Excellent ride. Low 60s, sunny and beautiful out. I recently converted my old '75 Motobecane Super Mirage to a single-speed commuter with a rack and panniers. Today was its inagural cruise and it worked splendidly. I'll be riding it tonight in Critical Mass while I'm filming, as I don't want to have to worry about any pesky gears or other such nonsense. Currently running 44x16 on 27" Serfas so it's high enough to get around quickly but low enough to not completely kill me on the hills.

Most dangerous commute in a long time (despite nearly getting right-hooked yesterday).

The worst part of my morning route is an area where 3 lanes work down to one, all with a concrete median preventing people from giving any room. The lane I'm in becomes a RTOL; to my right is a lane that's already RTOL, and on my left is a straight-thru lane. Because I'm going straight, I take the lane here, and move to the left when there's a break in the traffic (this stretch is 55 mph, to add to the fun).

This morning 4 dump trucks came up behind me, horns blasting. Hey, I ignore horns, no big deal. Then these a$$holes proceeded to pass me on the right, in the RTOL. OK, we're cyclists, drivers do that kinda BS all the time. But then these muthaf**kers all changed lanes in an intersection (last I checked, that's illegal, right?), cut across 2 lanes (because the RTOL lane ended) and cut off the entire lane of cars in the straight-thru lane. And I mean CUT OFF--the cars already in the lane all had to slam on their brakes.

I haven't been that pissed off on my commute in a long time. I only got the company names for 2 of the 4 trucks, but I called them both immediately when I arrived at work. No idea if any action will be taken. I'm tempted to call the 2nd company again (the lady there sounded much more concerned) and ask where the job site is (it was obvious all 4 were going to the same place) so I can ride over and let these guys know just what I think of them. It's 3 hours later and my blood is still boiling. :mad:

Itsjustb: sounds like a severe case of a$$hat driving, that's some serious action in a car, let alone a (not just a, but FOUR) dumptrucks, heh. Glad you're OK and that it didn't cause a nasty mess on the road.

My ride in was great, little drizzly and cool, I just kept the cadence up and was warm within 5 or so minutes.
I saw two cyclists ahead of me at one point, so thought "excellent, something to keep me on pace" - then they offroaded it to the actual road due to some guys doing construction in the grass - they had air compressor or water pipes over the path and mud everywhere. I just road through the crap and came up behind the in-front cyclist - I was going a touch faster, so rode by, waved and said "Morning!" - I think he was surprised, but he returned a "Hey, how are ya doing?" so we had a quick back and forth and I went on and wished him a good ride. I love that.

Had trouble keeping pace in the headwind. Had a tracked excavator as a moving obstacle to pass in the middle of the exhibition grounds, everything else was smooth sailing.

I yelled at a cabbie to "STOP moving" because he was hugging the curb, but crawling (no lights/turn signals on or anything) at about 5mph - which is really irritating when traffic is trying to flow (this was just west of Bathurst on King) in a stretch about 300 yards before the intersection with a bunch of traffic snarled either by left-turners or the streetcar (which is also in the left/centre lane). Either stop, or go, don't try and do both - if he was signalling to pull off, I'd have probably waved him ahead - but no turn signal means no such treatment. I only got a little rattled when I heard him yell back "what?!?!?", all he did was sit close to the line to block my passing parked cars, petty but expected.

Not too much to tell - a pickup [F-350] coming in from the left stopped 10 feet past the stop sign, then when I was within 10 feet of him decided to scoot forward another 4 feet. I had the right of way and he could easily see me coming, so I maintained my line. No incident, but I was worried about my wife who was half a block behind me. The truck went through the rest of the intersection before she got there, which was good.

On a different note, I tightened up the water-bottle boss bolts on my frame, and stole a bolt from my wife's bike to keep my brake hanger from rotating. The bike is now pretty much silent. No creaks, no groans - just quiet SS efficiency. :D

Awesome commute this morning. What a difference a lightweight bike and minimal stuff makes.

Had to stop and readjust the seat. I guess I didnt get it tight enough when I assembled the bike and the nose worked up to about 2" higher than the back. Ugh that was uncomfortable. It's a carbon post, and I was afraid to overtighten.

Need to get a crankset or big ring for it as the big ring is missing a tooth. Had to run the middle ring instead. Ebay bikes are always jacked up more than they mention. Still i think i got a deal. The wheels and fork are worth what I paid for the whole bike so I have some upgrade room.

Need a mirror.... that was the scary part.

My ride in today was just awesome. I intentionally took a route that takes me on an unpaved levee road for a couple miles. The gravel is fairly loose so it forces me to keep the pedals turning and my hands light on the bars to let the bike find its own way through. I guess I'm just a bit silly for intentionally trying to make my ride more difficult; I think I was thinking of a recent thread in C&V and a picture of a guy with a handlebar mustache and a mustache handlebar on a wooden-rimmed, fixed gear bike. Crazy.

Anyway, the weather was beautiful, the bike just sang, and it's Friday.

Lovely commute. Apparently, I missed out on the planned water release from cherry creek dam that was possibly going to flood the cherry creek trail. Oh darn.

For some strange reason, the closer I came to work the slower my speed became. Good lord I do not want to be here today. 60F and sunny outside. I think I may take a longer route to pick up my son from his grandma's house. First week since december that I have hit the mid 200s in mileage.

Rode in w/ my wife, very nice. She's working half day so we won't go the other way together. She will be running errands on her way home though. Cool!

Hello,

Commuted to work Monday through Wednesday. The temps ranges from 40 - 87 F from sunny to a steady rain. I commute in Upstate NY using a mix of trails (loose sand) and roads. I have serveral options but the roundtrip millage always sticks around 9-10miles one way.

If anyone is familiar with the Albany area I commute from Guilderland, NY to Colonie, NY using East Lydius Street to Fuller Road/Central ave.

So far it has been extremely tiring. I thought I was in shape but this has been a challenge. I am riding a Salsa 29er 9 speed, the massive tires (ignitors) create a lot of drag but work great on the sandy trails.

I will ride to work Monday morning regardless!

- ADKPeaks -

Very tired today. Went to bed late, got up late, and rode to work in the daylight. I'm getting pretty sick of the toe overlap with my Surly and front fender. I managed to jam one of the metal supports into the plastic, and the fender rolled up the wheel as I started off from a light. Sometimes it sucks having feet too large for my height.

Other that that it was fine :).

It was a great commuting week this week. Managed to get 7 out the 10 rides in so far, today I am going to drive cause of the rain and lack of fenders. Yesterday, I finally adjusted my seatpost length, moved it up about 2 inches, and holy crap does that make a difference. I was flying home last night, housed all the hills and rises with much more ease than usual. It was like riding a new bike. So nice. Today, I am off to buy some fenders for anymore wet weather that could come our way in NJ. May the weather stay nice!

And, ADKPeaks, it gets better with time, just keep making little adjustments to your bike if necessary and know you can do it!

I wish there was a safe route to the other school I go to... I'd ride 5 days a week if I could.

Hope to see you out there.

A week of ups and downs...broke an average speed last night! Broke an overall mileage record of 132mi (commute only)....but then...nearly broke my head fooling around on the handlebars :p

Over the limit on mileage...took it slow and easy this AM recovery style riding.

vrkelley's post reminded me of the one good thing about my extremely dangerous commute this morning; I set a new PB for speed. 30 mph on level ground. Not bad for a mtn bike with slicks, a rack, and a trunk, methinks. Maybe I should thank the dump truck drivers for pissing me off enough that I chased them.......

No. I'm still mad as hell. :mad:

Can't complain... 5 1/2 miles from Huntington Beach through Fountain Valley on my way to Santa Ana. 22+ minute ride time for my best avg speed yet, 15.4 mph.

First off, 90% of my commute is along a major surface street with very wide sidewalks and signs posted specifically saying "Bikes OK on sidewalk" as long as you're going the same direction as traffic. So I stick to the sidewalk, riding slowly and always stopping at intersections to wait for the pedestrian crossing sign (I basically act like a pedestrian on wheels).

At a major intersection I was waiting on my crossing sign as the opposing traffic was finishing up their protected left-turn directly in front of me. The pedestrian crossing sign started, giving me right-of-way. I waited for what I thought was the last SUV to clear the crosswalk and started to cross (there's usually one car that's halfway through when the light changes, so I expected that). To my suprise, there were _more_ cars behind it, including a police car! A lady in a Volvo talking on her cellphone saw me and braked quickly with a suprised/embarassed look on her face that seemed to say "Oh, no, I'm about to hit someone in a crosswalk!" I almost rode around her in front to make a point, but she seemed to realize what she did, so I waited for her to pass.

Today was a mixed bag. On one hand it was lovely and I added mileage to bring up my total to 75 miles for today.
On the other hand, in the same location a crack ***** tried to spit on me Wed, a 16 year old punk kid (300 lbs or so) saw me coming up and pushed me off the trail as I passed him! The ensuing profanities I uttered would make a sailor blush. Anyhow, I was fine and stayed upright. The fool was f'ing with me. I called DPD to ask for a few more patrols in that area. I am starting to wonder how I can avoid that trail. This whole thing is a bit disconcerting in regards to my safety. Plus, why does this only happen in the day time? People suck. I now need to ponder how I plan on rectifying this issue. I just do not feel safe and there does not exist much of a viable street alternative route.
I could purchase pepper spray to make myself feel safer but I doubt it would do much in reality. Due to the excessive amount of cyclists on this trail during daylight hrs I could always wait until another cyclist rides by and follow him or her. When I first started riding this is the method I use to feel safer.

On the other hand, I encountered a roadie who was having difficulties finding a location that I was riding to and he followed me to downtown. Something like 10 miles and we had a nice conversation. This is the first time ever that I have had company on my commute. Cool guy.

Must focus on the positives. <-- repeat ad nauseum.

Oh... earlier this week or late last week I had a chat with a roadie commuter I have passed going in the opposite direction for a year or 2. Good talk and another nice guy.

first commute since Wednesday. I had a visiting lecturer at my house and we went into Boston via cab. I brought my folder in by throwing it in the trunk. Left it in the bike room since we cabbed it home together, too. Then rode the folder over to pick up a zipcar yesterday took the guest to airport this morning with the folder in the trunk and returned the zip and took out the folder and rode to work then home. nice day. rainy though.

I rode to work today (sat 4-28-07) and my shifter for the rear gears took a dive (I can go down but not back up)... So I went from 21 speeds to 3...:(...On the way home, I was riding on the sidewalk (US 41.. very busy street) and was waiting for the cross walk "walking man" to go. Good thing I was paying attention, because the guy in the Odessy wasn't... Then there was the little dog that wanted to jump out of the moving vehicle to get me....

Oh well.... Still better than walking...

Billy

This is when you take your pump of the bike and beat the Cr@p out of the fat kid! And when he's lying on the ground in a pool of blood.... tell him his karma's in need of repair....

Of course, this is why i have a CCW permit! :D

Billy

Heh - In Vermont we have permit-less CCW. ;) But I don't own anything small enough to ride with. :eek:

My ride home yesterday was surreal. I had a splitting headache for some reason. Still managed to pass a couple of other cyclists (though I wasn't working at it), and the ride was otherwise nice with a light tail wind. But I got home and the headache quickly developed into a migraine. :mad: No idea what causes them but I get 'em once every year or so. Went to bed early. Fine today.
:beer:

http://homepage.mac.com/awcg/.Pictur...e/Commute1.jpg
Full. The commute was full today.
Nice, a little windy, but not too windy, and traffic was not overly rough.

BTW it took Atticus (the dog) all of a second and a half to zero in on his bag of rawhides.

Today I hauled some a$$ to the location where I was teaching a CAN-BIKE course. I didn't get enough sleep, left a little later than planned and was slowed down by a mechanical problem. So once I got going, I was moving at a damn good clip. Riding along the lake Ontario path I came upon a bunch of lycra-types in a sort of a paceline. It was kinda funny the way I blew by them on my overloaded old mtb: "Ding-ding, passing". :D Of course, they were probably having a recovery ride or something and I was in a rush. Funny still. :) And kept me going faster than I would've, which is a good thing, 'cause I was cutting it a little fine there.

Happens to the best of us.... Of course it seems to happen to my wife every morning :eek:

A little chaos is good for the soul.... Notice I said a LITTLE.....

Billy

Dust storm on the way home OUCH.
Here it comes look out....
KPHX 282310Z 15025G38KT 4SM BLDU BKN120 OVC200 32/06 A2990 RMK AO2 PK WND 150 41(windspeed)/2253 RAB06E09 P0000
There is a Mt./ hill behind the cloud which you can kinda see. Note it was sunny and a 100 degrees no clouds just west of here.


http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/9865/pict0004cw3.jpg
Here it comes looks rather scarry from here. I am headed right into the thing.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/8742/pict0009yr6.jpg
In the mix
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/1749/pict0021xg1.jpg

video short
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRS8bRtrcLc