This is my first post here; great site and so many great commuting resources.

I've been riding to work for about three months now. I've only had three bad commutes and none of them involve drivers, rather they involve equipment failures.

The first was in March- a tooth on the rear cassette snapped and the chain fell off at an intersection as I was starting off
The second was in May - my right pedal broke in half while starting off at an intersection. Again with the chain falling off
The third was today- again at an intersection and this time the chain just snapped and fell to the ground. I had to walk 2 miles home, put my bike in the car, and drive to work with it.

Thank goodness none of these have resulted in me being killed. I was surrounded by cars and a dump truck in all three cases, but no one ran me over.

Anyway, I think it's time for a new bike, one perhaps with an internal hub. Maybe I should check out the Clydesdale area of this forum.

Did the guy look like this? :D
http://www.bergen-filmklubb.no/image...lling_Down.jpg


My ride was dry and in the upper 50sF but the humidity is way up in the 90s and both my mirror and my riding glasses were fogging up. :rolleyes: I caught a guy on an MTB and stayed behind him for about 4 miles. He was just cruising along at a nice comfortable 15 or 16MPH. Not sure if he ever knew I was back there.

Loads of cyclists heading the other way. Not sure what was up. Hybrids, MTBs, comforts, and one roadie in a kit. :p

Either:
a: you have been very unlucky
b: you need a better quality bike
c: you are putting out an absolutely phenomenal amount of power on as you pull away

I'll leave it for you to decide which!! :)

Rainy and squally again in Sydney tonight. Pet peeve: pedestrians with huge umbrellas not looking where the are going on the MUP

No ride today :-( Instead of riding, I spent the early morning hours working in the garden. Still had some lettuce growing out there, and knew it wouldn't last in the ~100F heat we're having.

On the way home yesterday, I saw a really cool looking vehicle I had never seen before. Don't even know what to call it. Looked like a jet ski with wheels. 2 in front, one in back. I could tell it was gas powered by the motor noise, and it appeared to be street legal. Anyone know anything about this contraption?

Man, this morning's ride was incredible. It was one of those rides where you have all the energy you need, no hills bug you, nearly zero cars, and a killer sunrise to boot. Saw 5 other bikes today, which was an added bonus.

The ride was ok today, it was cloudy and the streets were still wet from the showers last night. I didn't put my fender on so I got a nice stripe up the butt. Other than that I was pretty dry when I arrived at work.
My shoes got soaked on the ride home last night and they are still drying at home. I am missing the sun already.

I had several invisible, unpredictable hills today...aka serious headwind. But it was fun anyway. Cool and cloudy.

Too bad, I've heard some good things about them.

It seems to be getting like that everywhere now. You can rarely have a discussion in a shop without the sales guy/tech start preaching to you. I know it's nowhere near you, but if you are in Chapel Hill any time soon, check out Back Alley Bikes. Jason is running what I call a pure bike shop. No one cares how old, or weird the bike you ride is. And there are no corporate contract sales. He'll order whatever you want because it's what YOU want.

http://www.backalleybikes.net/

This post is in regards to yesterdays ride home.
I was riding my new fixed gear and all was well most of the ride. Then my rear reminded me how much it hates the saddle and the last third was downright painful. Now I need to decide what I am replacing it with.
The odd thing was here I was riding along and I hear interesting sounds behind me and discover another dude on a road bike behind me. I am in pain and feeling less than friendly and I get... "hey... how do you like shaving your legs? I am thinking about it and wondering ....." I forget the rest. Consequently I was quite perplexed about the topic of conversation and told him mine were not shaved (they are) and took my turn and left. Who starts up a conversation with a completely random cyclist they have never met about leg shaving? I suppose if I had been my usual friendly self I may have responded. Seriously WTF?
He did seem like a friendly guy.

Then I completely ran out of steam a mile before home and limped the remaining hills into my garage.

One word: Hot. I'm just starting out commuting so I guess it's something I will get used to.

Other than that it was pretty uneventful, but I shaved a minute off my time today. My route is extremely hilly (gotta love TN) so I'm glad I'm making some improvement.

Weather: Cool (perfect) humid (ugh) and not too much wind. Thick cloud cover. I usually won't bike when it's rainy, but I need to do some biking this week... Had a 15 second drizzle on the way down. Hoping for a dry return...

I saw a cyclist go down and I'm currently a bit shaken... I was making a right onto Queen from Beverly and she was making that turn in reverse - a left. She wanted to catch the opening in traffic so she started turning a bit before the intersection. Her tire got caught in the streetcar track, and she fell down. If her hands did go out, it wasn't until she was already near ground. She hit her chin and was bleeding all over. I was the first one over, but had no idea what to do. Within a minute, there were 5 to 7 other cyclists, and two city workers driving by. One of the cyclists was um, trained? A paramedic? He knew what to do and had gauze etc. Then a TV guy showed up with antiseptic stuff and later a camera. I think I might show up for ~1 second on TV sometime today... The TV guy interviewed another cyclist after.
We got an ambulance to come in, and they took her away. I think/hope she's OK other than a bloody chin...

All I can say is "Wow!" The wind in N Texas has been unreal for the last week or so... a calm day is 20 MPH, and this morning it was closer to 30 with gusts higher than that. Predicting that for the rest of the day and into tomorrow morning. Weatherman says it will slow down tomorrow - right about the time the thunderstorms roll in :)

Fortunately I was riding with the wind for half the ride in this morning, and across it the rest of the ride - I did have a couple issues with being literally blown into the middle of the lane, but no traffic so no problem.

If the weatherman is right, I'm thinking I'll cry "uncle" and invite the wife to come pick me up with the kids after work so we can go out to dinner. Don't have any desire at this point to labor into a 30 MPH head wind for 7 miles...

On the commute last night a driver pulled up beside me on a rural road and unrolled the window. He then drove along side of me and peppered me with questions about bicycle commuting. Now that's a sign of the times.

Saw two deer this morning.

Wussed out this morning, thunder and lightning and when I opened the window to look outside, the orange color of the sky was wrong...the way it looks when filtered through large cumulonimbus clouds. Rode the Port Authority bus for the first time in about three months, got to start reading "Phule's Company", but miss the burn on my quads.

Folks wimped out because of rain so I had the MUP all to myself! :D

Hoping she's OK. No streetcar tracks here, thank God, but when I ride my alternate commute I have to cross some train tracks, usually with a car right on my tail. Having read many stories like this on BF over the years, I'm awlays a tad nervous going over them.

Wow. I don't want to assume too much from one case, but maybe people are seeing the light.

Uneventful commute today. Forgot to post yesterday that there was a 2-car collision right in front of the entrance to my building. I arrived after the fact, but it looked like a car got left-hooked by someone trying to turn into my bldg.'s driveway. 2 cop cars, 3 or 4 company security vehicles, plus the 2 vehicles involved all stopped in the 2-lane driveway. I threaded the cops, security guys, drivers, broken glass and plastic and went on my way with several of them staring at me like they'd never seen a guy on a bike before. Meh.

Almost no-jacket weather, but not quite. I'm off to Colorado tomorrow to ride the front range trails [yes, all of them]. No commuting for a week, but I'll live. :)

Me=Wimp

Drove the gas sucking pig.. it sucked

I work from home on Tues and Thursday. It is nice that the bad weather happened on one of those days.
Lucky me. I need a recovery day.

Wind, Wind and more Wind down here in the DFW area. We are talking about 35 mph headwind on the way home! I'll just have to remember how easy the ride in was with a tailwind.

bike shop
 

I'll have to defend All Star on that one. Would you rather go to a bike shop that ignores safety issues? For one, they could get sued if they install a product that ends up hurting you or your daughter. Two, what if it's not safe and your daughter gets hurt?

Frankly, I appreciate a bike shop that watches out for stuff like that. Even if you don't agree with them, it's no reason to quit shopping there.

Left early yesterday to stop at REI and pick up some stuff for a camping trip me and my son are doing this weekend. On the way there i saw at least 4 other commuters - apparently where I live and the route home is not a popular one for bike commuters! Spoke with one of the guys who was riding the sidewalk - asked me if I used my fenders much. Of course I said, why else would I have them! :rolleyes: Also came across some guy who was riding the left side of the left lane - couldn't figure out why he was doing so - there were no obvious LH turns ahead and he rode there for quite some time:wtf:
A little further down the road, my brand new SuperFlash came loose and bounced all over the road after I hit a few bumps.:cry: Part of it bounced into my shin and gave me a nice laceration. I recovered the light and it still works! :thumb: This afternoon before I left for work, I ziptied the light onto the mount. Eventually I will get a rear rack and mount it on that.
Overall, it was a tough ride yesterday - with the new route - a couple of good hills encountered (Lassiter Mill Rd), carried my laptop in my bag, extra items purchased from REI and my shoes - with the heat it just really taxed me - usually don't carry any water because of my short commute, but had to stop at the grocery store before heading home from REI - wasn't feeling too good:(
Looking forward to a nice ride home this evening:love:

Today was the first warm, humid day of the year. Cool enough in the morning but I needed a towel for my face when I got home.

Also, a motorist slowed beside me and said "stop sign!" after I rolled through one on a neighborhood street. First time that's happened. Interestingly, he did a rolling stop on the next one.

did i use enough smilies???...JEEZ!

Seriously pizzed...my L knee started giving me problems 2/3 into the ride to work yesterday. By the time I got there, it was somewhat swollen. Didn't have any ice handy, but the swelling went down during the day. Got a ride home and got X-rays this morning. Had to bring the bike home from work in the car this afternoon - somewhat humiliating. Still hurts a little, but ice is my friend. :thumb:

I'm gonna schedule a fitting at the LBS - I've had this bike for 14 years and never had a problem like this. Might need to adjust those new clipless pedals. In any case, I'm off the bike for awhile...:(