Garlic

Ride today was great. We just got done with a lot of rain and all the flowers are coming out. It smells like spring our there.

Paul L.

Rode in again. One intersection traffic was not aloud to pass through due to an accident, so i became a pedestrian for 100 feet and was on my way down a traffic free road! Road without arm warmers today and was still to hot! if things don't cool down I may be riding in shorts and short sleeve jersey next week! I guess Spring has arrived here in the southwest anyway.

chewa

Fine this morning, but on the way home last night felt like the lunatics were out of the asylum and had started to drive.!

Absolute fruit loops in cars!!

nemo

I was riding home Tuesday by the long route and went thru a construction zone. now I really do not want to be squeezed between the curb and a car so i take the lane there. this woman was trying her best to squeeze past anyway honking and so on. made me mad I was about to yell at her when i heard a siren.. there was police officer behind her pulled her over of course i had to stop and listen..... turns out he actually argued the cyclist's side with her she got some sort of ticket for reckless driving for crowding me so much. LOL justice at last??? or freak occurrence?

Sailguy

Lots of headwind today. It added about 15 minutes extra to my commute.

Andy Dreisch

Ride in today was EXCELLENT!!! 15-20 MPH winds from the south made for a nice, warm tailwind. Relatively light traffic and agreeable traffic lights made for a very fast 20-mile ride in. Threatened to rain the whole time and the roads were wet most of the way but I missed the brunt of the storm.

I've found that it infrequently rains when commuting; it's more normally the wet roads from a previous rain that you deal with.

Today was my "therapeutic" ride after last night's wild b-ball game. Unfortunately, though, I won't be riding home tonight.

Sailguy

Sure, you get the tailwind Andy. I got it in the face the whole way in this morning. And no rain to boot. Just wet roads.

mrfix

Saturday commutes are the best, this morning the temp. was 27 F with no wind, I saw no trffic until the end of the ride. I ran over lots of black ice so I guess I made the right choice leaving my studded tires on when I repaired my broken spokes the other night. I have to work a 10 hour day so I'm really looking forward to relaxing on the way home tonight, it's suppose to hit 45 degrees here this afternoon.

nemo

Saturdays and Sundays are always my best days for commuting I made it in 6 minutes this am. lights cooperated traffic was very light. A guy could get used to this!

uciflylow

Only my second commute of I hope many to come. After working a 10 hr. shift I set off for home on a 13 mile trip. What an amazing thing to leave in total darkness and arrive home in the light! It was around 50 F, the birds where singing, the sun was shining and traffic was light.
Being a southerener I'm not too keen on riding in all kinds of weather, cold, so my commutes will be more of a fair weather affair. I'll allso be on the look out for those nasty spring time thunder storms that hit us this time of the year, but what better way to get in more miles, save gas and help yourself than to commute to work by bike!

Dougmt

Nothing finer than a smooth commute uciflylow, here's hoping mine tonight goes well. I promise I'm leaving the 9MM at home LOL.

Doug

cyclezealot

Today, I had an errand in Carlsbad about 24 miles away. When I left it has raining lightly.. About 6 miles from home it really started pouring.. I have not had much experience with this. It rarely rains in SO. Cal... Don't miss it, we sun worshipers..
Anyway, I did not know it was going to rain that hard, thinking I would put my bike on the bus and come back with only 25 miles of a rainy ride. On way back I kept missing the buses, so I had about 50 miles of rain.
I have two rain outfits.. I wore by baggy Ultrex rain paints. Not again. Pretty wet underneath.. Just made me feel like I wasn't out in the diluge.. From my experience the Triflex tights are best at keeping you feeling somewhat dry and warm.. Worst problem, how to cope with glasses fogging up.. it is tolerable to ride in the rain- but riding is much more fun in the sun...
Guess two benchmarks for a serious rider- one and two centuries and riding in the rain.. Think the snow might be my one barrier?

cyclezealot

Post rainy ride . Found another aspect of what is bad about riding in the rain.. Used talcum powder. How do you get that smell out of your cycling shoes... Hope it goes away before I need them again... I used Burley rain/shoe covers. Lessens the amount of wetness, but still enough to stink them up..

Chris L

I normally leave mine outside for a while. However, I've found the only way to dry them out properly is to ride about 70km in dry conditions.

chewa

Freezing fog this morning, but as it's so dry there was no ice to speak of. Pity I took my bright light off last week

I stuck to the cycle path all the way in and it was quite pleasant if a little murky.

Passed a guy on a mountain bike struggling along at v low cadence on the flat pushing his top gear.

Felt like stopping and showing him how to use the gears a bit. I think incorrect use of gears must put some people off as they think they have to get into top gear and then it gets very difficult.

tnorman

I'm back!

First commute of the year! 32F when I left, and warmed up as I went and the sun rose. Still some ice on the road, but managed to avoid any problems. Autos gave me plenty of room when passing; they must be surprised to see a biker out

It's great to be back! Hope this weather keeps up.

Andy, was out in SJ last week; wish I'd had my bike!

Tim

Ed Holland

Heyup,

Beautiful morning for the ride in today. I was a little stiff from the ride yesterday - my first serious miles of the year outside commuting but it was great to be out in the sunshine again.

Oh, and after worrying that my gear shift was behaving a little strangely, I discovered that the screw holding the shifter to the down-tube had nearly worked its way out.... good job this was discovered in time!

Cheers,

Ed

Patricia

What a wonderful thread! You know, this thread could be a complete commuter's resource if all the posts were sorted by location of the member!
Imagine all the pacific northwest/ east/ west/ central/ south posts... people could see how they commute in different parts of the country. Maybe it's a dumb idea but this is a fun thread to read through!

PaulH

Springtime in DC! I put my rain gear on the rack but enjoyed the freedom of riding sans overcoat, rainpants, Totes. Lots of bird and squirrel activity, and the trees seem to have buds. A few grey snowmounds, much reduced in size, memorialize last month's big snow.

Paul

SBeach

Nice ride in. Slight headwind.
Storm that was supposed to drop 2" - 3" of rain is heading out after only .06". Beautiful skies this weekend. watched the tail end of the storm blow away as I rode in leaving crystal clear cool sky by 7:30.
Steve

nemo

The commute in today was pretty nice I let life stress kep me up till 1:30 last night so bout 4 hrs sleep is all. hey its all good cycling is a great antistress!

Andy Dreisch

I ran this morning with my doggie, starting at around 5:15. OK, it's not a commute but, for commuters, it is interesting to note that it was quite sunny by the time I got back. More daylight !!! Quite warm, too.

mrfix

today was one of those mornings where I was really dragging, I just couldn't get going, I forced myself to get dressed in my cycling clothes and onto the bike, It took 16 miles to start feeling good, The fog was wet and cold and there was a lot of black ice, good thing i'm still pushing the studs. All in all I'm glad I rode, the sun is out and the temp is 54 degrees, After my 10 hour work day I'm looking forward to a nice slow relaxing ride home.

Sailguy

Good commute today. I was dragging on saturday, so I didn't ride at all on sunday, so I had lots of energy today. Made good time. Gorgeous weather. The wind is supposed to be strong this evening. I can only hope its a tailwind!

brennser

yes, the DC commute was a joy today - a little wet but for the frist time in I don't know how long I rode in just shorts and a jersey - also lengthened my commute (and made it safer) by taking Rock Creek Park for the first time this year