Intense, A 20 mile commute on an open freeway shoulder. If you can handle the wind blast a line of semis can haul you down the road.

Were the streets empty today or what? Went for an hour on the bike and i've never seen streets as empty as this. 25th of December is officially the best day to be out riding ;)

Seriously. I am not even in town today, but I can imagine. We should organize some sort of annual Christmas ride in Toronto. :)

Things are very quiet here in the DC area. I rode my 18 miles with almost NO traffic to speak of. Nice ride with temps in the low 30s here in the DC area. New Specialized Armadillo Infinity tires on the bike add a bit of traction since the ones they replace were essentially slicks.

Office is empty also - LIFE IS GOOD!

GAR!

had to drive into work today... :(

I "fixed" both my bikes on Christmas Eve and now neither is rideable:p

one bike, i changed the chain, but it went too long and the cogs are trashed, chain just skips around.

Put a new set of tires on the other, pumped up to 100pis, and BLAM! blew out the side of a new tire and the tube. i think the tire was faulty from the factory... and no spare tube for this bike (long valve stem rqd). i was careful too - pumped to 20psi first, made sure seated correctly and all, oh well.

Today was a "good" day to drive: cold and rainy. but the first time on 4 wheels in months. Tomorrow will be better.

Cheers

Season's greetings, everyone, and I hope any over-indulgences will soon be ridden off!

Commute today was awesome - hardly anyone around, just flew through the city, green lights all the way. Just goes to show how much cars slow up cyclists...

They've also removed the gazebo thing from the western end of Anzac bridge, meaning you can sustain momentum (and see clearly) when going from the path onto the bridge proper. Hurrah! Much better, especially when climbing. I always hated that you had to lose all your precious momentum going around that thing, then climb up to the apex of the bridge from pretty much a standing start. It was ten times easier this morning being able to just keep going.

Not a bad idea at all. In fact we should just go and ride on weekends or something, like they do in clubs :) By the way today wasn't bad either, traffic was close to what it usually is on weekends.

Today was nearly ideal. There was so little traffic on my way to the office that I actually counted the number of vehicles that passed me. Total count was 46 cars and trucks in 46 minutes (10.2 miles). There was no wind in either morning or evening and the skies were clear enough to count the stars.

With the temperature below 20 degrees at 7:00 AM, it was cool enough to keep from sweating too much. In the evening it had warmed up to near 40, so I had to shed the jacket and outer gloves to be more comfortable. The day after Christmas is good riding.

Had a great ride both ways today. High in the lower 40s and sunny. Everything was peaches and cream, until....... I stopped at the grocery store on the way home, locked my bike up, shopped, came out and couldn't find my key ANYWHERE!!! Retraced my steps, asked the service center if it had been turned in, nothing. Had to call my wife and have her bring my other key. Felt like one cool cat hangin' out beside my bike in front of a grocery store for 20 min.:p I did keep my cool though. I'm the kind that can become a real a** in stressful situations like that, but I found my happy place and had a good laugh about it. Probably the Holiday influence. Good excuse to buy a better lock, too!:D

Amazing ride in the morning. Clear and was visited by wildlife as I rode by. Saw squirrel's, hawk's, and something else fuzzy. Made it to work before the boss and felt really great about it.

On the way home though I had a 25+ mph headwind the whole way home :mad:

Today was pretty nice, I got my new bike jacket and U-lock for Christmas, and rode with the U-lock on its frame mount. It rattles a bit over bumps, but I don't notice the weight of the lock at all, which is not what I expected.

Once my Road Morph G pump shows up I will have a very nice commuting setup, finally.

Roads were pretty clear today, only saw a few cars and the ones I saw were well-behaved. Although around here it is usually the case that they are more afraid of you than you are of them.

Lousy weather on yesterday's ride home, cold, windy, big, heavy drops of rain-the worst of winter. I stopped under the 14 th street bridge for a break, hoping to wait out the rain, but that didn't happen. I was surprised to see another rider so I quickly caught up and let him be my rabbit for a while. He was a fellow Surly rider-cool, I admired his ride and told him as we split. This morning's ride was much better but my right knee was bothering me. I've been concentrating on rehab'ing and strengthening my knees and legs, hopefully this is just a bit of tendonitis. Good news is that my Nashbar order is here and I'll install my new headset, replace brakes and bar tape, and put on my 700x30c Kendas to get the bike up to speed for winter.

Agreed :) I went out for a ride with a buddy for a few miles, lots of fun and plain/clear sailing all the way :) Love that I rode my bike on Christmas Eve, Day and Boxing Day :)

I rode back from the east end last night, mostly plain sailing (got cut off but easily avoided any incident).

Ride in today was fine, fairly warm and despite coming in later, missed any rain/sleet/snow that came down later on in the morning.

I'm convinced now my BB is in need of replacement, but I'm hoping it'll last the bad weather season, I'll have to take it off the road soon anyway due to needing wheel trues, I just need to ride this week for work. Glad I'm able to ride, I love it.

I'm about 30 miles equivalent short of 6000km on my roadbike and I'm keen to break that by the end of the year :)

Today was my first day riding to work since my wreck on October 22nd. I was back on the bike in two weeks, but my recovering wrist could not handle the 12 mile (each way) commute until now. It was icy and I took a spill on a turn. D'oh! Bruised my elbow and hurt a thumb, otherwise ok.

Took my first winter spill this morning.

I'm lucky enough to have plowed bike paths for about 2/3 of my commute, some of which are through some beautiful woods. When I was arriving back to urbania at a 2-way stop- down I went. One driver stopped and stared in shock. I did my best to look graceful. I never lost a hand hold on the bike, so I picked it up and started walking through the intersection, got on and peddled off.

Ice is sure humbling!

Got all the way to work on slicks in snow (thought I could get away without the studs today). Pulled into the lot at work and promptly wiped out (over-confidence.... I leaned). Of course one of my co-workers saw it, so I had to get up and bow with a flourish.:o I invited him to the 5:00 showing but he politely declined.:p

Quiet and uneventful this morning. Traffic very light, temps in the low 30s (F).

Quiet, cold, nice ride in. I've been riding the road bike instead of the usual mtb (waiting for parts).

whew, road bike is fast but unforgiving. I sure get beat up, and don't feel very secure. Wish the roads were better.

I got a slow front flat on my latest refurbished 70's bike (27" tires) last night. I was a mile out from home so a quick shot of CO2 worked.
Rode my lightest bike in today (19 lbs) and was beat and sluggish like I've been for a month now. Was passed by a road biker and exchanged leads with another. Bother seemed leaner than I and weren't burning up the pavement either. 29F when I departed, probably 35F a half hour later.

Not a bad run home and in this morning. Had a moving truck playing musical parking-places this morning and then had a street cleaner vehicle thrashing about behind me while I was waiting, so I let him go by - all of this is happening behind a parked up bus. Not a big deal, I just didn't want to play on the tracks, but I had to in the end anyway.

Fun nonetheless, fairly warm - not sure whether or not to chance the trailer on the back of the roadie tonight (low clearance between mount/bolt and spokes), may well just subway it with my little one back home.

Today was a great day for the commute, yesterdays howling wind that kept me off the bike tapered off and I enjoyed both the morning and evening rides a lot. Cool crisp morning in the upper 30s, and the after noon ride home in the low or mid 50s. One more commute day on Monday will wrap up the year, I think my total commute miles this year will tally about 5000 (about 200 commute round trips, average about 25 miles).

Well, today I bought a nice vintage road bike, with everything except wheels and brakes, from a local guy on Craigslist and went to pick it up on my commuter bike. I strapped it to my back with my belt, and stuck one arm through it to stabilize it, and rode home like that. About halfway home it started to rain pretty heavily.

So the commute today wasn't comfortable, but the end result was well worth it - a very nice vintage frame that I am going to repaint and possibly use as my primary bike.

DENSE FOG this morning - I almost punted and took the car but decided to give it a try, since traffic is very light today. My Dinotte 600 headlight & 140 taillight combination, supplemented with a PlanetBike Superflash on my helmet, seemed to work pretty well. I did take the sidewalk at a couple of places that I normally ride on the road due to the bad visibility.

The ride took about 10 extra minutes this morning - glad I decided to ride!

no commute today, off due to holiday, did my 13 mile loop, did about 20mph for the first 8 miles (big surprise for me), last 5 miles wind picked up a ton and I saw the avg go from 18mph to 14.7 by the time i was done. Took close to 45 minutes. On one hill in the wind I dropped to 10mph, sometimes I think I could walk faster.

I wore my work boots, wools socks, under armour long sleeve, long sleeve t and jacket, then thermals and jeans, 35 degrees.

tested my new light set up, w/20 watt headlight, 21 watt taillight (brighter than car taillight, no joke) both running off battery. in 45 minutes they weren't even dim, which was awesome.

Sluggish ride in today, but uneventful. Many ppl in the office didn't make it in due to icy roads, but I didn't notice much of it at all on the MUP.
Going to add 5 miles to my ride home tonight to get to an even 3,000 for the year.

First commute in two weeks since I was off for Xmas. Just in time for the end of 2007.

Cold (for us anyway: 34F), clear, beautiful. I can't believe I'm wastinng this perfect riding day in the office!

Happy New Year everyone!

Commute yesterday was great - very quiet!
Tomorrow will be less fun, as there is always masses of broken glass around from the midnight revelries. I haven't had a single puncture since I put Gatorskins on a bit less than a year ago - tomorrow will be the acid test....!

I got to close out 2007 with a fantastic 30 mi RT commute today. Crisp, calm 1 hour commute to work at dawn with almost no cars on the road. Later on in the day things really warmed up to the 70s here in So Cal, and the wind kicked up a bit. I left work around 3 pm and the warm sun felt good on the legs. The 15 mile ride home under clear blue skies was as good as it gets. Here's to a great 2008.

Todays commuter sucked. It was super icy and I didn't notice until I crossed an intersection and my bike came out from under me. During all this my wheel pulled forward on my SS and I didn't have the tool to tighten it down so I had to walk the rest of the day to work.

Happy New Year everyone! Summer seems to finally have arrived here after prolonged wet period, and it's proper hot. Makes for a sweaty ride in, but I don't really mind the heat. Heh heh - I do enjoy readng the stories of icy roads...

Hit a pedestrian this morning. Idiot just stepped out in front of me and started crossing, looking the wrong way down the street and seemingly oblivious to everything. I shouted out to him, expecting him to pause, but he ignored me, didn't look round and kept going. I screamed at him again - I was going too fast to really do much in the way of swerving around him. One of those 'if I try and go around the back of him and he stops, I'll hit him, but it I go in front and he doesn't stop I'll hit him' type scenarios.

I chose to go in front. He didn't stop. Luckily I just barged him with my shoulder, no harm done to either of us. Could have been worse though. When I looked back, he was still trudging across the road, apparently still oblivious.