Looks like this will be the first week I haven't bike commuted since April. I've been averaging 3-4 days per week riding but events conspired against me this week. First, I had to take Monday off for a colonoscopy, and the doctor recommended no vigorous activity, or operating equipment afterwards. Tuesday and Wednesday I had to travel out of town for a meeting. Meanwhile it finally started raining in NC after months and months of drought. It rained all day yesterday with more of the same expected today and tomorrow. I hate riding in the rain and don't have the right rain gear, fenders, etc., so I'll be driving until it dries out. I had ridden 16 out of the past 20 work days until this week. Call me a wuss, but I don't like biking in the rain.

Seems like there's rain everywhere! The ride home tonight was wet, but luckily I missed the real downpour / thunderstorms which came after I got in.

I've been taking it easy lately as my knee has been twinging slightly since I did a longish ride at the weekend. It's my own fault; I know my cleat needed adjusting because it wasn't quite right (I had taken it off and replaced it), but did 75km without bothering to sort it out. It always amazes me how a few millimetres can make a difference to how the pedals feel, even with cleats which supposedly have 8 deg of float.

I always thought it was funnier & more deflating just to outrun the person. "You want a piece? Catch me! Oh, you can't? Too bad!" :D

Niiiiiice ride this morning. Low 30s. Light-to-nonexistent tailwind. Sunrise making the sky sort of orange. I heard a really weird noise in the sky while I was riding through woods, then once I got next to Lake Champlain and could see up, I saw a hot air balloon. Cool! :) Passed one woman on a bike, and saw two other riders going the other way. I wonder how cold it'll get before I'm the only one out there again. :(

Snowed last night. No accumulation on roads, some slippery spots but that was it. Chilly zero degrees.

Wet roads make barely tolerable drivers into barely human drivers. It was hardly drizzling and yet drivers felt it was their duty to block intersections, accelerate into stopped traffic and weave all over the place w/o regard for themselves or others. I had one guy forcibly share my lane, then speed up and cut me off just so he could stop to make a right. I passed him on the left and yelled in his open window, "Watch where you're goin'!!!" and then squeezed through two extremely tight spots between various moving buses and trucks to emphasize my annoyance. And when I say tight, they were really tight. That's how annoyed I was.

It snowed last night. As Wulfheir said, there was no accumulation on the roads. My handlebars and tires had a nice coating of crusty ice/snow that wouldn't brush off. I rode through a couple off puddles, which helped get the ice off the tires. The disc brakes worked exactly the same as always, even though they had some ice in them - this bodes well for the winter months ahead.

There were only a couple of JAMs on the way in. A Mercedes minivan was scooting through traffic like a... JAM. He cut me off just as we were coming into downtown, but never made it more than 1 lane and a couple of car lengths away from me. I still caught and passed him by the time I got to my building. ******bag!

About two miles from work, I wound up drafting behind a schoolbus. The kid sitting in the back looked over, saw me and made a funny face. I stuck my tongue at him. He did the ear waggle thing and then turned around and yelled something at his friends. Suddenly a whole cluster of anklebiters were running up to the back window, clapping and making V signs with their fingers, while I made faces, did brief stints of riding hands free or reached down and strobed my headlights at them.

That was fun.

Ride safe dude. I would have emptied my bottle of Air Zound in this kind of occasions. They usually stop after a couple of blast. If they don't, well, you will see me pumping up the Zound with my frame pump around the corner at the next light :) I also have my front and rear light on blinking mode during the day. The majority of drivers give me noticeable more room than without lights.

You are ok right, O?

schedule crunch led to driving today. Still put 2 yr old into trailer and biked w/ her and 6 yr old on his own bike to his school before switching her to car to get to her daycare. Will do the reverse at retrieval time.

On my ride back to the office after having lunch at home I was hammering and once I reached the crest of a modest incline downtown I tried to shift up to fly down the other side. I am riding my 70's Zebrakenko Storm (nicknamed "Kaminari" or "Storm of the Gods" in Japanese, thanks to the help of a friend living in Japan). The FD is a bit touchy sometimes and today I overshot it and threw my chain, my pedals suddenly spinning freely beneath me. I was right by a bus stop hub downtown full of people, so to save face, instead of stopping to fix it I just quickly readjusted my posture after a slight wobble and coasted the next two blocks downhill to my office. I then walked into the office with the chain still hanging limply from the frame.

Just got back from the hospital. My CT Scan and X-Rays came back fine. I was encouraged to get checked out since I'm still experiencing nausea and lightheadedness. I crashed at 20 mph on Monday night riding home. The dog is fine. My bike is in the shop. The handlebars took the brunt of the crash. I should be back in business next week sometime. We saw a nice bull moose on the drive into work today. I wish we'd had our camera because he stood still and posed in the sunshine for us.

Cold and slow this morning. I finally made good on my recovery ride and only averaged 14mph. The only thing I don't like about this is the 4 other commuters who passed me this morning. Maybe its a good thing. I'll start riding slow and when somebody passes me I'll draft them.:D

My legs and back are bothering me a little this morning too. It could be because of the 5 miles of climbing and 6 miles of rolling hills on my new route. How long before I get used to this while going fairly fast? I hope soon. Recovery rides are boooooring.

need better lights. took dark sidestreets home (6am) for more exercise and practice street riding. Oncoming headlights killed my night vision. Thinking about this for handlebars. Slowed way down and was praying I didn't run into anything.

My gloves grew crystals on my ride to school this morning. Probably 29 degrees when i left. Really foggy and wet didn't make the ride much fun either. After a few long, arduous hills, i was warm. I really wish I had a pair of windblocker gloves though. My hands get colder than my upper body or legs do...

Nice, sunny day, with a good tailwind. Started about 30min before sunrise. Getting a bit cooler, first trip this fall with the long tights. I figure we have about a month before the first snow here. If I can average 75miles a week, I've got a 4000 mile year in the bag.

No rain on the way home but everything was wet and very dreary. The wind was HORRIBLE. I have to cross two large bridges and I was a little scared of getting blown off the top into the Lafayette River. Haha. After coming off the second bridge, there's a large median in the center of the road so each side is one lane. There is a shoulder but it's full of huge white speed bumps/reflectors so you can't ride there safely. It's a residential 25mph street. I got tailgated all the way down the street by a dude in a big red suburban, laying on the horn the whole time. When he finally was able to pass me, he was on his phone. He rolled down his window and was yelling something, I just grinned at him. Ugh. Too bad I passed him at the next stoplight.

Cool this morning -- I need a better headlight. I hadn't been out for about a week. I went from a Target hybrid to a Fuji roadbike, and my carpal tunnel got aggravated so I was off the bike for about a week. I finally got some good gel gloves. But it got dark at 6 am while I wasn't paying attention!

But the ride home was great -- can't complain about 62 degrees in late October in Wisconsin.

Had a killer wind today. Coming out of the east, and of course I ride right into it. 12 mph, gusts of 20 mph. 59f. Maybe have rain tom'rw.

Wow, I rode in rush hour a couple of days in a row. Normally I try to arrange my highly flexible schedule to avoid that. WHAT A FRIGGING ZOO! Amazing congestion and amazingly poor driving all around.

On the way home I bought a desk lamp and was carrying a highly awkward load on my back as a result. The messenger bag wanted to slip off despite the stabilization strap. So I actually rode on the sidewalk on a very congested narrow arterial (Yonge St. south of St. Clair). Normally I would have either tried to lane-split (exciting, given how narrow the lanes are) or just taken my place in line and waited, but going uphill with that kind of crazily-behaving bag... nah, sidewalk was the way to go, even with all the peds. Only spent a few hundred metres on it anyway.

Wow, that sucks and is annoying. I hope you heal up fast, and don't have any more dog problems.

My two daughters and I took our cocker spaniel (Daisy) out for a run with our bikes. A lady's dog ran full tilt at Daisy. My front wheel nailed the assailing dog t-bone like. My bike stopped dead, I flew off and sustained some scrapes and bruises. The dog yelped and ran back into the house from which it and the lady had come. I told the lady, "It's a good thing your dog ran away."

To which she replied, "You startled her!"

To which I replied, "We were riding bicycles!"

To which she replied, "Sorry"

I am glad to say Daisy was unharmed.

She lets her dog run at large on public property and then blames YOU for the accident? Fantastic.

rolled in today but still cranking kind of slow the last week or so.

came home via Commonwealth Ave and got home in time to catch the last innings of the Sox game- they won again! I'll never get used to the Red Sox winning in the post season. :eek:

Thunderstorms today. Had to drive. :(

Crisp. 33F. I brought my camera and took a few pictures but the light wasn't good as the sun wasn't fully up over the Green Mountains yet. I'll take more on the ride home.

Got passed by a regular as I was mounting up after taking a picture. I usually pass her. :p We exchanged hellos. I didn't see her again because I stopped twice more for pictures.

There was an abandoned bicycle in some trees across the street from our property. :mad: If it's still there when I get home, I'm rescuing it and calling the police to report it. Too dark to see if it was a nice bike.