My legs were sore from last night's road ride, but the commute in helped loosen them up a bit. Traffic was very reasonable, but I'm starting to see some JABs [Jack Ass Bikers] on my route now that the weather is better. One guy was trying to track stand his mtn bike in a right-turn lane, even though he was very obviously going straight through the intersection. There were several cars backed up behind him, and I was just about to tell him to get his sorry ass out of the way when he got tooted at by the vehicle behind him and stepped aside. I gave the driver a thumbs-up, then cranked it up to 400W while giving the biker "the look".

I've been noticing a few of those. One guy on the bike path yesterday pulled out to pass a rollerblader - right in front of me, in the opposite lane. Ummm, aren't these things supposed to work like roads, i.e. DON'T pull out to pass if you won't have room? I'm glad I have big knobby tyres as I got to ride some grass avoiding that twit. If I'd been on a road bike I think I'd have gone over.

Rest day today, don't want to damage myself.

I too have been seeing those. I always use my bell if I intend to pass I also ring it nice and early to alert runners and roller bladers if I intend to pass.

My commute was great - good weather and I luv my new route as I'm not hitting the heavy city traffic (nearly creamed twice last year and had a guy purposely slam on his brakes in front of me in an effort to make me hit him - he was reported to the authorities). And my route is interesting - I have all the earmarks of not getting bored as I'm always trying to find new routes - as it is I'm riding minimal main road, then veering off to alleys - zip through a couple of apartment building parking lots - so it has a two foot high fence - there's a pile of rocks that I can ascend to the top and then jump off onto the pavement of the other building, couple more alleys - zip onto the main street and then take a variety of side streets to my building downtown.

Sure beats riding a 4 lane busy street with no shoulder and no one likes you on the road!

Was up too late last night hauling in chips at the poker table so I almost caved and drove in. Then I decided .. It's my birthday I'm riding my bike. 4 hours of sleep seems like more than enough .

Awesome morning for a ride. Sun was out, not a hint of wind, and temps were 40+ so it was plenty warm enough for shorts.

As an added bonus, nobody even tried to kill me today. It is a special day

Tonight is a starbucks run on the tandem with the little woman ending at the favorite bar/snack place.

Happy birthday MyPC8MyBrain!

Crap. No ride in today. About once a month my wife is assigned an early schedule and it's up to me to drop her off at the office and then take the kids to daycare. I'd forgotten about it until last night, after I'd skipped the Tuesday night group ride, thinking I'd get in a long commute ride this morning. But I threw the Trek in the back of the minivan in order to take a long ride home this afternoon.

As I pulled into the parking garage I realized that I'd forgotten my shoes! D'oh! I would have just driven home to get them except there's no in-and-out privilege at this garage and I wasn't going to pay an extra $9.

Arrggh.

I'm such a bad BF member, I haven't posted about my commute in forever. Todays commute was great, perfect weather and fairly light traffic. Legs were a little sore after all the climbing I did on last night's after dinner ride.

Wonderful ride this morning. Two miles shorter than normal since I had to pick up the beater truck at the shop. I had to laugh when I walked in wearing all my garb. They were probably thinking "Um...we don't have THOSE kind of tires." After a bit the guy helping me was intrigued that I rode my bike to pick up my truck. He had all kinds of questions...how far? how long did it take? are you tired?

Great weather. The sun is now coming up over the mountains about 10 minutes into my ride. For now I still need the jacket, but I'll be able to ditch that in a week or so.

TTIWWP

GREAT commute in this am, cool and a bit drizzly, slight tailwind, made great time. Saw one other biker, a college dude cruizing along on his mtb, ipod in ears, cup of joe in hand, no helmet, sneaks on plastic pedals...
made me feel kinda silly, with my clipless pedals, fenders, red helmet, lights, etc etc.

A moist ride this morning - first from the humidity, then from a little rain. I took an alternate route this morning because I had to pick up some stuff at the university near my house, then go feed my sister's cat, then a short meeting at our downtown office, then to my regular office. Added about 2 miles to my usual commute but only took about 15 minutes longer (45 minutes total). If I'd driven to all those stops, the total commute time would've been exactly the same duration. Opened my eyes a whole lot more to the possibilities of becoming an everyday, all-purpose, all-weather rider.

Oh, sorry, I wasn't clear. Both rollerblader and passing cyclist were coming toward me (westbound) while I was eastbound. If I hadn't hit the grass that guy would have hit me head on - he had come into my lane, about 10 feet in front of me. (Our paths are marked with a dividing line, and are wide enough for a single line of bike/blade traffic each way; the stretches where peds are allowed are wider). I don't think he looked before he passed, which is doubly stupid given how busy the paths are lately.

I'm willing to bet he didn't ring either, because the 'blader looked pretty surprised.

Since my commute today was uneventful, I'm going to post responses to others'.

NotReady4Purple, Welcome to the Happy Healthy Commuting Mutha*******. This elite group is universally admired. Members of the opposite sex desire us for our ahtleticism and determination to commute in all conditions. And best of all, as bicycle-commuters, we get to see things car-commuters miss, such as....

Pictures. I need pictures.

oh my, what a very bad fellow biker. What he did was a very big no no. Some people just need to chill sometimes and enjoy the smell of the roses!

Yeah like serious! Take that camera phone out and take a picture! I took a picture of a guy getting his dogs to hump in a school yard. Was really funny hehe.

This morning, about 5 miles into my 16 mile commute, some woman in a black Toureg (sp?) going in my direction decides that instead of just passing me like everyone else, she would blast her horn at me for whatever reason. Well, that is the point in my commute where (car) traffic gets pretty thick, so I kept seeing her for the next several miles. Then at about mile 8 I get off the road and onto an MUT that has a bridge over a busy highway.

Then, back on the road and almost to the office, I turn a corner and who do I see coming the other way? Toureg woman! So I wave and pantomime honking a horn as she passes. I thought it was very instructional for her to see that her $50,000 SUV hadn't gotten her any further in the last ten miles than my bike.

Due to wildfires the whole city is covered in smoke. You can even smell it inside the building. This should be a very interesting commute home. I guess I will try to take it easy and to not breathe too much smoke, but I don't think there is anything I can really do about it.

Oh, man, smoke sucks. The North Dakota fires last year knocked me off my bike with asthma (followed by a lovely sinus infection) for the last 6 weeks of cycling weather - and that was from several hundred km's away. Good luck, and go slow...

Itsjustb,

Thanks for the kind welcome. You may have made a wrong assumption about my gender, (re. the topless girl viewing... not my thing actually.) Can I assume that admiration from members of the opposite sex comes regardless of which sex is opposite?


Commuted today for the 2nd day! That's 2 for 2. I was quicker today with less problems with traffic and choosing the wrong snaky path through a subdivision. Nice 50 degree ride in - expecting high 70's on the way home and dry.

Yes. Yes you can.

Awesome. Keep it up!

Yes it does...and even members of the same gender if that's appropriate. We're a pretty open-minded group.

And the topless girl was just an example (it's never happened to me, that's for sure!). If you're lucky and have a good route for your commute, you'll see more typical wildlife. Like the post I just read...someone in Road Cycling was attacked by a goose while on a ride. It actually flew up and hit him in the chest, started pecking at him.

I'm in the middle of my first full day of commuting. Yesterday, I did a half day by riding the bus with my bike strapped to the front (a little nervous about that, BTW) in the morning and then riding it home in the afternoon. Considering that I've just gotten into this (picked up my bike (Trek 7.2 FX) last Friday), I'm pretty happy that I'm just getting out there and doing it. My commute is only about 4 miles one way, but it is still pretty good for this out-of-shape guy. Now I've got to get some more gear! Rack, bag, lights, fenders, etc...I need it all... Unfortunately, I've got a meeting tomorrow with a client, so I won't be able to commute due to some clothing issues, but I'll get that resolved in time, too.

Great morning ride in. Since I am on the Ohio-Erie Canal Towpath for a pretty good stretch I get to see geese, ducks, deer and blue heron on each and every ride. Today I saw fish splashing in the water of the canal for the first time. So much nicer than riding in the car on the freeway.

My lord! In addition to being tired my wife needed me to pick up our son from his grandma's house and then fill a prescription. After the last request I threatened to hurt her if she asked for anything else (jokingly). 70 miles at the end of the day. I expect to be working from home due to a sick kid. He won't sleep, drink, or eat and is insanely cranky. My wife took him to the dr today. The end result was......................... canker sores. He has two canker sores. All this over canker sores. Odd.

Dude, Those HURT!