I wanted to stop for coffee this morning, but was so tired and poky that I ended up leaving late. I took the MUP. Even though it's the same old MUP I always take, it was an absolutely beautiful ride. The sun was just barely coming up, the path was so lush and green and sweet-smelling, the creek was high, and it was just mesmerising.

Awesome ride in, I took a different route this morning that has a decent climb and it felt really good to push it a little. Took a few joy laps around the building to cool down and just listen to the birds sing.
The saddle feels better each day.

pleasant ride in.
No buzzes, no honks, no yells. Made decent time even though I was not pushing real hard.
All in all, a good commute.

Saw another bike commuter on my route this morning for the second day in a row, a first for me. Yesterday I was gaining on him until he ran a red light and then turned off my route. This morning, he buzzed past me at a red light just as it turned green. I'm not one to get my ego bruised, so I rode behind him for a while, but he was clearly new at cycling. He would pedal about 3 strokes and then coast -- on a flat stretch of road -- so I passed him and said good morning. Then I kicked it up a notch because that's what I do on that stretch of road.

I was tempted to ride beside him and chat a minute, but the road we were on is too busy for that. He was a young kid, probably high school or college age and riding to work. No helmet, gloves, lights or cycling clothes. If I see him again I might offer to give him a tail-light and some old cycling clothes. I'm afraid he'll get hit by a car dressed like he is.

It is a a beautiful spring day! I was very, very sleepy this morning so I tried to take it easy. However, I kept creeping up on a guy on a mtn bike so I eventually passed him. After that, I ended up speeding up, so I ended up a work about the same time as usual. A hawk built a nest very close to the trail so I slowed down to check it out. There is at least one mature chick.

I wonder if today was some kind of high-school ride-to-school day or something, as I saw two younger guys (high school? college?) riding part of my route this morning and they were similarly ill-prepared. They also broke almost every safety rule in the book--rode the wrong way, high gears going up a blind hill so they were wobbling in and out of the lane going the wrong way, rode the sidewalk, no signals, waited to the right of a right-turn-only lane to cross a major arterial.

I didn't have time to stop and explain to them all the things they were doing wrong, but as I rode past them I said, "Guys, you're doing it wrong. Ride on the right and obey the laws." They looked at me like I had 3 heads. Oh well. I'll feel bad if they get hit, but I worry more about the message they send drivers (who probably don't know the laws any better than these guys). My wife contends that drivers can tell the difference between "cyclists" and "idiots on bikes", but I don't have as much faith. :(

Ok, enough of that. Last night I had a long commute (for me). Rode my usual 5 miles home, helped my wife with The Kid, then got back on the bike and rode anouther 6 miles to Ultimate Frisbee pickup. Played for 90 minutes then rode home. The legs are really tired this morning.

Rain = No biking :(

The commutes have been really good this week... it's still been windy as hell and I have never seen more people cycling and walking while on my usual route.

Whomping the fixed gear into those gale force winds yesterday was a workout yesterday but the ride home was heavenly as I enjoyed a wicked tailwind and it's looking calm and clear today. :)

tarwheel: I wonder if this was the kid I saw last week? You could barely see this guy from behind, especially in the dawn light with cloud cover ... scary watching cars approach him.

Still have a perfect score. Been commuting every day since BTW Week. I MET ANOTHER BIKE COMMUTER THIS MORNING. Sorry for shouting but this was a real commuter. He had on a jersey and biking shorts with his work cloths in his rear bag (suit). We talked for about 2 miles before we had to go our separate ways. One of my supervisors called in to say he had seen 4 commuters this morning. This is catching on in my home town so I'm excited.
Tony

We had 90% humidity here in the desert this morning. Ugh. Still a nice commute though.

No sympathy from those of us in TX! High 70's on the ride in this morning - sticky!!! And high 90's forecast for the ride home tonight with a >20MPH "blast furnace" wind out of the south (and right in my grill - SO looking forward to that!)

All that said, I still (almost always) prefer the ride to the drive. Even in the heat. Which is not even really here yet.

Was thinking the other day that I'm pretty fortunate to be able to commute by bike - lots of folks I work with simply have no viable way to get from there to here. The infrastructure here in the DFW metro-mess is simply not conducive to bikes. Big, fast roads, lakes in very inopportune locations, bubbas in pickup trucks, no transit system serving any of the Fort Worth area suburbs, no MUP that I'm aware of connecting two different 'burbs... My ride is through two nice, smallish suburbs with decent roads and generally respectful drivers. I've actually looked at the map with a couple friends trying to help them find a good route in, and it simply isn't there for them.

It didn't rain on the way in, so that was a big bonus. The Colnago guy was out again, doing some high-speed filtering at a busy intersection. The last glimpse I caught was him trying to draft off of a minivan. Other than that, it was a largely uneventful ride. Drivers were bloody slow today - I didn't even have to pedal half the time, and I almost missed two lights.

Was raining when I got up, so I spent 30 minutes to re-fit my fenders and re-fit my computer (the harness was jiggered, MEC replaced it no problem!). Because of the later departure I made a call and rode to Union station for the GO train, I was horribly wet with sweat as it was quite humid/warm this morning (I only wore jersey/shorts under my waterproofs, too).

My buddy called off our training ride (something about being up all night on a work project but I know he's still recovering from the Great Suffering I dished out to him on yesterday's ride), so I laid in bed for a bit and then indulged in a little velo-schadenfreude by riding up Riverside Boulevard.

Caltrans shut down a portion of I-5 that runs through downtown and all the Elk Grovians and Pocketeers are forced to find a freewayless route into downtown. Riverside parallels the freeway and it was stopped up a good 3 miles from downtown. But not the bike lane!

Suckas!

Uneventful ride for me.

Apparently we had another local die this morning though.
http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/2980658/

:(

That sucks. I live in Hillsborough, some of those roads are a tight fit and
people drive too fast as well. My condolences to their family.

Blew a tube this morning. The valve stem actually kinda seperated from the tube. Due to an unfortunate set of circumstance my spare tube was sitting on my desk at work. I had to be "rescued" by a co-worker. Oh well, at least the tube is here at work so i can swap it out and cycle home.

Pretty good - I got home in 1:05 last night (14 miles) which is fast for me. This morning, did the ride in 1:10 - also pretty fast compared to my usual. Nice weather, not too hot, and I left the laptop at work so I felt extra zippy!

Unfortunately, I get the relatively light tailwinds on the way in - and the insane headwinds on the way home. Took a new route yesterday - boredom is setting in. Only redeeming feature is that it breaks up the big chunk into the wind.

Who's bright idea was it to make "bike paths" like sidewalks? Riding on the road is so much easier/faster than the ca-chunk, ca-chunk of a million cracks to ride over.

Still have another hour by train and subway to go, and then about 20min by bike towards home. Wish I didn't have the graveyard shift today...

The way here was a good commute though. Good weather, didn't need a jacket. Not too warm either.

Nice drop in after I got a slow/late start. Took it easy, saw some other cyclists on the Jail Trail/Eliza Furnace. Last night on the way home, a guy on a road bike in business casual clothes and no helmet wheelsucked me for about two miles. Other than that, pretty uneventful.

hot and humid today - YAY!!! i love this weather. i should live somewhere where it's like this year round. looking forward to ride home and then doing another 40

Started off decent and then it started to drop buckets of water. Although I hate rain... the ride it self was semi enjoyable.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3044/...02ba75c9cd.jpg

Very windy. So much that I rode 1-2 gears lower than I usually do. I don't know why Chicago gets to be called the Windy City (I'm an IL native, BTW), as every day here (SF Bay) seems to be windy, especially in the summer.

Very cool about the hawk nest! I'm a biologist/birder myself so think it's awesome that biking can get folks to appreciate nature more. The best part of my commute is passing a segment of the Bay Trail that parallels a tidal marsh restoration site...it's pretty slow now (except for some pretty American Avocets in breeding plumage) but I can't wait until the shorebirds migration starts up again in July-August. I'll have to be sure to pack my binoculars in my backpack (no panniers for me yet).

Sad to hear about it, I cannot say I live there but do wish them condolences.

Today I drove but yesterday was ideal riding conditions in both directions. In fact, I made record time on the ride in to the office without even trying.

As for appreciating nature, on my ride home last evening I saw the cutest little groundhog on somebody's lawn not far from the edge of the street. Just a youngster about 1/3 of the size of most I see around here. And then closer to home I saw the first muskrat I have ever seen in the wild! It was in the ditch pretty close to the street.

The commute today, was not to bad, started out in the afternoon so the winds were blowing full force on the ride south, after all was said and done on the way home even though there was that same wind, but instead of for the whole ride only a part, the weather was good, and the traffic light. Besides the few problem turns it was a great ride.