Had some fun last night and this morning dodging cars. On my way home last night some woman in a small sedan pulled out in front of me to turn left and I missed her by a couple of feet. I yelled at her but she kept going which was probably a good thing since I most likely would have hit her if she stopped. This morning I had some guy in a sedan pass me in a downtown 25mph zone while I was going around 23-24mph. I was taking up the whole lane and the guy buzzed by me on the left way over the double yellow. Didn't get his license plate and tried to track him down at the next light but didn't see him. Then I had a truck try to pull out in front of me near a gas station and I had to really yell for him to stop and let me by. I don't think he had any intention of letting me go by since he looked very mad when I passed by making him wait. One of these days some idiot will pull out too close and I will hit them, it's only a matter of time. Other than that the rides have been great :p

It's been really nice weather lately. Mid to high 50's when I leave my house, and mid to low 60's by the time I get to work. Today was really fun. No honking semi's, no close calls at all. Minor tail wind the whole way in. It's about a 23 mile ride one way, which is just enough to make me feel like I've ridden.

I've been off my bike for awhile, and really thought I would have slid further back than I have. My cardio is still there, because I have been jogging, but my legs initially just weren't up to snuff. That's changing really, really fast, almost daily even, so I'll probably be back where I was in a month or so.

The bad was roadkill... normally it's no big deal, but something about a cat or a dog that just bums me out. House cat, dead, mile 16. Bummer.

ActionJeans, I just noticed your latest post.
What part of Atlanta do you live in?

Perfect morning: 52F, calm, and bright blue skies. For the first time in forever, all my bikes were in working order and ready to roll. I chose the Novara, because I spent a few minutes last night putting her back in roadie form by taking off the aerobars and swapping back the straight seat post. Man, that baby is fast and light.

Adventures in trackstanding: I was waiting at a light and had a good trackstand going when I hear the buzzy mumble of a too-loud iPod come up from behind. Twenty-something hipster on an older Cannondale wearing tastefully torn Carhart workpants, Chuck Taylors, no helmet to mess his perfectly tousled bed-head, and the aforementioned iPod. He rolls in front of me and stands as if to trackstand but it's not holding and he goes into a lazy circle in front the line of cars. I usually keep an eye on the pedestrian light to get the timing of the green and realize it's almost ready to turn. Just as Hipstserboy's in the middle of the lane and facing backwards, the light goes green. I take off and as I'm clearing the intersection I hear cacophony of car horns.

Way to go, kid.

Did my first cheat commute today. (drove partway, parked, unoaded) Downer-I only ended up going about 3/4 of a mile. Upper-it took about 4 minutes so Maybe I should re-evaluate my parking place in the morning.

Live in Marietta, on Roswell Rd. Commute to downtown Atlanta via Atlanta Rd. (go figure :)

I'm impressed. I live off Timber Ridge and Roswell Rd. (HWY 120). Almost in Roswell. I go north to Alpharetta.

Hey Rose, just so you know, it seems to me that my lights, reflective sidewall tires, and reflective strips here and there, seem to have a much greater effect on motorist during the evening, than in the middle of the day. I get close calls probably once a week on the way in (sometimes many more, school buses really need to realize that a side mirror missing my face by 3 inches at 20 mph can be very disconcerting), but at night, on the way home (I get off at 9:00pm, so no chance of me EVER riding home in the light), I have people giving me wide births, and usually very few close calls, simply because I am glowing.

Key thing to remember is motion. You know how on jogging shoes, they have that little reflective emblem on the shoes? You'd think it wouldn't do anything, that a splotch of reflecto stuff that small would make little to no difference. But it registers instantly in most motorists’ minds as being the motion of someone running, so they tie that to a person, and hence drive accordingly.

Same thing with a bike. My bike shoes all have little glowy things on the rear of them, and as mentioned, my tires have reflective sidewalls. Add a blinking rear light, and the thing that will pop into most people’s heads, rather than being "what in the heck is that glowing thing floating down the road" becomes "oh, that's a guy on a bicycle". How they react from there is, well, let's say it can vary greatly, but usually it's the correct response.

So if you need to convince yourself, or you're husband, just remember that lights are always much brighter at night.

Nice morning. Foggy then burning off to sun. I picked up a thumbtack at one point, but it seemed to be filling its hole well so I went ahead and tacked (so to speak) another 6 miles onto my commute (3 miles past office). Pulled the tack when I got in, psssssssssst will fix the flat later.

Congratulations. :beer:

How far did you drive?

That sounds scary. Stay safe.

Many cycling shoes don't have enough reflective material so I add a piece of reflective tape to the back of all my commuting shoes.

Beautiful ride this morning, once I got rolling. Was starting late anyway, and realized as I was ready to go that my headlight was dead. It's a 2 bulb Cygolite, with one bulb already down - guess the other one died too. Had to take a few minutes to move my backup light off my mountain bike. Then realized I had a loose spoke (regular occurrence - have an apointment for the front to be relaced tomorrow) that needed tightening lest it cause ANOTHER flat.

Weather was beautiful this morning, I dressed just right for mid-fifties (remembered socks!) and had a great ride. First ride on my overhauled rear hub and freshly lubed freewheel - SWEET and SMOOTHE! Can't wait for the ride home...

It may not be the bulb, but the switch instead. I had the same Cygolite and the switch is just a plastic slider that makes two metal flanges touch to complete the circuit. One of the flanges can get bent so that no contact gets made. I called Cygolite about it and they suggested taking the thing apart and then bending the contacts gently with a needle-nosed pliers so that they connect more firmly.

Thanks - hadn't thought of that. I'll look at it tonight. Was hoping to tackle the front hub, but it can wait - visibility matters!

RE cheat-Commute. Sometimes you just gotta. :(

Great Tip and plenty of room on the shoe...thanks RonH

This was my first commute in the rain. Apparently the weather forecast wasn't quite accurate as it was still reading "Cloudy" under current conditions as I stepped out into the rain tonight. I'm really glad I brought the Showers Pass jacket, rain pants and my rain cover for the pannier as I would have been soaked through otherwise. I have to say the venting on the jacket worked superb with the pit zips down. I got a little clammy under the hood but overall I was much drier than I should have been without the gear.

Now I just need to remember to bring clear glasses to keep the rain drops out of my eyes.

The ride in was great! I started out 10 minutes later than usual, so I was really hammering along. All of a sudden the edge of my headlight spot starts wavering, but only on one side. It's not a loose fixture... it's another commuter's light that I see coming up behind me. We chatted for about 10 seconds while he whipped past me, and I chased his blinkie the rest of the ride. (This guy was certified haulin' @ss, and really just flew by me. 10 seconds was all the time he slowed down to say hi, but it was a nice gesture and I was happy for it.)
Work, while very busy, was also good. There's a guy that has had his bike on the back of his car for the past few days, and I asked him about it. He's been riding after work, just exploring the MUP network around here... but he's interested in bike commuting and only lives about a mile away from me. I gave him my number, and he's gonna call me when he puts slicks on his bike so we can meet up and commute in together. :D Rockin'!

The ride home was not so good. I totally lost my cool at some ******y cager that intentionally tried to hit me.:mad:
I was on my way down the hill on 175th toward the center of Woodinville, WA. It's a 1 lane going down, 2 lanes going up, with no center-median turn lane; about 3/4 miles and 6% grade. There's a wide bike lane, and I am riding just right of the paint. It's a 35mph zone, and I am doing 33mph. A small silver VW up the street is stopped to wait for a break in uphill traffic so they can make a left. I get passed (far too fast) by a maroon Ford F-250, who has to hit the brakes when they realize the VW is stopped to turn. I know the trucker saw me, because he just blew past me. I swing to the middle of the bike lane, to give a few feet of berth when I pass the truck and VW, and the trucker looks back, waits until I'm on his quarter panel, then peels out into the bike lane directly in front of me. :eek: I saw him laughing in his rear-view as I rear-brake and skid it, but that laughter changed quickly when he realized I wasn't wrecking/flying off into the woods/whatever his intended effect was. :mad: :mad: I popped my left foot out of my pedal and proceeded to kick the cr@p out of his passenger rear quarter panel without losing much momentum. He edged over further, trying to force me off the road (which I fully understand, since I just dented up his truck) but I dropped my butt over the rear wheel and hit the brakes hard. He went ahead of me, all the while I was yelling at the top of my lungs for him to stop his truck and get the **** out. He sped up to about 50mph to get away from me, but then decided that instead of chancing getting stuck at the light at the bottom of the hill (where I very likely would have kicked his truck some more) :fight: he'd cut through the park'n'ride lot. Well holy cr@p if the fat guy can't sprint, because I chased his butt through the parking lot until he cut off a bus and got out onto the open streets on the other side of the lot.
I've got mixed feelings on the entire encounter:
1) I shouldn't have gone ape-s**t on the guy to the extent that I did. One kicking would have proven my point, but I actively chased him down for more and I'm a little dissapointed that he ran away instead of stopping. I should have just let him go when he took off.
2) I scared off someone in a Ford F-250. Me. On a bicycle. Made someone in a full-ton truck run away like a scared puppy. And I hit 42mph on a 16 year old mountain bike with 1.5" semi-slicks, decked out as a full commuter. I shouldn't be proud of what I've done, but when this happened I snapped back to my indestructable teenaged lock-swinging CM days in downtown Cleveland. There is still a part of me that sees this as a "victory." Me vs. car; eff-you, I win.

One way or the other, I'm just recounting this as part of the "How was your commute?" thread because that's how I see it: It was part of my commute. I'm not particularly proud of how I acted. I'm not particularly ashamed of how I acted, either. This is how it went down, and tomorrow will be a better day. If you have opinions one way or another, I don't want this thread to become a "right way/wrong way" flame war, so I can post this as a separate thread. PM me if you think it should go that route.

Misty drizzly rain on the way home- MUP happily free of pedestrians!

usual 6.5dst, round trip, traffic wise. was exited to see other commutor (w/helmet) riding (on the sidewalk). it's been a good 6 months since i've seen him riding. he waved and rang his bell, i waved back, said 'hi', and tried to honk back but i think my "airzound" was an over-statement (serious db there).
a good day!

This morning's commute was a bit rough. I reorganized my backpack yesterday, and forgot my flat kit. Well, Murphy's law followed me to work, and 5.6 miles in (1.2 miles to go, mostly uphill!) I got a flat. The rear got a little wobbly and I could really feel pavement changes. Pulled over and the rear tire was noticably soft, but not rim-riding, thank goodness. I caught a large construction staple. :(. Anyways, with plenty of distance left to go, I called my wife and had her cart me the last bit into work. On the upside I was able to give her the list of things that I needed to fix it, so when she brought me dinner this afternoon, she brought in my patch kit, but brought in my floor pump. On the upside she did swing by the LBS and bring me a brand new tube just in case! Hopefully it can just be a backup, she got a thorn-resistant tube, but I think I'm going to pick up a set of Tuffy's tomorrow on my way home and a regular tube to carry with me.

On the good side of this morning I was riding on the road, and averaged almost 19MPH up to my flat, which isn't bad considering the hill that I start out with, and the number of traffic lights I have to deal with. I bumped the pressure up to 65psi (max rated on my 26x1.5's) and was able to pick up about 3MPH average over the same commute @ 55psi. I had no problems with being crowded out of the lane or anything, and everyone was quite courteous. I ran into a few other cyclists on the way, both of them PSNS workers that were quicker than I was, we were up hill & they were on roadies with fancy pedal/shoe combos. I'm on a slightly more road-worthy MTB.

was totally demented with klutziness today. total one-woman three-stooges routine. i have no idea why, but if i could find the thermometre i'd check myself for fever. just some weird short-circuit between the mental intention and the physical follow-through. things like putting myself into a wobble/near fall on the narrow bridge mup by involuntarily grabbing (much too hard) at the front brake i'm not used to and never use by itself, walking into the lock hasp on the bike cage with my face, i don't even remember the rest . . . good thing i was not in a car. the kind of day when i really should have kept myself at home with the doors carefully closed to prevent disasters.

be it said though that the driving population was out of their collective tree this morning too, and i don't know why that would be either. delayed effect of long weekend? everyone too confused to function because what feels like tuesday is really wednesday this week? something aggresso on tv last night? the groke only knows. everyone revving it towards every stop line where there's a red light and then slamming the brakes, so that you freak out just in case because you have no idea from their (mechanical) body language what they're planning to do. i must have pictured myself being broadsided 5 times in a near-6-mile ride. but the weather is still insanely gorgeous, so eh.

Overslept this morning. Decided to get over it since it won't be the last time it happens, and just hopped on my bike and left. 51F with a light drizzle. I added a jersey layer and I felt fine all the way. Took a shower and I feel like new. :D

GreenAnvil

Not so bad this morning. Low 50s, F. The ground was wet from rain last night. A little headwind. I saw a couple of domestic cats, a few squirrels, and some geese and ducks in Lake Champlain.

One squirrel crossed the MUP in front of me at a street intersection. It was on the sidewalk, so being a legal pedestrian, it had the right of way. I slowed down to let it cross. :D

No cagers backing out of driveways in front of me today. :rolleyes: