Great days for commuting now! Temp 25 degrees C!! Sunny! Too bad I STILL haven't got around to replacing my drivetrain. It skips in every gear. Typical mechanic, eh?

Awesome! People are taking off early for the 4th, business was slow so I was sent home early. I took the 23 mile route home so that I could go up Great Blue Hill (the GBH in WGBH). 400 feet of climbing in .65miles, average grade of 11%. It is the longest steep hill near me, and has the virtue of being an almost constant 11%. Tomorrow morning I'll be able to go for a ride before I settle into the house & grounds work. That will be my first recreation ride this summer. Nice change to the commuting routine.

Beautiful day to ride, nice cool dry air no wind and light traffic, the only problem is I wrenched my lower back working around the house and can barely walk. I rode in anyway, the back only seams to hurt wnen I'm not on the bike, figure that one out. Well, the ride was slow, I averaged 13 mph for the 18.5 miles and got to work in plenty of time. I hit all the stop light when green so I didn't need to stop and put a foot down, Hopefully I'll straighten out before my ride home.

Great commute home last night.

Todays commute in was nice. I took my time and was in no hurry which made for a pleasant morning. The ride home looks to be a hot one. I will probably relax and take my time going home too.

A whole round trip without a flat! Woo Hoo!

Beautiful weather here this morning (20 degrees celcius), but man.. it's gonna be hot tonite if it's 20 degrees already! Oh well.

I took it slow on the way in, just to see how much longer it would take me. Turns out it makes about 2 mins difference on a 22 min ride. What a great morning to be out though!

First flat on the road bike today. I had a grand total of 38 miles before it happened...a little tiny staple did me in:) Looks like I may invest in some armadillos.

So far I'm very happy on the road bike...no more numb hands!

Paul L. - I'm good up until about 105F...then I really start to feel it. I'm very impressed you can commute in Phoenix at 112F! I keep hoping for some rain!

I'm swamped at work and have not been able to keep up on the site much this week :( . Anyway, so far this week, I didn't commute Tuesday due to waking up late with a flat tire. On Wednesday I drove in then took the bike to a shop (out of tubes at home) then biked in to work. The midday commute was great, warmer, strong tailwind, less gear --I flew in and it was a relief to be back (after only 2 mornings off ;) ) Back to the normal commute today with both my tires hard --really riding different, I guess that slow leak in my rear had been going for a while but I can really feel the road now. Anyway the day was stunning, not too hot, but shirtsleeve weather. Pure blue skies bright and clear with little wind. A number of riders out, nicely spaced out -- a great morning all around.

Had a few morning calls and left home at 9:30 as a result. Using my road bike for a blistering ride in. Roadie makes a huge difference on the hills but I missed my Trek 520's mass on the trickier parts of the commute. Traffic lights were very favorable at that time in the morning. It was also nice to ride with more direct sunlight.

Well, I haven't posted for awhile, but have been riding. Over two weeks ago, I let my son have my car for the summer, and have been relying on my bicycle for most of my transportation needs. I haven't been on "rides" as such, but have been riding where I needed to go, and it's worked well too. Today was no different. I went to work, came home at noon for lunch with my wife (she was off today), rode back to work, then came home again. It was all in glorious sunshine too. So, I'm enjoying the summer, and wish everyone in the USA a great Independence Day holiday.

John

Finally stayed late to finish my drivetrain! New chain, cassette, and chainrings - omitted the granny. Hmm, no skipping! Time to sprint!

For the first time on the way home yesterday got caught in a shower. First experience with the rain. Loved it. :) Only problem was my glasses... need some form of automatic wiping system?

Adrian

Rain in Adelaide? How long since the last lot?

Do you have a peak (visor) on your helmet? It can help keep some rain off the glasses for a while if you position your head just right. Might reduce long-distance sight-line a bit, though.

Hi Rowan

It's not that it hasn't rained in Adelaide for a long time (although still a bit less than expected) ... I just had a preference of riding in on less chance of rain days. First time I was out and got caught in it. Now that I know rain won't melt me, it's not too bad and with some basic preparation it'll be great fun.

I'm not to keen on cutting of my mid-long range vision by adjusting my head angle to stop the rain on my glasses :) I was already having enough fun on my no grip ty(i)res!

The 32km round trip took a total of 1hr10m including stop lights/intersection. A new record... :D

I'm beginning to love school holidays. Once again the traffic was banked up for literally miles all over the place. Once again I sailed past all those helpless cagers. :D

Beautiful ride in theis morning. Fantastic blue skies. Very light headwind just enough to keep me cool.

Loads of lovely cycling ladies in lycra too :)- the miles just flew in

Today I found out that you can teach a moron to ride bike, too. I stopped at a red light and leaned forward to check my front brake adjustment. I just heard this "whoooosh" as someone zipped past me, so I lifted my head to see if I had missed the lights change. Nope, it was still bright red, and the guy who had passed me was all over the intersection playing tag with the cages. Somehow he managed to miss them all (not by much, mind you), creating a minor traffic jam. A fellow cyclist behind me screamed "...you on crack or something?", cars honked, drivers gave him the finger... the works. This guy never blinked, he just went around the cars and continued. Did the same in next, smaller intersection, too. He did not wear a helmet (nowadays mandatory here).

There were at least a couple of dozen cagers in that intersection and I am waiting to see their letters beginning to appear in the local newspaper condemning all cyclists to h€ll. It will take the rest of us a long time of responsible, law-abiding cycling to make up for the bad karma. I give him a "hang-around member" status for Darwin Awards. The way he rides, promotion is well on its way.

[/rant]

Other than that, it was a nice ride.

--J

Wow! I can't believe this weather! It was 20 degrees C when I woke up at 6:30, and it's already 23! This is crazy. However, it was a great ride in this morning. A car came out of the driveway right across the street from me, so I followed him to the intersection. He turned right, and I followed. However, he only accelerated to about 40 km/hr, as if testing me to see how fast I could go or something. I kept up to him for a fair while, and he finally sped up. For a while I considered passing him just to surprise him, but my legs weren't up for it [I guess they're rarely up for that speed.. I gotta switch out the knobbies on my bike.. or get a roadie :) ] Anyway, another great ride!

Hi Folks,

Good commute today - and it will be the last for a couple of weeks as I'm off on holiday :fun: to join my wife who still spends spends a large portion of the year in LA.
Luckily I have the bike end of things sorted out there too, with no less than 2 great "Frankenstein" bikes (second hand, with parts from all over the place..). Hope to get some nice rides on the beach!

Cheers for now,

Ed

Just went out for a 16 mile ride along the ocean's edge. Fog was rolling in, which made it very cool and refreshing. Saw's lots of other bikes out enjoying the holiday weekend and fine weather (sunny and hot only 1/4 mile aware from the shore).

Happy 4th to all!

Well with a deadline on Monday no holiday for me :( Ah well, I have to admit, with things as they are, I've not been feeling all that patriotic anyway. Anyhoo, nice day, very similar to yesterday, but of course loads of users on the trial. I'll have to take alternate routes for the rest of my weekend commuting. That'll let me get in a bit more challenging riding as well.

Last year, just under two months after my bike accident, I rode around the neighborhood the evening of July 4th. I had great fun watching everyone light off their fireworks, and seeing the larger ones burst upon the evening sky in the distance.

Last evening, I again kept up that tradition, bicycling the neighborhood to see the people enjoying the evening fireworks. Some neighbors had gotten together for their own private fireworks on the road, and some even commendeered the roadway for their fireworks. It was great fun, and I hope to continue the new tradition in years to come.

John

Well I had to work today as well, so I took a nice 15+ mile meander through the Kirkland area. Nice warm sunny day, a little windy, and the trail was super crowded. Luckily I was only using the trail to pass under the 405 and then got off to nearly empty road riding. A nice pre work ride --wish I was still out riding though.

Started the week off with an adrenalin surge this morning. Me and biking buddy locked wheels @ 30 km/h (as you do) - fortunately no crash just a mild blip in the heart.
Government has installed very nice new bike lane which is fantastic apart from all the mud and gravel from a building site..
and the broken glass near the school;
and the cars parked in the lane;
and the bloke who forgot to stop coming out of his driveway today.
C'est la vie.

Felt tired and sore from all the holiday weekend riding, so I took the short fast route in this morning. It was a pleasant ride 65-70F; the humidity's creeping up again. Might be time to take a day or two off the bike, but it's so hard to do when you get energized from watching the Tour every night. :)

Nice ride in but now getting stormy. looks like i'll be fighting a headwind home. Oh dear!

I wasn't sure how the ride was going to be this morning since I have a terrible head cold. Also there was a chance of thunder storms this morning. The storms never hit which is a good thing. I just rode slightly easier than normal and I have to say I feel much better after riding in to work. I was skeptical of the posts saying to ride with a cold and you would feel better but maybe there is something to it. I'm interested to see how my cold is tonight after the ride home.

Back to work from a week's vacation, rode the whole 45 km commute. Took 1hr 54 minutes with the big fat commuter mtb bike, but was a pleasant ride. A few light showers and warm and humid, but more fun than driving. After about a half hour of riding I noticed a front fender brace no longer attached, but managed to keep it out of the spokes the rest of the trip.
Brought 2 water bottles, managed to almost finish them both. The exciting part of the trip was the switchover - full water bottle out of handlebar bag and empty one into bag whilst travelling.

On my ride in last Wednesday I was riding thru downtown St. Paul in the right lane next to parked cars. A lady passed me in a minivan in the left lane. The car in front of her was turning left, so she swerved over into my lane to go around it. Of course she didn't look first and would have hit me if I hadn't been anticipating her move. I slapped the side of her vehicle with my hand as I went past and she stopped. A block up the light was red. When I looked in my mirror she was still stopped in the middle of the intersection. She then pulled up next to me, rolled down her window, and asked "What happened?" I told her "what happened is you pulled out right in front of me." She continued talking but with the road noise I couldn't understand her and just told her to be on her way. I think she'll look before changing lanes from now on.

The ride home that afternoon (28 miles) was 92 degrees and very humid. My wife had called and offered to pick me up. I should have taken her up on it. All in all not the best day.

"I think she'll look before changing lanes from now on."

I doubt it. She'd swerve the next time, too. It's great that you anticipated the move but I think her lasting impression will be that bikers are downright scary people. I don't know about the rest of the folks on this board but I would never, ever bang on a car. I see absolutely no value in it. You probably scared the woman to death.

But that's my opinion. I wonder: Would you have slapped it if a man were driving? The reaction may have been different.

As for my commute last Thursday before the holiday, it was great. It's a nice change to take the roadie every once in a while.

Andy,

in my opinion the "slap" on the car is a rather mild version of the "screech-BANG" that could have been. She very nearly caused a severe accident, and she should be made aware of that. I also think she should be scared. Scared of her own lapse of attention (and not of the cyclist).

When this sort of thing happens to me, I want them to know it was a close call, and a slap on their car gets their attention better than anything. I do that regardless of age or gender. Quite often that is all that is needed, but I have gotten into a couple of (peaceful) conversations, where I have explained my position and sometimes my legal rights as well.

--J