Not much to report today - I gave some driver "the look" this morning. He was being a minor ****** and I ended up boxing him in.

Great ride in this morning, 60F, sunny, very light winds. Rode part way with another commuter I've seen a few times before, we chatted a while before I turned off. That was cool, 'cause this guy has passed me like I was standing still twice on the ride home before.

Today is also the second week I've rode round trip to work for 3 days in one week (66 miles for the week). Hopefully my family/work schedule will let me keep riding 3 days/week.

Good commute in today.

Another full week, managed to bike in every day.

The heat spell broke, had nice cool morning temps.

Taking a nice 30 mile ride out on farm roads after work.

I took the same hairpin turn descent as yesterday - you better believe I took it slow and careful this time!

It was a very late night at the office, after 1am when I got on the road, but what a beautiful time to be out. I quickly got away from downtown and on to the path along the Sacramento River, just me and the moon and the deep black water. Fantastic.

This morning I rode in on the Caldaro. I have a new Centaur seatpost waiting for me at the LBS and I hope I'll be able to take La Specialissima out for an evening spin. Happy Friday, everyone.

Saw a twitching squirrel on the road today which I think got smashed by one of the few cars behind me. Strangest thing was that it was "looking" my way as I went by. Other than that, pretty normal commute but it was a bit on the warm side. Looking forward to the long weekend after my ride home this afternoon.

decided to ride the MTB today....she is sooooo neglected lately since my surgery...so fun hoppin' off curbs and bustin endos at stop lights!! Average is only down like 2mphs over the Full Carbon roadie!

Everyone have a nice ride!!

bummer about that squirrel~~

downtown nashville was cool and calm this morning.. (i almost had to blast (airzound) some geese off of the road. they honk i honk.) best ride all week. but its humid, 85, and sunny now, this afternoon will be a scorcher.

Not commute exactly....but the post feels better/more approriate here than in "car free"....Orded chinese food for take out.....got my car keys....stopped....jumped on my recently finished utilty/commuter, had shorts so didn't even need to put the rubber band around the pants cuff. Hit the take out place as the food is up...don't even need to lock bike. Put the Wald folding baskets down, put the take out in. Home and eat.
2 miles round trip, 16 mph avg, One less car trip, little bit if exercise for me, and all in all faster......

it's time for mass! looks like the weather's holding.

Five days of good riding, with a little sauce to end the week. Checked out the Orlando CM .. not nearly as bad as some would lead to believe. Had a few friends join me, and watched as only a few rambunctious souls made errors in roadiness, and the majority made impact on awareness. Very pleasant ride with few unwelcome comments from the cagies, then a good ride home afterwards.
Bring on the weekend!

"cm" ?

cm=Critical Mass.
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My commute home:
On my ride home about a quarter til midnight I came across a man riding a childrens bmx bicycle with no lights (but at least he had the stock reflectors) in the 55mph narrow 2-lane road section of my commute. He was riding less than a foot from the edge of the pavement, begging to get squeezed off the road. As I approached from behind he pulled off onto the dirt shoulder when he saw the light from my 15W halogen light. I consider the shoulder too dangerous to ride on, so I always remain on the road in that area.

I slowed down to his speed (about 10-12mph) and pulled into the left tire track from center lane position. I encouraged him to take the right tire track and ride with me so people coming from behind could see a bicyclist was in the road and so he could see where he was riding by sharing my headlights. His English was obviously limited but he understood, said thanks, and started riding alongside.

An 18 wheeler started coming up behind us, and he instantly went back to the shoulder. He looked at me like I was crazy as I held my line. The guy in the truck laid on his horn as he slowed down for me. I've always loved the sound of large trucks' horns, so I gave the driver a friendly wave then motioned for him to pass, which he did.

As my newfound friend and I entered the lit section of the road I had to turn left while he headed straight. I suggested he get some lights...he said yes but I'm not really sure if he understood.

Personal best distance this week for me, four out of five days for 128 miles. Usually I'm at two days a week. But the weather was nice and the cicadas haven't fully emerged yet, so I heaped on the miles. Also, I rode fixed gear to work for the first time on Friday. I'm not ready to give up my 1x8 geared bike yet, especially on windy days, but I am going to get a rack for the FG bike and take it more often.

Here’s the breakdown of my commute using Wednesday’s ride as an example…

Lately I have more things going on than Ringling Brothers and my schedule has been bouncing around all over the place. On Tuesday I was pulling regular dayshift hours. On Wednesday I rode into work at 5PM and would be back on the road at 130AM.

The most direct route is a high usage road/hwy with traffic hitting speeds of up to 70mph. The posted is 55 but are going well beyond that. This route has frequent high winds coming out of a canyon, which kicks up lots of debris. Gravel pits on both sides of the road are a wonderful addition. It’s not unusual to find yourself weaving around a piece of furniture along the side of the road here. If that’s not enough, there’s also a good sustained climb. This commute is actually uphill both ways. Have a look around 41° 7'44.57"N 111°54'30.46"W at Google Earth. My home is in South Ogden and I work at that nearby runway. Hwy 89 is far from being an ideal commuter route but there aren’t better choices in the area. Its lower intersection count and wider shoulders draw favor among riders.

I bought my commuter bike with the last two minutes of my commute in mind. This 40ish minute ride to work is punctuated by 8 flights of stairs. The lighter bike weight and flat underside of the toptube works out well. Wednesday night my counterpart surprised me with one of the shop cameras. I was looking down as I climbed and heard him say, "You need to learn how to run with that thing." (a cyclocross joke) As I looked up...snap....



130AM temps had me suited up with the rain gear. A nice big moon was out but its light was blocked by mostly cloudy skies making for very dark roads. Traffic was light, down to about 2 cars every few minutes. A couple of older trucks slowed way down beside me and I wasn't sure what they had on their minds. Next time I'm riding home this late I'll probably tack on about five more miles to go around the long way where there's more visibility and alternate paths to dodge into along the route. During the day that option would be asking for trouble since it’s in the heart of big box store shopping. The wind was coming through Weber Canyon at about 15mph, which had me leaning over pretty far to keep going straight.

I’m set to retire and find a retirement kinda job (whatever that is) in just shy of 365 days. I’ll be strongly considering anything that has me riding in the opposite direction.


Cheers,

"Necesitas una luz."

Awesome commute home today personal best and a great 70 km ride this morning as well

the aussie winter is NICE

Great ride in - felt like a breeze compared to my weekend jaunt out of town (~60miles each way).

Had a guy on a bike that looked like a cruiser, I was going 19-22mph and this guy was just sticking with me (with no visible effort that I could tell), I figured it was an e-Bike or he was a monster I never got chance to look or ask him, as I turned onto Lakeshore and he followed the path around Ontario Place.

I got lucky and hit almost very intersection with a green light. It only took me 20 mins; it usually takes me 10 by car.

And this with one stop to check up on a hot blonde girl who was checking out her bike. I stopped and asked if everything was alright, she was just putting the chain back onto the chain-ring.

Damn I love commutes like this!

Commuting has been wonderful this past week or so. Everything is green, the animals are out, birds are singing and it's warmed up. I've ridden 160 miles this week during the 5 day work week with out a hitch. Then on saturday while riding with my wife, I have my first flat of the season. Oh well, just a test. My spare leaked as well and ended up catching a ride home.

This caused me to evaluate my equipment carefully, then discarding equpment no longer useful. I ended up purchasing additional sewups, valve extenders, and still need a pump replacement hose clamp.

The annunal ritual begins (switching from winter to summer gear)!

Enjoy the feeling!

I also had one of those every-light-is-green kinda commutes today. Combined with a tail wind, I absolutely flew here today. Yeeha!

Monster head wind, guaranteed rain on the way home, 4 hours of sleep. Ugh.

God that head wind sucked. To be honest I normally would have skipped it but I was determined to get to the Bike for Breakfast event (I got to try out an Xtracycle, thanks Darren!!). My original plan was to bike there and then put my bike on the rack on the bus, but I got to chatting and missed the bus!! So I had to boot it into the teeth of the wind from Kensington to Parkdale, spending most of the time in my lowest range of gears. UGH.

I had BETTER get a tail wind ont he way home. I don't even care if it rains. If I don't get a tail wind I will cry.

Yes it did suck, all the way up to McKnight. My legs hurt. Good to meet you and Janet finally. Now, I'm just gonna lay my head on the counter for a while......

Uphill AND a head wind, you win... yeowch! Good to meet you though.

Hope you recover soon...

What the heck, I'll make it the 5th consecutive post from calgary.

The wind certainly was challenging. My feet were still sore from meandering up and down lilac fest yesterday. Just had to gear down, stay relaxed and spin. I would have liked to hit up the breakfast, but is about 16km out of my way RT, and I start at 7am. Glad everyone made it out in the wind.