Unfortunately, I get the relatively light tailwinds on the way in - and the insane headwinds on the way home. Took a new route yesterday - boredom is setting in. Only redeeming feature is that it breaks up the big chunk into the wind.

Who's bright idea was it to make "bike paths" like sidewalks? Riding on the road is so much easier/faster than the ca-chunk, ca-chunk of a million cracks to ride over.

Still have another hour by train and subway to go, and then about 20min by bike towards home. Wish I didn't have the graveyard shift today...

The way here was a good commute though. Good weather, didn't need a jacket. Not too warm either.

Nice drop in after I got a slow/late start. Took it easy, saw some other cyclists on the Jail Trail/Eliza Furnace. Last night on the way home, a guy on a road bike in business casual clothes and no helmet wheelsucked me for about two miles. Other than that, pretty uneventful.

hot and humid today - YAY!!! i love this weather. i should live somewhere where it's like this year round. looking forward to ride home and then doing another 40

Started off decent and then it started to drop buckets of water. Although I hate rain... the ride it self was semi enjoyable.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3044/...02ba75c9cd.jpg

Very windy. So much that I rode 1-2 gears lower than I usually do. I don't know why Chicago gets to be called the Windy City (I'm an IL native, BTW), as every day here (SF Bay) seems to be windy, especially in the summer.

Very cool about the hawk nest! I'm a biologist/birder myself so think it's awesome that biking can get folks to appreciate nature more. The best part of my commute is passing a segment of the Bay Trail that parallels a tidal marsh restoration site...it's pretty slow now (except for some pretty American Avocets in breeding plumage) but I can't wait until the shorebirds migration starts up again in July-August. I'll have to be sure to pack my binoculars in my backpack (no panniers for me yet).

Sad to hear about it, I cannot say I live there but do wish them condolences.

Today I drove but yesterday was ideal riding conditions in both directions. In fact, I made record time on the ride in to the office without even trying.

As for appreciating nature, on my ride home last evening I saw the cutest little groundhog on somebody's lawn not far from the edge of the street. Just a youngster about 1/3 of the size of most I see around here. And then closer to home I saw the first muskrat I have ever seen in the wild! It was in the ditch pretty close to the street.

The commute today, was not to bad, started out in the afternoon so the winds were blowing full force on the ride south, after all was said and done on the way home even though there was that same wind, but instead of for the whole ride only a part, the weather was good, and the traffic light. Besides the few problem turns it was a great ride.

Wet wet wet. The weather, not the band.

May was a very dry month, with lots of wonderful cool, sunny weather. It was the driest May for 1000 years (or something like that).

Seems like June isn't going to be that way, as it started raining on the 1st June and basically hasn't stopped. There was also a severe weather warning out for this evening. So I was riding in heavy rain and strong gusty headwinds. In the dark.

Still, it beats not riding at all. For various reasons I haven't ridden the last few days, and boy am I grumpy if I haven't had my fix.

Sweaty!! But otherwise uneventful.

Very warm and humid here, with temps in the low 70s at 6:30 am. Took one of my faster road bikes this morning rather than my regular commuter, expecting to make some time. However, I rode into a stiff headwind all the way to work and caught almost every red light, so didn't ride as fast as I expected. High temps are supposed to reach the mid to upper 90s here for the next week, so springtime is over in reality if not by the calendar.

Damp. It was raining when I got up, but not when I was riding, fortunately. Mid 50sF.

I rounded a bend on the MUP and in front of me was a wall of flashing lights and orange paint. :eek: A huge (but dead) tree had fallen on some power lines and over the MUP. Fortunately the trunk wasn't at ground level so I could easily ride under it. The electric guys were up on a pole fixing things from a cherry picker. There were two large trucks and one utility van on the MUP and I was worried they were going to order me to turn around, which would have been unpleasant.

But I made eye contact with one big dude, said hi, and he said hi, then "Watch your head!" :D

Very foggy. It was eerie being able to see only small sections of the trail at a time. Made good time with a slight tailwind.

Light, steady, rain. The forecast was for severe thunderstorms, yeah right. Must be an awesome job to be right 20-25% of the time and still get paid. Saw other skinny tire tracks as I went under the bridge that goes over the bike path, made me smile.

Moist ride in, my back was pretty sweaty when I arrived at work, I may consider a cetma rack so I can avoid this.
Brought the rain cape for the ride home, I heard it is going to get wetter.

More rain :(

Commute was good. It started out with a nice headwind, but after about 15 minutes of riding I met up with a guy in my class who decided to make his first commute today. His apartment is less than 4 miles to school so he has it pretty easy, but I have the fun part with hills mostly down hill towards his place. Unfortunately those rides home kind of suck, but with a little tail wind. So I have 3 new recruits to my credit to add to the regular commuter list!

Ride home last night was downright hot... at least upper 90's. DW said her car thermometer read 101 just before I left - not the most accurate thing in the world, but pretty close most of the time. Not that it matters - the difference between 99 and 101 is entirely psychological... Head winds were fun, too - 20 MPH steady, gusts up to >30. So I took my new wind approach - head down, spin spin spin, ignore speed, time, and all other arbitrary measures. Seemed to work fairly well, though I did notice that I was a good 4 gears lower than normal on the two steepest hills. That means I was in the small ring, biggest cog, and STANDING to make it up the last one... Got home hot, sweaty, satisfied with my effort... And as a reward for a good ride, DW had steak marinating and ready to go on the grill - wahoo!

24mph headwind through about a third of the ride, but I took it easy and it was a very nice commute. 75º and humid, but the wind kept it from being too oppressive. Looking forward to a nice tailwind on the ride home. :)

Great ride in to work today, until my rear derailer cable decided to fail on the last 2 miles! I guess I have a single speed for the ride home. I'm not looking forward to the 2.5 miles of rolling hills on the way home!

I stuck myself behind a bus, but other than that it was a fine ride in.

Commute was good, no wind this morning... fast ride in. Really enjoyable.

nice ride in this morning. Attached my new PB SuperFlash last night and used it for the first time this morning. I think I noticed a little difference in the way people went around me - could have been all contrived in my head though!:rolleyes:

on the way home yesterday, I passed a dad, mom and a little one on training wheels all riding in the road (very light use residential road downtown in the Oakview area) - while passing said hello and some small talk - it was nice to see a family out on the roads for a ride. Just got my wife a bike and upgraded my sons to a geared Novara and once my youngest turns one I will be putting the seat on and we'll all be out there as well - can't wait!