I got punched by a taxi driver this morning after he cut me off and I slapped his hood! My shoulder hurts! What a punk! He needs to take his anger, spin it into a thread and then knit a sweater of love out of it.

I'm only working until noon today, then going on a cat-ski trip for two days of sweet pow. The sun is shining, the brown haze is drifting off toward SK, and I'm riding fast on skinny tires.

The front derailer on my Kona Jake has always been cranky. Since I'm still a bike newb I tend to just leave it on the middle chainring and try to get out of the lowest gears on the casette asap to avoid drivetrain wear. Yesterday's commute home involved a muddy shoulder, though, so I had to drop it to the smallest chainring in order to keep moving. (The rear tire was digging in, and I'm already planning to replace it with something bigger and more offroad-ish when I get the money. Schwalbe is (justifiably) very proud of their tires.) So when I started this morning's commute at 4:30am (late because of my sick 4 year old) I got to battle with the front derailer until I finally got some decent pedal resistance and no grinding noises from the front end. It's my fourth day of bike commuting this week (Wednesday I had shopping and yoga, so I drove - the Jake won't hold an overfilled shopping cart full of groceries) and I was clearly a bit tired riding in - not quite as much zip trying to catch the lights and I was just a little more tired that I was biking in earlier in the week. Also, annoyingly enough, I must have gotten some mud or something on my rear derailer, because the darn thing wouldn't shift into the lowest gears - the shifter was giving me a lot more resistance than normal. I figured I'd sort things out once I got to work.

Well at about the 17 mile mark I had one of those "Hey..." moments and squinted down at my chainrings long enough to determine that I had, in fact, been using the largest chainring the entire time and hadn't noticed. I went ahead and rode the last 3 miles in that chainring just because I could.

Wow. I hope he's missing a couple of teeth now thanks to U-lock corrective dental surgery...

Heh chephy, yeah - I rode in it, wasn't too bothered about time/speed (and I'm on my knobbies right now, which seem to handle a lot of more the crappy surfaces much better), so I just stuck with it - post College was nice, so it was worth it Nice work with the advocacy!

This morning I rode straight directly to work along King, as I've got a long ride to North York and back down to the upper beaches this afternoon - kinda nervous about it as I'm feeling a bit off (head cold/throat swollen typical crap) and it's pretty far for me being out of shape right now - but am fuelling up ready - it's nice today, so should be a good ride nonetheless. I'm riding up that same bike lane/street again, following city route #35 all the way up, as I don't want to contend with Yonge St, I've got to go the distance but want a less stressful ride - res. streets will help out I figure

Ride in was basically uneventful, ran a couple of ambers because I just didn't want to stop - had a car try to sneak by me in the same lane (I was 1/3 into the lane riding slower than traffic, but not THAT slow) and I looked, he must've realised it was a bad plan and held back - he was to turn at the next light anyway (as they always do, idiots racing for the next light).

I hate violence and I didn't even touch the guy. I just stood there nice and tall looking down at the guy, even when he pushed me and then punched me in the chest. He put his nose about an inch away from mine and he smelled bad. If he had escalated it any further, I might have hit back, but there were dozens of people around and I know for a fact my place of work has 2 CCTV cameras pointed right where we had our altercation (we were right outside the main entrance to Union Station). I'm not going to waste my time with the police over some jackass trying to give me a charlie-horse though. These idiots need to think before they act; they could get themselves put in jail or lose their livelihood if they aren't careful.

Warm, dark and wet.
Hoot-owl in the rain.
Life is good.

That's the difference between cycling and the auto-mad-bile. You won't hear a cager saying something like that.

It was a little cold this morning, and I had extra time, so I decided to stop for a hot cup of Chai tea. Sat around for awhile, read a book, then high tailed it to work. Since I went out of my way to visit my friend's coffee shop I took a different route into work, and it wasn't a good one. The road was too busy, and the lanes too narrow. I'll have to find some side streets if I want to do the early-morning Chai thing again.

Unbelievable.

Highs inland will be in the upper 70s and low 70s at the beach. The morning low was 58 at my house when I departed. Temperature was perfect on my way to work and my bike shifted like butter.

My route runs from Hermosa Beach to Santa Monica along the beach.... Then I cut through the residential section of Santa Monica to Brentwood. 19 flat miles on smooth pavement. Looking forward to the ride home.

Brisk-ish, proto-sunny, like the last few days. Will probably turn to rain again, like the last few days did. Added 5 miles to commute, chopped off the last 4 (w/ big hill) I'd added the last 4 days. I was running about an hour late after all.

used budding public transit today (w/breakfast-diner break prior to walking rest of the way to work) after 1 week vacation and 1 week commute. a nice change, but missed the bike today (bitter/sweet)!
the week-end is here now for some, enjoy!

A very nice rice both directions and I arrived home not too tired. Ah the weekend!

good for you. you made the world a better place by not giving over to it. all we need is two more people wailing on one another over something stupid. if the cab driver didn't learn anything from it then, hopefully, some of the people watching did.

Don' mind thre headwind, can't handle thunder and lightning. I'm such a wuss. Almost went lastnight (I'm working 3rd) but could'nt ride thru a 4" stream running down my street. Forcast for the next 6 days,more of the same.Oh well got Bike forum to keep me company.

Well handled. I just get so mad when I hear about such incidents...

I actually like riding Yonge St. between Davisville and Lawrence or a bit north of Lawrence. For most of its length there has a parking lane there which is wide enough to be occupied by cars but not nearly wide enough to be shared, which all drivers can see plain well. So they just stay in the inside lane and don't bother me. I find riding Yonge around there much less stressful than Duplex which has a surprising amount of traffic which pulses very annoyingly because of the stop signs. But Route 35 has much less traffic than Duplex, so I hope your ride was pleasant and relaxed.

Today the ride was slippery!!! My dog had a hard time on 3 legs when I let him out this morning. Thin layer of ice on everything.

I10 was closed and traffic was backed up for a mile I split the lane. Felt good going faster than the traffic for once.

On the way in there was a toxic spill I had to ride in the left lane and hold every one up.

so much for an easy Saturday ride.

Everything was perfect today: sunny, chilly, clear and crisp. If I'd been walking, the grass had been crunching. As it was, I was riding in just enough clothing, wind in my back, sun on my side, smile on my face...

Days like these I really don't like having a short commute. I should've kept going.

It's 7AM and the temperature is 68F (20C). I'll be leaving for work in about an hour and the temperature may creep up another degree or two. Sandals weather baby!!

Today was WARM, almost 70 at 6:20 as I started my commute; it was the first sweaty ride I've had in my short commuting experience. Also had somebody laugh at me as I was beasting it up a big hill. I think I would have laughed, also, considering I'm a big huge sweaty guy and my bike's lit up like a freaking Christmas tree. *shrug*

Back in the saddle... First commute since The Valentine's Day Blizzard of 2007! It felt great to be back on the bike. Temps were in the low 30s. The MUP is mostly clear, with patches of snow along the northernmost part, and occassional patches of ice where snow melt had re-frozen last night. I'll leave the studded Hakkas on for a couple more days I guess.

Sweeet day. This was the first time I got to ride the roadie outside (The day after I bought it winter set in). I took it easy to learn how it handles and all that and still made it in faster then normal. Plus, it was a beautiful day, 55, light wind, some water out there from thunderstorms, but oooh so nice.

65F is fricking WARM!
I was sweating pretty good by the time I got to the office, and I didn't even push hard this morning (well not real hard).

I just passed the 2000 mile bike commute mark today! I've been riding for about two years and have gradually increased the frequency I ride. In 2005 I was a fair weather commuter, in 2006 I began riding in the dark and winter. This year there were a few setbacks with ice and snow and colds, but I'm back on track with about half my commutes by bike.