Last night was my first ride home in complete darkness. I was kinda worried about it all day long but to make a long story short it was a lot of fun and I was not worried about my safety on the roads. My safety on the MUP was another story. Because of the unusual warmth (70ish) there were lots of walkers, runners out there that were completely invisible. I guess I will move on to the streets where its safer. I also had to dodge on two occassions deer that came out of the woods by the river. Deer without running lights or blinkies I can live with, invisible runners/walkers, well there is no excuse for that!! Looking forward to tonights ride.

Left work as the sun was setting and didn't need the lights until I hit the deep woods. Temps were in the low 40's, great riding weather. Saw a 5 point buck on the trail but I did loose my main light half way throuigh the ride. It's a 15W Nite rider that had the 5 D cell batteries. I've had it since 96 or 97. One of the contacts inside snapped off. When I get bored I'll see if I can fix it. My helmut light is a Princeton Corona that I just got and it works very well. I might just buy one of those for the handle bar light.

brrr, -3 in the city, -10 at my destination. Funny thing is i was colder in the city :p

'Twas a bit brisk this morning, but with the time change there's a hint more warmth when I ride in. New batteries in the PBSF, lights on all the way, got to work early.

Have been commuting less lately, but had to take advantage of a balmy 40* morning [and a high into the 60s today]. Biked to the polls first, which added five miles to the morning ride. Was a toasty 50* by the time I got to the office. Can't complain about that!

Cold this morning in the Bay Area with temps of 50F/55F and partly cloudy, however the sun is ripping through the clouds as I speak. Just VOTED! Now getting ready to ride to work!! In the market for a winter/rain shell.

One of the main roads I take to/from work is going underwater. There is no other convenient route. Seriously considering the bus if rain continues. Cannot see roadway/bikelane/shoulder/centerline/obstacles/grates...not fun stuff. And that was the good side of the road. However, the bus would truly suck. I'll judge situation on Thursday.

bummer about all that rain...i hope it dries up for you soon, if riding the bus is like riding the bus here in portland than you will always have some interesting stories to tell

I'm still registered to vote at my old address, so I rode 19 miles into Queens, voted, ate, and then rode 13 miles to Wall Street to my day job.

Maybe not the most picturesque commute I've ever had, but one of the more important ones.

Got bit of a late start b/c I went to vote, which took about 45min and my ride was therefore not dark at all.

Lovin the daylight savings, we get the most benefit in IN being on the west end of EST, well at least for the times I'm riding b/c I still make it home before dark.

Now is a really good time to be riding in the midwest. It's a chance to get adjusted to colder temperatures in the morning, and recently we've been rewarded with 70F temps on the way home.


I teach high school, and this year on Ride to Work Day they are getting a lesson on bicycle rules and safety. I'm thinking I might ride my bike into the room, all Fred like. State standards or not (I'll relate a little bit of it to physics or something). I only have 110 students, but I've got to try and do something!

The kid was very apologetic. My own 18-year-old son may have done the same thing, and certainly would have reacted the same way. I'm sure he's a good kid and harbor no ill will toward him, but inexperienced drivers still make mistakes due to the lack of experience. The key is that they learn from them.

Didn't come in until noonish, gorgeous sunny day. MUP not visible beneath leaves, no idea where pavement started/ended. Picked up a piece of glass, noticed funny feeling toward end of ride, and rear tire just bottomed out after a bit here in the office. Found that piece of glass, patched hole in tube, hopefully all OK for the rest of the day.

Rode to meet my buddy for our semi-regular training ride (now it's just base miles and chatting), then to work. Left at 11:40 to vote, swung by the house to have a quick lunch with Mrs. Caloso, and then back to the office.

I am new to this site and this is my first post. I've been bike commuting for a few years now and try to use cars as little as possible. Just recently I got a new job that was much farther away than I've ever had to commute before, 60 km round trip (I think that's like 37 miles, I live in Canada so don't really deal in miles). I'm in my fifth week commuting now and everything has been going pretty good so far besides one flat tire and a snapped chain. I pretty much decided to join this forum to get some extra motivation on the rainy/snowy days when I don't really feel like riding. As for my commute today, it was pretty standard. Cloudy but no rain which was nice. I got to work a little faster than usual because I took the highway for part of the way (you can take a trail the whole way if you want, but some of it isn't paved). Anyways, hope everyone has good ride home today.

Nice enough going in (temps in the high 40s, no wind), but nasty coming home (cold, steady rain).

Nice ride home. 50sF (nice for VT) with a tailwind. Reeled in a guy and then eyeballed a woman friend of mine out walking her pug so I stopped and we chatted for a bit. Then I reeled the guy in again. :D I felt pretty quick, which was nice. Lately I've felt slow.

Good going Brett77. That's a pretty good commute, especially as the weather gets colder.

My commute is much shorter. I actually wish it were longer.

I was really glad to be on the bike this morning. Traffic to the gate (Corpus Christi Naval Air Station) was backed up almost a mile (.9 based on mapmyrun.com). Gee, do I like cruising in 70F weather on a bike, or spending 25 minutes in stop-and-go traffic? Hmmmmmm.

Welcome to the forums Brett. 60km RT is getting pretty long alright, how many days a week are you doing it?

went to vote. no problem. good ride, in and out, quick.

on the way to work... ugh. feeling sore form yesterday's crash. no problem, i was slow, but used the time to enjoy the good weather we're having here in MI.

on the way home in the dark (experimenting with a new route for DST) i was flying. everything clicked. legs did their thing, lungs pumpin' fine. it was awesome. :)

'still need to work on the headlight. i thought 120 lumen was good enough. wrong. (pro'lly going P7... ?)

oh, and i was buzzed by a white ford dualie (sp?). way too close, with those mirrors. i picked up the pace to catch him at the red, but just missed 'em. *******. (okay, i feel better now. :) )

P.S. EDIT
heh, and i just learned of the auto asterisks for //bad// words here at BF... sry, i didn't think //bass tard// was bad. (i was trying to keep it clean.)

all good.

I've been fighting something. A cold or whatever. But today was the only day I could commute with everything going on. I was in the rain for half of the 43 miles into work. And my energy just sucked.

Hopefully I can feel better on the way home. I'll be fighting a stinking headwind. Cripes.

Oh ... but not to sound all grumpy. Halfway in, the roads dried up and the air seemed cool and pleasant. I just wish I felt better to enjoy it.

I only did a partial commute this morning. I was up too late drinking beer last night, and felt dried out this morning. Blech.

When I got to the bridge, traffic was backed up, and since I was not on my recumbent I rode the sidewalk across the bridge.... will BF forgive me?

Ride in was slow, as I was up too late.

But, it was a good ride.

Also up too late. :o Slow. Feeling a bit rough. :p Temps in the upper 40s. Light headwind.

warmish ride in and i wanted to just keep riding past my office...i had to dry off using paper towels today because i forgot to bring my towel down to the locker room with me so i dried quickly using paper towels and then dressed and ran upstairs to grab my real towel, by the time i got back to the locker room i had pretty much air dried...it was pretty funny actually

I was at an election party last night and had quite a few drinks. As a result, I woke up 40 minutes late (had to skip breakfast) and feeling pretty dehydrated. I had a huge temptation to take the car, but I toughed it out and rode the bike. I feel fine now, if a bit dehydrated and hungry. Can't wait for lunch.

The commute was glorious today

It was cloudy out here but all I saw was sun

I was a bit hung over but pedaled with the strength of many men in my legs

Someone cut me off but all I did was smile and wave

There was a dream still stuck in my head but great joy in my heart

Thank you, America

Weather report was off by about 10 degrees. As a result I got to work very sweaty this morning since I wore a long-sleeve t-shirt.

We may get rain this afternoon; that could make the commute interesting.

I was tired, stayed up to watch President-Elect Obamas speech, but the commute was a good one. I still don't like the new saddle, and Im not 100% adapted to bike shorts yet. They help, but at the same time they seem to be chafing a bit. i think I need to wear briefs instead of boxer breifs with them.

Nice weather, and I found that in the mid 40s even I still like the thin gloves under the fingerless bike gloves.

Tonight, I ride to the bike co-op and then home. Guess I need to buy a light as it'll be dark by then.

First commute of the season in snow today! It was right around freezing, so I wore shorts and mittens again. The snow wasn't sticking to the ground much, which meant that ice-cold spray was hitting my shins. Aieee! I got used to it after a few minutes. Cars were moving very slowly today, which was nice.