Beautiful ride to work this morning with temps in the low 60s. Took my vest off about halfway to work because I was too warm. Still bucking headwinds but at least it wasn't blowing as hard as yesterday. Forecasters said it might rain this afternoon or might not, so I decided not to worry about it but have a light rain jacket packed just in case.

Temps around 56F/13C, no wind. Second short-sleeve morning commute of the season. :) Traffic was lighter than normal but then there was a long line of cars backed up at a 4-way-stop intersection. I happily ride past them in the bike lane, glad I'm not stuck in that line.

Looking at my Soho just now. She needs a bath. There's a layer of dust on her and that just won't do.

Finsihed the first leg again, and still sweet, even though I fell. :(

Great ride, although I lost a pair of gloves that I inexplicably carried along in my windbreaker pockets. I got honked at by a passing car, for the first time in maybe a year. Maybe he was trying to alert me that I'd dropped something ?!

I rode to work for the first time this year. It was colder than I am used to riding in, but I wore pants and socks and a thermal layer and a balaclava to keep my ears warm and gloves and was quite comfortable. The best part about it was that the 7.5 mile inbound leg was easy, even though I haven't been on the bike all winter. I attribute the ease of riding to weighing 25 pounds less than last year.

Todays' commute featured the layered look and multiple stops to remove a layer or two.

Aside from the pound of pollen that wound up in my eyes, great way to start the day today.

It was real warm in the sun, and real cool in the shade. Lots of people out and about today.

Warmer, then predicted at 58F (14C). It was a good ride in, and I was a tad overdressed. I was out yesterday for dental work, and now I am ready to eat confidently again. Damn teeth cost too much.

The temp was cooler today than the last two and a long sleeved shirt and a jacket was needed, light gloves would have been nice. It was still a nice ride in this am.

For the past few weeks I have only bike commuted three days a week. A few of the reasons for that is I am fairly new to bike commuting and it tires you out. Also I never really rode in the rain I was not sure I would be up to it. Well today I am on my 3rd day of the week and I have two more days left of work. The question for me is do I ride the other two days, or take one off and ride the other. I think of not riding and I think I will miss it if I don't. Well I will have to wait and see what my body tells me to do.

I'm posting it only because I timed it and checked distance, but I drove in. Average speed: 16 MPH on the nose and that includes a good stretch of "high speed" 4-lane highway. The distance driving was 1.5 miles shorter than cycling, requiring about the same total trip time.

It struck me, very hypothetically, that I could take the highway route on my bike and if motor vehicles could stick to my speed while magically refraining from the lead-foot stop and go jackrabbitting that leads to long lines of halted traffic, and running into each other, then everyone could get to work a little quicker.

You have a very positive outlook!

Quiet ride in, bit of a wind, still warm, sun is rising earlier each day.

Yesterday, on the way home, a pedestrian walks in front of me - I have a green, he has a red - so I ring my bell. He yells "Slow down, man!" I was going like 10mph at most. People are really stupid. But it was such a nice day I just laughed at the idiot. But today is almost 20 degrees colder. What's up with this global warming?

Ate my first bug of the year today. As the weather warms up, I am expecting a banquet since part of my ride is a creekside bike trail.

I have a mixed commute. 2 miles from home to the VA Railway Express (VRE) station, 40 minute train ride to Lorton station then a 7.2 mile bike ride to Fort Belvoir.
Yesterday the new VRE engineer came into Lorton "Hot" and the first 3 cars of the train went past the platform. Bicycle are required to ride in the most Northern car (front in the morning north bound and last car south bound). I managed to pull my Ortlieb panniers and started pushing my Trek 520 down the isle. The conductor came on and said the first 3 cars had to walk back to get off. By then I was only in the 2nd car so I just sat down planned on getting off at the next station. Lucky that my ride was only .6 mile longer and ended up being a a better road with bike lanes.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A6xeaZoPwt...oto-731913.JPG

Temps in mid 40's and the heavy downpour ended as I walked out the door. Fenders took care of the massive puddles everywhere. Pretty much a perfect ride in... too bad I forgot to pack my belt so now my slacks are falling down and my shirt won't stay tucked in.

Saw the aftermath of the heavy rain as there were a chain of accidents on the freeway because of the wet roads and traffic was snarled to say the least.

A little windy, not as bad as it has been recently though. Fairly warm (mid 40's) and sunny. Pleasant ride to say the least.

5 minutes. If I had left 5 minutes earlier (or ridden 1/2 a MPH faster) I would have missed the morning rain. As it was, I just got sprinkled on. C'mon rain gods, let me get home with minimal moisture.

Nicest part of the rainy weather was that the MUP was relatively uncrowded.

I think I need to get my spoke tension checked.

Bring some salt, pepper and ketchup along for the ride :D

18-20mph headwind with 30mph gusts this morning. Absolutely atrocious that was. Of course, the wind direction is coming from the direction I'm going toward at least for the morning commute. The wind is always blowing from the same direction. As usual, heading back home is better in terms of wind.


Some nutball bike rider rode right out in front of me. He just came out of nowhere. This wasn't even at an intersection but before one. I was watching for motorists and behind me. Traffic was pretty heavy. I was in the left turning lane approaching to go left, and he just comes riding right toward me and rides through the yellow line to god knows where else. There were two other lanes going straight to my right. In the opposite direction, separated by a yellow line, there were two more lanes. After reviewing the video, there were a lots of cars in the two lanes on my right. He just came riding (not perpendicular) but at a 45-degree turn left toward me from my right after the cars in the two lanes to my right fled off, so that's why I didn't see him as the cars in front of me blocked me from seeing this whacko.

Nice riding today. It was still dark this morning but I barely got rained on, and things were starting to lighten up by the end of my ride. And this evening was really pretty, sunny/clouds, temps in the 50s, no rain at all and dry pavement. I rode home with my rain gear stuffed in a pannier. I could learn to like riding in shorts and a t-shirt.

The blooming trees are perfuming the air too.

A good ride in with decent temps, 48 F (9C). It starting to get lighter in the morning, so I am getting to my 1 month of light, before it goes the other way. Spring warm days are always the best. This morning was avoiding a fire station with fire trucks and an ambulance blowing out the driveway. Lots
more police also around in the areas I ride.

The ride in this am was a little chilly, I needed gloves and a coat. That is okay cause the sun was coming into the sky and it will warm up later today.

I decided to try riding to work 20.8 miles each way on the streets of Los Angeles from south redondo beach to hollyweird. Geez the roads and traffic are horrible here. I liked not being stuck at a light for three cycles!!!!!!

Nice ride in, should have wore gloves with fingers, it was 48F. Very nice ride, got an early start so just took it easy. Did see a lady commuting today, upright bike, those fancy bag type panniers, reflective gear. Looked like a pretty nice setup if you were only going a few miles. She even had a bell.

The winds finally gave me a break this morning and I had a tailwind all the way to work. I made such good time that I added an extra mile to my commute through downtown and still got to work quicker than I have been lately on days when the winds are in my face the whole way. I drove yesterday because our stupid weather forecasters said it was gonna rain all day with heavy showers in the afternoon. We didn't get a drop. I hate it when that happens.

Tried a variation of my homebound commute for my inbound today...eh. Too many lights and lots of cars.

Had a good ride in today, no really close passes. The closest anyone got in fact, was a salmoning cyclist who rode right at me briefly before "owning" the middle of the wrong lane... luckily no traffic but him and I so just a bit odd. Best part is there's a trail on the right side of the road for people going in his direction... I'm sure he was wondering to himself what on earth I was doing on the "wrong" side of the road... :notamused:

Last couple commute rides have been at slightly below 0C so todays 5C felt quite comfortable!

Cheers

There is one guy on my morning commute who has been pretty regular for the past couple of years. I get a kick out of him because he always hollers "bike up" at oncoming bikes, even riding by himself. I guess he got tired of dodging the sketchy ones and I don't really blame him but it strikes me as funny. He's also gotten all the pedestrians conditioned to saying "good morning" so the mornings are that more pleasant.

Anyway he's a pretty fast rider in the local micro-context. We always cross in opposite directions so when he came up behind me this morning I asked if he minded and hooked up behind - for all of about 3 miles before I pooped out. I think I'm in need of some serious conditioning work or else finish up my 2012 model fairing!

3 things morning.

1. weather website says winds are out of WSW at 5 mph. "cool, light to negligible tailwind", i think to myself.

2. about a mile from home i get a flat. glass shard. my first glass flat in over two years.

3. after fixing the flat i get over to the lakefront path and the wind is HOWLING out of the NNE at what had to be well over 20mph. son of a bit..!