First day of the fall semester so I was carrying a bunch of extra weight. Pretty decent speed but not having the daily sprints has slowed me a bit.

I recently got a Brooks B17 for my touring bike, so I'll be riding that bike most days to break in the saddle. I'll probably swap saddles when the snow arrives.

Glorious. 57F and calm. A bit more traffic with folks returning to work and Sac City USD back in school, but not too bad at all.

Today was the first hard rain I have bicycle commuted in, and it felt good, both during the ride and after I got to work and felt some victory over the elements for today.

I actually saw one other bicyclist out in the downpour. It was a guy on a bicycle that looked like an imitation motorcycle chopper (don't know how else to describe it). I did a double-take, wondering if I was imagining it, and if it was to be followed by purple unicorns or something. Just some guy biking in the rain on a chopper-looking bike. On the sidewalk. Weird....

Changing out of wet clothes in the bathroom stall was less pleasant than usual, but can be done. Overall, a great commute.

Dark, and about 53 degrees on the ride into town this morning. It was nice. I did get passed by a log truck coming off the mountain right after I left Falls City, on the main road and before my turn off to go the back way to Dallas. Man that truck was shedding a lot of dust. Other than that, no traffic for the next 7 or 8 miles.

It was a decent ride home as well, though in the 80s I think. I passed a purple plum tree and had to stop and pig out, much like I did yesterday on blackberries whilst running. It's hard for me to get a good workout this time of year when God keeps throwing food at me like that.

I got passed by 5 cars on the gravel parts of my ride home today, which is probably a record. That's a lot of dust to eat. Usually I get passed by zero in the morning and maybe one or two in the evening.

Locking my bike in the bus yard seems to work fine, as opposed to lugging it around on the different buses I ride.

I had an accident :(. I ride a little over 5 miles on Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago to get back and forth from the loop to home (in west Logan Square). Today, traffic was stopped and I was coming down the side. Not very slowly but it didn't seem excessively fast either. A silver Mercedes in the stopped traffic decided to pull into the bike lane in front of me as he was going to try to squeeze down the side to make a right. I took out his mirror with my handle bars and left thigh and then went down. New back rim from Velomine (27" CR18) bent badly along with handle bars and rear rack. My Ortlieb Downtown Commuter got hit on the corner and it seems like the plastic inside may have broke. Thankfully, I'm okay but still unsure how to handle this in the future. Going slower is definitely one consideration as is keeping even more of an eagle eye on stopped cars.

As I was getting up, the people in the vehicle in front of the Mercedes said he was being impatient and passing people for a while. They kept on going before the police officer stopped (happened to be driving by). He wrote up an accident report and was extremely nice -- gave me a ride to two bike shops (first closed) and didn't automatically assume I was in the wrong. I had both back and front lights on in daylight and it didn't help this time.

Still annoyed by the whole experience but I'm not ready to give up commuting by bike. The past couple months have been a lot of fun and I'm loosing weight and getting stronger (long term recovery from back injury).

Glad you're okay. Let us know how you manage to make the Merc pay for damages.

It was chilly this morning (low 50s), but nice and clear. It's just getting to the point where I have to decide in the morning if it's light enough for the sunglasses (and strobe front), or yellow glasses and steady light.

So for you year round commuters, at what temps do you find yourself needing the long johns, warm gloves with at least fingers, and long sleeve tops? My limit seems to be around 53 or so, but if my ride was a little longer, I might be able to push that down as I could get warmed up a bit more.

excellent!

I'm glad you're OK. Most of us here you couldn't force us to quit but it's an individual judgment, and there's no shame in deciding it's too dangerous.

Well I've got a police report with his insurance information. I just realized though that the office did not write a ticket for a moving violation to the driver. I've got a quote from the bike shop to send to his insurance and I guess I should replace my helmet and possible my pannier. The thing that sucks is I'm left with a very painful/swollen thigh and the driver walks away with a broken mirror.

Have them replace anything damaged - rack, rear wheel, helmet, saddle, clothes that may have been torn in the accident... If he damaged it he is responsible for replacing it. Don't lie or exaggerate about anything, but be sure you get everything replaced that was damaged. THe insurance company likely won't blink as you are talking about a few hundred $$, but they are used to hundred thousands of $$.

Had a nice ride home this afternoon. Stopped at traffic light near Tidal Basin when a fellow commuter complimented me on my Surly LHT. He was on a Surly Troll... Nice to share the Surly love. If that was one of you (seemed like a likely BFer), nice talking to ya.

Enjoyed the rest of the ride...

Tried to do a set of intervals on the way home but was pressed for time so I didn't get a proper warm up. It just wasn't happening so I rode home. Training fail. But I did manage to hold a super-still trackstand through an entire stoplight cycle, so I have that going for me, which is nice.

commute from princeton to princeton junction station at west windsor down washington.
cool (i like it) yet not notably damp until I am sitting on the platform. weird. was tired through the three day weekend. cycle commuted tuesday. slept late arrived late no cycle commite wednesday. felt good but not amped on the way over today. riding the nyc century this sunday sooo leaning towards more rest than less. good commuting everyone!

Frightening... phone company van ran a red light which he didn't notice because he was talking on his cell and panic-braked a couple of inches from my right foot. He didn't even notice the stop-light, let alone that it was red, which kinda gets me thinking of all the close encounters that could have turned into serious accident.

A pleasant ride today at 75f (24c). It is not as muggy as it has been. There is still rain in the forecast, but this should be the last of it for a couple days.

It was a beautiful ride in this morning. I am leaving the house while it is still dark and getting to watch some of the sunrise as it comes over the lake. The temp was a mild 61f. I loved my ride in this morning.

Seems like we all need to take extra care these days. Last night on the way home I found myslef squeezed between a bus and a car (weird contruction traffic pattern I try to avoid when at all possible), came withinn inches of both.

Ride in today was much better but humid.

last day for a while as I'm off into the Austrian and Hungarian countryside for 10 days.

63F/17C & dry. No wind. Uneventful.

Cooler this morning with a light mist. I stayed out of granny gear more often this time. I can really feel my legs getting stronger. :) Sadly, my commute time isn't improving. Dang red lights!

A picture may tell the story better:

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=271403

otherwise, typical ride in.

Yuck! That's probably the same front that I just beat.

On a bike? Either way I'm jealous. Have a great trip.

Muggy this morning, and the clouds overnight trapped in the heat of yesterday, meaning the low temp for the night war when I left home before 7AM... 77°F. Just a couple more days of this crap, though. Looks like tomorrow may be the last day in the nineties for the year... fingers crossed! :thumb:

Very windy for the last week.

Got another flat today!

jesus christ. at least I had an extra tube this time - did my first "on the road" repair, 20 minutes.

Only 11C when I left the house, so it was longsleeve baselayer and jogging pants. I was quite stiff from yesterday afternoons ride home. I'm convinced that muscles used while riding one bike aren't used when riding another one of my bikes. I'd been riding my road and mountain bikes all summer, but the touring bike hasn't gotten much use since April. I took a detour in the opposite direction from school and this morning's ride ended up being 40km.

I went to town with the proofide on my Brooks saddle Tuesday which made the saddle noticably more flexible while riding yesterday and today. Its also making the saddle darker. I wasn't the biggest fan of the honey coloured saddle, but it was the best choice available. Now it is starting to get very close to the root beer colour of my Trek 520 and is looking great.

I dont know how far you ride nor how many flats you have had. But in case it is far and you have had many I will tell you about my first year or so of commuting. I bought a Raleigh Gran Prix out of the bike shop window. The bike shop, well to say minimal support is an understatement. I ride 13 miles each way and the first year I bet I had dozens of flats. The upside is you get to the point you can change them and be back on the road in a few minutes with not nearly as dirty hands. My bike also popped spokes. It was not unusual to pop a spoke and have two flats the same day. After changing dozens of tires myself, taking it to the bike shop over and over (and yes, they charged the hell out of me) I was jsut about to give up and go back to driving. My last ditch effort I went to a real bike shop, had those same wheels rebuild and bought new tires. Never popped another spoke nor and have one or two flats, I dunno in excess of 3000 miles, I also got a new bike the next year, but no flats on it either. sometimes it is the bike. I have also steered dozens away from that bike shop. It is horrible customer service.

Oh yea, 64F and very very wet, and it wasnt raining, just wet.

1000 miles through heavy rain and gale force winds... took me a whole 24 hours.

;)