had to work today but loved my commute. I had been doing a good amount of road riding up until 2 weeks ago when I found out I'd be out of town and in NYC for the next 2 months and scrambled like crazy to get 2 rooms in my house painted. I did virtually no riding during that time and the slacking off definitely cut down on my conditioning so it sure felt good to get on the bike today.

The commute is so short and fast and I am so enjoying that West side bike path that I keep way overshooting my cross streets on the way to work and the way home. Tonight I rode way uptown to about 125th St. just for the fun of it and rode back in a light rain but it felt great.

Finally after a few days of miserable rain, it was nice enough to ride. Here is a kind of hazy Tokyo morning. Taken from the Yebisu Garden Place Tower.
(full size)
http://www.bfw734.com/wp-content/upl...tokyoam_sm.jpg

Got rained on a little bit and splashed on a lot. I need fenders for my new bike (I knew that, of course, but didn't get around to buying some yet... really should...)

Another nice relatively cool ride in today...will be the last one for a while though. The high today is supposed to get up to ~ 92F (33C) with ~60-70% humidity. Oh well, the cooler weather was a nice break for a few days. Had a light tailwind so managed to hold a 17.5 average despite all the stoplights on my route. Sadly, sometime this month, two more stoplights and an interstate exit will be opened up my route, making it that much less cycling friendly.

Nice ride in - rather foggy out as it rained/misted all day yesterday (still rode) - and expect to get wet on the way home. Just wish the city didn't go hog wild and decide to chip seal the whole area around me - every side street is a mess - and while I expect the new mtb to get some dings on it (especially out on the trails) - this "tinking" of stones hitting the frame is kinda irritating.

Misty ride back last night, fairly cool too. Ride in today was much warmer, felt nice - though a little damp still, it beats 30C+ heat.

Got totally humbled by a roadie on a Giant something or other. He flew by me up a hill I usually keep a good pace on (and usually pass everyone myself) - I was doing about 18/19mph and he just whipped by me out of the saddle.
Felt good though, gave me a reason to work harder too, never caught him. Caught a guy on an MTB - he was moving at a good clip too.

what a great ride this am -
my city does not allow fireworks (boo!) but that means no piles of garbage on the streets on July 5 (yay!).
The weatehr is awesome, the roads were scantily populated, it was a great ride.
Cheers

Spectacular commute today (East Atlanta neighborhood to downtown Atlanta). Because of the light post-holiday traffic I was able to sprint on legs of my commute which would normally have proceeded at a crawl.

Traffic was slightly down today, which was nice.

Ran into a black bear this morning on Santa Fe trail just a bit south of the I-25 bridge construction. Entered the trailhead by Criterium Bike Shop and was heading south, went under the I-25 underpass and over that patch of loose gravel (for those familiar with the area). A bit ahead rounded a turn and there it was, about 50 yds in front of me in the middle of the trail.

I jammed on my disc brakes, skidded some and came to a halt but the bear didn't seem to care. Contrary to all "expert" advice, I turned my bike around and clipped to start heading back, and the "clicking" sound made the bear's ears go up, raised his head and looked at me. I thought, "Oh, this isn't good", but the bear hesitated while I started my way back on the trail and then it took off in the opposite direction.

I now have second thoughts about riding that trail (or any other trail here in Colorado Springs) alone and that early in the morning (it was about 6a). I moved here from NY about 3 months ago, and I've been talking to people and reading up on the topic, and most people assured me that I wouldn't see a bear that deep into Colorado Springs. Now I know that they can be just about anywhere and I worry that I run into another one. At 20mph on a trail... rounding a curve and coming face to face with a bear... that's not my idea of a nice commute.

GreenAnvil

Awesome! It's actually pretty rare to see bears that far into town. I bet it's been following the river through town to get there. I wouldn't worry too much about the bears around here. They are balck bears and [for the most part] are pretty timid and will scurry off if you shoo them [or clip in I guess].

Now, if you encounter a mom with cubs.... that will be a completely different story. Also know that if you ever see a cub, understand that it's not there alone.

Not to raise your hackles, but I'm much more concerned about the Mountain Lions around here. I live in Rockrimmon and have seen them more than once. Riding in the dark in natural areas is spooky when all you can see is your beam ahead on the road/trail :)

You are pretty likely to run across coyotes on that trail in the dark as well. They are there for the multitude of rabbits in that area, not you.

WOW! I get nervous riding in the woods alone, but dang I've never even seen anything!

Oregon city to Lake Oswego commute 11.5 miles, temp 61 F. I forgot it would be so warm, so I left my cool weather gear on- what a mistake. Part way thru the ride I pulled over and removed some of the layers and the light on my head. I was really hot, the rest of the way in to work I was freezing from the sweat evaporating. I have been dong this long enough to know better, must have been a brain cramp. No Bears sighted!

Nice ride in. Caught my wife a mile earlier than last time, so something like 3 miles of zipping (after dropping daughter and trailer at daycare, clearing downtown traffic), 2 miles of cruising, then one last mile of zipping from her place's driveway to my office. Cleaned/lubed chain yesterday, zipping was zippier, or at least quieter.

I really envy you Americans. About the most exiting wildlife we have in the UK is the odd badger. Although I did end up with a cracked rib once when riding my GSXR11 without a protective jacket and an equally suicidal pigeon hit me in the chest as I was doing about 120mph. :p Still, I ended up better off than the pidgeon.

Ride in today was great, nice and cool, dry, legs full of energy as I've driven in the last 2 days due to a broken finger joint.

Currently hissing with rain blowing in all directions out the office window - going to be a soggy ride home... looking forward to a dram or two of whiskey and a hot bath at the end of it though. :D

What about the giant blancmange? I'm sure I saw that on some nature special.

Oooh, it's gonna be a scorcher today. Nearly 80F at 8:05 this morning. Predicted to be 105F this afternoon, which is a notch over 40C for our metric friends.

Beautiful....nicest day of the summer so far in Vancouver, and I was feeling good...really enjoyed the ride today.

Almost got in a fight Tuesday afternoon on the way home. I was riding through my apartment complex at about 20mph in the middle of the road since the speed limit is 15 and there are speed bumps (speed limit is NOT posted on the side of the road, its in the complex manual thing which nobody reads). So a big red Dodge pickup is following me pretty close and finally passes me between speed bumps, I estimate he was going at least 30mph. So he pulls into the mail hut as did I. I proceeded to ask him in a very normal tone what he thinks the speed limit on the property is. He flips his lid and starts swearing and going off at me saying he knows what the speed limit is and that I need to learn the rules of the road. I just stand there and say a few things about the speed limit and that he needs to read the rules of the road while he gets his mail. He punches his mail into the trash can and yells at me to get the f*** out of the way or else. Practically a verbal threat. So he is walking past and I am almost positive he is gonna hit me but he gets in his truck to go to his apartment. I give him the finger is he is leaving for kicks and get my mail. Ended up discussing this with the apartment complex but they can't legally do anything. I am going to make a report to the road rage hotline and see if anything comes from that. If I am confronted by him again I will be calling the cops on the spot, no questions asked. The best part is that he lives in the building next to me so I am more likely than not to see him again. Wow I hate my apartment complex and can't wait to get out of here. Ok, my rant is over. I hope to not see him this afternoon on my way home.

WTH! And I thought suicidal squirrels were bad! We're in a pretty heavy drought here in the South (We've probably only gotten 14 feet of rain so far this year instead of the usual 20 or something :D) Anyway, the black bears have been coming into town because of the drought. It's really awesome when they make the news because they got filmed on a traffic cam or scare some soccer mom half to death.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/met...5cobbbear.html

Weird commute today. I was going to work from home today, but HR called me late Tuesday to arrange interviews for my new job, and wanted to do them this morning. My wife wanted to go to breakfast too, and there's not enough time to commute after breakfast. So...we went to breakfast together and then she dropped me and MY NEW BIKE (woohoo!) off at the building for the interview.

The interviews ended early but I realized I hadn't brought my shoes. Called my wife and asked her to bring them (work's only about 5 minutes from home). She dropped them off and I rode the new bike home.

I'll be posting about the new bike (a Fuji Touring) in a separate thread. :)

Gah! my commute today was HOT. Both ways, actually - I had an appointment this mornign so I headed out at 8:45 rather than my usual 7:20 and it was already hot. Then I rode from the appointment in to work, at noon, and was slightly broiled; and it was even hotter on the way home. I tried to take it easy and drink lots, even stopping to paddle my feet in the river, but I didn't do too well*. I was pretty woozy when I got home and had the edges of a sick headache. Bleh.

*Note to self: just because someone passes you does not mean you have to catch up. It is not necessarily a race even though there ARE two bikes on this road... especially at 34C...

A cool shower, 2 liters of water, some Vietnamese salad rolls and a cup of iced coffee later, I'm much better :)

I saw that on tv last night, some places in BC hit 38. Isn't that something?

We'll be hitting the low 30 this weekend - do they post a humidex rating in Calgary - sorry it's been to long to remember (I was 9 when we lived there).

Around here they will say it's 30°, feels like 39° with the humidity.....


Commute related - I took the most direct, shortest, least scenic, most uphill, most polluted - but shortest route this morning. I seem to be running out of steam at the end of the week. Of course getting to bed late will contribute, so I'm sleeping at 10:00 tonight for sure :) Wait a minute, it's Friday... Oh well we have a kids' soccer game tomorrow at 8 so everybody must get some sleep.

Hot ride home yesterday with a pesky headwind. Had an interesting sighting though...met up with 2 vagabond cyclists. At first I just said hello as I blew by them-they were messing up traffic and going ~16 mph. I was drafting the same traffic that they were holding up, so was moving ~ 25-30 when I passed. I hit a red light though and they caught up to me. When I asked where they were headed, the guy replies "the beach" (Thats about 120 miles minimum from here). That was impressive enough to me that I offered them a gatorade stop at my house if they were interested (if nothing else I could have shown them a better route through town than the 2 lane 55 mph highway they were on). But, for whatever reason they declined my offer. Hopefully they're making out all right. They were totally unprepared as far as I could see. No helmets, no gloves, no pump, riding beater 10 speeds (the girl didn't even have handlebar tape on her bike). It was 92F (33C) and quite humid and they each had 1 small waterbottle on their bikes. Today will be 96 and even more humid and they'll be entering very rural and isolated Eastern NC...Hope they make out OK.

Warm and humid this morning. Saw a few other commuters out and passed the one guy I have been seeing regularly now. Gonna be a hot ride home this afternoon.