I was very lucky to make it home on my commute yesterday. On the morning leg, my bike suddenly started shifting funny about halfway to work. The problems continued on the way home, with the chain jumping from ring to ring, and cog to cog. I assumed it was a shifter or cable problem, but the cable tension seemed OK. Took it by the bike shop after I got home, and it turns out that my chain was about to go snap. It had a broken link that was barely hanging on, and I'm really surprised that I was able to make it home like that. Fortunately I took it easy and had my first true recovery pace ride in quite a while, which was good for my legs as well.

I've got a great LBS and my mechanic replaced the chain on the spot. The bike shifted perfectly this morning, so all appears to be well again. Now, if I can just make it home without getting caught in the thunderstorms that are supposed to move through this afternoon and evening.

Pretty good commute. Weather finally cooled down a bit to be enjoyable -- 75F at 7AM and took my usual route by the Potomac (on the Mount Vernon Trail) across the George Mason Memorial Bridge around the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC and onto Foggy Bottom from there.

Also noticed that a school in Alexandria started today.

light rain, quite refreshing, nice ride in.

Im a new commuter myself. Since its summer I don't wear anything different except a cycling cap to get the water out of my eyes. The trash bags are to keep my work clothes and supplies dry on the way home.

Thanks. When I first started commuting I didn't even think I would make it past summer, but now I may as well continue till the cold comes.

Why does an old man on a knobby tired mountain bike move so fast?
Doesn't he know what that does to fragile roady egos?:cry:

Today was my first cycle-commute since last Thursday, and it seems like fall arrived in the meantime. The sun seemed a lot lower in the sky (even though I got a late start) and it was chilly - only 6C/43F!

Pretty low-energy today, so I took it easy, except after I started playing cat-and-mouse with a bus. Idiot driver zoomed past me and just about had to cut me off to pull over to the next stop, so I "droped the hamer" and managed to stay ahead of it thanks to more waiting passengers at subsequent bus stops. But I ran out of steam pretty quickly - don't know if it's because of the chest cold I'm still getting over, or maybe I haven't fully recovered from the 250+ miles (w/ 15,000 ft of climbing) I rode on the weekend. Maybe a combination of the two.

Around here, there's little reason not to ride year-round. It doesn't really get that cold. But that could be just me. YMMV.

A few more rides with the newly installed drop bars under my belt. I'm sure I need to tweak a few things for a little more comfort, but I'm getting more confident with them. Really appreciated the drops this morning with the headwind I had. Makes a bigger coherence than I would have thought. Just a couple more days commuting this week, then I'm off all of next week to visit inn laws in California. Cool Bay area temps, here I come! :-)

Anyone else here feel they need to bend the rules to get noticed? Otherwise it was a good ride..

beat the rain home. got passed too closely by an audi on the last climb though (and yes i was taking the lane)

It's been about 2 months since my last commute... Good commute today. Kids and I commuted about 1km to school, then I went on the other 8km to work. Perfect weather.

Warm, breezy day... the wind was blowing in the right direction on the way home and I tied my personal best commute time of 35:00 :)

take two.
68 degrees.
I felt strong this first leg. Unusual, I did not or just don't recall looking at the sky. One aspect of being up and ridin so early that I really enjoy is seeing the moon and stars. Maybe it is cloudy?
specific to using this site on an iphone: I tried to post a pic of my bike on the train but the upload interface overlaid awkwardly and appeared to offer only "from computer" or "from url". i suppose my phone should count as "from computer". which reminds me: young writer sat across from me last week writing in several journals. refreshing to see real pen pencil to paper. especially since they were younger.

It was a nice ride in at 19c (67f). It is supposed to be a nice day today, so that is something to look forward to going home. Forgot to pack underwear last evening, and it's not the first time.

Fast ride this morning after a couple days of easy paced commutes. The weather is a little cooler and less humid, so it felt good riding faster but that meant I got just as sweaty as usual. It was also the second commute on my newest bike, a Gunnar Sport. I haven't been able to install fenders yet so didn't ride it the past couple of days due to threat of rain. I just barely made it home yesterday afternoon before our daily thunderstorm hit, with loud thunder rocking my last few miles. Today is the first day the forecasters haven't called for rain in about 3 weeks, but it's supposed to start up again tomorrow and continue through the weekend. We've probably had at least 8" of rain over the past 2-3 weeks.

Nice ride. I've been riding my LHT this week and my knee that was bothering me on my road bike until I raised the seat was bothering me. Today I was back on the road bike and even in the high gears, no knee problem. Not sure I can raise the LHT seat (the cure for my knee on the road bike) but I could switch to shorter cranks.

Not really mentally ready for 45F in mid August like it was this morning.

"Well, that's Montana", they said when I got to work.

I'm still adjusting.

Very foggy and dark this morning, couldn't see farther then 200 m approx.

Passed by an eBike on the way home last night. I normally don't have shut during opinions about the things. Better than the rider being in a car at least. Kind of annoying, though, when you're cruising down the street at 16 under your own power, sweating on a summer afternoon in shirts and a tee shirt, then some guy in full office clothing slowlychases you down and then passes, barely pedaling and with not so much as a drop of sweat on his brow. Even more annoying is that he passed me on the right using a gap in the parked cars to the right of the bike lane to complete the pass. At least have the decency to pass on my left. Oh well...

Great weather for August today. Temp in the low seventies when I left. Usually this time of year, it's already pushing eighty even when not in the midst of a heat wave. Countdown to vacation: t minus one day and counting! :-)

Cool and breezy. Made me wish for my arm warmers for the first half of the ride. It was nice to finally get some extra miles in before work.

Put a Campy Centaur Ultra Torque Compact Crank on my 2001 Bianchi Mega Pro SL yesterday and road into work this morning to try it out! 5.7 miles at 6:30 am so it was quite and I could put the hammer down and ride ( I cheated a little and put my backpack with clothes in a delivery truck around the corner from home because our drivers pick up the trucks and drive them to the warehouse). Was a little warm and humid (this is Austin) but enjoyed the ride anyhow. Now on the other hand it will be 97 and feel like 102 on the way home....

today was my first ride into work with the new tires i got for my hybrid after one of the Continental Sport Contact tires the bike came with was melted by auto exhaust when it was on the car rack. (i replaced both tires because it was close enough to being time to do so anyway).


the old tires were 700x37, which was fine for a foul weather bike, but i wanted something a little narrower without compromising too much on grip for wet weather riding, so i went with the Continental Gatorskin in a 700x32 size. they're supposed to be tough, durable tires that have good puncture protection without being super-piggy beasts like Schwalbe's Marathon Plus.


i took my rain bike today because the radar looked ominous this morning, and boy did i ever get rained on. i got caught in a strong thunderstorm cell about 3.5 miles from work. with lightning flashing all about, i decided to duck under an el train viaduct for cover. i waited out the storm and then continued on my way. the new tires seem like they'll be very suitable candidates for wet weather work.

Another pretty morning at 68f (20c). The last couple of days have been picture perfect riding days. It may all come to an end this afternoon with storms rolling in, but you gotta love 'em when you get 'em.

really tough this morning.

we stayed out late at a street festival (Bahnhofsviertelfest) where live DJs were spinning quite late. Really good vibe, great music/drinks/dancing but I'm exhausted today and one of my knees is quite sore/stiff :(

Two great days in a row...cooler temps in the morning.

Loving my new Gunnar Sport for commuting, but need to identify the source of an annoying creaking sound it is making. I thought it was the frame pump, but it was still creaking this morning after I took it off. My next effort will be to remove the seatpost and see if my LBS greased it up when building the bike. We had slid the seat post in the frame before it was totally built up so I could check all of the measurements for fit, and I suspect that my mechanic forgot to remove and grease it. Could also be the quill stem, for the same reasons.

Who are these criminals?
 

And why do they do this? Why when it's 50F and not when it's 95F?

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=267804

Here's a picture for the evidence folder.

scroca, I hear ya. Morning commute of 7 miles in cool 50F (first time in a long time it's been that cool) and get to work and they have all the sprinklers going. Turned into the parking lot and got a more-than-mist full of water sprayed at me. Had to take a warm shower just to get the feeling back! :p

what a waste :(