Annoying ride this morning.

Pulled up to a light today and the guy in the truck behind me rolled down (I'm assuming, since it was fairly cool out) his window to yell something about the sidewalk. Unfortunately, I lost it.

[I'm first at the light, not taking the lane. He's behind me with room to pull up beside if he chose.]

me: You're a big man in the cage M.F.
him: stunned look
me: shakes head
him: mumbles to himself
me: turns back around
him: puts truck in park
me: does a casual check to make sure he's still in the car
me: "P*ssy"
me: notices the suit in the car beside me... oddly, not really watching the interaction.
him: stunned look
me: turns back around
him: opens the door, gets one leg out and postures like he's going to do something
me: shakes head... "P*ssy"
him: gets back in the car

light turns green, I ride away and he squeals his tires as he makes a right turn behind me.


--------

I wish I'd either ignored him, or thrown the bike down and walked over as soon as he cracked the door.

He seemed to be annoyed that I was blocking his right-turn. The ironic thing is I would have moved further right and motioned him by if he'd kept his mouth shut. I frequently do this if I'm first in line...

It was a warm, sunny weekend, and the snow is off the roads! Mostly. Regardless, the switch to slicks was worth it. That was an easy ride in! Taking almost 3 pounds of rotating weight off of the bike makes such a difference when trying to sprint through traffic.

Neil F. prepared a route for me back to his place and my car after I rode with him to his carpool. The route was very good, aside from the large patches of ice along Plainfield Avenue. I came closer than I like to a New Jersey Transit bus while climbing the hill to the intersection of Plainfield and Central Avenue. Filtering was decidedly a bad decision in that case - I should have dismounted and walked.

Longer than has been typical lately, took both kids to their respective destinations for the 1st time since fall. 32F, slippery on the back deck, but no ice on the road. Lotta fog though. After dropping Thing 2 at her downtown daycare, I was going to take the main drag out of town to work, but decided w/ the fog to double back and take MUP, less likely to be randomly collided by cagers. Success, no collision.

I was wondering whether slicks would work this week... I'm thinking I need to get back out there! (Hey, I'm a west-coaster, you've gotta give me a few winters to get used to this stuff).

Anyway, was wondering which bike to bring out - it is something of an adventure to get into the shed and then back across the thawing-dog-poo minefield of the yard with a bike, and I don't really want to do it more than once!

Choices are: random mountain bike with knobbies (there's 3, I'll grab whichever is on the outside; none have rack or fenders), road bike with slicks (also sans rack & fenders, but I have some that will fit it), or old trusty Raleigh (with medium grippy tires, but steel rims - already set up with rack & fenders though). Thoughts?

Bus commuting sucks, by the way. You know you're a bike commuter when you spot someone out there in -50C windchill and think "hmmm.... wonder what he's using for a base layer... and how he's stopping his cables from freezing..." rather than "oh my god, that man is dangerously insane." :D And when you calculate how far you could have ridden in the time you have been waiting for the bus, taking the headwind into account, and realize you'd be there already... :mad:

you do know this is just a tease, right? Mother nature will kick us in the collective cajones with something brutal in the months to come.

Buglady, I'm still riding knobbies just because I hate switching back and forth. This week a bike with slicks will do just fine. I like my fenders, rack et al so I am prepared for anything.

Gotta love it when it's this warm in Feb.

I ride more or less a hybrid part slick part off road no knobbies. Town and Country are great tyres.

Absolutly perfect on the way in. That nice chill in the air, no breeze, that awesome sound of nature just before dawn.

...the way home. sucked. Cold. rainy. miserable. So i hopped on light rail, only for it to go one stop, then the conductor tells everyoen to get off, their having trouble, another tain will be by in half an hour to an hour. So i had to get back out in the rain and force myself home.

*I now have an emergency poncho on my bike

3 weeks into my trial 4 weeks as a bike commuter - and I'm getting faster! This morning I got to the bus stop in 45 min (vs. 55 min my first week). (OK, so today I hit all the lights, but still!) And home in 60, uphill the whole way.

Chilly in the morning with a fog set in. It is too warm usually for a balaclava, but I wore it into town knowing that fog is deceiving--my cheeks were glad I did. Fog burned off in the afternoon so riding around town was pleasant during my lunch break. Traffic treated my kindly. The ride home was dark and warm, and wearing jeans did not hamper my natural heating/cooling system, so the ride was comfortable. the hills really didn't faze me much tonight, and I am happy for that because my back has been acting up lately. Pulling a muscle swing dancing will keep me wincing for another week...

None today. I took a personal holiday for the Tour of California. Coincidentally, Stage 2 finished right in front of my building.

A absolute beautiful day here. Sunny clear day with snow in the surrounding hills. Much too nice not to ride. Too bad I had to work. The drunks must have been out in force over the long weekend, glass everywhere. Thank goodness for kevlar tires.

Riding in company with the moon again this morning, though it was mostly obscured by clouds (and for you Pink Floyd afficionados, I was actually think/playing an old Beatles song to myself, Mr. Moonlight).

A bit colder (mid-20s F) and calm. Forecast has a snow advisory up for this afternoon. Rain/snow mix, and probably for the rest of the week. And due to UPS's monolithic, faceless, corporate inefficiency, my long-awaited Nokians have been driving around without me for the past week or so. I should actually have them in my hands later today, so they may well get right to work.

<sigh> I wish I was still humming along quietly in the moonlight...

Another nice day in NC -- chilly this morning (low 30s F) but warming this afternoon (low 60s). The wind is the big factor. Yesterday we had sustained winds in the 20s and gusts over 30 mph, which made for a pleasant ride home. It was calm this morning but the wind is supposed to pick up again later today. It was so much brighter this morning that I didn't need my light to see by, so I put it on a lower setting to conserve batteries. I also wore a red jersey for the first time in a while, as I try to wear yellow or neon jerseys when riding in the dim light and it's been dark every morning for quite some time.

I just did my first commute of my life this morning. It is 12 miles to the University of Tennessee campus from my house. It felt really good!

Hey srober19, welcome aboard!

The ride in today was nice. It was calm, just below freezing and quick. I'm remembering how to spin again! LOL

Great ride this morning - clean bike and dry roads for a change.

Brrr... a tad cold (-11C), or i was a tad underdressed. Heavy fog too, very patchy.

Industrial sized staple + rear tire= Flat.

That and my backup pump is almost garbage. Time to replace my defunct road morph.

Very nice. No jacket. Did stop for full-finger gloves though. Fog but no ice.

No rain, but very wet streets from the pre-dawn torrents. These are the days for which God gave us fenders.

Pleasant ride this morning once I warmed up (long-sleeved T-shirt plus windbreaker; about 32 F). Had a riding partner for most of the route, which is rare for me.

Let's see how strong this evening's winds are... if they're the 40-mph gusts one TV station forecast, a bus ride may be in my future.

Dare I say spring has sprung, it was minus 6 this morning but a balmy plus 8 on the ride home in the sun no less. If I stays this way my bent will be on the road in a week. We still have a little too much ice on the road for the bent but its melting slowly.

Congrats and Welcome to all the new commuters on here! I hope that you continue to enjoy the daily adventure of Bike Commuting. As for me, it's been rather average this past week, nothing substantial to report, although today in the mail I got my new Fenix L2D flashlight with handlebar mount, and HOLY CRAP is that thing bright, in "Turbo" mode. I had to wait till the ride home to really see what it was like, and it lit up almost the whole road in front of me. I could tell that I was super visible to oncoming cars, cars came on me, some even slowed as if trying to figure out what that bright light was, and some even pulled over to the right in their own lane, as if I needed more room on my side. When I got home I parked the bike in front of my building and walked across the dark parking lot so I was a good distance away and the light was still blinding from about a hundred to a couple hundred feet away! In my opinion, well worth the investment, I think it was about $70 with shipping.

weird week thus far for me the weather here in Melbourne has been all over the place, 34 degrees mon tues, pissing down beyond belief and cold yesterday and beautiful riding weather today

I wonder what 2morow holds