going to try it today, but left after 9, so had to still get to work at a good time.

I heard it was going to be warm today, dressed up for cold just in case, was pretty chilly (-3C) but apparently warmer now - I have my big rucksack on today with all my college books, so the slog up to college is going to be 'fun' - hopefully wind will favour me, and I'm trying a new route to incorporate a bike lane as prep/scouting for a longer journey I've got to take on Friday afternoon.

One odd thing was seeing 6 soldiers with packs and rifles walking down the path toward me, I called out a loud "G'Morning!" to them and waved, no doubt they were starting out on a hike/march - was a novelty for sure, though and it made me feel good to get a positive "Good Morning!" back :)

Ride to work was the usual. Ride home was a no-foot down at a leisurely pace. Feels pretty good.

MONDAY:
just at the freezing mark in the morning. the commute in was from my parents' house and it was fun being able to bomb through the road imperfections in my neighborhood with the loaner MTB. they resurfaced and widened the path in Old Town CP and it makes a nice cut-through route. skidded out on a gnarly combination of black ice and slush while rounding a corner but somehow managed to keep myself upright. that was a pucker moment though. good commute in except for that.

it warmed up in the afternoon but was starting to look like rain as I was leaving. I tried to beat the rain back but determined that it wasn't going to happen so I stopped by campus to get a bite to eat (which didn't happen because every restaurant on campus was closed due to spring break) and change into my raingear, which I had packed. it didn't even start drizzling until I got back to my neighborhood, so I decided to put my new rainproof skullcap to the test by riding around the neighborhood a little bit. I guess it protected my head pretty well from the paltry drizzle we had. good ride back.

TUESDAY:
no commute. had to drive in to run errands for the bossman.

WEDNESDAY (today):
cool in the morning. I rode the first 0.3 miles or so at a slow pace with my friend who was riding his skateboard to work at the same time. good, uneventful commute.

warmer in the afternoon but windy. the commute back was to my parents' house and was also good and uneventful other than an extra riding up and down the path in Old Town CP.

usual :-)
sometimes (mostly) these rides are the hi-lite of my work day!
sad (?), but true!!
tomorrows road calls....
spin safe!

I took a slightly different route to college tonight, taking a bike laned street (Beverley) rather than a fairly main artery (Spadina) - was a bad rough ride, road surface in the bike lane was total crap on most of the way to College St. Anyway, uneventful ride there. Ride back was via a friends house, and I took a one way with speed bumps, managed to beat the cars down there. My cyclo-computer tells me I picked up a max of 26mph, and the first leg to my friends averaged 18mph, which is new for me (though it was barely 2 miles, so no surprise I guess).

Rest of the ride from there to home was mainly plain sailing, had a cab not give me much room after some lights and I was moving out to start passing the parked cars - but I just gave some verbal and he went on his way.

Ride scheduled for Friday is looking to be a good one, firstl leg of 14 miles and somewhat uphill (downtown to North York).

I love riding my bike.
Picking up 26mph and hitting speedbumps is awesome - I also blew all but one of the stop signs on the minor residential streets, visibility was fine around the corners and I obviously had my fingers poised to anchor on (as I had to tonight when an a$$hat raccoon decided to run up/across the street directly in my path, causing a slide skid and cursing).
Feels so good to ride. G'night.

took off the studded tires last week and then we got nailed by a nor'easter winter storm on the weekend. With temps rising to about 40F during the day and dropping to below freezing at night the ice, particularly the black ice, is pretty bad when I take the bike path. I have to say if I can survive the week without a good slip and fall I'll feel pretty good about it. But man, it has proven the value of studded tires. I was riding over stuff before that is a major challenge with these tires.

Guys try this one out for me


http://groups.google.com/groups/img/3/groups_bar.gif bicycle commute Visit this group

Today's commute in was uneventful except the lady who tried to right hook me making a turn into an unnamed, major payroll company's office on Windward Parkway in Alpharett, GA (just in case anyone is curious enough to look it up :) ). I saw her turn signal and hit the brakes hard, so not really very close, but thank God she gave a signal. The two soccer mom's in the park last night on the way home did not signal their turns, and the first one caught me off gaurd. Damn near took me out.

I guess I should avoid going through the park at this time of the year, since theirs tons of distracted soccer mom's driving the munchkins all over the place.