Cool thread. I've been commuting since early april at least 3 days a week. I find that the days I bike in the ride is so much more relaxing than in the car. Just seems to me like the Jerks out there don't bother me as much when i'm on the bike. Its a 3.5 mile commute each way so says Google Maps, all flat ground with bike lanes and large shoulders on all the roads. Takes me around 25 minutes give or take... i don't try for any land speed records lest i sweat through all my clothes before i get to work.

Today was beautiful, nice and cool air no humidity... I'm really looking forward to the ride home starting right about....NOW. :)

A+ !

took the usual route in, but at 65degF, light wind, took the longer way home. traffic was great except one 18 wheeler pass in a 40 mph zone at what appeared 65mph to get in front, and an increasing issue with MotorCyclists. a male/female on one motorcycle right hooked me as they entered a car dealership.

for the most part i have been sharing knods or waves with motorcyclists, but a new concern we as bicycle commuters need to be aware of are the cagers (people who drive automobiles) who switch to motocycles but still have the "i own the road" concept.

the change will be slow....but will be!

t

Morning commute pretty standard...low 70s with thunder but no rain.

Commuting home, I decided to try out a new route I had planned out that would increase my distance from 6 miles to 10. However, I missed a turn and ended up about two miles off track. Thank goodness for my iPhone to tell me where I was before I got completely disoriented. :)

So I backtracked and made it home without incident, but after 14 miles instead of 10! But I am so glad I am changing routes...a longer ride is not only more fun, but I am now off the highway for all but like 1/4 mile. It's awesome! :D I didn't realize how much I hated those 3 highway miles until I didn't have to worry about them. I am in love with quiet, country roads.

A kid said "hi" to me from his upstairs balcony...that was totally cool for some reason.

I don't normally post in the commute section but I needed to vent and share my commute with you all. I live in a suburb on the west side of Chicago and I work on the south side of Chicago. Today on my way home I took a new route that was suggested by a co-worker down Jackson instead of Roosevelt. Just west of Cicero Ave. there was five guys sitting on mailbox who saw me coming and yelled "Oh sh**, here comes Starbucks!". There gave me the nickname Starbucks...how thoughtful. They then all started blocking my way by coming into the street. I went around the outside of a car and avoided them for the moment. Then one of them threw a close to full (judging by the weight) can of soda right into my back and yelled "Stay the fu** out of my neighborhood!". I rode the rest of the way home with my back covered in orange soda and pain in my back. Needless to say, my commute today sucked.

Soda is one of less worse things to catch on your back through those hoods.

Good commute today. Talked a co-worker into riding in with me. Great ride, good conversation along the way. He's joining me again tomorrow. Got another co-worker/neighbor I'm still working on.

Twisted a couple of links in my chain on the way home (solo) when I was hammering up a busy overpass. Chain jumped the big ring and snarled in the pedal. Had to make an emergency trip to the LBS for a couple spare chains since I was out. I think I can replace the bad links in this one; only 250 on it.

Nothing like waving cars past while coasting from 23 mph trying to make a move for the edge of the bridge...

Damn...I'm going to miss another day. Severe thunderstorms and a tornado warning. :(

Sweet ride in this morning. Clear with temps in the upper 40s F and no wind for a change. The forecasters described our weather today as a "chamber of commerce" day. Sunny with high temps in the mid-70s and low humidity. I might just join the local group ride after riding home from work if I still have the legs. The best news is that it looks like our 2-month weather pattern of it raining every weekend might finally be breaking. The latest forecast calls for no rain on Sat and Sun for the first time since March.

+1

45F and calm at 5:15AM today when I left, forecasted high is 75F and sunny today. Great ride in! Can't ride tomorrow (driving out to give blood) and the forecast for Bike-to-Work Friday is showers.

Another great ride this morning, my legs felt ready to go as I started my gradual uphill climb. There was a little wind for part of the commute but nothing that was holding me back.
Yesterday I saw a guy leaving the building where I work on a three wheeled recumbent bike, I thought that was pretty neat but other than that I haven't seen any other bikes around this week. Perhaps some folks are carpooling.

:thumb:

The weather was nice, 50, overcast, slight dampness in the sky. It was a nice ride in.

That is, until my pannier decieded it wanted to become suicidal and play in traffic, TWICE! The first time it just jumped off the rear rack and hit the ground. Hrrrrrmmmm.....the second time it jumped, got caught in between the rack and the tire, then hit the ground. Now my pannier has a nice rip in the side, the rubber footing on the bottom is ripped off, and the 'stiff backing' on the pannier is twisted.

These are cheap panniers I got for 30 bucks total two years ago...maybe they've reached the end of their life :(

a nice balmy 46F this morning again - shorts and tshirt - brrrrrr initialy, then it felt nice

Should be a great ride home today - love this time of year

Wet - we have a fine mist and high humidity this morning in central IL. Made full use of the new lights. Rode with one other commuter for two blocks - noticed a "Live Strong" band. So another on the other side of the road later in the ride. I've been seeing a few more commuters out this week - but to see them in the "rain" is great! :-)

What a great morning for the ride in; temps in the 50s, sunny and calm winds. Caught up to a street sweeper on the back, curvy roads and had people in cars passing me and the sweeper around blind corners. People are crazy and I was just waiting for one of them to get caught with a car coming the other way. Other than that it was a typical ride to work. Should be a great afternoon for the ride home.

Just a reminder for those in MA, this week is Bay State Bike Week! Sign up for the 50,000 mile commuter challenge here: http://www.baystatebikeweek.org/index.htm

good ride in this morning. Met up with a co-worker on route during his first commute in.

Very nice ride in today. Except for the lady that passed way to close in an SUV, I wish upon her $5.00 a gallon gas.

On my ride home last night there was a guy in a truck who decided to pass me on the left and then cut across to the far right lane, pretty erratic move. I just sort of put my arms in the air to display my feelings of, 'hey, didn't you see me there?!' He did the same thing in his rearview and then drove off.

Yesterday was my first real commute not using the MUP I usually travel - this was to a different location elsewhere in the city, for which the MUP wouldn't have helped. So this was really my first commute mixed up with morning-rush traffic on city streets.

I have no horror stories! We must have pretty considerate drivers.


This morning, leaving the house, I found my front tire wouldn't hold air - I swapped in my one spare tube. Didn't need tire levers; didn't find any evidence of a puncture in the tire. Glad it happened at home, where I have a floor pump, rather than on the road, where I only have a skimpy mini-pump.

Fast flow on the ride in today. 53x18 is feeling better all the time. +9C today - almost t-shirt weather! :D

Nice. Day 3 of chatty bike commuter week, each day I've wound up taking time yakking w/ other rider(s). Fun. My wife is out of town so I'm doing all the kid shuttling. Not so different, lately I've been doing 3 of 4 kid-legs per day anyway (drop 1, retrieve both), now I'm doing all 4. And the kids are loving living on doritos.

That sucks. By the way, I though you Chicagoans called that stuff "pop."

As for my commute, it was warm and windy. Gusty 20+mph wind out of the northwest and into the 90s today, triple digits by the end of the week. There are definitely more Bike to Work Week commuters out on the streets today. Welcome to them all.

Pretty morning - 70 degrees, sunny and calm. Tried a different route in today - not nearly as beautiful as my usual route, but also on pavement all the way (no need to carry the bike 1/2 mile up a steep unpaved trail at the very end.)

Upside: it's fast! (a bit over 13 miles, which I covered in under an hour).

Downside: about 3 of those miles are on a very busy road sandwiched between an industrial zone and a military base - lots of traffic, trucks, and the occasional F-16 overhead. (those things are LOUD.)

Provisional verdict: useful for when it's wet, but probably not my preferred route. Though I'll try it a couple more times, and scout around for some alternates that might cut down the time I have to spend on the arterial.

Nice morning. Around 55 degrees. Took it a little easy (still made it in same time !!). Had one close call, and one VERY VERY close call where a motorists mirror touched my glove as he buzzed by me. He was too fast and that incident scared me a bit. I knew he was gonna pass me close, but didn't expect his mirror to touch my glove :( I will be more careful !!

I crosss over Smithfield & Davis Blvd,then get on Walkers Trail that runs behind NRH20.it has to be your buddy,i say him this morning,it was raining pretty good in N.R.H.so it was a real quick hello.LMK if it was him.

Great ride in with my co-worker again. He's hooked. I talked to another co-worker who lives nearby. He just bought an el cheapo BBB (Big Box Bike) for exercise. He never thought of commuting, I'm going to check his rig for him and hopefully he'll join us soon.

Gonna have a regular peloton to work if this keeps up! :D

The ride in was clear and peaceful and mellow, just the way I like it. I've noticed myself spinning in bigger gears more often while still feeling comfortable. I like it!

The ride home was interesting. It was a very sociable time in my day...that never happens. I met one friendly cyclist who stopped to see if I was okay when I was resting on a bench. I met another nice guy when he whizzed by me like he wasn't even going uphill. Then I met the neighbors who live on the corner...their cute little fluffy black doggie named Itchy, who is less than a foot tall, decided that he wanted to chase me. I rode my bike into the neighbors' yard, and the lady shooed him in to the backyard.

Great ride to work. Great ride home until:

Riding through an intersection at a stop light when I hear PEEP PEEP PEEP!

I look over and see a baby duck running around the cars that are stopped. I quickly dumped the bike in the grass and go try to get said duck.

Finally get it out from under two different cars. Call my wife to get me, as I can't let it go with no mom around and it's by a busy street. No biking home with a baby duck!

Now we have to decide whether to raise another duck (had one last year) or bring it in to the wild life shelter...
The kids think they want to raise another duck... LOL

thanks for asking! my commute was one of those days from a dream, well almost...
definate farfiggneugaun, ying/yangish!

after sleeping in, i got ride underway. temp 65deg, sun on my back, traffic seemed focused. at mile 10, i noticed drive-train issue grew, but was able to make it to work. through close inspection, i noticed chain-link side had split, was lucky to have made trip in.

for work, i help people help themselves, under wellness and recovery initiatives. we take people we work with to various sites, from drs, ssa (social security administration), lawyers, shopping, and other activities of daily living (adl) including medication monitoring. anyway, i scheduled 4 people to go to the local gym, 3 backed out. this was a 1/1 gym therapy session. i got a pretty good upper body work-out as well!

while helping another person - consumer in the afternoon, i had to drive to my house to pick-up a tape measure. at home, i was able to PICK-UP one of my chain link remover tools. got her a/c secured!

back at the office, after notes complete, addressed the chain issue by removing broken link and reconnecting chain. good to go! called roady friend, road trip planned after work.

road ride went fast (:-) compared to loaded commuter, but both rides unique.

after chowing down on bbq leftovers from sunday, i felt need to share this!

sometimes, things line up and flow, like they did for me today! othertimes... :-)

enjoy the moment!

tomg

My first ever bike commute today:

perfect morning on the way in. The temp was perfect, birds were singing, traffic was actually very mild. My route went on nearly without incident. I actually got to work about 20mins earlier than I usually do. I toweled off in the bathroom and all was fine. Way better than what I expected for my first time. I made the 11.7mi trip in 1 hour on the nose. I felt like a million bucks all day at work. The ride home was great too, though I was fighting a pretty stiff headwind the entire time. I still managed to knock it out in 1 hour and 2 mins:). It really was much more manageable than I built it up in my head. I just decided I needed to try it, and I'm glad I did! I want to ride in at least once a week.

I feel great about it, got my new more reasonably sized panniers today and am loaded up hoping it's not raining when I wake up in the morning. If it is, back to bed I go for an extra 45min before I drive in.