54F and gray. (channeling our out-of-commission comrade HardyWeinberg)

Pretty horrific cyclist fatality in my city a couple days ago. Very sad. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sport...225/story.html

A little humid, otherwise pleasantly uneventful.

Best commute yet this week because I managed to get to work without my rear tire going flat. Not sure if yesterday's flat was some sort of weird failure (like maybe I forgot to screw the valve closed or something?) but the tire has held air just fine for almost 36 hours, which is a new record for this week!

Had a strange moment when this cute woman seemed to wave me down on the MTB (Metropolitan Branch Trail... Who knew?) At first I thought she might need some assistance, but as I got closer I saw her little folding table which contained donuts and coffee, and her T-shirt which said Bicycle Ambassador. I decided to partake only of her dazzling smile and skip the donuts.

Day 3 of bike commuting, and Google Maps led me to a new route today: up Ave. C., under the FDR Drive and onto the East River Bikeway to 34th St., and then crosstown to work. It's scenic, and avoids most of the meshugas of the streets. The weather was lovely, and the humidity was down, so I arrive much less of a mess than I have so far. I arrived more winded though; I felt like I was working much harder. I don't know if it was the (very light) headwind, or just general fatigue.

legs still tired. panniers still so heavy.


but my avg moving speed is picking up so I'm doing something right. I wonder how fast I would be on a lighter non-commuter bike.

Felt really stupid today. Started a new route since yesterday - missed one turn today without realizing it. The road did a very slow, long curve and landed me back very close to my house. Still, my 3 mile commute became a 5 mile one, so something gained :)

Flat tire on the way home. Discovered that I had left a gel in the pocket where I had my spare tube. The gel had unfortunately ruptured. I mounted a somewhat sticky inner tube and continued on my way.

Busy roads this morning, but a nice ride in at 65f (18c). Toward the end of the week everything gets slower, but tomorrow is friday.

Late start but that meant I rolled by a good friend whom I have never seen during the commute...and she had a spare water bottle for me.

Cool mornings continue to hint at Autumn.

Weather was very nice, a little windy. I love mornings, very relaxing, I leave home about 0430 so there is generally light traffic and you can hear the birds and garbage trucks and...well you know. anyway, this morning was a very nice ride until I got up to the 4 lane one way that is my last 2 or 3 miles to work. Approaching the IUPUI campus I was in the bike lane to the far right. Very light traffic so I cuold still eyeball everyone coming up behind me in my mirror. An SUV was coming up behind me, 2 lanes over as I approached an intersection. I looked in my mirror and detected no threat so I started focusing on the intersection, the light was green and there was several seconds on the walk light. This is one of the smoothest and fastest parts of my ride so I was going about 20mph there. The SUV came up beside me, 2 lanes over and something clicked in my head their R turn signal was on, but they werent in the turn lane so I figured they just forgot it, but I must have been reaching for my brakes or I would be in the ER right now instead of babbling on about it. They sped up a little bit, two lanes over not anywhere near a turn lane, jsut a little bit ahead of me, and made a hard, tire squealing R turn. I missed it by less than a foot. I called them a dumb something or nother and went on, it was so close I was past them and could see their drivers window was down, I know they heard me, a little satisfaction anyway. A few years ago that would have scared the hell outta me, I would have followed them yelling and stuff. Today it just kinda woke me up to getting too damn relaxed, esp in the mornings.

Thinking about it though, if I wanted to hit a guy on a bike that is probably how I would go about it. Wonder if the SUV driver was an exwife?

Yikes, making. Close call. Glad it was just a little wake up and not something more.

Absolutely brilliant commute home yesterday. I ended up playing domestique for a couple cyclists behind me, who had tucked loosely into my slipstream. With the tailwind, though, I didn't really week care. Kind of fun actually. We rolled along at a good constant 18 mph or so on the Mount Vernon Trail. One of them stayed with me at Four Mile Run and thanked me for the tour when got to a stoplight. Nice lady. We chatted until the lights changed.

Rode in this morning nice and early. Getting used to this leaving-home-at-630 am thing. Kinda nice actually. Makes for a less crowded commute, although there are more joggers out than at the later time I used to leave. Nice and cool. Dynamo headlight it's going to start coming in handy very soon.

Chilly start to the commute at about 8C/46F. Going to be long pants weather soon. Took a shorter, flatter, faster route to work today.

Last night I worked late and didn't get on the trails until about 8:15 pm. I see few cyclists during my normal commutes, but they were coming out of the woodwork last night. I was pretty surprised how crowded the trails were, especially since it was getting dark out by then. Most were well lit up (I was one of the exceptions).

Day 4. I got an alert the the F train was delayed, and I DIDN'T CARE! :p Did it in 23 mins., which is about the same as the train on a good day. I'm more comfortable on a bike in traffic, and I'm familiar with the route so there's less stop and go, and there was virtually no traffic to speak due to the holidays. I wonder what it will be like when summer ends and everyone comes back with a vengeance next week. The East River Bikeway is definitely the way to go; it's just unfortunate that the trip has to end on 34th St. in a bus lane going uphill.

Early morning ride today, left the house at 4:10am, rode with my new bike light and the full moon. It was nice to see more baby bunnies than cars.

Left the house and wanted to die, legs were so tired. After a block or two the angry, angry music came on and I started hauling ass. Beat my previous best time by a minute. Go figure.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=270226http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=270227http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=270228http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=270229

Yesterday afternoon.

Nice

Perfect weather. Clear as a bell, maybe 80, very little breeze.

http://i.imgur.com/A3Gj5l.jpg

Yesterday was my 100th day commuting this year! Waa-Hoo!! This means I have saved around 75 gallons of gas or about $300 though my wife says I spent double that on biking gear, so I'm still in the hole. :lol: My effort was rewarded by finding a nice Mini Maglite AA flashlight in the road on my ride to work. :thumb: First time I found something worth picking up on my commute.
And today was my 101st day biking, just as fun as day 1 back in January.

That's on a flat? Doesn't that hurt?

50 degrees, pretty clear, but dark when I left the house. I again made my 9 mile morning ride with zero cars passing me. It was an experiment of sorts. I haven't been able to ride much this month because the commuter bus company I use got strict about their rule about bikes on the bike rack only, not in the bus. I don't wish to get stranded at work in Stayton 50 miles away so I've been riding my motorycle when I work there. When I worked in Salem I just rode all the way home, rather than wait to see if I would be bumped from the bus. But one of the drivers suggested that I could park my bike where they leave the buses overnight, as it's only a couple of blocks from where I catch the bus anyway. I tried that this morning, found a fence post to lock it to, and rode the bus from there to Stayton and back after work. I have about 3 blocks to walk in Stayton to my work site but that's no problem. So I can get back to bicycle commuting again!

Busy city streets and hit a number of red lights...76 degrees, light wind, nice ride in.

I enjoy my late fridays as I see more cyclists out and about. A nice ride in and the temps are still good 69f (21c). The only downside to later fridays is racing to stay ahead of school buses, picking up the school people.

Had a surprise at work yesterday. My coworkers gave me an award for topping 20,000 miles bike commuting since I started in 2007. I had mentioned the milestone on my Facebook page and someone in the office spread the word. They gave me a handmade metal sculpture of a cyclist. That was cool and totally unexpected.

VTJim Likes This.

;)

Hurt in what way?
It was near the end of a short 3 mile commute home. (fwiw, it's just after a turn up a hill, then it flattens out).

Yesterday's ride home was a b@tch - constant 15-20 wind in my face until the last half mile. Oh, and the temp was 93 degrees. Ever have your sweat run off your body and be cool as it's dripping off you?

This morning was better. 69 degrees, up before the sun, lots of critters and just me and a few others on the bike path. Another year older....

Nice weather (around 30C / 86F), with light traffic making the commute a bit more stressful since drivers have a tendency to speed on an open road, but overall a pleasant ride from my new apartment to work which now takes me on a more scenic coastal road.

Starting to get wet... The remnants of Isaac are making their way up through the Midwest so this mornings ride was a little wet and I expect going home tonight will be a soaker!

http://radblast-sf.wunderground.com/...ing=0&smooth=0

10C/50F, headwinds (well, breeze anyway), sunny. Tired today. Saw a squirrel chasing a pair of magpies. Other than that, the commute was pretty uneventful.