lil brown bat

Low-energy commute today (combination of a two-hour aikido class last night plus only five hours of sleep), but still a fast one, go figure. Like Buglady, I think I didn't refuel enough, and I definitely shorted myself on sleep. Live and learn...

HardyWeinberg

Busy... had to drop both kids this am. Also, need to pick them both up early. In that mode, I leave the trailer at Thing 2's daycare and dash out to work by the most direct, most urban, route, and that is always a little bit more, uh, exciting, I guess is the word. One annoying guy cut me off turning right in front of me while dialing his cell phone. I can't believe hands-on cell-phone ban doesn't take effect until July *08*

Flimflam

Rode out to the east with a more direct route, fastest ride to date and felt great, even though there was a steady headwind that made some parts toward the end a bit slower.

Ride home from there was beautiful and felt great - managed to hit 30mph with the aid of a slight downhill, smooth roads and slight tailwind. Chatted to a couple of guys, one guy was exclaiming his shock about how fast road bikes are, I agreed - seemed we're both newbies on them, the other guy I made a few comments about the girl that crossed the street and how surprised I was at this. Both these guys were riding good paces, but were red-light blowers, so I couldn't ride with them. Aforementioned girl on a bike went from the right side of Bloor W (very busy but usually slow moving arterial - main East/West street in Toronto) right across my (left, due to parked cars/intersection creepers) lane and across the opposing lane, too - without a single look, no mirror or anything. I yelled "LOOK BEHIND YOU!" as I passed and moved along - wasn't close to a problem, but this person needs to realise she's riding on a very busy street at 9pm and needs to watch the **** out.

Had a bunch of drivers pull out on me/try to pull out when trying to edge past left-turners, etc. - it never ceases to amaze me how little attention people pay to their mirrors/glancing over their shoulder. I have a decent (certainly enough to be seen) bright front light, a reflector and a hi-vis yellow vest on - I'm not exactly inconspicuous.

Had a pretty close call on the final leg before my street - I saw a car stopped (brake lights were on) at a stop, I was closing in at about 25mph (40km/h), so I looked around, it looked safe, so I thought I'd pass on the left - came about 4 inches away from being clipped, as it turned out this guy was stopped for so long because he was planning to turn left, only when I was passing him did I see his wheels start to turn, not even a hint of a turn signal - granted, however, this was definitely my fault/error and had I crashed I would've only myself to blame. Still a fast ride, didn't really stop to think about the "what if's" on the close call.

Ride in was a bit sluggish feeling, after having to go back to my house twice (luckily only from the end of my street) due to forgetting stuff. Couple of minutes slower than normal, slight headwind and having to foot-down stop for the left turn off Lakeshore into the Ex. grounds - overall good, though. Lots of bikes out this morning, which was great to see.

Kilted Commuter

Nice ride in from Altamonte Springs to Lee Road , the jasmine -covered pine tree is still covered in blooms and smelling lovely, though once on the more major roads (436) traffic was hevier than I generally see, as I was running later than usual today.
Still, the short backroad and trail section was blissfully clear of traffic (by the Maitland Art Center, and onto the wooden bridge to Kennedy St)
Nice riding all in all.

mozgj

My last commute was a week ago... It was a warm, sunny morning - which is rare - and there were almost no cars due to a lot of roads being closed in the area. So I was rolling along and enjoying the scenery, but due to this I lost concentration and my pedal - or front wheel, I don't remember clearly - hit the curb and I fell. Now I'm back here with some fancy steel plates and screws in my collarbone... no more bike commuting this summer

caloso

Not much to say this morning, which I suppose is a good thing. I briefly thought about riding the race bike but left it in the garage in favor of the daily commuter.

sekaijin

Commuted yesterday and today on the road bike. Getting in some longer detours on the way home to try and start training. I'm planning to do the Dairyland Dare (100K, very hilly) in August. I have no time to ride outside of commuting.

I swapped out my Bianchi Vetta Cosmos saddle to try a Bontrager Race Lite which is lighter - but it feels worse, I'll switch back.

Spring allergies really bothering me. Sneezing and eyes itching badly. Still worth it.

Flimflam

Wow crap, that's brutal. Here's to a speedy recovery, maybe you can catch the tail-end of summer!

workingbike

I felt like death lightly warmed over myself, if it wasn't for the fact the buses suck for my commute would have done the same, slowest time in a long while. I thought I had a bug or something, I am sitting here struggling to keep my head up. It must be the Calgary weather getting us down. I mean, we just had a long weekend, and it snowed then too!!!

grumble, mumble, mumble.......

Itsjustb

There's an old (and not very funny) joke about professional bike-racers and broken collarbones:

Why do professional bike-racers raise their hands to their shoulders when they cross the finish line?

Because they can't raise them any higher.....

Get better soon.

mozgj

Hehe... I wonder how bad it was back in the days when surgical plates and the Ilizarov apparatus (which was originally made from bicycle parts, btw) weren't invented yet.

But I'm looking forward to amusing people by sticking whiteboard magnets to my chest!

rando

awesome commute today! relatively cool for this time of year in AZ. didn't evenmind the headwind.

vtjim

You keep that snow in the Great White North, eh hosers? It's 75F here in Vermont and I'm itching to ride home.

bikedaddy

Well I just spent a week in Portland, OR (so many people on bikes!) and today was my first day back on the bike. Rear wheel is very out of true so I'll have to work on that.

Buglady

I just checked the weather page and we've got a barometric pressure reading of 102.4 kPa; that's set to crash out in the near future, I would guess. That's probably why everyone's feeling so oppressed (everyone here at work is dragging around too).

Stupid high altitude cities... wonder how Denver's doing.

luckysnafu

Today is my 13th straight work day commuting, my longest streak yet! Too bad I can't ride tomorrow since I have an appointment to get my broken finger looked at. Had a pretty normal commute this morning, nothing out of the ordinary.

knobster

Sucked! Had to abort my commute. It was raining about half way into the commute and I had my change of clothes in my grocery pannier. Wouldn't have made it to work with dry clothes if I had kept going. My first instinct was to put them in my weather proof messenger bag and put that in the pannier as it looked like rain was coming. No, I didn't do that. Always trust your first instinct!!

workingbike

Thank you for that touching sympathy,


It will be remembered.........

HardyWeinberg

Nice 75 min ride home, 1st a 9 mile detour the wrong way, then to Thing 2's daycare, for her and trailer, then to Thing 1's kindergarten, and finally home.

DataJunkie

Freaking rain! I did not dress properly (not that I own any rain gear. Need to rethink that one). Rode to the nearest rail station and took a ride with my bike. Had to pick up my son. Riding a bus sopping wet is not fun. Did 4 miles instead of 28. Tomorrow looks much nicer.

ottawa_adam

Hey, it's not snowing in all of the Great White North! In Ottawa, it was 84F today and it's going to be much hotter tomorrow. There's even a smog warning!

redden

Took Roscomare home today. That is one tough road. Theres one section about 2/3's the way up that is a very steep grade. A bit hotter than yesterday bit still very nice. Better enjoy it because the triple digits r not far off.

Flimflam

Did my first 'walk of shame' today - luckily it was only about 0.5mi away from my destination. Started noticing a bit more resistance than normal, very slight (headwind + slight incline I figured) - then after starting off from a light, I felt a LOT more bumps than I thought, took my left turn off Danforth (major arterial) and felt it squirm all over the place - thankfully the turn I took was very gentle, it was already down to about 30psi I'd guess. I felt it, carried on for another metre or so, decided it was way too low to ride on and walked. I just got back in so now's my time to figure out what happened.

Other than that, great ride - lots of bikes to chase/pass and also chase/try to pace with One guy on an old Peugoet was keeping a really great pace across the bloor viaduct (Prince Edward viaduct?) and then we were both caught at a light by a guy on a Specialized Allez - I almost caught the Allez up but just as I was within a few hundred yards I hit the wall and then experienced the mechanical.

Overall a good ride though, thankfully it was lovely and warm out, made the walk not so shameful

iamintricate

Well today was my 2nd day commuting, first full day (to and from work), about ~7mi each way.

It was relaxing, refreshing and down right nostalgic.

The only gripe I have is that there was a mid-20's kid in a Siemens van that couldn't stomach me being in the road with cars, despite that I was going downhill and keeping up w/ traffic. He jumped into the oncoming lane, over a blind hill and redlined it, only to have to stop 30 feet away at a stop light. As I rolled past him I just glanced over and he shouted "WHAT?!" ... I just waved.

Yay.

vrkelley

Another awesome ride with spouse. I go his speed working on cadence...today his boss rode in. All met at local brewery after work...great end of work day experience