Well put, Juha. I've had to do this several times myself. Since it's a defensive reaction, I didn't have time to check the driver's gender.

Very mellow, very pleasant ride in today. Still recovering from a very hard 35 miler on Friday, the last big bike workout before my triathlon next weekend. I guess I'll do a short time trial tomorrow, then easy spins the rest of the week.

Sure, I would have done it if it had been a man. In fact, I didn't know who was driving until she pulled up to me at the corner.

I think people need to know they almost caused an accident. Next time it might be some kid laying dead in the road.

Another beatiful morning for a bike commute :D I rode my newly converted singlespeed mountain bike this morning, my first ride on the bike. Other than a loose saddle and too low gearing I had a great ride. I ride a couple of fairly steep hills and so I'd wimped out with a 32:18 ratio... fine for the hills but my max speed on the flats was about 14 MPH :lol: Gonna change to 34:16, hopefully I can still get up the hills with that ratio.... Good fun without all the cheapo gear bits though and the bike is dead light :beer:

I had my first flat in a long time. And it was the first time I had to change a flt on a recumbent. It took a little getting used to. It was almost 1/2 hour later and had hands covered with grease before I was back in the saddle (I guess chair is more like it). Other than that it was a nice ride...70F and no winds.

I had a good ride in today - managed to beat the rain to work, and it was almost dry by the time I was coming home. Made pretty good time too :)

It was supposed to be 16oC, cloudy with scattered showers here in south oz, but instead...

beeee-aaaaaa-uuuu-t---iiiii-fullll blue skies
morning winter calm
hardly any cars on the road as its school holidays
couldn't ask for it to be better....

New tyres worked out well too and no punctures yet! :D

First Sunday off in ages , to good to last ,I got a call from my boss ( he was wearing his freindly voice :rolleyes: ) to ask if I would work on Sun. starting @ 0530 !!!! I replied you gotta be f*ect. kidding !!! Anyhow we came to a deal ,seeing that I'd just worked 12nights straight without time off that I could take 3 days leave in the week ( the double time for Sun. had nothing to do with it ;) ) .So anyway I get up on about the third or forth go the alarm has to rouse me @ 0500 open the front door to see what the weather is doing & its about minus bloody 5 outside , look at the bike & think bugger that & pinch the wifes car ,the first time in 3yrs I havent rode in :mad: I now feel guilty as sin ! I get a call from the wife later in the morning to say she wants the car back as she has to take the daughter to work ( she works p/time @ Mc D,s). so I go home in the work pick-up & pick up :D the missus ,my bike & gear & take them back to work. Time to go home , I get on the bike still undecided which route to take home , guilt makes me pick on the 50k one , my body says oh no ! Once I get going its not to bad & I start to enjoy the ride though theres not many people out on their bikes as its bitterly cold ,Im regreting the shorts decision :( . there are quite a few surfers in the water though ,I notice as I ride along the sea front ,they gotta be nuts !!By the time I get to my turn round point ,were the road turns to dirt , Im nicely warmed up & cruising along at about 25kph with a side wind coming off the sea . I decide to add another detour here of 4-5 ks.Theres quite a few people out walking ,all bundled up against the cold , my brain is busy doing its own thing while my consious mind is in neutral ,just looking after the driving, when this guy on a top of the line road bike passes me ( all Litespeed & lycra, oh & yellow tyres , at least the back one was, I never got to see the front one ! ) He was about 20 mtrs ahead & I decide Im lonely & want some one to talk to , I try to catch him ,I gain some ground on him but I cant seem to quite get in his air (it must have been those yellow tyres ?) so i drop back after about a K ,I check the commputer & the max. speed reads 36 kph , not too bad for me ! as I ride under the base of Mout Maunganui I turn to home only 15ks to go , its turning dark & its getting colder as I ride across the harbour bridge I get the force of quite a brisk south westerly wind 3/4 head on & glad that Ill be home soon , thinking of the fire & a coffee with a shot in it :D Im climbing the last hill home & I look at the commputer again & check the milage ,its 57 ks so I think Ill by-pass home & do a few Ks more to make it 60 (my guilty consionce kicking in !! ). Just as Im crossing an intersection & a 4x4 towing a boat turns the corner right across my path & nearly rips my leg off whith the trailers mudguard !! the pillock never even saw me though I had my LEDs flashing ,I don't think he heard my shouts of abuse either ,though the old lady checking her mail box did :eek: Now Ive got a bit of an adrenaline shot I ride a bit more than I intended & take in a local hill to burn off my aggression :mad: . Home at last & Ive cycled 64ks home from work , the longest I've rode in one go for quite a while . Guilt all gone too:thumbup:

Now isn't mellow a great word. To me it's when everything is just so.

Commuted home tonight and left the car at work. Felt great to loosen up on the bike today -- I ran a tough hilly half-marathon over the weekend and the legs needed a nice bike ride.

A couple interesting events tonight. First, I clicked over 3000 miles on the ol' Trek 520. Second, on two separate occasions dogs barked at me while passing (one was in the bed of a pickup and the other hanging out a car window). Scared the hell out of me!! I guess I should have smacked them upside the head according to the advice of the car-smackers earlier. Third, two idiot bikers were cruising the wrong way and forced me to veer from my path and into traffic. I definitely should have slapped them ... but I didn't.

Knowing is one thing, caring is another entirely. If someone cuts you off, it's possible that it may be because they don't believe bikes have any legal rights to be on the road. Hitting their car is not going to make them aware of that (or change their views). Exactly how much damage do you think was done to the car? A lot less than if they'd decided to let the car roll over you.

If you're really worried about the way someone drives, take down their number and call the cops. Phone calls from the police tend to be just a little more persuasive than harmless smacks on the frame of a car.

OK, despite of my earlier statements I do not go around slapping everything that annoys me (stupid headwind, *slap*!). But where I ride people do generally know cyclists have rights (the details may be a bit hazy). I have, fortunately, yet to see a cager cut a cyclist off on purpose. They either judge your speed wrong or do not pay attention. I have never heard the "get off the road" -kind of cr@p from passing cars that seems to be so common elsewhere.

I usually agree with "let the cops deal with them", but if the cager did not notice you or understand what went wrong I find it somehow useless. The cop calls maybe 4hrs later, they have a chat and agree to pay more attention to something they have no recollection of. I think it is much more effective to give feedback right away. Even those who failed to see my feeble 85kg body, bright clothes, shiny bike and bright red pannier all heard the slap and reacted to it.

If they cut me off on purpose it would be another matter entirely.

--J

Good ride in, but I've done what every cycle commuter does in their time, and forgotton a vital piece of clothing. So- I sit here commando style, no boxers.

I almost left without the bag of work clothes this morning, would have had to work in bike stuff today! A beautiful morning, so I took the road bike today, tried for a new world's record for the 12 km commute, but too many red lights, I was a minute too long (23 min, 30 secs.) I also had to loop around and stop to pick up a dropped water bottle. Got a little sweatier than usual, but still a pleasant ride.

Very nice ride in this morning. Very muggy, but foggy at the ocean's edge and a nice breeze off the water. The heat kept building as I got closer to work, which is 5 miles inland as the crow flies.

Have only forgotten boxers once in my last 3 years of commuting. Luckily the wife was home and ran a pair in. She got quite a kick out of this.

Very little energy this morning - was barely able to get out of bed! Weather was actually kind of cool for a change, so that was nice! Once I got underway, it wasn't so bad, but even now I feel pretty low on energy.

Another humid morning, but light rain instead of fog. And happily, traffic was light.

My commute is short (six miles round trip), from East Atlanta to downtown. Today was pretty comfortable. Sunny and moderately warm (about 75 F). Traffic was light enough this morning that I got a couple of good little half mile sprints in.

Despite rumors to the contrary cycling around downtown Atlanta is very pleasant, and I go through some good attractive neighborhoods (East Atlanta, Ormewood Pary, Grant Park), so the scenery is generally good.

Last night's ride home was my first ride on an 80's Raleigh road bike I bought for $25, not as comfortable as I would have liked. I was whupped after a 2 hour ball hockey game but still had a little left to peddle home, though.
Due to wet roads I rode the big fat MTB commuter this morning, the hightlight of the ride was passing within 2 feet of fresh skunk roadkill. Managed to keep the breakfast down, the rest of the trip was thankfully eneventful.

I left early today so whatever warming will occur this p.m. had yet to occur. Still, traffic's been relatively light although the traffic light gods were frowning upon me.

Really looking forward to the ride home b/c of HEAT. Yes, HEAT I say. HEAT. It should get up to low/mid 90s. Warmer still tomorrow and Friday but, unfortunately, I'll be a single dad those days, unable to ride in. Except for a brutal couple days of 100+ temps the other week, it's been COLD, I say. COLD. I want HEAT, dammit!!!

I rode home at lunch to get my car. It was raining lightly, similar to this morning. Low and behold it is now sunny. So I think I will drive home and go for a ride along the seashore.

Andy and I will never be happy on the same day whilst commuting. I thought the past week or so has been just GREAT! :D I do have to admit that the foggy, misty, cool weather (upper 50's?) on the coast last Sunday was too much even for me.

BTW, I have finally started to do the full commute thing. I cleaned up my 20-yr old Kirtland panniers and am now doing a self-contained commute. No more staging the gear at the office on Monday and carting it home again on Friday.

Looks like a hot ride to my ride home (5 mile ride to get lift home). Temperature in town is 113 to 115 F (but it's a dry heat, yeah right!) I figure it is the deserts version of 0 degrees which commuters in other climates deal with. I will see if it is doable! I have ridden home (20 miles) in 105 degree heat before. I figure being only 5 miles I really shouldn't have time to really heat up. I guess I will see! I will have to stock up on some ice water first. The ride to get lunch was really quite nice due to the breeze.

After some stop-start commuting (meetings out of town requiring car use), I was back on the bike last night. Average ride home, part way with a work colleague, although the Tasman Bridge lights were again inspiring.

But coming in this morning, I saw a pelican about 10 metres away as I rode past Kangaroo Bay. Pelicans are fantastic big birds and are quite rare in Hobart. At least it didn't take flight and try to take my head off like a duck did about 12 months ago in the same location. That was a major surprise -- it took off quacking its head off, and passed about six inches above my helmet.

A little further around the bay, a goose and gander have nested there for the past two years. We have hissing contests as we pass. I think they know me now and the gander is less inclined to hiss and make an aggressive charge :) We'll wait to see what happens when the next brood hatches!

And oh yes, this is all in a suburban area. But Hobart's like that.

R

Rocket ride home. Only 88 degrees but finally a true northerly wind, making for a nice push on the way home. Decided to turn it up a bit even though I'm in need of a down day. But what the heck!! I zoomed along at a 24 MPH pace for nearly 5 miles and managed a fast pace throughout. I'm beat.

Right now I'm watching the Tour de France on God's Machine (Tivo). I can't imagine keeping up with USPS when I can only eek (sp?) out 24 MPH sustained, on the flats, with a tailwind!!

Geez, this weather is just gorgeous right now!

Well, today's ride in Houston Texas was wet! 11.29 miles in the rain. what wasn't in the rain was in the aftermath of it. (Road spray) All in all, another beautiful day! At least I can ride a bike. Some are not so fortunate. C-Ya!:D

Been a horrible week for commuting here. It has been raining all week. And not just a light rain but hard severe storms at times. Looks like next week will be better (I hope).

Finally a break in the weather. A cool front and overnight thunderstorms have dropped the temps about 10 degrees, making this morning's commute very nice.

Except for the mushy tire. I have entered a period where the gods of inflation hate me.

Good ride in today. I went for efficiency rather than scenery this morning, and took the arterials in today. So my view was lots of small scale industrial buildings and the condos they're being converted into. The weather was pleasant, though, and traffic wasn't bad.

Whew, was a pretty hot ride last night but maneagable. Looks like todays will be worse as the temperature is supposed to hit 116 +. Thank goodness for a waterbottle full of ice! I am ready for the summer thunderstorms to move in!