I got a few double takes when people realized I was on a vintage bike - I suppose I might have looked silly since I was wearing Lycra, but hey, 9 miles in non-Lycra shorts does not sound like fun to me!

Hello vtjim! Now that you mention this, I had never seen one in plain daylight before either... was biking around North Circle St here in Colorado Springs when I saw a big racoon happily scavenging on a home's backyard. To top it off, a few yards down the road I saw a coyote strolling along. All these guys (animals) are living/thriving right within city limits.

Other than two legged "animals" in cages, I wonder what else might be out there....

GreenAnvil

Had a close call yesterday at rush hour. I was in a wide parking lane (plenty of room away from the doors) and was racing toward a green light. Entered the intersection just as the light has turned yellow. At about the same time a taxi on my left that entered the intersection on green but could not proceed because the traffic was not moving decided to turn off the street rather than sit in the middle of the intersection and block it. Nearly right-hooked me. Fortunately I wondered if something like that might not happen, so I was prepared. But it was the closest I've come to a bike-car collision in a while...

No Commute.

No bike riding since last Thursday when I took a wild trail at night with the mtb and hit a couple of trees.

Knew I broke a couple of ribs, and was fine for a couple of days then couldn't breathe right on the third day and the pain was far worse.

4 broken ribs, 2 cracked ribs, 1 crushed rib - punctured lung

Told to stay off the bike 4-6 weeks

However, ribs aren't grinding anymore and seem to have set up ... I may just try some small commuting perhaps on Thursday .... While I cross train with walking/hill climbs --- I'm kinda getting tired of just doing that ... I'll just stay away from my wild mtb group that hits the trails on Thursday nights and not go on any of the longer roadbike rides ...

Wow. That hurts just reading about it.

Tude - watch out for those trees ...

Stupid JATs....

Don't forget that Comedy=Tragedy+Time.

Riding home yesterday, some punk teenager decides to yell out the window at me, then immediately get stopped at a light. I had a few words for him on the way by. When he comes back past the second time he yells something about "get on the sidewalk". Now it gets odd.

He makes a right turn, then a u-turn to prepare to make a right turn back onto the original road, the way we were heading (maybe to make a 3rd pass at me). I didn't give it a whole lot of thought, but it struck me as odd, and pissed me off so I immediately stopped, got on the sidewalk and started walking my bike back in their direction. They quickly did another u-turn and drove away.

I guess I've never understood the mentality that would run their mouth, then piss their pants when confronted, but that seems to be the general rule around here.

Yeah, I don't normally ride unknown trails at night --- but there was 30 of us - full lights and they all took off on the trail .... so here I go.

Unfortunately this is my really busy season between mtb group, roadbike rides and events, crit coming up - and of course commuting.



Getting sick of this walking stuff.

Hmmmmmm, kevlar - that sounds like a nice kinda bike jacket for the trails

grinding ribs... definitely makes my teeth hurt.

Trees always have the right of way.

Saw a beautiful towering cumilonimbus over Lake Champlain on the ride home today. Got home, called my mom to wish her a happy birthday, then went out and mowed the lawn. 30 minutes later it was pouring rain and scaring the dog with thunder.

My commute today was pretty good. It's a relatively short commute (about 3.5 miles from the neighborhood of East Atlanta to downtown Atlanta). We've had smoke from a series of wildfires in south Georgia lately, but it's not as obvious at this point.

I'm in the process of changing commuter bikes from my current favorite (a Raleigh Supercourse) to a more suitable bike for carrying loads and riding in the rain (an old Peugeot).

I'm in the process of thinking through responses to this sort of confrontation. For many years I was belligerent, and that approach seemed to work ok, as I'm still alive at 55. Lately my main concern has been to educate the educable drivers. So I've been ignoring the drivers who merely honk their horns. I haven't had a "get on the sidewalk" driver in quite some time, but I've been working on a response which puts forth in a grandfatherly manner that:

1) The law is with me regarding my right to the road
2) The driver really needs to learn how to pass properly
3) Relax, chill out, there's really little need to get frustrated by real or perceived obstructions in the road.

Larry

Yikes!!! Just make sure you're taking care of the injury. Commuting can wait if need be. If I were you I'd wait until I was sure the healing was complete. That doesn't mean being a couch potato, but it does mean not banging, bumping, or vibrating the injury until it's healed.

Fantastic for many reasons. I nearly fell in the drink watching two hawks dive bomb each other in midair while cutting across the Indian pueblo. But the really great part was I had no wind and beat the train back to the station where I had caught it this morning.

Anyway, 40+ MPH winds expected tomorrow so I'm actually thinking about taking the train both ways. Depressed already.

Flatted the back tire on the way into work...did my first on the road tire change in 15mins flat...that's a record even compared to changing a tire at home..Yahooo! The tire held air and I made into work just before it started pouring!

My guardian angel's been work'n over time

Sheesh...sorry for the late post. I can't get on the computer at home till before I go to bed these days.

I came back to the carpool meeting place to find my rear tire on my vintage roadie at 40psi! (It looked a little low...and I carry a tire gauge.) I pumped it back up to 90psi, (bravo to the Topeak Mountain Morph) failed to hear any hissing noise, and went off on my way.

Bravo to kevlar lined tires too. As I found out when I got home, they must have helped to help keep the puncture I had in my rear tire classfied as a very slow leak instead of an outright flat. Patched her right up...I'm ready for tomorrow.

Oh yeah...it was a nice ride home. Sunny skies and wind at my back. Friendly traffic (believe it or not), and no squirrels. Total commuter cyclist bliss.

The ride this morning was ugh. June gloom has arrived in Orange County with all it's moisture. By the time I arrived to work, my clothing was mildly wet. Had to take a little extra time drying off before putting on the work clothes. The ride home was better but could see dark clouds rolling back in for the evening. It was also a little windy but not enough to kill my buzz.

Good ride home yesterday, near 90, but not too humid. I did a good deed and stopped in the middle of the road, in sight of maybe 50 cars waiting at a red light, and removed a muffler from the middle of the left lane. Hopefully that will purchase me some good cager karma.

The ride in this AM was great!! Averaged 17.2 despite hitting probably 10 red lights on the route. Should have a tailwind going home so might even get the Avg up to 18. It smelled of sour milk as I rode through the intersection where the milk truck had his little accident yesterday. LOL

A tad bit brisk this morning (high 40's ) Gonna be 75 and sunny ALL day!

Can't wait to get off of work!

Low 40Fs, quartering tailwind, and about 5 minutes of light drizzle. Summer was nice, but now I guess it's fall again. Time to start waxing the skis.

I'm not buying any lottery tix today! Screamed at, honked at a good 10 times, and a right hook, all be different drivers,all on two lane, medium traffic, flat, clear roads at 7 am where all they need to do is go on by with their eyes open. I hope that means I merely accumulated several months of abuse in one ride and now I'm good until about when school starts.

Sitting here listening to the hard rain and the winds hitting the windows. Hmm...

Yesterday was eventful. Morning commute was straight into headwinds from the oncoming storm. It was a tough one but nice. Ride home I made it about 1/8 mile before getting a flat on back. I made it back to the office and found that the leak was at the stem. Finally got that fixed. Ride home was with a tailwind, which I never have. I couldn't believe how quiet it was riding with the wind. Nice ride.

A right hook? Were you involved in fisticuffs?

Good ride this morning. Crisp and cool, with low traffic.