noisebeam

Took the back way home yesterday, on 25mph street coming up on stem of a T intersection with me having a stop sign. Across top of T is a school and MUP I was heading to. There are 2 cars lined up at stop sign and crossing guard has them and x-traffic stopped to let the elementary school kids cross. I line up behind last car. Suddenly the crossing guard gets all excited steps aside to get sight lines to me and madly starts waving me forward. Me? I wondered. I shook my head 'No'. She got very excited and waved more madly at me so I pulled to the left of the line of cars and went forward all the while she was waving me thru. After I crossed and passed she cheerfully said to me: "It's a pedestrian crossing!" and some other words about not waiting.

Al

savethekudzu

FWIW, I had some discomfort my second week (from friction) that subsided after a few days' rest and has not returned. If you run into the same thing, strategically-applied powder can help.

JoeyBike

Epoch commute.

I got off work right at the start of rush hour in New Orleans (I usually knock off at 7 pm). Immediately began passing gridlocked cars through the French Quarter. Car after car after car.

Blue sky, nice tailwind, low humidity, temp around 60F.

Rode the double yellow down Decatur Street for half a mile at a leisurely pace. Autos dead stopped or slow moving both sides of me. No peds in sight. Taxis, horse and buggy, SUVs, motorcycles, busses - all bowed to my greatness.

Finally made the right turn onto Canal Street. Passed another hundred cars, half a dozen red lights, split all of the lanes. Non stop for another mile.

At last, broke free of the CBD and all of the gridlock, cranked the old road bike up to 27mph and followed the traffic all the way to the City Park.

I owned the road today.

It's a great day to be alive.

tomg

bf
it's been over a year since my last commute (12 miles each way). the 2 bridges are completly repaired (wiped out by rain/flooding last year march, 2007) and i have rebuilt my commuter bike's drive-train. i took it, packed with gear, on a 3.5 mile trial run this evening (checking lights, brakes, air-zound, etc). it seems to be good to go!!
i'll let bf know how it goes!
feels (ALMOST) like christmas eve...used to when i was a kid :-)
tomg

icebike

I had a pretty down day at work, but after my ride home I feel much better, as always. I never got that feeling by driving home before I started biking.

Bdaisies

It rained on my way home. I actually stayed at work about an hour later than i should because at a point there was snow mixed in with the rain. I stopped by at the grocery store... lots of traffic, but at least they gave me room.

I treated myself to a new pair of jeans at the mall. Stuff my backpack with cat food, veggies, vegetarian sushi and 2 litres of soy milk. Treated myself to a vanilla latte at Starbucks. Biked back home, and it was still raining. I hit an awful pothole which took me by surprise. Fun times!

trombone

Nice one Ignem. Keep it up; ,it just gets easier and easier. And then you start actively trying to make it harder again!

Noisebeam; I hate it when people insist on treating me not like normal traffic. It just reinforces to the other road (car) users around me that I'm in some way unusual, and can be ignored / harassed as I really have no place on the(ir) road. Somewhat irksome, I imagine!

Good speedy commute in today. I met a fellow commuter on the way in today, so we had a brief chat at the lights and then they went green. The next set up ahead were green, so I put on some speed to get through them. Looked back and found I'd left him well behind...

Hopefully he'll put on a better show on Friday - he's part of my team in a fund-raising event spinning on exercise bikes. You can read more here:
https://spin.jdrf.org.au/teamParticipant.asp?teamID=1540
If you can find you way to sponsoring us, then that would be even more awesome!

MIKEnDC

Very nice ride in for me today--48F/~9C with variable breezes.

I'm still pretty new here myself, But I'd like to join in welcoming the newer folks--whether new to riding, new to commuting, or just new to Bike Forums. The Commuting sub-forum is a remarkable resource. I already knew some, but have learned a WHOLE lot more here. Keep riding and keep reading--IMHO, it just keeps getting better!

Two Buck Chuck

My first commute since July 2007! A little different than my previous biking experiences in DC--I'm in La Paz, Bolivia now. My commute started at about 10,700 feet about sea level and finished four miles later at 11,500 feet above sea level! Averaged 8.8 mph, which left me breathless at this altitude.

ItsJustMe

I'm a week back into daily rides after 6 weeks off; my son broke his ankle and needed to be driven to school (long walk to the bus stop).
I'll tell ya, I was pretty slow the first few days. I'm getting better but I think it'll be a few weeks before I feel back on top of it again.
I switched out my studs when I started up again, it was > 50*F then. Since then it's been well below freezing in the mornings. I keep thinking I might have to put them back on again, on the 2 day forecast, but so far I've been dodging bullets; it's been warming back up and raining on any snow, melting it. It's supposed to be 50 again today but snowing tomorrow afternoon, but mixed with rain so I'm not sweating it.
I've seen a lot of deer in the morning the last few days. Coming in around 5:30 AM.

ItsJustMe

Dude. We're not worthy. Good luck on keeping that up!
Just imagine if you get used to that and then come back down to 500 feet!

Two Buck Chuck

Thanks. I'm going to try to do it twice a week. There are four of us that ride regularly here--one guy ride four days a week, all uphill!

Its very different than my flat ride at sea level along the Potomac!

jpdesjar

its been a great week for commuting, streets are clear and today it was a little warmer and much less windy so i felt quite a bit faster

it feels really good to be on the bike for most of the week
i am patiently waiting for my steamroller to arrive at the bike shop...this will be a new experience for me, riding fixed but i have been looking forward to it very much

when i left the house it was 35 here in portland, me

savethekudzu

Great weather (slightly cool - T-shirt and light windbreaker) and a nice, wind-free ride. Only 32 minutes for me for 6 miles, which is not bad; my morning commute usually takes longer than my evening commute does. Saw no other bike commuters heading my direction, which surprised me.

Pig_Chaser

Paradis Regained? I tried an old route i had given up on once again and found it to be almost completely devoid of cars. I guess the opening of a new major highway eliminated the volume on these back roads. It was awesome... there were some streches of road 5 or 6km where i didn't see one car.

HardyWeinberg

Cold but not frosty. Damp!!! I was considering wimping out on taking my nice clean drivetrain (new chain from this past weekend, scrupulous cleaning of crankset and cassette) into the muck, riding backup bike instead, but went for it and it was good, and not too messy. Driving company car home tonight for long roadtrip tomorrow.

Buglady

Brought out my touring bike today - whee! that's a fast bike compared to the Raleigh! I'm getting used to the drop handlebars, and (mostly) keeping my shoulders from tightening up.

I'm feeling a bit odd in the toeclips, as I am used to keeping my feet more centered on flat pedals and with the clips I feel like I am pedaling on tiptoe. I'm also not very good at spinning. I think I may need some help in getting my seat height adjusted correctly and learning better pedaling form. My upper thighs were WAY tighter than they should have been.

caloso

Beautiful cool and clear morning. NOAA said there was a 20% chance of rain but in reality it was 0%. I rode the fendered fixed gear; I'm tempted to take off the fenders for the season, which is a good way of ensuring we get at least one more good rainstorm.

pinkrobe

I am doing a half-day, and so I rode in during the lunch hour. It was fargin' cold! I swear it's above freezing, but I just got chilled. I hope it's better on the way home...

mattm

30 km ride into work, it's windy and cold out but no rain (although the roads are wet).

trombone

Sensational morning today; blue sky, sunshine and cool. In fact, it was cold - my toes were actually getting chilly. (Note cold in the context of Sydney autumn is about 13C!)

I watched a motorist almost take out a chick on a bike just up ahead of me - just turned into her, saw her at the last minute and stopped a few inches from her as she rode past. She seemed oblivious; a bit futher on she just sailed through a red light without looking too, so perhaps she was in a world of her own...

tomg

here we go again!

re-started commute after bridge(s) repaired and bike re-tooled.

with headwind this am, and pushed home pm, it felt good to be recycling to work!

there were 3 closer than comfort calls, one driver stated "sorry" and corrected from left-hook.

i saw no other bicyclists on these am/pm rides and felt isolated, questioning this ratio with gasoline at $3 to $3.25 per gallon, but that's another post... :-) .

i missed the challange!

tomg

Buglady

Oh, you poor dears!

Let's see, it was about -5C on my way in this morning, +5C when I traveled from the college to the Girl Guide hall at 5pm, and heading back down to the 3C range when I biked down to the light rail station to go home. Beautiful day though, sunny and not much wind. The mud on part of the trail was frozen though, that was a little hairy.

buzzman

the rides are nice without the studded snow tires on the bike.

riding in the morning on the road- Comm Ave mostly and the bike path (as far as BU) then out to Comm Ave again.

Very pleasant night time commute tonight. The river's gorgeous. Love it at night- and it ain't too bad during the day, too.

Mazaev

Took the Aksiums off the road bike yesterday and put them on my commuter. What a difference! Between that, a lighter load due to the great weather (50f), no headwind for a change, and a younger Jens Kidman yelling in my ear the whole way, I managed to shave about 10 minutes off the normal 9 mile commute.

Wonder how long it'll take to destroy these wheels with the abuse of commuting and general getting around the city (~9000 roadie miles currently).