I lost my sunglasses and then a gnat flew into my eye :mad:

But then this awesome thing happened! I was on the bike path and a huge deer walked across the path about 50 feet in front of me. I slowed way down and he (he had antlers) stopped and watched me for a minute before walking on. :D
I just wish that I could've gotten my phone out to take a picture, but I was all rain-geared up.. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Those of you in the Chicagoland area.... HOW ABOUT THOSE STORMS!!! WOW!!!

I got home about 1/2 hr before the lightning started! OMG it was loud!

Amazingly enough, this was the first rain storm for me all summer... JINX

Billy

Hot ride home yesterday, but nothing compared to what we should see today, 98F (37C) with ~ 50% rH. Definitely won't be pushing too hard in that! Last time it was this warm, I froze my water bottles ~ 3/4 full of ice then topped them off with chilled water. After my 45-50 minute ride home the remaining water was luke warm.

Pleasant though pretty sweaty ride in this AM.

Sounds like everyone is getting rained on. Including myself. Wet on the way home yesterday, and only lightly wet this morning.

I really have to get those fenders installed that are sitting in my garage. Unfortunately I can't yet since I'm still waiting for a longer screw (should have today) since the planet bike fenders came with one that is too short.

The rear fender will be a challenge too since my crappy front derailer is in the way of the fender... I'll have to hop forums and get some advice from the mechanics I think.

Not bad today. Mid 60s but humid. Clouds, no rain. Slight headwind. I left about 10 minutes late because I stayed up too late last night and was tired.

Bike got tuned up yesterday. The new disk pads are nice and quiet, and stop well, but they're thick and rubbing a little on the disks, so I was a tick slower than normal. Still, a roadie popped out onto the MUP just ahead of me and I was hanging with him at 20MPH. It was hard with the knobbies AND the brakes AND the headwind, but I managed okay. :p

Rode home around 10:30PM last night from a little party. Fun stuff. At one point I stopped, turned off my light, let my eyes adjust, and then rode with just a front blinkie on the MUP through the woods. Lots of lightning bugs flying around and flashing. It was nice.

Been having fun this summer riding and riding.
Tweaked my back on the way home yesterday. No riding until hopefully Saturday. I have a 10 mile climb that is 2800 feet in elevation gain Saturday. Need to get my back feeling better.

The powers that be may not renew our office lease next year. This area is horribly expensive and most of the employees work from home. So, next year my commute may go from 28 miles to downstairs into the office. Yay! While I will no longer be a commuter I will start having fun with more recreational rides and may ponder joining a club. Much shorter higher intensity ride.
Maybe I will start working from home this fall or winter part time.

Ride last night was a touch wet, not really a big deal though - this morning was damp but not actually raining when I was out. Good ride in, took it easy and via the road (left late again).

Decided to brave the thunderstorms (had another series all night - I love sleeping when there's thunder rumbling, I'm weird) and rode in. I definitely needed the ride since I was horribly unfocused yesterday and had a bad anxiety attack.

Nice ride, the clouds were clearing, but apparently it's Opposite Day with regard to traffic laws and riding courtesy today.

* Had two cars blow through stop signs across my path (I had the straight through, luckily I always expect that sort of thing)
* One motorist stopped when *I* had the sign and she had a straight through (then she got mad when I waved her on, sorry lady, I know YOU stopped, but the other 2 lanes didn't and I don't feel like playing in traffic this early),
* Two meandering cyclists who somehow managed to get in front of me and then slow right down *twice* (they must have known a short cut), literally weaving all over the lane
* One idiot on a mountain bike downtown who passed me on the right as I waited with traffic and proceeded to blow through two red lights of his own.

Gah. Oh well, at least I made it, and I feel a lot steadier than I did yesterday. Stupid brain.

Another mostly uneventful ride.

Ouch - nice escape from the steam blast!

Cruddy break, Data, hope you fix up for your weekend ride (wow, btw ;))

Mostly? :D

Really really windy on the way home last night. Head wind of course.
It has flipped around into a nice headwind for this monring's ride too. Not quite as strong, but no less bothersome.

Got a flat this morning and ended up walking it 20 blocks to a bike shop that was open. That sucked. Tons of traffic today, too, because of that steam pipe.

Nothing worth reporting anyway, just a close pass and a near left-hook. That's a typical day for me. :rolleyes:

Mostly uneventful, but definitely quick...

FINALLY got out after missing my alarm/slacking a few times. A little hard to breathe (due to the code orange/overall fatness combo)

but damn if it wasn't great to be out

I just found out that one of the tutors was late today because of a flat (and he ended up *running* with the bike over his shoulder). He's currently cursing up a storm about the "stupid bike" and how it made him late - but he didn't have a flat kit and had timed his departure much too close. I don't think the bike is to blame here...

I'm going to offer him my patch kit after his session. My spare tube won't fit, he's running 700cs and I have 26 inchers, but I can at least get him sorted out for the ride home. And I hope this doesn't put him off bike commuting, he just needs a bit more preparation.

Not too bad...first ride on new Brooks. I think I need to lower it a little.

Only funny part of ride was a walker that I didn't signal because he looked like he was walking confidently and I had plenty of room on left, so I was going by without signaling. Just as I was coming up to him, I noticed a white cane he was using to 'feel' his way up path. He nearly put the cane in my spokes because he didn't hear me (because I didn't signal). I sort of panicy said "whoa, whoa...bike, bike" and scared the tar out of this blind guy.

Fun stuff. :eek:

Almost hit a deer fawn this morning.

I was flying down the road, saw a doe cross ahead of me but I didn't slow down because she was far enough ahead. Big mistake. Where there is one deer there is usually another.

Sure enough, Just as I'm coming to the location, a small fawn with spots darts out in front of me. I slid back in the saddle and squeezed the brakes.

My front wheel squeals like crazy when breaking hard. I didn't hit it but I think I scared the spots right off that fawn. :rolleyes:

Really pleasant. Just a handful of cars once I got out into the country, and they were all very safe and courteous. Thanks especially to the painter in the white GMC pickup who took the whole lane to pass me as if I were a car.

Nice ride this morning. The warmest I've seen it since I moved here. The only bad part was crossing the Sinton Trail tunnel under Centennial... several broken bottles with glass shards all over the place. I was worried that I'd get a flat but my Armadillo Crossroads came through once more with flying colors! I'll avoid that route for a few days to let the glass be swept away by other riders/pedestrians... :D

I have watched my average speed times go steadily up during the last couple of months... and the routes I follow are hilly (compared with what I used to ride in NY). I live 2 miles from work but have been taking longer routes (12-13 miles) 'cause the short route now feels boring.... I'm now thinking to extend my morning rides to at least 20 miles or so. :) I'll cook up a new route this weekend.

GreenAnvil

I had lots of empty road at 6:30 this morning. Had a small issue where a city bus driver decided to get as close as possible to me regardless of the fact that there was NO other cars on the road. It scared me a bit.

I almost got runned over on my ride home today.

Residential area. T-intersection. I'm going straight and my side does not have a stop sign. Lady comes up to the T and she has a stop sign. She stops. I see her eyes, she see's mine. Just as I was half a meter from passing the front of her car she guns it and cuts me off to turn left in front of me. :mad: I was close enough to knock on her window. Luckily my reflexes were quick enough and I hit the brakes and dodge right, or else I would of hit the driver's door.

My ride home was super nice. I've been bogged down by a bad cold all week and just feeling burnt out in general. Decided to take it nice and easy, just cruised and enjoyed the weather ( it was after seven and starting to cool down kinda reminded me of summer when I was a kid when you know bedtime's not too far off but you've a bit longer to play.) I'd forgotten how nice a relaxed ride after work can be.

Ride in this morning was kind of windy. And of course as we all know the wind seems to always be coming from the direction we're going.... A little cool too after our rainy week. Oh well, at least I didn't get rained on like I have three other times this week.

Wet! :p Low 60s. Started out as a light mist about 100 yards from my driveway, and got progressively heavier as I went. By the time I got here it was steady shower. Passed one cyclist going the other way on the MUP, and 2 or 3 peds. Hardly anyone out today.

Nice leisurely ride into work this morning, with warm temps and humidity a little lower than it has been lately. I debated whether to ride because a cold front is supposed to move through today with a good chance of thunderstorms. However, I decided to go for it because I missed biking on Monday due to oversleeping -- plus I haven't been caught in the rain yet in 3 months of cycling to work. Threw my raincoat in my seatbag, although my experience is that jackets make you sweat so much you might as well get wet from the rain. In the worst cause -- that is, if severe thunderstorms make cycling dangerous -- I can bum a ride home with a coworker who lives in neighborhood.

Windy this morning, headwind/cross-headwind mostly, I offered a guy on a mountain bike a draft, but he said "No thanks, I'm turning off here". I figured I'd offer ;)

Good ride in though, legs were tired but I just kept trying to spin.

Nice ride today -- mid-70s, low humidity, a few clouds, little traffic. Only complaint was my full water bottle, left at the house.

Wonderful and unique commute. I unpacked, assembled, and adjusted a Raleigh Twenty folder I'd bought yesterday evening. This morning I used it for my commute. Since I'm still in the process of adjusting the bike and familiarizing myself with the riding characteristics I decided to ride to the MARTA train station. It gives me roughly the same riding distance, but over more residential streets, so I didn't have to do as many traffic merges as commuting directly into work.

It went well. The platform pedals are going to have to go (I'll put spds on this evening), and I'll be replacing the 3 speed Sturmey Archer with something with a wider range (probably one of the 8 speed hub gears). Also I suspect that in the rain with the steel rims the brakes won't have any stopping power, so I need to replace the rims with something more modern.

But all that being said, it was a great commute, and I'm very excited about the Twenty.