LOL. Just keep your teeth together. I had one smack the back of my throat last fall. OUCH!

Last night was amazing.
Rode the Miyata road bike, 70 degrees, no wind at all, birds singing. Perfect.

Just found out I will likely be starting a great new job in about a week but it has a huge downside. The commute is only about .9 of a mile. :eek:
I am going to have to change my eating habits or I will quickly look like the Pilsbury Dough Boy. :D

Cool, no wind. Very nice. Took the road bike, so it felt fast.

It's been raining a lot here recently, leaving the odd puddle or wet spots on the road. I actually feel bad if I run over a worm and try to avoid them, but I noticed one too late and bisected it. Later on, I discovered a short chunk of worm caught in my leg hair!

Hopping onto a path this morning, sun in my eyes a bit, I noticed another cyclist off in the distance, and naturally, I wondered if I would be able to catch up before my next turn (1 mile). But I started catching up faster than expected, and noticed the other cyclist wobbling a bit. Turns out it wasn't actually someone in the distance, it was a little kid on a little bike. Like I said, the sun was in my eyes.

I was passing a mother pushing a buggy on the way in on a bike track that is always used by walkers too.....and she was kind to completely move out of the way, but just as I was about to nod a "thank you", I got a big fly or wasp go right down my throat and I had to hock it up immediately....the kid in the buggy kinda jumped....I got the insect up and out but by then I was passed the lady.....all quite confusing I'd say !!

Close to 100 degrees. But, I was cool.. Loved the first leg. Will be doing the second leg in about half hour.. oh boy... ;)

With all the other threads about bad cagers on their commutes, I thought I'd throw this out there:
last night's commute home, the last 1/4 mile home is about a 2-3% hill, and it's a stretch where the bikes are supposed to get off the road and ride the sidewalk (from the MUP to the marked bike lane). So my old, fat butt is huffing up this hill, beautiful day, and a car pulling out from a parking lot on my rights sees me, stops well back from the sidewalk, and indicates that I go across. :) Very courteous. I said "this is harder than it looks" as I went by, and he gave me a thumbs up.

Not all drivers are out to kill us. :D

Super mellow this morning. Traffic seemed lighter than usual. I wonder if everyone is taking their summer vacation.

I'd say it was an ad hoc(k) pass..

A decent ride in at 73f (23c), and another day of a very high heat index. Coming in later on Fridays, I need to pay more attention to runners on the road. In the dark I am by myself. I pulled away in time from a runner and apologized. That area of the road I am usually looking for cars racing me to the highway ramp.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8157/7...8ea24ca7_c.jpg

I try to commute as much as possible during the work week but when I have to visit clients I go by car. It's a beautiful ride (2x 15km) through nature like forrests and even an airbase! On this pic you see my 70's Colnago (upgraded tot Sora&Shimano STI stuff) on the runway of Airbase Soesterberg (they closed this former USAF & Dutch KL military airbase (3km strip)) and made a big ass bicycle lane over it:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1p5kGZuOKn...ilvsLR1047.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soester...Air_Force_Base

Love to ride to work!

After 4 straight days of bike commuting I decided to drive today and give my legs a rest. That and the heat was starting to get to me. The heat index was well over 100 yesterday and my afternoon commute is during the hottest part of the day. I had trouble going to sleep last night and didn't sleep well either, possibly due to the heat. Today is supposed to be just as hot, with higher humidity and possible severe thunderstorms. Sounded like a good day to drive. I'm also planning a metric century tomorrow and wanted to give my legs a break.

My newest commuter bike -- actually a frame and fork -- arrived via FedEx yesterday. Picked up a Gunnar Sport for a great price and plan to swap parts from one of my other bikes. Now I have to figure out which one to use as the donor bike. I initially was planning to decommission my De Bernardi, but that would involve having to buy new shifters, handlebar, brake levers and some misc. parts. Now I'm thinking about doing a clean parts swap from my Salsa Casseroll. As much as I love the Casseroll, the Gunnar is a better frame and essentially the same kind of a bike -- that is, sport touring. The De Bernardi, on the other hand, is a classic Italian racing bike that is not very practical for commuting but very fun to ride. If I keep the Casseroll, I will have 3 sport touring bikes and no more sexy Italian bikes. If I keep the De Be, I'll still have 2 sport tourers (Gunnar and Waterford) as well as my full-bore Bob Jackson touring bike.

Tarwheel I'll bet that Gunnar frame will make a sweet-riding bike! I'd be up half the night putting it together for the metric.

That is awesome!

Easy 5 miles this morning, almost all on the Greenway. Parked the bike in the indoor secure parking, showered an up to work.

Nice ride in: cool, calm, uneventful. Gonna be a scorcher for the ride home, 27C/81F!

blegh... retour commute (the airbase one) was ok, but after soms friday afternoon work beers a bit hard :)

The ride in was excellent, as they almost always are. The weather is nice, no wind to speak of. The rides back have presented minor challenges... either searing heat, or nasty headwinds, perhaps both. Today it was the headwinds. Plus I was surprised by free food late at work which I could not pass up, and the food had not quite settled when it was time to head out. So I wound up cutting 5 miles out of the commute by getting on the light rail. The toughest part of the commute is after the light rail station, and actually the final stretch right before getting to my place. I've only done the light rail a couple of times since I started commuting the entire way, and it seems like cutting the 5 miles out doesn't really make much of a difference in terms of the difficulty of the commute. Everything that is cut out by taking the light rail is fairly easy and flat. It almost seems as though the longer rides gets me in more of a rhythm by the time I hit that final stretch.

monday morning rode princeton to princeton junction (new jersey) for 3 miles and change then circled around the station till i did about 8 total miles theny train came in. am doing at least another 5 aiming for 8 more from metropark to rahway. didnt eat any bug this morning and no suicidal critters pinged my rims! woot!

A big SUV kept pulling along side me then dropping back, did this about three times then when it finally overtook the passenger stuck her middle finger up at me.

I followed the car to the petrol station and a guy in his 50s got out of the back. I asked him, very politely, if there was some sort of problem with me cycling down the road, he was a bit surprised and said "no, why?". I explained about the passenger sticking her finger up at me, and he apologised for her behaviour and said he would have a word. He seemed genuinely embarassed that his daughter would do that so hopefully he said something to her and they didn't all just laugh about it.

Looking in the car, it looked like Mum was driving, Dad was in the back and a teenage daughter was in the passenger seat.

He seemed like a reasonable bloke and we had a reasonable conversation about it so I'm glad I chased after them.

Easy ride in and good temps at 70f (21c). This week is supposed to be cooler than last week, and I like that.

Fully loaded panniers this morning..bread, muffins, and other treats for my team at work. A very pleasant ride in. (Not riding related but during my early morning run I went by a construction site with the absolute loudest machine going...what a wake up at 05:30!)

Nice ride this morning, a little cooler than than it has been lately but still very humid. I can't wait for the days when I can ride to work in the morning without getting drenched in sweat, which should be about another month. The mugginess is what bothers me the most about summers in the Southeast. I did some simple work on my bike yesterday afternoon in the garage -- installing fenders and a pump mount -- and I was totally drenched by the time I finished. It's that way around here now if you exert any energy outdoors.

Very nice morning ride, didn't felt like working at all. I would've keep rolling if I didn't have all those bills to pay!!!

Weather was good, and I decided to take it easy this morning (12.5 MPH overall average, instead of my usual 13.5 or better). Very relaxing ride. However, I saw more bike on bike 'near misses' this morning than I have for a morning commute. First, a guy with a kid in a rear carrier seat entered the main trail (W&OD for locals) without even glancing to see if there was traffic, as far as I could tell. Worse, he entered, and veered all the way left, then when he finally noticed a nearing rider (me) he corrected back to the right very quickly, again without actually looking. No real harm, but definitely disconcerting, and had I been moving 2-4 MPH faster (my more usual speed), who knows? Next was a rider moving quickly through a relatively blind corner, and another rider turning on to the trail (custis, now) on the wrong side, such that they both had to brake hard and swerve... not comforting. Last was a guy on a motorized bike riding up the national mall (Jefferson St?) and not yielding to the pedestrians in the crosswalks. Not so close as to be a real sphincter tightening moment for me, as an observer, but probably not pleasant for the person walking to work.

I chased a "rabbit" this morning, a good pace even though I had planned a slow ride getting used to a new saddle position. But he passed going fast and then ... well you know how it is.

Nicest morning commute in a very long time made so because this was the first day my wife has been able to ride to work in 6 weeks... I rode in with her today under overcast Portland skies and the sun came out for a bit as we enjoyed our morning coffee downtown.

Then it was a nice ride back home... has been nice to have my favourite folder with me here in PDX.

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/famil...stcommute1.JPG

Commute was good this morning, real good. Cloudy, about 85, real humid too. However, the fun was last night. I went to dinner with my sisters, nephews and neices, they happened to pick a place that was on my commute route. Great, I grabbed my BEATER bike and off to dinner. I never locked up any of my bikes unless I am a few feet away from it, as in a cafe or bar. However, the beater is for hazardous duty, an old rust bucket 86 Raleigh Gran Prix.. Got a sweet ride, but rusty and ugly.. Nobody would want to steal it. Nevertheless, I locked it up in front of the cafe, and off to dinner.. Sweet. I am eating the leftovers from the dinner for lunch too.. All in all, a great dinner ride last night, great first leg of the commute this morning..

Tell me life isn't sweet! ;)

After a rest week, I thought my legs would be fresh. Instead, they felt like logs. Got better as I got closer to work, looking forward to a long, hot ride home.

1st day with el-cheapo ebay 'aerobars' on my bike (now called FrankenCommuter). Nice to have more hand options, although it's comfortable enough to ride the aeros the whole way (10 miles each way) except to shift or climb big hills.

my ride in had a 8km/h headwind and my time - without pushing - was more like when I have a 20 km/h tail wind. very happy!

Oh - and I broke 1000km so far on my new bike! woot! :)

Pics?