Last night my husband got jumped while commuting back home, at 6 pm in the middle of downtown LA!!! One of the two man walking next to the bike path stretched out his arm and hit him in the face. My husband fell off his bike and the guys took off in a car waiting for them. They did not steal anything, so probably it was a gang dare.
Husband's fine, other than a very swollen face and a shut eye.
I'm writing this to remind everyone that all of us commuters must be on guard at all times. It's not only the cagers that we need to watch out for.

better..But,
first flat (rear) of new distance. extended repair due to first patch failed, had to re-seat tire/tube 2x (was too dark). reset # 3 at home garage. if seals hold = i'll go again tomorrow! see what unfolds!
flats are not cool!

sorry to hear this story.:( it can be really disturbing to be mugged. especially when the pathetic creeps run off like that- no place to put your rage:mad: . I hope your husband recovers well. Violence SUCKS!

my ride was, fortunately, uneventful. a lovely roundtrip on the bike path. it rained after I left home this morning and before I left work tonight but not during my rides.

morning headwind, but nice and steady, not dramatic at all. i set out under yer average cloud cover, and slowly got more and more light as i went south. i parked my bike in full sunlight, but when i turned round the mountains to the north had just disappeared behind all the dark purple-grey clouds. pretty cool for a place where winter is usually so unvarying.

i worked way-way-way late because i had something i just wanted to get finished with, so rode home on the short slope towards midnight. kind of nice and very quiet, although a little surreal and i'm gonna be tired tomorrow. all but one northbound lane of the bridge was closed, and there were people with jackhammers and safety vests doing something civil-works-like in the middle of it.

Traffic lights on one of the city's main streets were all out this morning, and it loused up traffic everywhere. Cars were taking up the bike lanes, forcing me to ride down the yellow line in the middle for short sections :eek:. The pollution is also terrible today. Yuck. About to leave for home now.

Edit: ride home was pretty standard.

Dense fog. Absolutely horrible. Several cars nearly clipped me. One guy pulled out in front of me while I was going down hill. My brakes were wet so I had to Conan the things to slow as much as possible. He sped off and then flew up the hill and swerved around another car in a no passing zone. Jackass. Cagers really hated me today. I guess my lights weren't cutting through the stuff that well. Plus my front light started cutting off because of all the moisture getting in it. But I'm here safe and sound. Heck, I was praying the whole way for protection.

Pleasant morning, about 35 or so, light wind. This evening we're supposed to be 50 but with heavy wind gusts. Always gotta have something to screw up my day:)

As is becoming standard, the way in was much more pleasant last night. Only thing of note was the pile of glass bits covering the full width of the blocked off bike path approaching the Brooklyn bridge. Had to pull over on the bridge and pull a nice shard of glass out of the rear tire, although thankfully the damn thing held together and didn't go flat.

Got my Descente wind layer yesterday and wore it for the first time. The thing feels great but I think I'll save it for 35 - 45 degrees or so.

The way home was foggy and very humid. While uneventfull, I was pushing it pretty hard towards the end and came home absolutely drenched. No dead bodies on the way home, so that's an improvement over yesterday. After a shower and a bowl of borscht, I'm eager to go ride again (and ride I will, to get me a spare tube and a new reflective ankle band since I unfortunately lost mine)

47 degrees today with a high of 60 and 65 tomorrow. I'm hoping it'll get cold again soon. I really enjoyed the 30 degree trips much more.

FOGGY. I thought it would lighten up by leaving a bit later, but no go. It was foggy the whole way in, too. Because the roads were a bit damp, I took the Trek 7300, full light kit blazing. The headlight didn't help much, but hopefully the LED flashers let people know I was there.

Temp was nice for the trip in. Around the East Falls Church Metro, I ran into a nest of bike commuters. Usually I see 1 bike at a time, with most moving in the opposite direction, a solo bike passing (or being passed), and that's it. Today, there were 4 of us in a relatively tight bunch, all headed the same direction, and all wearing yellow jerseys/jackets. As the pack stretched out, I passed a 5th commuter, and spied a 6th commuter, and I almost caught him, but he went straight at my turn-off.

This afternoon, it'll be almost 60F, so I'll be losing my base layer for the trip home.

Cool and very foggy this morning. Made it in without incident though. I will be leaving early this afternoon to go home to give our new dog his medicine and to wait for the cable guy to turn our internet back on.

Pulled my back muscles
So I stoop when I'm walking
and move really slow

Also grappled with the fog, but since I was riding downtown, I'm more concerned with what's going on 10 feet around me rather than a block or more, so it wasn't a big factor in my ride. I did fall in line with another commuter and we had a (I think) friendly competition on Eye St. from 12th to 20th.

Yesterday's commute was uneventful. This morning I was at a red light in the left turn lane and a few cars pulled up. Once the light turned green I turned left and moved over to the bike lane. The driver of the car immediately behind me yelled something out his window as he drove past - all I could hear was "...life, you Moron!" I obligingly yelled back, "I'm a vehicle dude, this is legal. Get over it!" I'm not sure I want to know everything he yelled. Jerk. Another few miles in the trip, I'm making another left, just catch the light as it's changing. I pull into the right lane because the bike lane doesn't start up for several hundred feet. (Anyone know why they make the bike lanes vanish at intersections sometimes?) Traffic starts flowing behind me, and they're strangely polite - the car that passes me in the left lane gives me lots of clearance and doesn't punch it like people usually do, and the car behind me just cruises at a safe distance instead of changing into the left lane and hammering it (which, once again, would be the normal reaction.) When the bike lane started up and I moved over, I found out _why_ everyone was being so nice - the car immediately behind me was a police car. I waved as he drove off. Finally, clearing an intersection a few miles later, I was in the right lane (because once again the bike lane disappeared at the intersection.) As is my practice, I plop myself right in the middle of the lane to discourage buzzers, but the one car going in my direction on the road buzzed me anyway - centered herself squarely between the two lanes and passed me with barely 2 feet to spare. I suspect she'd have given me less clearance except I have a flash flag that sticks out that far to the left. I yelled the rather uninspired, "Use the whole lane!" as she swerved back in front of me and flew off down the road. *Sigh* I'm trying to focus on the zillions of nice (or at least more considerate) drivers who give me lots of room and don't turn left or right into me, but the jerks really grab your attention...

Nice ride in this morning. 40F and raining, but very few cars. I'll deal with the rain if it means there are fewer cars.

I drove to work yesterday for the first time in a while. Odd how I don't like driving much anymore. I could just feel the tension in the gridlock on the way home.

Portland Oregon - heavy rain all the way but thankfully, not much wind. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the return trip. No wind. No wind. No wind. Or if there's wind, make it a tail wind.

Crazy gusting winds were the order of the day. Thankfully, it was a tailwind. I was barely sweating by the time I got to the office. The ride home will not be pleasant...

Had to drop my wife's glasses off at her workplace so was a few minutes late.
The first thing my boss said was, "It looks like coming in at 9:00 works better for you than 8:30."
What a ****ing clock watcher. I'm salaried so who gives a ****?

Nice ride in but a crappy way to spoil a good start to the day. :crash:

The first morning of my partial trail with street replacement commute. It was wonderful. Very little traffic and I made it to where the arrogant deputy interrogated me in a very short time. You know it was going well when this thought occurs "Holy sh#@! I am here already!"
I think I may replace the rest of the platte trail with streets. I have to find 2 routes. One to Union Station for the light rail and the other to connect with my normal street route. At least things are turning out well from the crappy situation I had yesterday. I can always find a diamond in a pile of turds. :p

That and it was almost 50F this morning! Yay! :)

Low 40s this morning. What's up with this weather? I went bare-handed. No problems. A flock of geese flew over me.

Last night I was riding home and well ahead of me a police car rounded a bend coming toward me, lights flashing. It was twilight, so I turned on my headlight so he'd see me coming. I kinda swerved off onto the dirt shoulder as we passed, and he pulled over to give me some room as well. Guess he was looking for someone. ??

Right after that I wondered if I should have stopped and "yielded to the emergency vehicle", but the anarchist in me decided I was riding a bicycle on a bike path so I had absolute right of way over any motor vehicle. :D

Had the same thing happen to me this morning: a kid in a POS Honda Civic. And all that accomplished was him getting to sit at the light 20 seconds longer. About 3 blocks later, I caught him and passed him properly, using the entire center lane. I gave him a jaunty wave and smile as I went by. 17 year old kid in a car gets passed by a 39 year old desk jockey on a bike (and a fixed gear at that).

Anyhoo, I'd intended to take it easy on the way into work but the kid got my blood up so I was a bit warm as I reached the office. Why do they keep it so damned hot in this building?

Unusually warm for a Colorado morning in December at 50F. Nice ride in after my unexpected day of watching the kids. Can't wait to see what interesting virus my son brings home from preschool today!

My three year old brought home the stomach flu from preschool Tuesday. Wednesday was horrible and then he threw up and was just fine. Children's immune systems are something else.
Apparently the stomach flu is going around. Watch out! :p

Heavy mist. Not heavy enough to soak through my goretex gloves (like Monday and Wednesday), but my shirt was very very wet. Now it's raining. It's finally backed off enough that I'm heading across the lot for coffee.

I wish I could catch the folks who do that! Unfortunately in this part of Arizona, they're long gone - not enough traffic on the roads I frequent (at least at the times I'm on them.)
LOL! Same here. After the first person yelled at me, I resolved to use the lanes for everything this morning (I've been known to "go pedestrian" on the nastier intersections since I'm such a bike newb) and I didn't pootle along like I had planned. *Grrrrr...* :mad:

The sheriff deputy that stopped me yesterday also got my blood boiling. Many of my fastest rides are following an altercation of one sort or the other.