My wife called about 4:30 wanting to pick me up from work or I wouldn't have known about any storm. I told her I'd ride anyway.

I did decide to leave work early and headed out the door a little after 5 to light rain. Within two minutes the bottom dropped out, roads flooded and it was hailing. I kept riding and within five minutes the skies cleared and it was mostly dry the rest of the trip.

Glad she called. I'd have hated to miss riding in the hail :rolleyes:

For the record, marble-size hail doesn't really hurt.

One mile in at 64 degrees.

One mile out at 50 degress.

Two miles that were uneventful.

Beautiful full moon setting on my left, followed shortly by the sun rising on my right- very nice!!

The sky was awesome this morning! Mid-50's, low pollen after the storm, lighter traffic than usual ... killer ride.

Nice ride today. Temps in the upper 40s. No wind. Sunny. One very enthusiastic cyclist passed me going the other way. We exchanged greetings. Later on I caught a dude on a hybrid, but passed him because I was trying to maintain a faster average commute time this week. We said hi to one another.

Looks like rain for the ride home. :(

I've been noticing this grossly obese man the past few weeks...must have been a new tenant or something. Anyhow, I would always see him outside on the way home, without his shirt on. Skinny legs, looked like he was about to deliver twins.

Fast forward to this morning. I saw his dead body, belly up, blue, and blood coming out of his mouth, on the sidewalk just as the police arrived to take pictures.

Thats a first...

Poor guy. :( Hopefully that'll be the last DOA you see on your commute.

Another pleasant ride thanks to the sun and little wind. Still a bit cool so I wore a sweater and a light jacket. Sorry to hear about the dead obese man, I have never seen anything like that on my commute.

I would like to try a different route home as long as it's not raining this afternoon.

When you find out what happened, post an update. And Yea, Here's hoping you never see that again.

Another nice short morning commute from the trailhead to the light rail on my mountain bike.

I am really getting eager to finish my casserole build. The mtb is starting to drive me nuts.
Just need to have the fork cut and my last order to arrive.
I may just get impatient this weekend and find a cheap chain and one long reach road caliper just to get it moving. Ordered on Friday and they still have not shipped. Dang it lickbike.

First commute to work today =) I don't know why I didn't do it sooner. 12 min bike ride VS. 25-30 min car ride....

I rode in on my road bike with a messenger bag. I can't wait for my x-check frame to come in and built it up :D Should be more comfortable with a rack/pack.

Had to ride the road bike into work...apparently bent the derailleur hanger on my MTB. :( It will be at the LBS for 4-5 days until they get time to work on it.

Other than that, nice weather, headwind, but cool. Just don't look forward to upper 90s on the ride home. Yesterday, the temp nearly did me in. The ride is fine because I stay pretty cool, but when I get off it's like this rush of heat and sweat. But a few minutes later, I feel great again. :D

Ride home last night was pretty darn good. Drove in yesterday morning, so didn't need to bring the bag home - nice to ride unencumbered! And with a tail wind in the evening for a change. Hottest evening of the year at 92*f, but didn't feel bad at all.

This morning was just about perfect - 70*f, clear skies. Drivers were kind except the guy driving the Hummer that squeezed me a bit. Many thanks to the motorcycle cop that had pulled someone over on the stickiest part of the entire commute - it made everyone slow down to MY speed going up that hill; I felt safe and very powerful!

Welcome! That's quite a time savings on the commute!

You'll love the x-check!

The ride in yesterday morning was beautiful. It was finally light enough to take the MUP to work! The path in the afternoon is just a plain old bike path with some trees and a creek. But when the sun is just coming up, it's enchanting! If you have a good imagination, you can almost see the fairies flying from tree to tree. If you don't have a good imagination, you should get one.

The ride home was painful. I'm never eating a big plate of food 30 minutes before I leave again! Owww tummyache.

Pouring rain and a north headwind. Quite a change from the warm and sunny commutes of the last two weeks!

Felt great ... arrived a little late to work, but good fun.

As I said to a fellow commuter who didn't ride one day last week because of weather, only to have it not storm..."I've never regretted riding in, but I've regretted NOT riding many times."

Another fast ride this morning; I think I've been catching favorable winds.

I'll be riding in the local Ride of Silence tonight. For the other local commuters on this thread, if you're participating tonight and see a guy wearing a hi-viz yellow long sleeve jersey riding either a yellow Specialized MTB pulling a kid's trailer or a brown Fuji Touring, please come over and say Hi before or after the ride. It'd be great to meet you.

Great ride, crystal clear sky, cool, unusally light traffic. I was cruising along 18-20mph, getting ready to pat myself on the back for such a strong ride, when I passed a flag. You guessed it, straight out about 10 mph tailwind.

I'm considering coming out for the ride tonight. I split my commute between RTP & Hillsborough by driving, then parking off of the 15-501 exit. Gives me a 14.5 mile [one-way] commute, so I'm on the bike over half the distance. Anyway, I'd have to drive back down to join the ride ... I guess I should burn the gas to do it because it's a special ride.

Raining cats and dogs this morning, so I ran front and rear blinkies. The fender kept my buns from getting soggy, which was awesome. Wet socks, dry undies and cold hands. It could have been a lot worse...

Commuting to school for me is like sex. Even if it is not a good commute, its still pretty good. My messenger bag was awfully heavy and cumbersome with my laptop, clothing and lunch/dinner. It was too much. I think I am going to lose the laptop. Another good reason to lose it is so I am not typing on BF during class!

My ride in was less than a mile this morning. My wife has jury duty so I threw the bike in the back of the van, we drove to daycare to drop off the kids, she drove to the courthouse, and I rode the 6 blocks to the office. I'm hoping that my wife will get out early and she'll pick up the kids so I can take a nice detour ride home.

Short ride yesterday to all-day meeting near my house (too short to count as commuting according to the rules of the bike commuter contest!). Today, s-l-o-w start, my 6 yr old was going so slow he couldn't climb the curbcuts, his bike would bump into them and tip over.

I took it easy today. My legs are starting to feel the effects of a weekend century and the start of decent commuting weather.

Cool, damp. For some reason everyone I saw was super-friendly this morning. Bus driver tooted & waved, garbage truck guy wished me good morning, car passenger at a light said HeyHowyadoin, other cyclists waved, fella in the elevator wanted to know about my route.

Don't know if it was me or the universe, but everyone sure seemed to be in a good mood! :)

Oh, I forgot to report earlier I saw 4 other commuters over the course of my commute this morning, the most I've ever seen on one ride. Even better, all were riding "safely" (according to my own personal rules of what's "safe"), no threading thru traffic, waiting at traffic signals, stuff like that. Woohoo!

What a difference a day makes
 

Yesterday I skipped my ride to work; forecast said rain and it was raining when I left for work but not when I left work. I had to wake up and make up my mind to ride or not and I wasted too much time thinking about it or I would have taken the bike out in the rain anyway. Today's forecast is rain too but I said heck with it and rode anyway. Haven't left work yet so I'll see if I made the right decision or not then. I sure feel much better when I ride in rather then when I take the car. The air was cool and while I enjoyed it I began thinking how different it will be in a few weeks when the humidity and temperature get high. My ride is only six and some miles so it doesn't take too long. I don't care about getting wet, I'm more concerned about getting hit by some driver who can't see as well in the rain as he can when it's dry. Sorry I haven't anything more interesting to report but I don't mind not seeing any dead human bodies by the road, I see enough animals.

Well I drove to work today, but I was late so they sent me home. Bummer, but I figured I'd make the most of my hump-day day off. I went and bought a helmet, went home and changed clothes and went out on a ride. I wanted to test out my new computer anyways. Kind of a rough ride with NW gusts of 45mph.

Things I noticed:
People in cars suck. I own my lane. Period. If there is a wide shoulder or a bike lane I'll use it and free up the lane, but otherwise I am right in the center of the lane. People pass me and their cars are literally inches away from me. C'mon people, there is a whole other lane that you could use to pass me. Most people in Las Vegas are on the run all time. I had a trucker come up behind me and lay on his horn....scared the hell out of me.

My computer stopped working halfway through my ride. Turns out I didn't have the sensor tight enough to my fork and it slid down away from the magnet. It's a cool computer, but it is secured by zip-ties. I wish it had an actual bracket. Oh well, it does the job and all the different functions are cool.

My rear is killing me. My saddle shifted on me about 5 minutes into my ride and I didn't have a multi tool (I didn't have anything but a water bottle. I'm waiting on an order from Nashbar) I also need to raise my saddle. The seat post is too small of a diameter, so I either need a new post, or a collar from Nasbar.

My tires are slowly losing air. No prob as new tires and tubes are on the way.

I couldn't shift onto my largest chainring. I got home and busted out my repair manual and tried to service it myself, but I'm worse off than I was in the beginning. I can't seem to get the front derailleur dialed in. I had to put it off as my fatherly/husband responsibilities took over. I'm frustrated with it and am considering taking it to my LBS and having them dial in my drive train.

Headwinds suck. Tailwinds are awesome!

I need to learn how to shift better. When I come to a stop I forget to downshift and I have a rough takeoff.

Fun ride all in all, almost 6 miles in all. Feels good!

Can't let this scare you. Annoying as hell, I know, but there is nothing you can do to stop morons from honking, and you don't want to lose control because of it.

Looks like you need a bit more adjustment of your ride. It makes an amazing amount of difference.

All tires are slowly losing air. What matters is how you define "slowly".

Did you buy the bike from the LBS? If so, this tune-up (and several afterwards) should come for free. If not, it's a good idea to have them look over your bike and fix whatever problems it might have (from your description it has a few - might be small, but surely annoying).

Good luck in your commuting adventures. :)