First commute with my new specialized Tarmac. Why I did not upgrade to a racing bike sooner is beyond me. What a wonderful ride! Too bad the engine is so tired from yesterday. In my hunt for the new bike I forgot to eat anything from 9am to 6 pm.
Dang this bike is going to be fun!

It was below zero this morning, so I had to go back to wearing legs. Traffic volume was WAY up. I was missing lights, having to do some agressive filtering - and I still got blocked out of my usual route. :( There's a transit strike coming on Wednesday, so I'm expecting car traffic to increase, as well as bike and ped activity. I'll need eyes in the bacck of my head...

Fine ride in today. Residual pain from a recent gout attack kept me moving slower than usual, but still made the 13 miles in under 50 minutes. Supposed to be 90F on the way home, so should be plenty warm.

Rode to school this morning... Serious Headwind... I thought I had damaged a bearing in the rear hub I was going so slow! The ride home with no wind was SOOO much easier.....I realy do need to take the bike in for a tune up.....

See ya' out there...

Billy

Congrats on your new bike!
Where do you commute to and from and what roads do you take?

Ginny in Denver

120th ave and colorado in Thornton to Orchard and I-25 in Greenwood Village.
An average commute looks something like this (I vary it due to issues like flooding and boredom)

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...-commute-ver-1

Due to the length I now take Tue off for recovery and Thursday is a recovery ride. I use the Light Rail to cut the distance in half on that day.

Where abouts do you commute to and from?

Sore sore sore.
Ran the U-District Street Scramble yesterday, should have taken a recovery day before riding in again. Wind is picking up, so there's gonna be a spiffy headwind on the way home. At least the temperature is nice and the rain is going to hold off until tomorrow. Tomorrow will be awesome because rain clears people from the MUP like roaches scattering from a light.

overlap
 

Having the size 13 blues with toe overlap on my Salsa 29er ... big feet & tires = toe rub

A big guy passed me on the way home lumbering along at 20mph and low cadence. I was doing 18mph and 95RPMs....we get to a large hill. No lie this guy climbs the whole thing (about .5mi out of the saddle). I kept right up seated and as he faultered, I passed him and stayed ahead the rest of the route.

Never seen such a big guy, move so effortlessly, low cadence high gear, high speed.

Ride in today was great, felt really nice after the nice long sleep and rest (I rode with my daughter in the trailer yesterday across the city and up through the steep Beaches area, but took the subway home). Had a nice tail/crosswind for the eastbound ride into work, which was awesome. Made heading north a little windy, but that's a minor part of the ride.

Ride after work was pretty decent too, getting some nicer weather, even riding back from my buddies at 10:30 tonight felt comfortable once I'd warmed up properly (breezy wind was a little uncomfortable to start with).

Commute home sucked ass. Part of it was my fault. I didn't eat enough today. So I am sucking wind big time on the way home and haven't felt much better this evening

Good ride home last night, good ride in this AM. Gout pain is gone, so I hammered it a little bit. Averaged 17.2 which is fairly respectable given all the stoplights I hit...There must be 20 of them on my route. Seems to be the answer to heavy traffic in NC-Add more stoplights. I even saw another commuter at ~6AM. A rare and unusual sighting at that time of day....kind of like the living possum I saw the other morning.

Beautiful this morning. Light tailwind. Temps around 40F. Saw 4 other riders going my way. Possibly a morning record.

#1, a woman on a mountain bike, I caught her on the roads near my house. She was kinda slow so I passed her.

#2, a guy, came out onto the MUP on foot as I was rounding a bend. He saw me, hopped on, and started pedaling fast. Some sort of road or touring bike. His speed was respectable but I still caught him, then decided to ride with him because his pace was comfortable for me.

#3, a woman, we both caught near the end of my MUP ride. He passed, I didn't. A few hundred feet later, I peeled off and hit the streets.

#4, a guy, I came up to waiting for a red light. We chatted while riding up a hill, and he works in the building next to mine. Cool.

ride in was accompanied by drizzles, unsettled winds, the occasional lightning flash. Looks like we're in for more exciting weather for a few days.
Ride itself was great. Quick, nice temperature. My 9spd cassette has proven less accurate than the old 8spd... i've given it several hundred miles and the verdict is in.
Morning traffic in this college town is picking up, finals approach, students are starting to show up to class I guess!

Legs felt a little tired, but otherwise a fine ride in cool weather. Traffic was the pits as usual, but I managed to snake around it as usual.

First time in nearly 2 years of commuting that I missed every light. Other than the stop sign leaving my neighborhood, didn't put a foot down from start to end.

Not too shabby this morning, although for the second day in a row I made a "wrong" turn to try and shortcut traffic. This caused me to sit through a couple of extra lights, but oh well. I ran into [not literally] a guy who had just dropped his kid off at daycare via bike and trailer. Since this was the middle of downtown during rush hour, I was suitably impressed.

Chilly!! 8c with a 35km/h head wind!! Still, it was a great little ride.

Pinkrobe, what's it like for a cyclist in cowtown? You get an extra point for that!

Very comfortable temperature-wise, high 40s/low 60s, and I got in 2 extra miles by leaving the mup for a bit and riding a big figure 8 pretty much. Averaged 14mph!
And on yesterday's ride home, I hit 2K miles (since mid-June), then meandered through the neighborhood, just adding seat time. sweet.

Got home just before the rain last night (otherwise nice sunny day). And it stopped before I hit the road this morning, so all moisture came only from below this am. Nice and cool ride in. 50 miles yesterday! Took long lunchtime ride in attempt to counteract 4 donuts from interminable am meeting.

Wow. I used to live at 120th and Colorado. Back when the dairy farm had a big pasture on 120th. The Kohls on the corner was brand new about the time I moved to Littleton. I was on 118th Ct.

My commute, which is just starting really, is a whole two roads. Corner of Kipling & Belleview, down Belleview, through Grant Ranch and to Bowles. The tanning salon I own is in the Littleton Historic District. 7 miles, downhill coming, uphill going home. Not nearly as long as YOUR commute, holy h3ll!!
Good luck, stay safe!

I was making RECORD time on the way home last night--I actually rode 5 miles past my house just to have a tail wind to end the day. I was doing over 25mph on the flats and feeling fine when I noticed a weird bumping feeling and the POW! No gunfire, just a blowout on the rear tire. It left a huge hole in my rear tire, suspiciously like the blowout described in another thread (although I didn't find any sheetmetal screw).

I was able to boot the tire and limp a mile to the Walgreen's parking lot, where my wife just happened to be picking up a prescription. When I got home I just had to throw the tire away and put on an old racing tire I was hanging on to for just such an emergency. Off to the LBS at lunch time.

Thanks :)
What a small world. :)

Forgot to post about the return commute yesterday. Nice stiff headwind and dead legs are not a good combo. Even with a new bike I was managing to hit a pretty pitiful average speed. However, with the interesting aero positions I was able to attain I did hit some decent speeds with a stiff headwind. That is when I was not about ready to collapse.

After breaking some speed records for inbound and homebound routes the last few ride, I took it easy this morning. Next to no leg power on the hills even after yesterday's lunch-time hill repeat ride.

Short and sweet as usual..;o)

We've had perfect weather for riding in LA this Spring then all of a sudden it's been a sweaty 95 the last two days...

MY BIKE BROKE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Popped a spoke on the freewheel side of the hub, dammit. It's an older bike with a six-speed shifter for the rear and a freewheel. I have no tools to take off the freewheel and no spare spokes. Will have to hit the bike shops for a new spoke... or a new wheel... or a new bike maybe. :D

Meanwhile, I had to do a 20 km return trip today, to and from one of my job sites. Of course, I could've taken the subway, but why take the subway when you have feet? So I jogged some and walked some and had a blast. Except it would've been more fun on the bike, of course. I am a terrible jogger, really.

My legs hurt now...

Loved it....left my house at 4am, just me and the moon.