Blew up at a jogger today at mile 8 out of 13 and felt bad about it. Second day in a row for this guy, looping out of his neighborhood into the bike lane, in the dark, running with traffic instead of against (and its a metro/suburb area so there are cars and trucks out there for the morning commute), no lights or reflectors, plugged in, doesn't look back to see my lights as he rounds the corner, and its an uphill (well, Indiana is flat, but it was inclined). Yesterday I went way around him and he never saw me. Today it was a squeeze play between me and several cars and I rang him 4 times with my bell without effect so I squeezed him too and yelled at him that he was killing me as I went by, which wasn't so great, despite his satisfying scream and startle as seen in my rearview. I imagining I'll keep seeing him so I'll have to stop and tell him what I was really thinking the next time, that he's not a vehicle and it would behoove him to reverse his route if he can't run on the sidewalk provided so that he can see traffic and get out of the way with less surprise.

Mid 50sF, overcast, tailwind. Pretty quick today. Squirrels are back! It's time to stock up on acorns for the winter, I guess. A flock of geese flew over me, heading easterly. As luck would have it, I came to a stop sign on the MUP at the same time as an older woman I've seen walking just about every summer day since I started commuting in '04. We always waved hi back and forth but today we chatted. She goes south for the winter, which explains why she disappears for months on end. :p She walks a LONG way, too. I've seen her anywhere along a 4-mile stretch of the MUP.

I just started commuting into Boston about 2 weeks ago and am really enjoying it. This morning i had a Great 8.7 mile ride going; traffic was lighter than normal and i was making great time, BUT I had to stop for a drawbridge of all things. Probably lost around 5 minutes. I still made it in my second best time ever, but today should have been a personal best. Of well, maybe next week.

First commute of the school year(I'm a teacher). Mid 60's this morning. I wore shorts and a t-shirt ... shivered for the first mile, but body heat kicked in and I had a nice ride. -- 10 mile commute.

Forgot: Sode a borrowed Giant ORC2. Pretty nice bike.

65 degrees and overcast. In fact, I was riding in the clouds during the high elevation portion of my commute.

slower than usual due to a sliiiight hangover. Almost got smacked by this chick pulling out of a parking lot, but she stopped short. I gave her front bumper a little love tap with my left foot as I passed by (and I can't say I didn't enjoy doing it, either)

Great weather today. 65 degree with no clouds. Beautiful sunrise over Lake Michigan.
Only problem was the wait of almost 20 minutes at the train crossing. Freight train was just standing there and blocking the crossing :mad:

Other than that, nothing eventful on my 30 mile commute this morning.

Wore a long sleeve jersey this morning for the first time in a long, long while. And it looks like I'm going to have to find my headlight soon, too. Other than that, terrific ride in.

I meant to take it easy this morning. But my legs felt good and I decided to punish myself a bit instead.

Super ride home. It was just one of those rides where all was right with the world. :) I rode behind 4 young guys (3 MTB one Road) until they stopped. Then it was just a fun ride home. I reeled in a woman with a messenger bag(!) and I imagined she was a new commuter riding home. She dropped to her lowest of the low gears and was spinning uphill at an impossibly slow speed but I felt like it would be mean to pass her and maybe discourage her. :o I wound up going a different way just so I didn't pass her.

Then I got home and my wife was drinking wine from this place:
http://www.redbicyclette.com/

Long weekend, too! Life is good. :beer:

As I was pedalling slowly up a hill on the way home I noticed a disgusting odor. Shortly thereafter I came upon a small pile of intestines in the moddle of the road. No sign of a carcass. Just a pile of smelly guts.

I forgot to tell the tale of my ride home yesterday. :o I stopped in a little area off the MUP to fiddle with my seat rails. As I was putting away my hex wrench, a guy I've seen a lot comes in. I think he's homeless or at least hard up for cash. He's always riding his old bike with a plastic garbage bag full of empty cans & bottles.

He says to me, "That sure is a nice bike. I'll never have a bike that nice. I bet it's expensive. How much is it? Two hundred dollars?"

(This is the '05 Trek Liquid 25... 4-figure MSRP.)

I said, "It's a little more than that!" :D

He repeated how nice it was and I said it is nice and it does everything I want it to do. Then we said our goodbyes and off I went.

Saw him again today, but I don't think he recognizes me even though I see him daily-ish. Seems like a nice guy. I always wonder what his deal is.

Crash!
 

Well today's commute went terrible... actually come to think of it my day went terrible. On the way to work my back blinkie light fell off and smashed into a million pieces. Then at coffee break I bit into a nectarine, my front tooth glanced off the pit and snap, I chipped my tooth pretty badly. After that on the way home I took the same route, 50 % road 45% bike path and 5% dirt trail...Well on the way down the steep dirt trail (I was going too fast) I happened to catch my front wheel in a rut and went and pulled a header. Rolled in the hard pack dirt and got some scrapes on my forearm, elbow and a quarter of my back. Luckily my helmet was on because when I rolled my head was driven into the dirt. Well the helmet has a tiny hole in it from a small rock, my handebars were bent around, the rear derailler didn't work anymore...this all happened .25 of the way home. I recently put slicks on my bike and I think these didn't help my situation...So I called my Wife, said I would be late and limped home on my damaged 1982 Norco Pinnacle. I got home, took the bike apart, checked it over tightened everything, took the rear derailler apart, cleaned it, lubed it and put everything back together. The old clunker still runs! Yay! I can't afford a new bike right now. Incidentally, fenders are great in the rain but in this situation I swear they did not help and perhaps caused more trouble than anything. They got all caught up in the wheel in the rutt...well the fenders didn't break but I am not sure if I want them back on my bike. Only if I ride in the rain.

Bad things happen in three's and today I had three...so I should be okay for a while.

I am anxious to get back on the old clunker Tuesday and commute again but this time slower.

Re: headlight...
 

I found a fantastic headlight at Mountain Equipment Coop...it is a MEC Shark One Watt LED that and a Blinkie Planet Bike "Super Flash" for the back. Man they are super bright...got both for around $25...well worth it so traffic can see me now.

First day back in the saddle. Nice commute, Tons of traffic. 18 miles round trip, a little longer commute than i thought. No turning back now.

I love reading people's commute stories in the morning. Good days, bad days; we all have 'em.

Nice ride in for me this morning. I haven't changed gear for over a week now. I think I'm starting to get a singlespeed fetish. Hmmmm..!

Another nice ride. Had a driver almost sideswipe me as he took a right turn in front of me (not a right hook, but him turning right into my lane of travel). I anticpated his move though, so no problem. He tried to pass me on the right only to realize that there was no lane there, so then he had to slam his brakes on and pass me on the left....bonehead. I actually saw another bike commuter out in the darkness too. On a recumbent no less!! It's unusual for me to see any other cyclist at ~6:00, but to see a 'bent isextremely rare, probably only the 2nd or 3rd time I've seen one on my commute in ~ 7 years.

Great ride in this morning. Had a personal best time of 37 minutes for 8.7 miles (14.1 mph). No drawbridge today. I hope the ride home is just as fast.

Nice ride this morning. Sunny, mid 50sF, tailwind. I was cruisin over 20MPH on the Liquid, not working hard at all. :eek: I tuned up the bike yesterday. Tweaked the front der and lubed up the chain with a new bottle of ProLink. The bike rides super-quiet now. Just the hiss of the tires and the wind in my ears.

Another cool morning commute. Yesterday was by far the coolest morning in a long time, I actually wore a short sleeved shirt instead of my sleeveless jersey. Traffic was back to normal this morning, it was very nice yesterday with hardly any traffic out. I extended my ride home last night from 8 to 12 miles, just enjoying the nice weather. Heat comes back today and the rest of the week though, into the mid 90s.

Very nice commute in. The temperature here has finally begun moderating from the 100+ degrees we had through most of August. Traffic seemed backed up on my usual route across I-20 so I took an alternate route.

I had a good ride in today. It was my first commute on the new bike.

This is my first hybrid (I normally use a road bike) so it felt a little odd (not bad just odd).


Took about 2 minutes longer than usual (around 39 minute instead of 37). I think I need to raise the seat about an inch and the rear shifting was a little off. ( I will stop by the LBS on the way home to adjust the rear derailleur ).

All in all though, a good maiden voyage.

Nice ride this morning; short but the weather was wonderful. I hope to be back to my regular schedule after battling allergies and tiredness the last couple of weeks.

GreenAnvil

Crappy ride. Was dropped off at work in the car. I don't know how car people do it. At one point two lanes had to merge into one due to construction - what a mess. On the bike it would have been smooth sailing all the way up to the front.

I'm glad I ride in while most of these people (suckers) are still sleeping, nice quiet roads... and now with school starting the idiots are going to all come out of the woodwork at once (where have they been hiding?) so we'll have to be extra careful out there.

Nice ride in today. Only my 3rd commute in last 5 weeks, since I was out of town on business/training for most of August, and I'm slowly getting back in shape. What is it about September? A ton of riders out this morning -- there were 10 of us stopped at one traffic light. I noticed this last year too. Was it too hot for them in August or did everyone get a new bike on Labor Day? Interesting...

I rode 108 miles on Saturday using my Tarmac. 8000+ feet of elevation gain and some gnarly descents.
So, I make it all of 12 miles out of 28 this morning on my touring bike and my rear tire's casing completely failed. Tried to boot it and blew out my spare tube. Then walked a few miles to the light rail station. Oh well. Such is life.
Going to take my tires off of the Tarmac and use them instead. Time for the next Tarmac upgrade I had planned.

The ride was fine this morning, maybe a little cool, I had one person beep at me. But it seemed more a I am here beep than a full blast on the horn. I waved and continued to ride to work. Tha is when all the problems started. I normaly keep my work clothes at work. But I used my last pants last week. I did remember to bring in some, but they turned out to be my sons! Too short in length by 2 " and to small in the waist by 4" I did have some jeans at work, so I am staying in my office all day if I can.....

Warm this morning but a nice tail wind. Traffic not as heavy as I expected, but I was a bit later then usual.

90's forecast for the ride home.

From yesterday's ride (I was in the cage today).

Dead Skunk
( Loudon Wainwright III )

Crossin' the highway late last night
He shoulda looked left and he shoulda looked right
He didn't see the station wagon car
The skunk got squashed and there you are!

You got yer
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
You got yer dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high Heaven!

Take a whiff on me, that ain't no rose!
Roll up yer window and hold yer nose
You don't have to look and you don't have to see
'Cause you can feel it in your olfactory

You got yer
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
You got yer dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high Heaven!

Yeah you got yer dead cat and you got yer dead dog
On a moonlight night you got yer dead toad frog
Got yer dead rabbit and yer dead raccoon
The blood and the guts they're gonna make you swoon!
You got yer
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
You got yer dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high Heaven!

C'mon stink!

You got it!
It's dead, it's in the middle
Dead skunk in the middle!
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high heaven!
All over the road, technicolor man!
Oh, you got pollution
It's dead, it's in the middle
And it's stinkin' to high, high Heaven!

I had a very strange start to my ride. Just 200 meters from home is a 4 way stop. I make a left turn there. This morning I arrived at the intersection at the same time as two cars, one on my right and one facing me. I was hovering, with my left hand out to indicate my direction. Both drivers kindly waved me through. I was just turning into the left side of the road when driver in front took off, making me swerve right to save my skin. As he went by he was flipping me the bird and laughing! I'm very happy that I don't know this mutt but I feel sorry for everybody who does.