Well, I drove and didn't lose a measurable amount of my soul, so that's not too bad.

Last night, I took the most intense hill-climbing route home (pulling 2.5 yr old in trailer). I took the sidewalk for the hill. Very good peace of mind. An alternate to that route could also involve a different sidewalk, but it is much wider and higher vis too. This sidewalk was definitely subpar, but still, peace of mind was good.

The day before I did it in traffic, plus accidentally on the middle (not granny) ring, way winded at the top then I have to say. No abuse from cagers unlike Friday, tailgated by horn leaning buffoon. How she could lean on her horn so much w/ that latte and cell phone I don't know.

I have 3, 4 I guess, main choices to bring toddler back a) Straight up main drag (2 lanes each way plus turn, have to change toward the left, blocking freeway lane, right at the top of the climb), long but manageable hill (after a couple yrs of conditioning and regearing anyway) or up side street w/ some traffic but not much hill, then onto either b) short but wayyyyy steep side street, 1 lane (1 lane total I mean) or c) onto main drag at light so my left turn position not so bad on the cages (least hill of all), and then d) this other side street on the other side of the main drag that I took yesterday. Longer hill (so not as steep as b but longer, so more output overall I think). Sidewalk option to defuse impact on cages. d) is pure gold in the am, going down it, lovely and vacant, but in the pm, rush hour, it is more full of cranky cagers than b/c options.

Montreal commuting
 

Hi all....just joined the forum. Have been commuting regularly the past 2 seasons (April - October) with my Miyata one thousand. 30 km each way. I did 80 days last year and hoping for 100 this year (at 54 today). Unfortunately I always get a good headwind heading home due to lake effect!! Have had this bike for almost 20 years and it's still in great condition. It's a wonderful bike to commute with. Any other commuters from Montreal out there?

terrible commute this morning....my rear wheel gear shifter broke at the bottom of a large ravine. Stuck on the smallest sprocket at the bottom of the hill! Unable to shift gears.
Had to walk it up the hill. Managed to ride it to a nearby bike store where I'll go during lunch time to see if they can replace it in time for my commute home.

I'm just going to forget the woman in the beige Camry who ignored my signal to change lanes and then accelerated to 45mph or so (on a 25mph limit street) so she could sit an extra 30 seconds at the red light. I'll ignore the fact that the maneuver was stupid, illegal, inefficient, and just plain assholish. I hope your day improves from there, lady. I really do.

Anyway, mine did. I decided I hadn't been riding the tri bike enough this year so I brought it out for my own personal ITT on the American River Bike Trail. (Now I know that we have all sorts of arguments about whether it's a good idea to ride fast on MUPs, but the lower section of the ARBT is basically a bike highway at 7:30am on weekdays and most folks on it are seasoned commuters and fitness riders. So it really wasn't an issue once I got out on it. )

Basically, this ride reinforced LeMond's Law: It never gets easier, you just go faster.

Didn't commute today, and looks like tomorrow will be another day 'off'- literally- as I do have an ear infection and am on a round of antibiotics and Percoset, with 2 days on quarters.

What's funny is, I was going to bike in to the hospital...til the side of my head went numb! Oh well, there's next week.

Responding to my own post. :o Wind this morning was south. Is now NW at 10 and supposed to increase. :mad::rolleyes:

Took the alley and scored the hole shot! Sometimes I think I need a bigger gear...

Didn't ride in today, but rode home last night....and it was fast for me.....averaged 16.1 for 27.1 miles....I'm usually around 14.9 - 15.1

The key was using my glutes :)

I read an article in one of the bike magazines....somewhere I read about most cyclists don't use their best, biggest muscles when riding.....so I tried it and ..... it was amazing how much more power I generated on the flats and on the hills(I hardly ever stand when climbing)...my heart rate was up just a tad, but overall .... this was my fastest commute , by far, and I felt soooo much better afterwards and this morning!!........and there were no bunnies harmed on my commute home last night :)

I took the back way down the hill from work - much steeper and just a little longer. My 5 mile commute took under 17 minutes, with several minutes of cruising at 35mph +... FUN, and worth the 1000' climb on the way to work! I need higher gears though.

I ran into one of the cagers that buzzed me a few weeks ago... he passed me way earlier on my route than the last time ...


This time, he passed me with plenty of space ( I caught him the last time, and gave him a 30 second non-stop blast with my 132 db horn directly into his window, while the window was down and warned him to give me more space the next time and he told me to get off the road which I replied with the universal sign ).

about 2 miles down the road, he somehow came out from behind me ! ( he went into a driveway or some turn and then came back out after I passed him ) and so I just went ahead another mile and he was stuck at a red light which I promptly took the the initiative to honk and wave with great appreciation !!! =) (no birds this time) .

I saw a guy in a motorized wheel chair in the bicycle lane going against traffic at a rate of 12+ mph. I hope no bicyclist have to deal with the guy in the wheel chair and end up in a head on collision. Or worse yet, a bicyclist having to swerve into traffic to avoid the guy then getting hit from a car.

How did you use your glutes? Did you change positions or what?

This week I'm on jury duty, so trading my 21 mile round trip ride to Manhattan for a 3 mile round trip down the road. It's hardly enough time to even have fun! It was nice to take the long way in today, looking for quiet roads and never rushing. The best part though, was coming home at lunch to see my baby girl!

I nearly hit two cars today. Idiots who don't obey the right of way and who don't signal.



Mainly it's the cars that try and pass me (while I'm in the right lane, they come from behind) and then they turn right off the road while coming back into my lane. So I'd broadside them and flip over their car. When they cut me off and THEN notice and stop and are like ZOMG!!! I give 'em a good pound on the roof. Thank God for good brakes.

/venting.

Found some new scratches on my Brooks when I was leaving work. :(

Drove in today due to lack of sleep and a broken Eggbeater on the commuter. Too lazy to throw on the Quattros from the roadie. Not sure if the 20 extra minutes of sleep were worth what will be an agonizing drive in the morning, especially with some local bridge contruction (Gowanus canal).

On the other hand, one thing I've really noticed lately is that I've been so much calmer driving when riding regularly (this may partially be due to the fact that I've been finding myself in the car no more then once a week lately). I'm finding it very amusing and sad watching cagers around me completely flip out on a regular basis while I'm sitting back and smiling as I get to blast some good tunes. Even being in the car with my dad the other day, it was quite something to see the frustration and agony of having to wait behind another car that made us 10 seconds late to the next light.

I'm getting really sick of these Crank Bros. pedals breaking. This is the 4th one that I'm RMAing since April. Same issue on both the Eggbeaters and the Quattros: spring snapping. They do have creat customer service, but they always strain to sound surprised that this happens and it shows.

The only reason I'm sticking with them, aside fom really liking how they clip in/out, is the cleat compatability; using my MTB shoes for the roadie with the option of upgrading to road shoes and still having them interchangeble. Are there any other clipless options that provide something like this? I don't think I wanna go through having another broken pedal 40 miles from home.

I bagged my bike commute for the second day in a row this week due to the extreme heat and poor air quality. I was all set to go but decided at the last minute that it just wasn't worth it. I rode one day last week when the temperature reached 102 with a heat index over 110, and I don't want to repeat the experience. Similar forecast for today with high humidity to boot. Hopefully this hot weather will break soon.

Nice ride this morning. No noticeable wind. Temps around 60F. Didn't see any other riders in front or behind. Saw a couple going the other way though. An attractive blonde ran by as I was waiting at a light. I wanted to say, "How you doin?", but I just gave her a friendly smile and said hi. :)

Extremely humid this morning. I was totally drenched when I got to work. On Tuesday morning, a guy in a pickup truck followed me when I ran a red light. He was waiting behind me for about a minute when the traffic cleared and I decided to run the red light. I think he realized about halfway through what he was doing but it was too late for him to stop.

TS Erin did not do too much to impact the ride in here in Houston. I was able to time my departure from home in between rain bands. It drizzled on me the whole way....but no lightning! Other than the rain, the ride was fantastic. I got a lot of funny looks today for riding in during a tropical storm. I just hope Hurricane Dean does not follow predictions!

Have a safe and great ride today!

txbiker

Great weather for the ride in. Sunny, calm and about 50% humidty. Traffic is starting to build up a bit, now that people are trickling back from summer holidays. The first week of September is going to suck.

On the way in I saw one of those police radar-gun-with-speed-display trailers set up on a side street. My lucky day. I dialed it up to 400 watts and dropped the poseur.

Hit 31 mph, which seemed like the limit of stability on my slightly Pringle-shaped wheels, although I know some members can average about 20 MPH over very long distances. I'm just getting started and I'd like to get to that point in due time....

Set a record (I think) for my ride home last night. Usually I don't give too much of a crap about speed but last night I forgot that I had an appointment to bring the dog to the vet. I remembered when it was all but too late to try to make it home in time to get him there. Hammered what little brains I have out on the way home and did 13 miles in ~40 minutes. Got home in time to shower, change and make the appointment. Computer had my average speed for the ride at 18.9mph! And that's on a 68cm, lugged steel touring bike, with a british style touring saddle bag full o' crap and 35mm tires. Anyway, for me that's a fast average!

This morning I took it easy as usual and it was a beautiful day to ride. I took an old route that I hadn't taken in a long time. I don't know why I stopped using it. It's through residential areas with virtually no traffic, quiet, birds singing, etc... Supposed to be sunny, 77 degrees, and less humid today!

It's sorta weird at first.....basically, it's like sitting in your chair and flexing your left glute then right glute...but just do it on the bike.....the rest will happen naturally! I usually use my quads/thigh muscles to start my downward stroke, you know, just using the tops of my thighs.....when I flex my glutes before hand it sort of pushes against the quads and give me more umph!! I was cruising on the flats at 25-26 mph for a couple of miles whereas before I would only cruise at 21-22 mph.....the little hills that I encounter on my commute are nothing now.....before, I would just rock slightly back and forth in my 39-17/18 to get up these little pesky extended speed bumps, but now I power over those suckers in the 53-16 range! (side note: your bum may feel a little "spent" the first few times) :D

It's really hard to explain here , on a forum, what exactly goes on...you've just gotta try it! Flex those glutes each stroke! Try it on a straight-away for a couple of minutes and then just pedal normally....then try it on a little hill......see if it doesn't make a difference. It has with me....

Some of you probably do this without even knowing it.....it's a technique thing, I suppose that one wouldn't normally do unless told about it......

My route is a little over 27 miles one way.....I usually do it in the 1:45-1:50 range....the last three have been sub 1:40!

Mine was short for the ride in today... I was running late due to changing my tires with new ones I bought last night (it was too dark to change them last night, and I was lazy waking up) ... About mid way a co-worker pulled up beside me and (jokingly) said 'see, I told you driving was faster'... But I tossed my bike in the back of his mini-van and accepted a ride the rest of the way given that I was already running behind.

I changed my Kenda 27 x 1 1/4 tires which where bald after 2000+km (ok, they where bald after 1400km...) with 27 x 1 1/8 Continental Ultrasports... Bumpy ride, but zippy for the 10km I've used them for.

mtn biked it, took the unpaved rails-to-trail route. Unfortunately couldn't find a connector past a certain large intersection, wound up spending last ~3 miles in unfamiliar Stripmallia. Fun anyway.

Good on you Tude!

Personally, I avoid night riding as I just know I'm gonna get clipped by some idiot that can't see my flashing red taillight or reflective vest or high beam headlight....:(

On the other hand.....has anyone heard anything about the planet Mars appearing as big as the moon on the evening of August 27th or 28th? Something about its orbit around the Sun and at that point being at its closest to the Earth? It may be another 200+ years till it's that close again.... I may force myself to hop on the bike and find a nice spot to observe....

Edit: Nevermind....found out this was a joke...... :(

Decided to investigate the River Road between W. Sac and Woodland this morning which was part of Stage 2 of the ToC this year. Decent enough road, but a little too much traffic for my taste. Might be a better bet on Sunday mornings.

On the way into the building I was chatting with a coworker and it turns out she has a bike and rides recreationally. When I asked whether she's considered riding to work, she said "Nope. I'm just too vain."

Well, that's an honest answer I guess.

I lost my pedal last night as I cycled under the bridge on the bike path. Came close to going down! I thought I snapped it, but turned out the pedal had just unscrewed (really old Onza's!). A couple threads were messed up, but I managed to put in back on. I always wondered what would happen if the pedal snapped/came off..now I know!

Well i must try it and see what you're talking about. I am not sure if i've been using these glutes or not.