Beautiful ride in to work, today. Nice, strong tailwind ... very unusual on the morning ride in. 20 miles. 20-25 MPH through the flats (mostly flat ride here in San Jose).

Ride home last night was uneventful, which means great. Standard 15-20MPH tailwinds made for 20-25MPH on the flats.

Since the weather in San Jose is the same from now until October or so (this morning's tailwinds notwithstanding), and since I go on pretty much the same route daily, I'll sign off now!!

I had to take a break from my commute. Every day was wonderful, even the warm days. Then some jerk broke a ton of glass which all ended up in the bike lane. Hard to dodge on a 30mph downhill with traffic next to you. So my front tire slowly goes flat. I don't notice with my aero bars in the way. I go to turn, out slides the front tire and down I go like a brick. Road rash, broken pedal and I hurt my pride at about 20 mph. Fixed the flat, pedaled with one good leg the remaining 3 miles home. Why do people have to trash the place? Where have all the street sweepers gone?

Cannondale

Anyone who installs a bike lane is morally obligated to keep it free from anything which might cause injury to human beings (not to mention taxpayers.)

Hope you heal quickly, Cannondale! (Love your spirit!)

By the way, my cousins live in Boulder, as did my Grandma (Baseline Drive since 1920's) and my parents live in Estes Park.

Anyway, I've wondered what it would be like to ride up the steep mountain roads and then BACK DOWN! :eek:

Baseline is part of my route. It's my favorite part of my commute because it's virtually flat and even I appear fast. So that's nice. That and 55th Ave.

Estes Park is also wonderful. I go up there a lot. Great biking arond here - minus the road hazards. But road hazards are everywhere I'm sure. Just wish people would stop breaking beer bottles and running into each other on the road.

Cannondale

That's great!

Sorry to lecture you earlier. I deleted that.

Take care, man.

The commute yesterday was wonderful. I took a route I have not taken for several years and saw my favorite commuter...an old guy who is always riding the opposite way I am going. He waves every time he sees me. We have become "friends" the eight years I have been commuting!

This year is different than others. My van has needed brakes for over a month and I haven't bothered to fix it. On top of that, I have taken to getting up before the sun to get an hour in on my road bike, then jumping on my commuter for the ride to work. When I get home my three year old son greets me at the front door and begs for a ride "around the block", a 5 mile route he likes. I had a day off of work today and stayed off the bike except for a slow 5 mile ride with my son. Even so, it's Thursday and I am over 225 miles for the week. Not bad.

Good thing I like the bike.

Wow. 225 miles on a Thursday !! How long is your commute? Are these all commute miles?

I do 20 each way most of the time, about 3 times a week on average. I think that puts me in the top 5% or so of commuters (total wildball guess). If these are all commute miles, you have to be in the top 1%.

Man, look at this thread! Over 3,000 views and counting!

This morning was just about perfect, I took the long way in to work this morning, A back country road that wanders through the hilly countryside in mass. The air was a cool 58 degrees with no noticable wind. The wildlife was busy doing their thing and did a great job of entertaining me. Traffic was light, My total distance this morning was 37.6 miles and my average speed was a lazy 17 mph. I left my panniers in the garage and traveled light. have a great day everyone, I can't wait for the ride home.

Morning was wonderful - around 8C, a beautiful sunrise around 7:15 and wind not too strong. This afternoon a surface trough interacted with a mid-level trough, and the result was unexpected rain - starting off light and getting gradually heavier. A hour before sunset it was really dark. So a dark, wet ride home. But who cares? I don't mind getting wet since I'm on the way to a nice warm house. It was our coldest day since August last year - didn't even make it to 16C!

We never seem to run out of experiences to describe, do we? That's part of what makes commuting fun.

My commute is 11-12 miles one way (depending on which route I take). I had 225 miles in by Thursday because I am also a roadie and have been riding road in addition to my commute. It's been great!

I finished the week over 300 miles. Not bad. I have not had a week like that in years.

TT

They were talking afternoon thunderstorms on the morning weather report so I took the rain bike. It's been a while since I rode the steel Novara, and I'd sort of forgotten how much I like it. It's heavy and not real fast, sure, but it's stable and plush and goes exactly where you point it.

We're having hot-n-muggy this week, which is fine with me. Means I can wear my lightest stuff, only put the SPD sandals on, and not care at all about whether it rains. (The best thing about hot summr days is how little it takes to get dressed for a ride.)

So it was kind of disappointing that coming home, despite the iron-gray skies, the lightning on the horizon, and the distant rumble of thunder, I never got hit by a drop.

Maybe tomorrow.

RichC

Mornin, Yesterdays commute was a slow easy spin, I rode A very hilly century Sunday, had a great time with a great group. Yesterday was warm and sunny on the way in and hot and sunny on the way home, The way weather shoud be every day.
This morning I stepped out of the house to 50 degree damp air, had to put a light jacket on and gloves, I guess winter is back. I really need to think about relocating to a warmer climate more suited to cycling. Any suggestions? The DPW here, is suppose to pave all of the roads they dug up starting the 6th of July, That sure should make my ride better, they didn't miss any of them, Ive been riding my mountain bike now for a couple of weeks, I'm really looking forward to getting back on my normal commuter.

Finally managed Boughton Hill without getting off and pushing :)

Faversham to Canterbury in less than 40 mins, door to door 55 mins.

Richard

Today was a different route. My wife's car was due for scheduled maintenance, so I put the bike in the back and drove to Falls Church, VA. This time, I decided to try the bike trail (WO&D and Martha Custis) to work (Arlington courthouse area).

It was quite a change from my usual commute. It was quite a change, even, from my usual road route from auto shop to office. There was about a six mile ride without a single stop sign or stoplight. The trail had the usual hazards endemic to bike trails (dog walkers, people walking two abreast, but the major annoyance was the bid signage. "Washington" or "Rosslyn" would be a much more helpful arrow than "Custis Trail".

I'm not sure whether I prefer the bike path to the road for this route, but it was a good change of pace. It was more of a workout, because I was not pausing at stoplights! What do the rest of you think of bike paths versus roads?

Paul

(Sorry, Paul, can't give an opinion--bike paths aren't an option on my route.)

This certainly is a windy year! Today, going in, I had a powerful crosswind, slightly against me. I was grateful, since it was an extremely hot and muggy day. I was melded with the car all morning (had to get new tires, then maintain part of my paper route, then went to a movie too far away to bike--Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron, it was good) so it felt great to be on the bike! I had energy to spare today...either from the movie popcorn and diet iced tea, or because of the day off pedalling I had yesterday or something. Anyway, good trip. :)
The way home I could go faster (trying to generate my own wind as heat relief!) I had a bug or two stuck under my helmet, inhaled two permanently, spit two out, and am still wiping them off with the sweat and picking them out of my socks and shorts. Oh, and I got one up my nose, and I believe he is still in there, making his way up the Jeffries tube in search of a control room where he can perform a manual override...

By the way, my Sunday morning commute home had its point of interest--there was a family get-together in the afternoon, and I ran into my mother and niece just as I was leaving town. They were running some errands, and we all expected that they'd pass me on the way home. I beat them by 15 minutes. :D

There are no path options anywhere near my route, either. I've ridden some of the local multi-use paths after work, and frankly you couldn't pay me to ride them again, at least not when they're busy with joggers and skaters and boarders and walkers and dogs and children.

It takes much less evasive maneuvering to just ride in a straight line as part of normal road traffic.

RichC

Yesterday, my commute sucked. ( I still can't beleive I would say such a thing.)

It felt like I was riding in sand. I had no speed and was pushing the whole way. There wasn't even any wind. I was behind the whole route. Towards the end, it felt like I couldn't even coast to a stop light.

Got to work and gave my back wheel a spin. It stopped within a quarter turn. Seems the back break was catching on the rim. I just had the wheel trued and the LBS must not have tighted down the axel enough.

Commuted to my girl's basketball game today from work. 15 miles, so a short one. Relatively uneventful, though I felt more sluggish than usual.

Will commute into work the full 20 tomorrow. Got to get to bed so I'll be fresh in the morning!!

Great day,, great ride, no stories today, what else can I say.

Zooming, baby !!

Surprising tailwind this morning (had another "surprising" tailwind the other day ... maybe I shouldn't be so surprised). Cooler than usual.

Zoomed along at 20+ MPH practically the whole 20 miles and hit 27 MPH on one slight downward incline. Had pretty good luck with the lights, too.

Made it in 1h7m, which is about 10 mins faster than normal !!

I'm slowly building up speed now as I commute. I get less and less tired too!

It's hot outside. Very high ozone levels. Very high humidity. I'm praying for rain.

RichC

Raced a thunderstorm this morning. I could smell the rain all the way to work, then got a weak rain the last mile. By then I was so warm the only indication I had that it was raining was the wet street and the raindrops on my glasses! I love riding in those kind of rainstorms.