The commute home last night on the single speed was brutal! Very gusty thunderstorm winds the entire way. Been having knee issues. That wind didn't help at all! Thursday's commute will be on a geared bke just so I can baby the knees.

Unfortunately, Wednesdays are one of two days where I have to drive to work. :( Traffic was notably lighter. Saw several cyclists in the DTC and Inverness areas.

I was heading north on my tarmac after my lovely tire incidents and it had the opposite effect for me. I was reaching 30mph on the platte. EEEK!
That and I was in a horrible mood so it was a welcome change.

DJ-Dude! You are WAY LUCKY! At one point, I had to stand to keep the pedals turning into the wind on the Bear Creek Trail heading west toward home. (very flat!) UGH! :eek:

Think I will ride the MTB on Thursday and Friday's commute. Lots of easy gears. ;)

Had to stay a little late last night to avoid the storms that rolled through. I put fenders on my commuter about a month ago and I really don't know how I've ridden without them for so long, they ROCK! This morning I hit 42mph on the big downhill which was fun. No rain/storms forecast for this afternoon so I am looking forward to the dry ride home.

I don't have the balls(or gusto) to commute the 15 miles on my fixed gear yet.

I hear a lot about this bear creek trail - where is it? I doesn't look very established on my Denver Bicycle Touring map.

Matty-

Head south on the Platte to just south of Hampden. The Platte will cross the river to the eastern shore and the Bear Creek will continue straight. (simplistic I know) The BCT runs all the way out to Morrison and is a little disconnected in a couple of places on the west end, but once you know how to connect the dots, its not bad.

My commute is 15 miles too. Mostly on bike trails. The single speed rocks, except when the wind is in my face. Then, it just hurts. :(

Hey! New to the forum, up in Canada.

I started with a mountain bike this season (converted to slicks) and was averaging around 25 minutes each way.

I bought a new roadie about a month ago or so and shaved off a LOT of time! I am now around 18 minutes each way! I did a round trip - just over 9 miles (15 kms) - in less than 37 minutes yesterday!

Loving the new road bike!!!

Oh yeah, forgot to mention... the road bike actually gets me to work faster than when I take the car!! Traffic is a bugger. ;)

Happy riding,
Derrick.

The ride home almost didn't get started. I guess I picked up something in my rear tire on the way in; I noticed the tire pick something up and fling it off and told my self to check it when I got to work. I forgot about it and found it flat when I was about to leave. I decided to try and pump it up thinking it must be a slow leak, it worked. It was a pinhole which I patched when I got home but still replaced both tube and tire with a new one. Ride was OK otherwise.

Um...it was interesting, I guess. Seeing one horse erection is somewhat normal, but two? Two? Did I need to see that?

And, yes. I did have to share. :p

Hey welcome to the forums fellow Canuck. Yeah roadbikes rock. Speaking of which i had a light tailwind in both directions this afternoon and a freshly cleaned and lubbed drivetrain. I was flying... then i was cut off by a semi. I couldn't pass him... killed my average speed. (i guess i pulled an impatient cager routine pounding my handle bars). Then i had to detour to pick up some oranges at sobeys for my daughter's soccer team tonight (i was on snack duty). As such my average was only 31.40km. Oh well it was still a really really fun commute.

Todays commutes were one of those that no matter which direction you turn you have a headwind, enjoyed the challenge, foggy and drizzling the entire day, sun never had a chance. Otherwise I enjoyed it, the ride was good and looking forward to more in the coming week. Keep thinking touring rig but still riding my MTB only time will tell. Otherwise, it is good to hear so many new individuals getting out there and riding, to cycle commute is a wonderful thing, once you start it can be difficult to go back, yet I wonder why would you? Keep Riding, And Enjoy Life At Your Own Pace, live it, not just let it pass you by.

Today it was hot! Rode 14 miles round trip in 99 degree weather with the humidity at the highest it has been in over a year. I toughed it out though and am proud to have pulled through it without hurling :)

It's gonna be a hot one today in NC, with the high expected to hit near 100F. The temp was already 75F when I left home at 6:25 am. It's also very humid, and I got very sweaty even riding at an easy pace.

I was tempted to drive today due to the heat, but $4/gallon gas is a great motivator. I'm also trying to top 200 miles for the week. I was out of town on vacation over the past weekend, with my bike, and my brother and I got in some great rides in Atlanta and the N. Georgia mountains. Rode from Decatur to Stone Mountain one day, from Decatur to Piedmont Park the next day, and then an epic metric century up in the mountains. We rode from just north of the NC-GA state line near Hiawasee over the Blue Ridge divide on US 76, and then wound our way around Lake Burton and over to Robertston, ending up at my other brother's house in Sautee, Ga. We ended up climbing 4,100+ feet over 62 miles, but I think we had more downhills than ups. At one point, we had a 7.5-mile continuous descent at speeds topping 40 mph several times. The roads up there have banked turns and you can really fly on the descents. Sweet!

Good day, eh, and congratulations on building your national igloo. :p ;)

I've got slicks for my mountain bike too. Much faster if all you're doing is riding on pavement. At the moment I've got dual-purpose tires on. Continental Traffic. They're pretty quick, and work off road too. I like to ride in the woods, so no road bike for me.

Anyway, sunny and clear this morning. Mid 60sF, and a light headwind. No personal time-trialers accosting me with their pathetic attempts to go fast like the last 2 days. :D :innocent:

Had a totally weird experience on this AM's commute. Riding in a city, you get lots of different smells, some pleasant and some not so. I was riding up Stuart Street into downtown and eased up behind a big ol' truck at a light, just as it changed green. I braced myself for the diesel blast, but what I got was partially diesel with a strong overlay of Indian food. Smelled like channa masala, I swear to god. I have no idea where that came from, but now I really want Indian food.

olfactory hallucination, bad sign.:eek:

Not sure, since I do not eat Indian food, but if there is cooking oil involved, you may have gotten hit with a veggie oil conversion exhaust, as I understand you can still pick up whiffs of the stuff that was cooked in it.

As for my commute, last night was nice, that is until a heavy equipment bowser (pickup truck w/ fuel tank and pump on the back) buzzed by me with fuel leaking/spraying out of the hose on the back-got me right in the face and mouth. As such, I was not able to get a good look at the plate or anything, but I was royally PO'd.

This morning was much better, though I have been slower in the past couple runs (38.5 minutes instead of about 36.5) but still enjoyable. Traffic at the town center and rotary that I pass through was the worst I have seen in a while, but I was able to slide right through, despite a non signaling right turners. I am proud to say that at this point, keeping my head on a swivel has become second nature, and I am much more confident and aware when navigating heavy traffic.

Ate garbage last night, felt like garbage this morning. Fried food = soggy legs. Hoping my long training commute home is better.

I didn't eat the garbage mobilechimp did, unless you count Doritos and Oreos at 1 a.m. I was just trying to carbo-load for the ride this morning.

The ride was warm. Hot and muggy are outside waiting for me for the way home. I think I am pulling the boys on a ride this afternoon to pick mulberries for Momma. It might be more of a swim than a ride .

I swear they changed the order of the lights. I hit just about every red from my house to work. Traffic was heavy too.

Biodiesel?

Long time reader/member, first time poster in this thread :)

I have a very short commute, only three miles. It's also quite flat. The wind often makes up for that; I seem to have a headwind going to work, and a headwind coming home. Today was no different, at least so far. I hear thunder now, so perhaps it'll be rain AND a headwind. Woohoo.

The commute in was short, about 12 minutes, and pretty uneventful. No cars honked, most gave me a wide berth. Weather - warm and humid, windy. I rode my Terry Classic; I found a Trek 311 yesterday at a used bike shop, so I'm hoping to be able to ride that sometime next week! It's being cleaned and tuned...

Nice commute in this morning. Rode the MTB instead of the single speed in an effort to give my knees some much needed R&R. Seems to have worked! I'm happy that even with riding the heavy MTB loaded down with all my work stuff, still managed to make the trip in right at an hour. :)

Steel is real! 5 commuters at the corner of 15th of L this morning: my Gazelle, two Rivendells (!), and two beach cruisers. All steel.

Drove today - doctor appt this afternoon at the Remote & Inaccessible Office (Oh boy! Mammogram!! :p).
So I took the opportunity to switch out some of my work clothes, refresh my snack stash and all that good stuff.

My legs are a bit tired. Just hit 200 miles for the week without any recovery days. Just one more day and I will have knocked two goals out of the way.
1) Entire week in and back for 280 miles for my commutes
2) 1000 miles for a month. It should end up being closer to 1100 by the time I am finished.

I refuse to look at my bikes this weekend. :p

Nice commute this morning on my single speed. Trying to determine what is making an annoying noise. I think it is either the saddle or seatpost since it only occurs when I am sitting.

It was 78F and sunny when I left the house - perfect weather for a ride home in the evening, but a bit ominous at 6:30 a.m.! Nice ride this morning, but I swear all the neighborhoods and municipalities I pass through conspired and decided to overwater all the medians and grass common areas, making a lot of the roads really wet. Haven't had that much spray on me since I last rode in a thunder storm...

My "commute" yesterday was a ride to the dr.'s office for a checkup/exam. It was twice the distance of my commutes to work and it felt good to get the extra miles. Much of the ride was bike lane/MUP while my normal commute is a route that most non-commuting folks would consider crazy.

For the 3rd time in 3 weeks, I woke the morning after a "long" (relative) ride to find my rear tire flat. I think there's probably something on the rim. I'm going to take the whole thing apart tonight at home and see what's up.

Slightly OT, but kinda bike-related. Driving to Ultimate practice last night I saw a lady driving a scooter the wrong way, on a sidewalk, cell phone in left hand held to her right ear, no helmet...with a very young child sitting on the floorboard at her feet. WTF? Maybe I'm a safety-geek, but that just seems all kinds of dangerous. And to have a kid with you???

So i re-stocked my patch kit this morning and what do you know... i had an opportunity to make use of it. Man i'm done with flats, done. I'm going to go to mec tonight 'n git me some gatorskins.