bikebuddha 

Too fast. I need to find a way to extend my route again.

jeff-o

Awesome ride! It was warm enough for shorts an a T, so that's what I wore. Nearly every light on the way was green. It felt like I could go on for much longer, but alas I was running a little late.....

ridealot

Well it I got lucky on the way home yesterday. The rain had all stopped about 2 hours before I left work. Nice cool ride home

This morning it was humid out. I was real sewety when I got to work. Supposed to be another great day!

tulip

Dud. Rain. Exploded tube. Metro.

map

Hey DC folks - did anyone ride for Bike to Work day? I can't believe that WABA actually encouraged novices to ride to work in the city in the pouring rain - it seemed like a recipe for major disaster to me.

mjw16

In recognition of Bike to Work Day, and despite a steady rain, I rode this morning. This will be my 3rd "all ride week" of the year. My waterproof jacket did a great job but my exposed legs got a good soaking. Surprisingly, my shoes remained fairly dry although my socks soaked through. My cubicle is adorned with various articles of clothing hanging out to dry. Too bad for WABA, I'm guessing turnout was low to non-existant for their activities. I saw only one other rider, who looked to be a courier, those guys will ride through anything. Although I managed to stay pretty dry this morning, the ride home will be another story-It's absolutely pooring out there right now. Cheers to anyone in the DC area who braved the weather and rode today.

rickegee

It was one of the ugliest commutes of the year in DC (due more to the wind than the wet), but the WABA people were generous with their food, enthusiasm, and freebies. I didn't spot any novices on the road, though I suppose they could have been underwater on some portions of my route.

caloso

Yesterday I got a chance to double my commute. We had some overtime that kept my work unit late but we had some downtime about 7 so I hammered home, fed the dog, fed myself, grabbed my lights and blinky, and hammered back to the office. Nice to get an extra 9 miles.

PaulH

Absolute piece of cake. There were about sixty people at the little breakfast stop/raffle thing at the something-or-other park in Rosslyn. The cream cheese for the bagels ran out pretty fast -- that's one indication of a turnout that well exceeded expectations. I arrived at about 8 because I had to prep my daughter for her oral presentation in school today. I would have to assume that there were more people there earlier in the morning. Lots of fenders, rain capes, and Gortex -- I'd have to assume that there were few novices there. Then again, it was the same way last year when it did not rain -- also seemed to be about as many people as last year.

No major disasters. Every time it rains, car traffic comes to a halt, rendering the cagers harmless. I rode past big backups on the GW parkway on the way to the Rosslyn stop.

Paul

jnbacon

How weird. National Bike To Work Day, but I have Fridays off all summer, so no work to bike to! I went biking anyway, 21 miles of biking just for the sake of biking: Bike for the Heck of It Day! Bike 'cause You Love It Day! And boy, does bike commuting get you in shape: I got on my roadie, first geared ride in six months, and rocked!

I got back, looked at the temp, and at 09:30 AZ time, it was almost 95F! Al, I hope you have something cool waiting for you in the fridge at home!

Sorry for the rain on East Coast, but I hope everyone has a great bike to work today anyway!

tjjohnson

Well today I did it... I rode the entire way from Issaquah to Redmond, 13 miles one way.

The ride was full of pain, sorrow, happiness, and even tears...

I started out at my place at 5:55am and then headed down black nugget topping out at 45 mph. Then I headed down North West Sammamish rd in front of Costco where the bike lane ends and says to use the path next to the side walk. So I took that path and down toward the end near the AMPM there are some wooden bridges that were very wet. It would have been nice to have some notification they were there and that the bridges are slippery etc... So I hit the last bridge and my bike few out from under me and I fell. I will be sending mail to Issaquah city about this one

So I got up and there was suppose to be a bike stop put on by Issaquah city and Issaquah Ski and Cycle next to where my wipe out was. But they were not there...

I kept going down NW Samm. and made my way behind the elementary school where the I-90 bike path is. I was flying down the path when it curved left and down a small hill then back right again with a rock wall right in front of me... I was just starting to notice the path was covered in moss when I also noticed the left hand turn was a lot sharper than I thought. So I pulled the brakes and ended up sliding sideways into the rock wall. Then next thing I know I'm picking my self up off of the ground and putting my panniers back onto my bike and noticed blood flowing freely from my left pointer finger. (I'll be letting Issaquah City know about this one also...) And then I noticed a nice woman walking her dog, she stopped briefly to ask if I was OK and I said yes, so she kept on her way. I was looking at my cloths when I noticed something on my left upper arm. I have an alien trying to get out... There is now a softball sized bruise that looks just like an alien is trying to break out.

Just as I started to take off again I saw one of the other cyclist that I usually ride the bus with and we rode the rest of the way up the trail where he turned to go to the I-90 bridge route to Seattle and I kept going to catch 140th to Redmond.

The rest of the ride was uneventful other than the fact I realized that I could make it to work in less than 1 hour ridding the whole way.

I was going to stop by a large breakfast that is going on for people that rode today, but I decided I didn't want to hang out with anyone that actually had a good ride....

So this weekend I have to go and get a new spoke, may have to have 2 tires trued up again and get some rest...

cicadashell

very nice to be back on the bike again, after a mid-week trip to kansas city. the rain stopped overnight, and all that brilliant sunshine warmed things up just so. i do think there are a few more folks out there than usual.

noisebeam

It is amazing getting on a many geared bike after riding fixed for a while.
Sounds like a nice 21mi ride
I need to leave at 1pm today for a dr. appt., so while heat wont be at full yet (forcast 106 today -112 fror Sunday), sun will be intense. I am having fun with bike thermometer, seeing how temps fluctuate depending on road type. Yesterday up Rural in more resdential area it stayed around at 97-99, then on Southern with heavy traffic and lots of concrete it hit 106.
I know you are sorry for those in the rain, its a pain for those who must ride in it, but it is hard to explain how badly I would love it if it rained soon, but likely it wont rain again until august, late july if we are lucky.

Al

detrieux

Cold and cloudy this morning a little rain at the end.
Cool and windy on the way home. Not a perfect but not a bad day for BTW. Glad I did it. Probably the only one in the County that did the BTW today. Small county very rednecky out there.

ks1g

This was a 4-day riding week for me (meetings forced me to drive Wednesday). I would have wimped out the way it was pouring this morning, but (a) I'd been talking up BTWD at the office so I had my honor to uphold [it was - the office now KNOWS I am nuts] and (b) mother nature tricked me and it was a moderate drizzle at launch time. Which turned to a nice heavy rain before I reached the bike trail. I saw a few more commuters today; rode in with 1-2 others from Herndon to the reston pit stop. The reduced turnout should have improved my chances in the prize drawing but didn't. [If I'd won the massage I'd have given it to my wife.] Rain jacket worked fine, cheap rain pants were fine when moving and too sweaty as soon as I stopped, and the hotel shower cap on my helmet was also OK until I stopped than immediately was too hot. Liked seeing the different commuter rigs, a lot of people were riding straight road bikes with camelbacks/small backpacks and no fenders (my fenders worked really well ). Socks soaked thru but that's why I brought an 2nd pair and my pannier rain covers did their job. They said they had 300-400 (forget the number) people register for the Reston stop, obviously the rain kept a lot of people off their bikes. Liked the water bottles but last year's t-shirt was better.

Ride home was dry, overcast, low 50s and a headwind. Gloves never dried out (will try newspaper next time) but it wasn't too cold for the situation.

Lone_rider

The day couldn't be any better cool in the morning and clear skys with warming temps as the day went on. The ride home was perfect even the cagers were behaving.

PaulH

Very atypical day -- I rode first to Rosslyn for the Bike to Work Day thing, then continued to my office. Rainy, but pleasant.

At the end of the day, I rode out to Falls Church to pick up my car from the shop. It had cooled down quite a bit and was very refreshing.

At no time did I ride on any of my normal routes, so it was a good change of pace.

Paul

genec

Darn good ride home... everything seemed to click just right. Saw a few extra cyclists on the road today.

Sun was out and it was on the warm side, but even the hill climbs weren't bad.

'Course it is Friday.

vtjim

I don't know what was up, but I felt like I was bonking on the ride home. I still made it back in a reasonable amount of time but I just had no energy. There was an annoying headwind. I flopped down shirtless and watched C"N"N for a while, then my wife dragged me out for beers. Could have been worse I suppose.

spidercyclist

Six days in a role for commuting to work and home .
Good ride tonite . It was fast and hardly a car on most of the ride home . Have a good nite .

caloso

Well, I'm working on a Saturday and missed the group ride, so the commute is probably going to be the best thing about the whole day.

GeezerGeek

A funny thing happened last week. While riding my bent on a road less traveled, a school bus starts to follow me. It followed for about two blocks and then the driver pulled up beside me. After another block of him shadowing me at about 15 mph he opened the door as if to invite me in.

"What's he doing," I thought.

It didn't take long to find out. He leaned towards me and shouted, "Where can I buy one of those things?"

I shouted out the name of two LBSs that have a large inventory of bents and then he sped off. That was the second time in as many months that a driver asked that question but this was spooky - talking to a bus driver through an open door while biking.

bikebuddha 

No commute today but I rode up to the bagel shop by my office, very pleasant without the weekday traffic.

billwatson58

My 13.3 mile commute each way was awesome - nice and warm with a fairly strong tail wind going in and then the wind shifted and I had a bit of a tailwind on the way home. Seen on my way home: a family outing, mom and dad on their bikes with kid in the rack mounted kid carrier, all wearing helmets, but to my amazement riding on the wrong side of the street (yikes!!)....in as pleasant of a tone of voice as possible I yelled out "it's safer on the the other side"; also seen was a kid on a tricycle with mom walking behind him - I shouted "nice bike" as I rode by...both kid and mom had big smiles.

ridealot

Good ride in this morning. Rained overnight, had some fresh spring air to breathe this morning. That was nice.