:D I had a similar experience last year, only the bikes were reversed. I had fat-arsed knobby off-road tires on pavement, heading for trails outside the city. Still making 15 or so MPH, and I'm watching this guy on a beat-to-snot road bike slowly catching me. Then I heard his chain skipping like crazy, and squeaking. He "beat" me, mainly since I wasn't pushing at all, then ran a red light, dismounted, and stood there as I passed him again. I almost said something like, "Try it again. I dare ya." But I'm not mean-spirited.

Cool and breezy. Good legs and a tailwind made for an early arrival. Love it.

Was passed by another roadie cruising in the low 20s. Decided to see if I could hang with him on my SS and was able to pace the guy. More likely than not this guy was not even trying.
After loosing almost 8 lbs my speed seems to have picked up a tad. Good cool morning commute.

If you want a decent pair of the Bright yellow (amber) eyeglasses try Lowes ( or what ever hardware store near you), look in the safety glasses department.
I just picked up a pair with OSHA approved lenses and they are exactly in the style I saw at my LBS but for $50 less ( they were $9.95) and I love the high contrast effect.

I ran my usual red light on Naples street today, and I didn't notice the police car stopped on the other side until I was half way through. I muttered an "oh ****" and sprinted down the street :-D

I didn't get pulled over though; cops around here probably have more important things to do than pull over a red light runner on a bike.

I'm relatively new (2 months) to the "commute by bike" way of life so the cooler temps take some getting use to. 10 minutes into the ride though, it was glorious!

Same here. I have an early 90's Raleigh Technium Supercourse in otherwise great shape. Put a set of Vredestein Fortezza SE tires on it a month ago. I just bought off eBay (for $150!!) a Mavic Aksium wheelset from a guy who put less than 2 months on them. Can't wait until they come. I figure $150 to keep riding this bike is worth it. I'll post pics soon...

Sam :)

:thumb: Thanks for the hint. I'll check it out as I'd like a more comfortable pair.

It's awesome wearing them at night because they increase contrast while softening oncoming headlights...But I can't get that '80s song out of my head "I wear my sunglasses at night..." :lol:

Mild misty morning, definitely raining hard right now though.

This morning wasn't too bad. It was HOT (20 C), nice tail wind - I was flying. However the wind speed has increased and hasn't changed direction, so the ride home will be quite the workout.

Well. Replaced the axle. Cost me $4 for parts and 1.5 hours labor. My previous attempt to tighten the cones definitely did not work. I had put in 10 ball bearing and it turns out I was only supposed to have 9. And this time around I replaced my pitted cone with a new/used one lying around the shop :).
The really nasty shake is cover, the bent chain guard is gone and I (almost) got a full 5 gears again. Just need to adjust the limit screw again...
Still skipping, though... Not sure if the cogs are worn or not. Might just spend the $20 and replaced it.

Finally a successful trip both ways. Happy day. Dont get to ride tomorrw gotta go to Purdue. Grumble.

Like this?
http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pro...85bea9_300.jpg

Today a person in a motor vehicle told me to ride on the sidewalk. What amazed me was that it happened to be a driving instructor with a student behind the wheel. I would have liked to discuss the traffic laws with him with the student listening but they did not stop.

Today was cloudy and windy (15-25 mph) complements of FEY but it was the most important commute since I returned to commuting about 3 weeks ago. Why was it the most important? because I really wasn't in the mood and thought I would just ride my motorcycle. I rode my bike instead and felt great all day and the wind was really no problem.

Picked up my boys a little earlier than usual, towed them up to River Run Playground for a couple hours of running and climbing. My wife rode her old Bianchi hybrid down (with the brand-new Brooks 67) and joined us, and we all headed back home around sunset, beautiful breeze, beautiful river, three-year-olds singing the Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! theme and giggling like lunatics behind me. Commutes don't get much better.

For the return trip home, I decided to take the more scenic and hilly route through Montclair, Verona, West Orange, South Orange, Maplewood and finally Union. Was a bit more than I bargained for, but manageable. The Verona-West Orange stretch was a seemingly never ending series of climbs and descents, climb, descent, repeat. Got up to a white knuckle 34mph down Northfield Ave.! :eek: Felt good afterwards though.

+1

I have (3) pairs, tinted, clear and yellow. A buddy tipped me to the OSHA safety glassed a couple of years ago and it's worked well. I personally have no business buying expensive sport glasses that I will loose, drop, sit-on, etc...

The first 2 mins of my morning commute are just like that. I have a .65 mile downhill where i get up to about 30-35 mph. Started getting cold in the mornings though, so i try to keep it a bit slower, otherwise the wind chills me to the bone.

Too bad i gotta ride back up that hill for the last few mins of my ride home...

First Commute Yesterday
 

Rode my first commute yesterday and had a blast. 70deg and sunny with a 8 mile ride each way. Took it easy and didn't end up too sweaty at the office. I'm used to hammering when riding so I had focus on not getting too excited. I ride off-road 2-3 times a week but wanted to get some extra miles in, save money, etc.

FWIW, I told myself I would relax and chill on the way home BUT had (2) lycra-clad roadies pass me, they slowed their cadence so now I was on their @ss and I took it upon myself to push them back up to speed. I kept them there and they eventually fell back off pace. I guess I'm too competitive and it will take some more commute miles to chill out.

Yay... they repainted the lines on the resurfaced portion of hwy2 (110kph/65mph 3 lanes). The shoulder is as wide as a lane and yesterday there was just far spaced white dots to mark the lanes and nothing to indicate that there's a shoulder. Amazing how much safer a white painted line can make you feel. I hope they put in rumble strips too.
I had a fast commute home (+32kph avg) despite a headwind all the way, gotta love that.

I almost asked for a ride home tonight. I would have missed...
--A karaoke party in some guy's back yard. The singing was atrocious, but my god, those dudes were having fun. More power to 'em.
--The most well-behaved dog I've ever seen (a service dog, maybe? not in uniform, though) trotting beside his owner's wheelchair. He didn't even tense up when he saw me, even though I'm a light-up food on a really fast toy.
--A nerdy guy blasting Snoop Dogg in his car, totally jamming out.
--Baby chihuahuas!!! They tried to chase me! They were running along their owner's chain-link fence, squeaking and growling at me! It was so silly!

My rides in to work have been chilly and a little rushed the last few days. But the rides home! So awesome! The weather has been perfect, big almost-full moon, very little traffic, lots of other bikes. I really need a day off tomorrow, though, my body is sore (from the quick rides in, other working out, then being cooped up in the ambulance all day) and I haven't been able to really recover.

Great to hear there is improvements being made, hopefully that continues, it certainly thus increase some type of awareness.

That is absolutely an awesome commute, a family on bikes :) That is great that you were able to do that and seriously that had to be fun. Tem youngins most likely gonna follow suit :) keep with the good example :)

Some of the recent news stories of Fay had me worried as my sister and her family are living in South Florida, I felt better when I heard back from them and all was good. Just hope the story does not change when the storm shows it is truly a boomerang. You made a great choice to take the journey by bike though a motorcycle is good but you made the best choice. Thanks for sharing.

Why not call it Commuting by Human Powered Vehicle ? My guess it is a bit wordy. Glad you had a good experience of course experiences vary though the benefits become more apparent in that consistency.

That is great news, I am glad to hear things are going well with you. Welcome back to the commute healed and on the road again :thumb:

So good to hear these great examples give you one more reason to make that change. To ride a bike and to commute by it are exciting things. Your health and the environment are only one part, keep it up. As I am sure you will. Got me thinking about my commute but really I work from home most of the time so my rides are really just that. In themselves there are stories. That of course is for another thread. :)

Nice and cool. Low 50s. Blue sky. Passed a couple of women cyclists (not together) but overall I only saw one other bike. I think someone was trying to chase me but never got close enough to identify.

Oh and there was a sign next to the MUP saying "Trail Survey - Please Stop", and some college-looking people hanging out around a table with a drink cooler and stuff. I didn't stop. :o Hey I'm commuting to work! :p If they're there when I ride home, I'll stop and see what's up.

washed, cleaned and tuned up the commuter yesterday. I was in a wierd mood so my brother and I went riding. We were talking and messing around. I didn't realize how close he was too me when I said, "watch this." I hit the brakes and brought the rear wheel up. He hit me hard and we both went down in a mess of tangled bikes. My rear wheel is tacoed, the fender and rack are bent and one of the dropouts looks a little funky too.

I just sat there on the ground laughing while he apologized. It wasn't his fault and things happen. later today I'll try to make sense of the mess and try to get a wheel

Lesson learned, a few good laughs and no one was hurt. So, I guess some good came out of it and it could have been a lot worse.

Cold! I had to dig into my winter stash and broke out the arm warmers.

Wore a thermal shirt this morning, was a good choice, but would have helped earlier.

An older lady rolled up on her bike next to me at a stop light early on my commute. She said good morning, and I replied in turn. Wouldn't have noticed her except for the un-clicking of her clipless shoes. She was in a full lycra outfit. I'd guess she was in her early 50's.

When the light turned green I hammered away. You know "One cyclist, a commute, two cyclists, a race" thing. But When I left her in the dust I realized that her being a more mature person than I, was probably not interested in a race against a youngin like me. If I were to do it all over again, I'd probably take a more moderate pace and maybe strike up a conversation. Us cyclists need to band together!

It was probably a good thing in the end that I did hammer away and race all the way to work. I was running late as it was.

Had 2 items of note the last few days. Riding home Tuesday one of my seat bolts snapped. There's 2 of them, 1 front and 1 rear. The front one broke and the seat pitched backwards nearly throwing me from the bike. Luckily I did not lose balance, or control of the bike and it happened on a quiet side street rather than in traffic. I rigged it by taking the rear bolt out and putting it in the front. The seat, while still a bit squirrely, was relatively stable and could only pitch forwards rather than backwards. Only took 10 minutes to repair, before I was gingerly on my way for the last ~ 4 miles of my route. Stopped at an Ace Hardware and bought a new 5 mm cap screw for ~ 10 cents. Very cheap repair at least!

Also, Riding in this AM I saw a semi trailer disabled on the side of the road- the tandem trailer had disengaged from the tractor as the truck was making a turn. It looked to me like the front axle had broken off of the front trailer which caused it to hit the pavement and tear the trailer off the tractor....The driver did not look too happy! Very glad I wasn't drafting off of him when that happened!

jag, they look almost exactly like that. I have had them for about a week, scratched the damn things yesterday (my fault), but it's out of my vision. May go back and get the $19 dollar ones that came with a free case.

Today's ride was another cool, no traffic, no hassle morning...I love those.