Getting warmer. 19C. Last week was nicer. This is the first day I got all sweaty even though I only where a biking jersey.
Some car tried passing me, then needed to pull to the side to let an oncoming car through and almost squished me! I wasn't going so fast, so I just slowed down and let him through.
And then there was the impatient driver who honked my, presumably to get by me. But there was a car in front of me, so there was nowhere for him to go. I just sat in the middle/left of the lane for the next km or so to prevent him from passing me until the car in front of me turned off.

70-ish and gorgeous...I have been incredibly lucky with nice weather lately. Plus, I can definitely tell the ride is getting easier and I am getting faster. :)

Aside from being flogged by a goose, it was perfect as usual.

One section of my commute goes over a bridge/dam where the geese like to hang out. One side of the sidewalk is bordered by an aluminum guardrail and the other side is a steep grassy hill leading into the lake. I usually am going at a pretty good clip and make a ruckus to get there attention and get them moving.

This time one big boy was pacing and hissing but not getting out of the way. Then another adult pops from under the guardrail followed by five goslings. I hook up the brakes to let them pass, which is obviously perceived by the male as me slowing down into attack mode.

I laughed to myself as I knew what was coming and had no where to go but straight through. He jumped up about head high, caught me on the thigh with his feet and batted me three times with his wings. I've got a couple of scratches and welts on my arm. I managed to stay upright though, which is better than flipping over the guardrail or ending up in the lake.

I'll go a little slower through there until all the goslings move on.

Nope! I'm doing an internship in an office right now. I just give it the quick Sink Shower (tm) when I get in :D

/\
whatever works, when i 1st started commuting i was riding to a bank branch that didnt have a shower so i used the sink as well to quickly wash my face and pits...it worked well
i feel spoiled now that i am in a building with a gym w/locker rooms and showers, good stuff
i think i shower more at work than at home

The ride in today was slow and lazy. For whatever reason, I just couldn't get my butt in gear. I still can't, come to think of it. :p I left later than usual, so the sun was up and I could use the MUP. I saw some interesting anti-establishment graffiti at the park ("Private Banks Own Your A**! --Free Press") and wondered if the tagger paid for the spray paint with his credit card.

It was beautiful today morning. Around 61 F, no wind. Was riding with my wife so I was slow, enjoying the ride. Drivers were a bit aggressive in Jersey City, but not that bad.

Boo flat tires. :(

Drizzlin'!

Today's entertainment came from Mr. Late-for-work-riding-a-Colnago. This guy came flying up behind my wife after we had walked our bikes across a busy intersection. He stayed on the sidewalk, scattered some people waiting for a bus and then sprinted by my wife when they got off of the path and onto the road. I was behind all the action, but I really did want to be in the thick of it. I rolled up beside my wife and said something like "Let's go get 'im!", but she declined to take up the chase, sighing "You go ahead dear". I squealed like a child on x-mas morn', and started after Cap'n McSprinty.

I was disappointed - I reeled him in after maybe a block-and-a-half. He was going balls out, but lacked a smooth spin and was kind of bouncing. The Colnago was also a cx bike with what looked like 28C slicks. I coasted up to his left side, about a bike length back. I thought, "I bet he blows through the 4-way stop", which he did without scrubbing speed. I slowed down to wait for my wife, and we continued on to work at our usual pace. "He must have been late for work", I said. "Meh", grunted my wife, and so we rode.

Nice fast ride today. Only like 1 mile yesterday so I was pretty energetic today.

My very first commute. Drove 5km to the train station to get the train. After I came back in town this evening I hopped back on my bike to get another 5km.
It's just for 2 weeks, after that it'll be 50km a day total. Can't wait :) Still have some work to do on my bike though, like a triathlon clip on steer and I really need to get me a pair of panniers.

Though, back to the commute. This morning was great, no need for a jacket. About 16C outside. Hopped on my bike and didn't even have to stop for a single red light untill I actually reached the station. Locked up the bike, popped off the computer and hopped on the first train towards work.

This evening, it was warm... too darn warm. Felt like there was too darn little oxygen in the air. Something like O-2 instead of O2 :( But still, had to stop for 4 red lights, however I went the same route as this morning. Got home in 15 minutes, not too bad I guess.

Looking at the total picture.... I had quite a good first commute today :D

Back today after a week-long vacation in the Caribbean. Nothing (about the commute anyway!) to report.

However...when the taxi dropped us at the airport in Turks and Caicos Saturday I was stunned to see several bike racks in front of the terminal. OK, I get that the income levels in T&C are low so bikes are a common form of transport. But there isn't a SINGLE BIKE RACK in the brand-new "multi-use development" strip mall near my house. And the shopping center even has a bike shop! Grrrrr.

The ARBT seemed pretty crowded this morning. This bike commuting thing might be catching on....

DJ, congrats on the return. Having been hit twice myself, I know it takes some intestinal fortitude to get back on afterwards.

I was reading my latest issue of Bicycling magazine last night and they had a review of the Salsa (though they reviewed the geared version). I was very envious. It sounded like the perfect bike for what I do (mostly commuting with the occasional club or charity ride).

Gorgeous morning - 68 degrees and cloudy, clearing to sun. Got a late start but decided to ride the longer and more scenic route anyway. At the end I took the dirt road alternative to the freeway shoulder but instead of carrying my bike up the very short and very steep route I usually take, I rode up the longer but mostly graded route (about 1.25 miles). Seems to take about the same amount of time in total, and definitely more pleasant.

I think I've become a better rider in the last few months - last time I tried this (back in February) I had a lot of trouble handling a skinny tired bike on graded dirt. This time, it was pretty easy! Will definitely need to clean the chain tonight though.

Got to work only about 15 minutes late - and since I worked this weekend I have some wiggle room on that front! :)

I take the T part of the way to work and leave my beater bike at the T station. From there, I ride the 2 miles to work. When I arrived at my bike this morning, I found that someone had jumped on the rear wheel and that it was now shaped like a "C". Wonderful way to start the week. At least the weather was nice for my walk, about 70 deg. and sunny, right along the Charles River. I will walk back tonight and bring the bike to the shop which luckily is only two blocks from the station where my bike is. With luck, I should be riding to work again shortly. At least I have my bike at home so that I can take a ride then.

Or was it people trying to avoid the I-5 closure? Sounds as if a lot of people are pretty worried about that!

My buddy and I were wondering about that. The eastern neighborhoods and suburbs wouldn't be directly affected, but the paper and tv stations have been advising the north-south commuters to get off and use the other highways and surface arterials. So even though they weren't directly affected, some folks might have been thinking it would be a zoo on the roads and might as well dust off the bike.

I did notice a riders with those really old fashioned styrofoam helmets, so maybe that's the case.

Fast run in, today. Took two days off, wanted to get some singletrack time in, no go though. Still feeling some aches in the wrist and back from the crash last week.

Fast and uneventful. I seem to attract all of the yahoos that like to draft and then pull away at the end of the ride. I let them have their moment.

Commute in was slow and relaxed because I rode in with a girl and her friend who was fairly new to cycling. In fact, the poor girl only used 1 gear for 70% of the ride because she did not know how to change gears. Luckily this way was the easy way. She is going to have one helluva a time coming back home because it has 1 nice hill that I can barely manage 8-8.5mph spinning up it. She was on a MB too. We did have 1 car with what looked like high school kids coming the opposite way honk and yell something at us, but we could not hear it.The ride back was by myself in the beginnings of rush hour traffic. I was riding hard and relatively fast for me. At one point I had some lady honk and pass me in some big SUV. At the light ahead I rolled up to her window and motioned for her to roll down her window. I was suprised when she did. I asked her if it was her that honked at me and she said no, then I looked at the truck next to her and some guys were looking at me. I asked them and they said they were honking for her to get over and pass. I told them both thank you and rode off when the light turned green. Maybe it was my big clyde body confronting them to their face that made them seem more hospitable...

Being big sounds like fun when biking...

Uneventful. Hot. I took a slightly meandering route that made it take longer.
Some older guy honked me, so I moved more into the lane but obviously not enough. He manged to queeze by me...

Perfect cycling weather, if you discount the 10 mph headwind - both ways...Would have been OK if I hadn't lost a pedal on the way home :eek:.

Four-lanes of traffic stopped at the light. I'm third in line. Light turns green, and I wait for everyone to get their respective acts together to actually start moving. I gun it hard because I have a hill and an overpass with merging traffic. It's rush hour, so it's a little 'sporty' out there.

BAM! L pedal lets go (I have clipless) and I hear the two spacer washers clatter away. I have been experimenting with pedal extensions pecause of some knee issues and wanted to know how far to go - guess I went too far :o. Looking back, I wonder how I was able to stay in control of the bike. I was pushin' pretty hard.

I manage to coast to the shoulder median and collect myself in relative safety. I twist the pedal off of my shoe and see metal shavings on the spindle. Uh-oh...

Pulled out the trusty tool kit and was able to reattach the pedal and cinch it down good n' tight. Was back on the road in less than five minutes. Close call, that.

Lesson learned: Use proper pedal extenders instead of washers. I'll probably need a new crankset now :(.

The ride home wasn't bad. I took it slow, but was really too wrapped up in my thoughts (brain going 1,ooo,ooo MPH from work stress) to enjoy the scenery. Still, I got home, and I was more mellow than I was when I left work. I'd consider it a successful ride.

wet

REALLY wet- 40mm of rainfall in just a couple of hours

my gear is dripping all over the floor of the office as we speak

I like the way my bike gets super smooth when its soaking, like the rain kind of lubes everything.,

it almost makes up for the couple of hours maintenance required to clean up and regrease everything when i get home.

Fine ride. Still fairly cool-ish out, but the south winds will be bringing in the heat and humidity today (and also a headwind for me on the way home)

Decent ride, thought the right knee is hurting today. Looks like a hot ride home this afternoon; as long as I'm riding AWAY from the office it won't matter.

I decided to drive in today and on my way I saw 2 commuters. I was suprised because I rarely see people on bikes in the morning. Maybe I just noticed it because I am now a cyclist, but you could not mistake their lights even though the sun was shining brightly...

Beautiful this morning. Mid 50sF. No wind at all. The air was cool and dry after some thunder storms last night. I'm loving the Continentals. My average speed is up 2MPH from the old knobbies, and they ride softer, too. Soaking up the bumps.

Later in the week, the weather guessers are saying high 80s! :eek: Do not want!

very nice commute in this morning - like BigRon stated, was a little cool, but felt great! This week will be the beginning of the 'wet season' here in NC - dripping, sopping, soaking wet with sweat!

Although I am not primarily responsible for his decision, there is another guy at work who has started commuting. First official ride this morning. Good to finally see some others here taking the plunge. It's crazy, we have a good amount of 'roadies' that work here, but no one bike commutes except one on Fridays when the weather is good. There is even someone who lives no more than 3 miles away who won't commute because it is "too difficult" with all the gear and everything and having to shower and change...oh well - I'll keep working on her - at this point, I am just aiming to convince her to do a Friday commute and hopefully the addiction will ensue.