I didn't get to ride today, but last night...... we had one heck of a storm coming in to the area and I caught a strong enough tailwind to cut 10 minutes (in the rain) off my normal 45 minute commute.

I pulled up to park at the the bike rack at the Middlesex County Courthouse (I'm still on jury duty), and a police officer said approvingly (speaking of my helmet with two headlights and a blinky) that I looked like a police car.

Got out to a good start for March despite an ice storm here in Ohio. This was my first work day of the month since I was on a short vacation. The roads were dry and I headed out into yet another cold February day, despite the calendar. This one was different in that I found yet another reason why riding a bike beats out driving.

As I approached the mid-point on my route, I saw a 'Road Closed' barrier and saw road crews with cherry pickers up ahead, clearing ice-covered debris, broken branches and downed power lines.

I pulled up to the first crew, which was only blocking one lane. I asked them if they thought it would be OK for me to go through up on ahead. They said "Sure! Go on through." I rode up to the blocked area, made sure I got a smile and a wave that it was OK to go through and then carefully picked my path over the debris and in between the trucks and equipment. One guy said "it's a little cold out here to be riding, isn't it?" I replied, "It's never too cold!".

As all this occurred, I watched 4 drivers turn around disgustedly, 2 on either end of the closed area. I'm not sure what part of 'road closed' they didn't understand that they'd drive past it, only to be forced to turn around later.

But the look on my face when I smiled and waved at them was incredibly smug. :p

great stories keep them coming. When working from home do not have much of a chance to commute per say. :) I make sure and ride though every day for that matter. Thus far the weather has been spectacular and keeps getting better as time goes.

My commute with my mountain bike in a snow storm was horrible. Bigtime failure. (Chronicled in the winter cycling forum). I'm not looking forward to being a pedestrian for another week or two until all this snow goes away. :(

Rode one of my faster bikes (Merckx Corsa) today as I had plenty of clothes at the office and the weather is supposed to be much warmer. It was chilly (39) with a bit of a wind, and I dressed lighter than usual because it's supposed to hit 70F this afternoon, so I rode harder than usual to keep warm. Got caught at every freakin red light along my route, but still averaged 17.1 mph -- about 2+ mph faster than usual. Sat through one traffic signal twice when the sensor didn't pick up my bike.

I'm convinced that the tires make the biggest difference in average speeds among my bikes. My main commuter has Panaracer Paselas that are very durable and flat-resistant, but slow as molasses. My Merckx has Michelin Pro Race2s, and they roll so nice my bike feels like it has turbochargers on it.

Yesterday was gorgeous - 50ish in the morning, lower 60s headed home.
This morning was very nice, but cooler. Sunny and bright!
With the warmer, springlike temperatures, I'm seeing more cyclists on the trail.

Similar experience to tarwheel, at least in the clothing and weather departments (I don't have a "faster" bike, just a slower one!)

On the ride home yesterday my rear wheel slipped slightly in the dropouts as I was riding in the middle of my most dangerous stretch of road. Finally had to pull to the side and adjust the wheel. It was fine today, but you know how for a while after something like that you ride a little more nervous than you did before? That was me this morning, listening for every little squeak.

I suck... had to get my wife to carry me to work today. Crisis at work meant I needed the 10 minutes the car saved me.

Oh well...

Slower than usual due to the new Powergrips and the associated learning curve. Felt weird fiddling w/ the pedal and trying to slip my foot in the strap. The ride itself was fine which helped.

Yes, it was about the tooth! She had to go get her stitches out from the titanium screw installation in her upper jaw.

The ride in today was sunny and only -6C. Traffic was reasonable and I actually got to work early. There were no dental mishaps. :)

the 1.7 mile ride (coast) to work was nice this morning. It's supposed to be 50 deg F in Connecticut today.

It's been fairly windy here all week, so I've had some good workouts.
However, it was absolutely howling at 6am, Accuweather on my phone said 30mph with gusts to 45, so I rolled over and slept for a while, and drove in.
Gives me a chance to take some work clothes from my locker to the dry cleaner, etc.

frosty 27F! Should be up to 60 heading home, they claim. Passed a guy at about the halfway point of my ride, and he caught up with me by the end of my long-cut diversion but I wound up passing him again.

when I left yesterday I found that my front tire was plat - looked like I a sharp piece of plastic on the morning ride and it resulted in a slow leak. Then when changing the tire, I found out that even though the box of the tubes I bought a while back showed 700 X 20/28C they were in actuality 700 X 20/25! I put it in anyway and was able to get home - guess I need to check the contents next time.

Didn't ride in today as my wife has a long morning appt on Thurs. for the next couple of months, so I stay home a watch the kids and then she brings me in to work. However,I hated not riding today since it is so nice here - I think I will start just riding in on these days anyway - a late night ride home will be nice for a change with the roads nice and clear and quiet!

dutchy..
Do you have a pic of you current mountain bike! Sounds really nice - a lightweight road going mountain bike...I bet that things amazing up hills!:p

Hmm.
I thought one could use smaller sized tubes. It just means the tube will stretch further and may be easier to puncture.


No commute today. Took a the day off due to feeling sick.

My goodness this is a long thread!

I commute on an eighteen-year-old Specialized Crossroads that's filthy, covered with crud, saddle falling apart, etc. so it looks like it isn't worth stealing (mostly because it isn't). Been commuting for nearly ten years now; my commute's never been longer than about 2.5 miles, and has been only 1.5 miles each way for the past four years, all but a couple of blocks in bike lanes. I live in SF; live at one end of SOMA and work at the other end. It's literally quicker to bike than to take public transit.

Weather has been absolutely awesome this whole week; sunny, mild, not too much wind (more headwind in the afternoon as is typical for SF). The high points of my commute usually consist of the number of lights I can make without stopping--simple minds, simple pleasures I know!--and the low points generally consist of scrapes with idiot drivers on cell phones who don't realize that those things on their right are vehicles that actually have rights to the road.

Every now and then of course (today included) there's that confused person who doesn't understand that the arrows we have in the bike lanes here are to tell you which direction you're supposed to be riding in.

Does anybody know when spring is coming? 10F this morning, but clear roads and no wind. Actually didn't feel too bad. With the clear roads, I was able to cruise the 10 mile commute on my Surly Cross Check commuter instead of my MTB. Bike trails are still snowy and icy so I stuck to the streets.

LOL. Apparently if you live in the eastern half of the US anywhere between Texas and Maine it's not coming anytime soon. Great White Death all around!

I could swear I smelled spring this morning but by the time I rode home it was gone again.

Rode in on my new bike today--a dynamic bicycle crosstown 8. I tried to find a new route and ended up getting lost in hellish traffic. With gas prices being so high and so much traffic on the road, drivers weren't too accomodating of a lost cyclist. The new bike performed beautifully until I was on my way home, then it started emitting a high pitched sound and serious vibration in the pedals. I'll have to contact the manufacturer to find out what that is about. Here are some pictures:
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/8...0338bs9.th.jpg

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/8...0336hh4.th.jpg
http://img341.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1000338sx2.jpg
http://img352.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1000336ns1.jpg
http://img341.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1000338sx2.jpg

Great morning for a ride here in the NYC area; 35 degrees when I left the house with light winds out of the NW. The ride home was even better as it was in the upper 40s.

Rode into work this morning even though there's supposedly a 100% of heavy rain later today. That's what the forecasters said on Tuesday, and we ended up with just a few sprinkles. So I decided to chance it, and made it to work with no wetness. Also made excellent time due to a tailwind much of the way. It's pretty warm here (upper 40sF this morning, high in upper 50s expected), so it shouldn't be too bad even if I have to ride home in the rain. If the weather is really bad, I'll wimp out and catch a ride with my wife.

35F when I left the house this morning. Wearing tights, an underarmor cold gear top with another long sleeved shirt on top of that along with a bandana and windproof fleece gloves was the perfect combo! Overall a good ride in with no drama except I'm not looking forward to Monday's ride in with the time-change. Gotta get some lighting, STAT!

tarwheel, you must have left your house earlier than I did. I got absolutely DRENCHED--by mile 3 I had to take off the glasses because I couldn't see through them anymore. Of course, then I had to deal with the rain stinging my face.

Mwife has to work late today so I can't call for a ride. Oh well, guess I'll get wet again this afternoon.

first time riding in over a week due to illness. Derailleur is hooped on my regular ride, too gravelly for the roadie so I took the good old Blur LT for a rip. Pumped up the tires to 40 psi, I sounded like a monster truck on the pavement. Extremely warm this morning (7C). Felt not too bad for a guy who's had the flu for a week.

rain
 

I think the rain hit Durham/Chapel Hill earlier than Raleigh from looking at the radar loops at the WRAL weather page. Also, I left home at 6:30 am and got to work by 7:15. Rain started here about 8 am, I think. I'm hoping there will be a break in showers some time this afternoon. I'll head home early if it does. I tried to put my SKS RaceBlade fenders on my bike yesterday, but my Superflash tail-light interferes with the fender mounts and I don't want to move the tail-light.

rainy enough last night to get me pretty wet, hey, I was expecting 60s and sunny! Not much wind anyway.

33F apparently this am and misty.

*gasp hack koff* HEADWIND!!!! *gasp pant*

Yeah, I'm a wimp. But that's one long hill from Glenmore up to the college, and with a headwind... ack!

On the up side, I'm going to be home five minutes before I even start.