Back today after a week-long vacation in the Caribbean. Nothing (about the commute anyway!) to report.

However...when the taxi dropped us at the airport in Turks and Caicos Saturday I was stunned to see several bike racks in front of the terminal. OK, I get that the income levels in T&C are low so bikes are a common form of transport. But there isn't a SINGLE BIKE RACK in the brand-new "multi-use development" strip mall near my house. And the shopping center even has a bike shop! Grrrrr.

The ARBT seemed pretty crowded this morning. This bike commuting thing might be catching on....

DJ, congrats on the return. Having been hit twice myself, I know it takes some intestinal fortitude to get back on afterwards.

I was reading my latest issue of Bicycling magazine last night and they had a review of the Salsa (though they reviewed the geared version). I was very envious. It sounded like the perfect bike for what I do (mostly commuting with the occasional club or charity ride).

Gorgeous morning - 68 degrees and cloudy, clearing to sun. Got a late start but decided to ride the longer and more scenic route anyway. At the end I took the dirt road alternative to the freeway shoulder but instead of carrying my bike up the very short and very steep route I usually take, I rode up the longer but mostly graded route (about 1.25 miles). Seems to take about the same amount of time in total, and definitely more pleasant.

I think I've become a better rider in the last few months - last time I tried this (back in February) I had a lot of trouble handling a skinny tired bike on graded dirt. This time, it was pretty easy! Will definitely need to clean the chain tonight though.

Got to work only about 15 minutes late - and since I worked this weekend I have some wiggle room on that front!

I take the T part of the way to work and leave my beater bike at the T station. From there, I ride the 2 miles to work. When I arrived at my bike this morning, I found that someone had jumped on the rear wheel and that it was now shaped like a "C". Wonderful way to start the week. At least the weather was nice for my walk, about 70 deg. and sunny, right along the Charles River. I will walk back tonight and bring the bike to the shop which luckily is only two blocks from the station where my bike is. With luck, I should be riding to work again shortly. At least I have my bike at home so that I can take a ride then.

Or was it people trying to avoid the I-5 closure? Sounds as if a lot of people are pretty worried about that!

My buddy and I were wondering about that. The eastern neighborhoods and suburbs wouldn't be directly affected, but the paper and tv stations have been advising the north-south commuters to get off and use the other highways and surface arterials. So even though they weren't directly affected, some folks might have been thinking it would be a zoo on the roads and might as well dust off the bike.

I did notice a riders with those really old fashioned styrofoam helmets, so maybe that's the case.

Fast run in, today. Took two days off, wanted to get some singletrack time in, no go though. Still feeling some aches in the wrist and back from the crash last week.

Fast and uneventful. I seem to attract all of the yahoos that like to draft and then pull away at the end of the ride. I let them have their moment.

Commute in was slow and relaxed because I rode in with a girl and her friend who was fairly new to cycling. In fact, the poor girl only used 1 gear for 70% of the ride because she did not know how to change gears. Luckily this way was the easy way. She is going to have one helluva a time coming back home because it has 1 nice hill that I can barely manage 8-8.5mph spinning up it. She was on a MB too. We did have 1 car with what looked like high school kids coming the opposite way honk and yell something at us, but we could not hear it.The ride back was by myself in the beginnings of rush hour traffic. I was riding hard and relatively fast for me. At one point I had some lady honk and pass me in some big SUV. At the light ahead I rolled up to her window and motioned for her to roll down her window. I was suprised when she did. I asked her if it was her that honked at me and she said no, then I looked at the truck next to her and some guys were looking at me. I asked them and they said they were honking for her to get over and pass. I told them both thank you and rode off when the light turned green. Maybe it was my big clyde body confronting them to their face that made them seem more hospitable...

Being big sounds like fun when biking...

Uneventful. Hot. I took a slightly meandering route that made it take longer.
Some older guy honked me, so I moved more into the lane but obviously not enough. He manged to queeze by me...

Perfect cycling weather, if you discount the 10 mph headwind - both ways...Would have been OK if I hadn't lost a pedal on the way home .

Four-lanes of traffic stopped at the light. I'm third in line. Light turns green, and I wait for everyone to get their respective acts together to actually start moving. I gun it hard because I have a hill and an overpass with merging traffic. It's rush hour, so it's a little 'sporty' out there.

BAM! L pedal lets go (I have clipless) and I hear the two spacer washers clatter away. I have been experimenting with pedal extensions pecause of some knee issues and wanted to know how far to go - guess I went too far . Looking back, I wonder how I was able to stay in control of the bike. I was pushin' pretty hard.

I manage to coast to the shoulder median and collect myself in relative safety. I twist the pedal off of my shoe and see metal shavings on the spindle. Uh-oh...

Pulled out the trusty tool kit and was able to reattach the pedal and cinch it down good n' tight. Was back on the road in less than five minutes. Close call, that.

Lesson learned: Use proper pedal extenders instead of washers. I'll probably need a new crankset now .

The ride home wasn't bad. I took it slow, but was really too wrapped up in my thoughts (brain going 1,ooo,ooo MPH from work stress) to enjoy the scenery. Still, I got home, and I was more mellow than I was when I left work. I'd consider it a successful ride.

wet

REALLY wet- 40mm of rainfall in just a couple of hours

my gear is dripping all over the floor of the office as we speak

I like the way my bike gets super smooth when its soaking, like the rain kind of lubes everything.,

it almost makes up for the couple of hours maintenance required to clean up and regrease everything when i get home.

Fine ride. Still fairly cool-ish out, but the south winds will be bringing in the heat and humidity today (and also a headwind for me on the way home)

Decent ride, thought the right knee is hurting today. Looks like a hot ride home this afternoon; as long as I'm riding AWAY from the office it won't matter.

I decided to drive in today and on my way I saw 2 commuters. I was suprised because I rarely see people on bikes in the morning. Maybe I just noticed it because I am now a cyclist, but you could not mistake their lights even though the sun was shining brightly...

Beautiful this morning. Mid 50sF. No wind at all. The air was cool and dry after some thunder storms last night. I'm loving the Continentals. My average speed is up 2MPH from the old knobbies, and they ride softer, too. Soaking up the bumps.

Later in the week, the weather guessers are saying high 80s! Do not want!

very nice commute in this morning - like BigRon stated, was a little cool, but felt great! This week will be the beginning of the 'wet season' here in NC - dripping, sopping, soaking wet with sweat!

Although I am not primarily responsible for his decision, there is another guy at work who has started commuting. First official ride this morning. Good to finally see some others here taking the plunge. It's crazy, we have a good amount of 'roadies' that work here, but no one bike commutes except one on Fridays when the weather is good. There is even someone who lives no more than 3 miles away who won't commute because it is "too difficult" with all the gear and everything and having to shower and change...oh well - I'll keep working on her - at this point, I am just aiming to convince her to do a Friday commute and hopefully the addiction will ensue.

I wanted to stop for coffee this morning, but was so tired and poky that I ended up leaving late. I took the MUP. Even though it's the same old MUP I always take, it was an absolutely beautiful ride. The sun was just barely coming up, the path was so lush and green and sweet-smelling, the creek was high, and it was just mesmerising.

Awesome ride in, I took a different route this morning that has a decent climb and it felt really good to push it a little. Took a few joy laps around the building to cool down and just listen to the birds sing.
The saddle feels better each day.

pleasant ride in.
No buzzes, no honks, no yells. Made decent time even though I was not pushing real hard.
All in all, a good commute.

Saw another bike commuter on my route this morning for the second day in a row, a first for me. Yesterday I was gaining on him until he ran a red light and then turned off my route. This morning, he buzzed past me at a red light just as it turned green. I'm not one to get my ego bruised, so I rode behind him for a while, but he was clearly new at cycling. He would pedal about 3 strokes and then coast -- on a flat stretch of road -- so I passed him and said good morning. Then I kicked it up a notch because that's what I do on that stretch of road.

I was tempted to ride beside him and chat a minute, but the road we were on is too busy for that. He was a young kid, probably high school or college age and riding to work. No helmet, gloves, lights or cycling clothes. If I see him again I might offer to give him a tail-light and some old cycling clothes. I'm afraid he'll get hit by a car dressed like he is.

It is a a beautiful spring day! I was very, very sleepy this morning so I tried to take it easy. However, I kept creeping up on a guy on a mtn bike so I eventually passed him. After that, I ended up speeding up, so I ended up a work about the same time as usual. A hawk built a nest very close to the trail so I slowed down to check it out. There is at least one mature chick.

I wonder if today was some kind of high-school ride-to-school day or something, as I saw two younger guys (high school? college?) riding part of my route this morning and they were similarly ill-prepared. They also broke almost every safety rule in the book--rode the wrong way, high gears going up a blind hill so they were wobbling in and out of the lane going the wrong way, rode the sidewalk, no signals, waited to the right of a right-turn-only lane to cross a major arterial.

I didn't have time to stop and explain to them all the things they were doing wrong, but as I rode past them I said, "Guys, you're doing it wrong. Ride on the right and obey the laws." They looked at me like I had 3 heads. Oh well. I'll feel bad if they get hit, but I worry more about the message they send drivers (who probably don't know the laws any better than these guys). My wife contends that drivers can tell the difference between "cyclists" and "idiots on bikes", but I don't have as much faith.

Ok, enough of that. Last night I had a long commute (for me). Rode my usual 5 miles home, helped my wife with The Kid, then got back on the bike and rode anouther 6 miles to Ultimate Frisbee pickup. Played for 90 minutes then rode home. The legs are really tired this morning.