wphamilton

Turning left into the parking lot at work, a line of cracks and potholes - I hit the big one and knew I'd pinched flatted as soon as I felt the jar. You know that feeling, oh crap mingled with a little disgust? There should be a name for that.

genel

What a fine day today, and a stiff tail wind last five miles. I know I'll pay for it later.

Kiddies are out of school this week so traffic is light. Amazing how much traffic is generated by the schools.

genel

I'll bet the Germen's have a word for it.

efk22

Sunny, 45F, 8mph headwind for part of the way. All in all, a nice brisk ride.

lnical

Heavy Tail Wind. New Bike - 2011 Jamis Aurora Elite. Fast ride for me. 16 km in 42 minutes.

EKW in DC

First day back on the bike commuting in about a week and a half, thanks to my bike being out if commission after a bizarre wheel destroying incident. Front wheel has been replaced, new chain and cassette installed, and bike cleaned up. Nice to finally be riding again after the time away. I was really missing the commute and growing tired of spending $7 a day minimum to get to and from work and having to deal with metro, crowds, delays, and broken down trains. I support transit, and the train is generally better than driving to get to my office IMHO, but biking is superior to both.

The new front wheel has an Alfine dynamo generator hub. Nothing's hooked up to it yet, but with any luck, the birthday fairy will hook me up with the lights I want in a couple months. :-)

The ride itself was nice. Had to stop a few times to tweak things, since my commute was also my shakedown ride for the repairs I completed last night, but it was still a nice ride. A strong tailwind helped my rusty legs.

vtjim

Farfromriden?

Tractortom

Third day in a row commuting on my Bacchetta recumbent. Weather has been good, with lows in the morning in the high 50's almost 60 and light winds. Afternoons are a different animal, highs in the low 80's but the wind has been kicking up like crazy! Been really busy at work, on my feet all day on the concrete getting a new truck wired up, and it shows on my rides home. They have been a bit slower than usual, cause I'm kind of tired by 5pm.... Still REALLY LOVE commuting on my bike, and have an N+1 on the way!!! Another Bacchetta, this time a Giro with the 26" wheels and wider tires, better for the commute than my Strada with the 650x23C's.

Tractor Tom in Okeechobee, FL

HardyWeinberg

45F and dryish this morning

cdonges

First commute today! Quite slow - 44mins, 8.65km, 13.6km/hr, but it was mostly up fairly gentle hills and I am very unfit.

Ride was uneventful. Nobody tried to kill me so that's the biggest positive.

The trip home will be mostly downhill. Yay!

gevad 

Good for you, cdonges! It's fun, isn't it?

cdonges

It was fun. I have been practising for march, working up to 8km trips. Now I just need to get faster.

Work is good. We have showers, locked area to store bikes and clothes etc. Only one other bike commuter though.

Rimmer

I did a high intensity cardio workout--185bpm averaged over 40min. That wasn't my commute though. About 30min or so after that I commuted back home. I stopped behind some cyclist at a red light. There was a really bad headwind, and there's no way I was 100%. Let's just say I ditched that spandex/clipless wearing roadie. I went from 0-24mph in 15s all on the hoods though a bit crunched down, maintained it, then slowed down for my right turn. His acceleration was weak sauce.

Then, I waited for the bus, so I can go through the tunnel, so I fiddled around and got inches away from running over some dog manure. It was on the pavement.

Today was nice and warm but kinda windy. The 4-6% grade hill later on my commute slowed my down quite more than usual. Carrying a 30lb backpack and being a bit heavy doesn't help. I'm going to have to take it nice and slow tomorrow.

Yesterday as I was approaching a red light and behind another car, some ass behind me honks. I just ignored it, because I'm approaching a stop. When I came to a stop, I turned around, and this ass in his car points at me then points at the sidewalk and then points back at me and then back at the sidewalk. I gave the WTF look with my hands up in the air, and he did it back. By then, the light turned green, and I just left.

RGNY

high 50's and sunny w/ a 10% chance of rain when i left the house. baselayer under a tshirt.

got drenched once on the way out and once coming back. ah well, the crossbreeze that kicked up dried me out in a couple miles....

some jerk cut right about 1' in front of me to get into the right turn lane. not to mention almost rear-ending the car ahead of me.

gecho

Congrats on showing that smug roadie. Here's your reward:

Papa Tom

Hey, all. Glad to have found this group today, as I've been posting everything to the general Northeast Regional forum for several years. I didn't know there was a specific forum for commuters.

Here in Long Island, NY, we had a week of unseasonably warm weather (70s) from March 19-23. All week long, I rode to work, a very short trip of about 4 miles that turns into a little more when I sidetrack to grab a bagel on the way. I never thought the temps would drop into the 30s and 40s again this week. Unfortunately, I'm a sissy when it comes to cold weather. Hopefully, I 'll get back on the bike soon.

JimCanuck

My sides, they are splitting!

Jim

cdonges

I am very new to this whole commuting thing but I thought the first rule was don't race?

JimCanuck

Well its like a lot of things, you do not see race car drivers, or professional race cyclists, race like mad on the road typically, unless its a designated race, and the roads have been cut off from the rest of the traffic and people.

Common sense tends to not be all that common.

Jim

Rimmer

lol too monotonous

He really wasn't a roadie. He had a rear rack with nothing on it, drop bar mirrors, and a really upright position. He was wearing spandex though.

Commodus

I saw two geese today AND two ducks. It was an unusually good ride home.

Chalupa102

Great commutes today.

50F and party cloudy with mainly crosswinds and some headwinds from the SSW @ 13-16mph for the ride to school this afternoon. There seemed to be quite a bit more knucklehead drivers today then usual. There was one vehicle in perticular who, after passing, was all over the road. Not sure if they were looking at me in their mirror trying to figure out what I was riding or doing something else, but they nearly had ran off the road and then almost had a head-on collision with a vehicle coming the other way. At least they were well past me when this all started happening. Also had some older lady in the passenger seat of a car yell something at me in passing. She had the door opened and she was somewhat hanging out as she said whatever she said. I guess the window didn't work. I couldn't hear her anyway. She could have been saying something nice for all I know. I also had to get a little hard on the brakes because I had a vehicle pull in front of me as I was going 20+mph. Desipe the knuckleheads, there was a guy who pulled up in a truck while I was stopped making a quick adjustment. He complimented my velo and told me he sees me all the time. He asked where I was going and coming from, and when I told him he seemed really amazed.

47F and dark with light rain in the beginning part of the commute and mainly headwinds and some crosswinds from the ENE @ 0-3mph for the ride home. Made really good time and felt strong on the climbs. I guess the adjustments I made paid off.

john4789

"Nobody Cares"

I was passing some hipster on a rough stretch of road just outside of downtown. The roads are bad at this location and many cyclists swerve to avoid seemingly random potholes and changes in elevation.

So, passing this guy I say the common "on your left" to warn that I am passing and please don't swerve left to avoid a hole and hit me. His reply was "Nobody Cares". WTH? I though commuters were shamed for doing the opposite. My reply was "Oh yeah?", not the wittiest, just caught off guard.

The nerve... must be the warmth bringing out the sunday coffee shop sprint riders.

spunkyj

So, I haven't posted here in a while, but I need to vent.

Where I live, it's the law that vehicles have to stop behind a stopped streetcar to allow transit riders to get on and off. Today, while riding home during rush hour, and in the bike lane, I was riding at about even pace with a streetcar. Being rush hour, many pedestrians were crowded at the stop, and moved onto the street to occupy my bike lane while the streetcar was still moving/approaching (they do this because everyone wants to be at the front of the line to ensure they can get on). I didn't slow down, figuring that this would prompt the pedestrians to move, but no such luck. As I get closer, the pedestrians start having shocked looks on their faces like I'm about to run them over. I do a firm, controlled brake and stop 7 feet short of them. About a second after I stop, the streetcar stops and opens its doors.

Now here's the part that burns me: some of the group waiting for the streetcar and blocking my lane prematurely start yelling at me about it being the law that I stop for the streetcar and that I almost ran them over, etc. The first part is true but only if the streetcar is stopped. In this situation I believe I had the right away with the streetcar still in motion. The second part is ridiculous as I was at all times in control of my bike and aware that I might have to stop.

End of rant. And let me know if I'm the one who's out of line!

making

Tuesdays ride home was beautiful but windy, got passed by two real roadies who were pleasant and slowed down and chatted for a few minutes. You know like hey nice day, sorta windy, blahblah. Seemed like real nice guys, then they went back to 25 mph and that was the last I seen of them. This morning was beautiful. I love living in Indiana sometimes.