Gorgeous, blinding sun.

Fantastic....the sun was out and BRIGHT. Puget Sound gets to dry out a bit. Lastnight I guess we broke the record for the wettest November on record. 13+ inches and counting.

Also, I found $20 on sidewalk as I left the house, but the funny thing is when I got to the office I realized I forgot my wallet. The lights going through downtown Seattle were even nice to me.

Yay, it was raining, so I had a chance to test out my new GoreTex pants. Not bad, I say! Although the rain wasn't really hard... the real test is still to come.

First commute with the Dinotte lights (Ultra 5W front & tail light) tonight. I already had one comment by a passing pedestrian about how bright the lights are. They're still washed out against street lights but are definitely much better at getting attention than my prior set-up.

That is it! Third flat this week. Time to go back to the old worn out tire while I wait for my new ones to arrive. Too bad I could only find them at the slowest site on the internet.
I would rather ride a tire with exposed threads that has had no flats than this pile of crap. ugh

Just as I had finished wrapping my goretex jacket up and got my backpack and vest on ready to head out, I heard the tell-tale pitter-patter of rain.
So I took my t-shirt off (left the lifa vest on) and put the goretex on, and proceeded home. Was wet and raining on the roads, varying levels of rain, some was pretty hard, but mostly light-ish - was VERY warm and sweaty on the way back - temperature was around 13C. Goretex held up nicely, and it's very much windproof too. Loved riding in the rain, and I noticed that my schwinn headlight stopped working on it's own, intermittently (I'd notice, turn it off for a bit then turn it on and it worked again, didn't look dim to indicate batteries, so I suspect wet or lack of power). Glad I bought that PB 5000x last night - seemed to do a nice trick of "here I am", as the street lights washed it all out anyway. On my dark short stretch it didn't seem so wonderful, but was worlds better than the schwinn has ever been - so it's a benefit. I'll be working toward a more permanently better solution soon.

Fenders worked nicely, feet were a tad damp from sweat and rain and my fleece pants were just a little damp as you'd be if you walked in the rain, too - nothing ground breaking there, and I can't see myself wanting waterproof pants (though I probably will get some, if just for the wind-proofing some offer)

Another slow time home, I'm beginning to think that this newer route just takes that couple of minutes longer - 37 mins with 13mph avg.

What tires did you dedide to go with to replace the Tservs?

Whoa. Killer tailwind on the ride home. The high-pitched whine from my knobbies was alerting pedestrians for miles in every direction, causing them to scatter. I was cruising around 20MPH, which, on that bike, is fast. Beat the rain, which pleases me.

I hung behind a guy on a silver road bike for a little while and then he turned off onto a side street.

I decided to stick with what previously worked for me . I am replacing the tserv that replaced my vittoria randonneur tires with new vittoria randonneur tires. Just in a 28 mm width instead of 32 mm. I figure it worked last time. Why not this time? Too bad I could only find one vendor that sold them. Now I wait.

Out of curiosity, what's the new route? I've been following and visualizing your commute since I'm a fellow Torontonian myself who frequently rides downtown, same streets you ride on.

I find that my commute is always slowed down by rain. I turn at much lower speeds, for example, because I don't want to slide under some car wheels.

Oddball commute home. I had to swing by my wife's potential future place of employment (where I worked up until about a year ago, actually). It's about 7 miles from home.

Went to the wrong bus stop (about 1/2 mile away from where I needed to be). So quickly rode to the REAL bus stop, in time to get dropped by the 400W bus of doom. I tried chasing it to the next stop, and got pretty close, but it dusted me again. *sigh*

Take a leisurely stroll through City Market (where I got dusted the final time) because it'll be half an hour before my next bus shows up.

Anyhow, about an hour and 10 minutes after I get on the bus, I finally arrive at my destination. It's pitch black outside already and it's not even 7pm.

I swing by the hardware store for some reflective tape, and hit the pavement and begin the trek home, swinging by home depot for a reflect-o-vest.

Not a bad ride. The backup bike did pretty freakin' well. Not as fast as the Sorrento, but being a rigid, it was actually a little easier to get moving without having a 7 year old fork bouncing around under me.

Ride in was rainy,took the MTB in, non big deal. Ride home I left the legwarmers off. One of my coworkers whistled at me. Had a carload of teenagers give me a thumbsup. Made me smile. I love commuting by bike. Burned out the 12 watt lamp of my 32 watt headlight combination, I'll order the replacement tomorrow when I'm off.

whew! intense wind and weather tonight on the way home. Rainy with powerful gusting winds. A little scary at midnight to be out on a Friday night with such bad visibility and wind. (especially since it was a Thursday- that's how rattled I am)

and people do really stupid things in this kind of freakish weather- like backing up on Commonwealth Ave at about 30 mph right at me!

crazy night.

SUN??? What's that? Oh now I remember it's that yellow thing that only shows up while I'm at work and is gone before I get out.
That's what I hate about winter.

Windy ride this morning. It's been raining all week. Last night we had a storm; the wife called me one hour before my home commute to tell me she's going to pick me up, and that's final. Ok, I told her to bring the bike rack along. Right on time, the storm moved away and gave way to one of the most spectacular sunsets I've seen lately! There was this HUGE and GORGEOUS double-rainbow... it was a sight to behold. I didn't say anything, but then my wife said that if she had not come to pick me up she would have missed the show! I forgave her...

GreenAnvil

I saw that last night too. The entire sky was unbelievable from 4 all the way to sunset. For me, it made up for the week.

I rather enjoyed being unaffected by all the street flooding yesterday. Well, Oxford St was a series of curb-to-curb ponds. A ped was walking down the sidewalk by one. I couldn't resist taking me feet off the pedals and and screaming, "Weeeeee!" as I rode by him. He laughed. So, yeah, maybe I was affected.

This morning, the wind's a tailwind for me. Could be a challenge on the way home though.

42.45 mile ride in to work in 35 degree temps. But it didn't feel as cold to me. I left earlier- 5am and didn't stop off that long like I normally do where my mother works (daycare at our church). I've been using a Mini Maglight and wow what a difference it makes. This thing lights up the road well. Which is good because half my ride was in the dark.

Dogs all over the place this morning. I got buzzed several times and one guy, two lanes over, going in the opposite direction yells, "GET THE <bleep> OFF THE ROAD!" I guess his work buddies all high-fived each other on their way to the job site. Morons.

It still baffles me that I'm cycling for almost 2.5 hours and can beat my co-workers that drive in from a few miles down the road. I guess cycling motivates me to get a real early start. I do love it that much.

We had our first snowfall last night, less then an inch, but it'll probably all be melted by noon. The ride in was a lil wet as a result, a lil cold (28), and a lil breezy...but fine otherwise. Ran into the director of my department as I was going up the steps carrying my bike and he couldn't believed I'd biked in today. Then he cracked up when I told him I have studded tires for when it gets really bad.

BTW, I learned that even with fenders, some puddles are so big and deep, you're still gonna get wet

Nice ride in today after skipping yesterday. 37F and just about calm. No near death experiences.

Beautiful morning in our nation's capital today. 50 degrees, sunny blue sky, and Friday morning rush-hour traffic wasn't too bad. Great time.

*^#@*. I'm tired of winter. WINDY and cool (almost cold) again this morning.

I broke down and wore my mtn bike shorts today. I usually wear bibs and thought I'd give the shorts a try before the big ride tomorrow.

I have to drop off a 30 pound package (24"x20"x8" Box)... I don't have an extracycle or the time to get to UPS before work. Car it is. Ugh. I hate traffic.

I only got in two days of commuting this week.

But today is one of them so I'm a happy camper.

Which style?


This is a sheet of bumper stickers. Got scissors?


or the SBL style?

The top one. I've never seen the bottom one.