Stick with it mwrobe1 - it was easy for me both times I quit - the first time for 5 years. The last time for good was 10 years ago. All those failed attempts between the two were very hard though. Crazy hard.

The ride home was great - chased down and passed a roadie. He proceeded to hang off my rear wheel for a couple of miles - I pedalled thse two miles much harder than normal. :) I'm a little sore ...

Tres foggy today! I ran double blinkies on my back, but I put my headlight somewhere [if you find it, let me know], so I was all but invisible from in front. I have to head in to work early tomorrow, so I should dig out my light and charge it up.

OK...ride home was fun...I felt like it was a challenge to get home before it started raining...but it never did. 24+ hours since I last had a smoke. I'll owe up to you all if I slip up...but I don't think thats going to happen. I know this will sound "well...duh!" to people who never smoked...but damn...even 24 hours without smoking improves breathing and gives you a little more ummph while on a bike...I'm using this as motivation to continue to be a non-smoker. I gotta get that 18 mile commute time down to an hour doggone it! :D

I rode my new road bike today.... holy cow! A commute that normally takes 35 minutes took 27 without any additional effort!

A beautiful early fall Ohio day... good stuff. Gotta get some warmer gear though; I can already tell it's gonna be a cold one.

First commute since getting injured 12 days ago. I went past the barriers today and noticed a big change. It was brightly lit. I had no problem seeing the barrier. Made me wonder how I could of missed it before. How did I manage to live this long if I'm that oblivious to my surrounding?
Checked a picture taken the day of the accident and it was dark despite some street lights. Here's the picture http://tinyurl.com/re2ok That was taken about 45 minutes after the accident, so it was a bit lighter than when it happened.

I arrived on Campus a few minutes later than usual, taking it easy till fully healed. Felt great to ride again. Now I'm looking for a HID light.

Which MUP were you riding? I've noticed that nobody ever says hello on the South Platte trail. I guess they're all too busy training for Le Tour :D

Last night was one of my nicest commutes in a while, in an odd sort of way. I had an appointment downtown until 9 o'clock, and when I came out, in was raining steadily. Fortunately, it was not very cold, and I had my high-visibility flourescent jacket, light-colored slacks, bright Rover headlight, and two taillight blinkes, one under my saddle and the other clipped to the back of my waist, so I wasn't too worried. Although I did get sopping wet, I was not cold, and the smells were interesting, a very damp froggy/fishy smell. Further, there was not much traffic, which was good because the roads were that shiny wet surface that just seems to eat light. I also tried a different way home, which worked out very well. It was very rewarding that despite the weather, which to the uninitiated might make it appear that I was crazy, I felt the whole time like I was very much in control of the situation. Nothing unexpected happened, and all the motorist encounters were fine. So overall it gave me a nice feeling of self-confidence, as well as reminding me that I was a part of nature and rain happens.

When I got home, my wife was fortuititously standing at the back door calling the cat in, having heard him meowing upon my arrival, so she was able to get me a towel and collect my wet clothes as I removed them on the back porch. I expressed a desire for some strong drink, and she offered to make me a martini! So I said I guess I'll just go upstairs and put on my bathrobe and slippers while my wife brings me a martini, and it occurred to both of us that the only thing lacking was if I smoked a pipe, which I don't! So that was kind of a nice cozy homey situation. A nice night. :)

Howdy,
We are starting into winter here, I had my first commute under 40f this week. The wind is a moment by moment thing around here, somedays it's a tail wind both ways and other days like today it's a frickin grind into a 20mph wind.

M.R.

voted in a primary this morning on my way into work. Only one other voter was there while I was and he rode in on a bicycle too.

really nice ride in this am. moving kind of slow. have had a cold for 1 1/2 weeks now. It is improving but it's hanging on.

rode in and completely forgot I had a reserved spot in the new bike room and almost locked my bike to one of those generic outdoor racks used by the great unwashed. This new bike room makes me feel like such an elitist. I'll have to take some photos of it to give you all a sense of how plush this space is.

rode to a late night rehearsal (locked the bike outside to a rack) then did the ride home and barely remember the ride I was so caught up in my thoughts. It was raining.

Came home to find out my candidate won!

Sorry guys. No bike commuting today. I only had 5 hours sleep Monday night and 4.5 hours last night and I have to work till 9 PM tonight.
Just got the wife out the door and now I'm going back to bed for a few minutes. http://users.pandora.be/eforum/emoti...ep/schla01.gif

Ron you missed a great ride this morning. It was as Eliza Doolittle would say, "lovely."

No ride for me today. The wife is having a treadmill delivered to the house, so I have to wait here for it. I hate treadmills, they hurt my knees so, plus I have to drag the bloody thing down the steps and set it up.
And to top it off, by the time they get here, it'll be late enough that I actually have to drive into work (I cant be THAT late...).
I can accept not riding in for injuries, but for something I don't even want?
Mutter grumble.
They're conspiring against me.

Wow! You're the bicycle commuter vote! Move over, soccer moms! ;)

Great morning this morning. Saw a commuter coming up behind me and it was a very distinctive Rivendell Atlantis color. Slowed down and had a very nice chat with the owner about frumpy retro grouch matters. The weather was very comfortable and I even had my arm warmers on for the first half of the ride. Plus our city bond referendum passed last night, so there's a bunch more money for bicycle and pedestrian facilities, hopefully more bike racks.

+1 fall in the Southeast is worth the wait. It was 50F here this morning, my first with more than a short sleeve jersey and cycle shorts (had long sleeves under jersey). I started with a headband for the ears but shed it just 2mi into the ride.

Yesterday afternoon was perfect. Wind at my back, sunny, 70F. Should be that way today and tomorrow too, but with temps near 40F tonight will need long pants!

As you can tell the joy of my commuting has been the weather... :)

52 F and calm winds made for an excellent morning commute. Cool enough I broke out my neon yellow wind breaker for this morning.

Only one "incident" this morning. As I'm coming up a hill, going maybe 8 mph, the traffic stops to let people out of a side street. I slowed down to about 5 mph or maybe even less. Any slower and I would have fallen over. Anyway, the first car pulls out...no problem. Since traffic is stopped, I'm filtering up on the shoulder of the road and about 3 cars back from the side road. The second car on the side road had plenty of time to pull out before I reach the front of the line. But he doesn't....he points to me and starts yelling inside his car. I'm like WTF is your problem. Do I have to get off the bike for you? Anyway...since he did not pull out, i just shifetd up a couple gears and sped up to about 12 mph when I passed him. I looked back at him and he was still sitting there yelling inside his car:eek:

It was the cherry creek from where the seperated trails merge to the cherry creek mall. Apparently, I must have encountered a few well to do roadies. AKA snobs :p

First day of the wed mixed mode am and pm commutes. Hopefully, this will keep me from exhausting myself by thursday. Plus, my family has been complaining that I am insanely cranky around thursday.
Still, it hate riding the bus. Oh well, 30 miles is still a decent distance.

I got honked at 3 times, buzzed by a semi, and then buzzed again by a pickup truck...

I was given the finger by a honking driver (I gave it back.. oops.. gotta work on that) ..
Then I was honked at again by another truck ...
Then another guy passed me on the outside lane and cursed the F word at me...

Man it was a crazy ride !

The UN General assembly and the president are in town snarling traffic all over the place. Saw cops up & down Lex directing traffic around midtown and letting police ******* through. They even blocked off the street I work on and have security set up in the middle of the street. I had to dismount and walk to the street sign I usually lock up to. Oh well. Time for breakfast.

Heh.. I stopped on a ride home last week to vote in a primary. A political supporter out front was surprised to see somebody ride up, then acted shocked when I told her I rode in from 10 miles away. [10 miles isn't that far on a bike! :) ] .. That ride takes me over an old abandoned bridge. She told me her favorite movie was True Lies, and asked me if I was afraid of the bridge blowing up like it did in that movie. ??!

Temp close to 60 this morning. Rained very hard last night, roads were damp in spots but nothing bad. Tailed a roadie commuter for about five miles. Nice and quiet otherwise.

46 F when I left this morning, so it was the first commute in tights, shell, and full finger gloves since April. You can't miss the change of the seasons when you are on a bike.

Another nice day, sunny, 38F, and a tailwind :D Attached a Whelen TIR Led blinker last night, I'm running it off a 9V battery, and it's the brightest tail light I've ever seen. I'm planning on running it on all commutes. Seemed like I got a bit more clearance from the trucks this morning.

Last nights ride was a workout. The clouds rolled in, and a strong, cold, wind had picked up. I had to work to maintain speed downhill.

Well it finally happened - I forgot the keys to the office. :( so I pedalled over to Starbucks to wait the 2 hours before my first co-worker arrived. I setup with a paper, coffee, a donut and my folded dahon mu sl at the table next to the door for the two hours. Odd how people pretended not to notice the guy in the neon lime shirt sitting next to the door. I'd say 3 people out of approximately 70 or so people who walked by me, looked in my direction. I considered putting my helmet on and turning on all the flashing lights to see if the reactions changed any!! :D

It was a great ride this morning. Second one with my helmet mirror - I think I have a mirror I can live with now and it was an impulse buy at REI ...

A balmy 50f it was this morning. Back to shorts and 1/2 gloves for the ride in. Not much of interest this morning...just the way I like it. No traffic, no idiots, just a nice easy ride.

Last night I decided to swich it up an see how easy I could make the ride home. I usually blaze it all the way home. It was actually pretty nice, and took pretty close to the same time. I think signals are the determing factor in overall time. If you haul, you just wait longer at the red lights :)