That little emoticon tells the story of what might be on the way Hopefully not though - enjoy!

Commute today was a short bike ride to the bus stop in 78 degree temps. Too groggy (and too muggy out) for a full ride in this morning.

After loading the bike on the bus bike rack I put the securing arm over the front wheel and was careful to not snug it up to the fork because I am worried that the rubber/foam on the end will be gone and dig into the fork. Well today the rubber was worn off and during the trip the metal underneath did rest on the fork. Thankfully it must have happened just before my final stop because there was only a tiny nick on the fork.

Looking forward to the full ride home this afternoon.

Cool start this morning, 12C (54F) with a moderate breeze, decided to wear a long-sleeved jersey and was quite comfortable although a few more days like this, I'll become acclimated to this temperature and won't need the long sleeves.

I was a bit under the weather. The weather was decent temp, near 100% humidity. Air was THICK!

No speed record that's for sure, but it did cure what ailed me...

Warm and extremely humid after all of the rain we had over the weekend. My rain gauge showed 4.5" from the huge thunderstorm we had on Sunday night. Streets were flooded all over the city. This is one of the reasons why I am cautious about riding in thunderstorms around here. I drove through the storm for more than 2 hours, and it was pouring the entire way. I can't imagine riding in the sort of weather. Passed a lot of motorcycles trying to wait out the storm under bridges on the interstate, and they must have had a long wait. Lots of cars spun out on the roadsides as well.

Tailwind

kind of errie

I literally saw no walkers, joggers, or other cyclists the whole way in. I was all by my lonesome on the mup. That has never happened before. sort of cool and sort of freaky

Running a little late I took the direct route, pushing myself on the hills it was a good hard ride.

I spent a couple of hours yesterday fashioning DIY fenders some plastic strips, thin steel rods and zip ties, skinflint that I am. I heat-gunned it to a curve, right over the rear caliper brakes and back down to the seat tube and painted black - it looks OK but has some slight twists and dents. No rattling or rubbing, seems solid. I blasted through every puddle and mud slick I could find yesterday wearing a white t-shirt for a splatter test - success! Though of course now it's clear and dry, all week probably.

Windy and a bit cool, but a nice ride anyway.

Finally decided to order clear lenses for my Flak Jackets. I almost ran over a 96 gal garbage tote this morning. The sun doesn't rise until I'm almost at work at 6:40 AM, arriving at 6:47ish.

As I pedaled toward the country road heading out of my village, about 500 yards ahead of me, a rider pulled out of one of the side streets. A few seconds later, another came out of a different side street. As I began gaining on them, a third rider popped out of the final intersection, the last crossroad before cornfields take over. For a minute there we looked like a parade of blinking red lights and yellow jackets.

Within a mile, all four of us caught up to each other, taking the lane, riding two by two. As we began to chat I noticed that one of the guys was a neighbor who I've seen riding before--he's usually pretty fast. His destination was pretty close to mine. The other two, I never saw before, but they also live in town. They rode pretty slow. Their destination was only a few more miles ahead. I had to go, so I gunned it. The neighbor hung back with them as I began to accelerate. Within seconds, they were gone.

About 1/2 hour later, while I was riding the MUP, the neighbor guy caught up to me. I had a feeling he would. Like I said, he's fast. We rode the rest of the way together.

They're back! School buses that is. Today is the start of public schools in WI...that means I have to contend with a particularly obnoxious school bus driver on part of my commute. Weather was great...mid 50s, cool, no wind.

a chilly 57F, guess our little taste of warm summer mornings was just a tease

Still warm here in NYC. ~low 70s on the way out. Rode my fixed gear to work for the first time in a while. Traffic was unusually mellow, which is a nice change!

Low humidity rolled in yesterday and is parked in DC. Temps are definitely down as compared to the past few days. Headwind on the way in...dark.

I haven't commuted to work in three years. It's the only thing I miss about work since retirement. I still ride every day but just not to work. I do love those entitlement checks though.

When I got to my bike yesterday afternoon, the rear tire was flat, which wasn't good because I was on the hook for BBQing the beef tenderloin that we and our friends were getting together to have so I had to call my son for a ride home. I fixed the tube last night but it was late by the time I got to it so I rushed it.

This morning, the winds were howling around our house and there was a bit of horizontal rain so I donned my raincoat, helmet cover and off I went. About 2km from work, my rear tire felt sloppy so I stopped and, ANOTHER FLAT!!! It wasn't fully flat, just very soft so I stood on the pedals and leaned forward to reduce the load on the rear tire, rode about 1/2 the remaining distance and walked the rest. Guess what I'm doing during morning break!

I've come to the conclusion that I'd rather have heavy, puncture-resistant tires and tubes than worry about weight. I'm going to start looking for some 40-50mm wide puncture-resistant knobby 29er/700c tires. I have some 35mm Schwalbe Marathons that I'm pleased with, I need the wider, knobbier tires for riding to the cottage on the dirt road. Suggestions would be appreciated.

Scouted out a different route this morning into the city center using a walking path and bridge to cross over some busy traffic ways. There was a worn out and small sign showing no bicycles allowed but I ignored it as no one was around not even one pedestrian. If I get stopped by authorites I will beg for forgiveness and assure them I will walk it across from now on. For now, happy trails and this new route makes it much easier to get to my new office although it increased the mileage by .5 miles so now its 15.7 miles one way. Oh well, its a more comfortable trip.

I have no energy these days, I'm thinking about taking multi-vitamins or something like that to see if it help. Even the morning bike ride is not appealing. Once I'm on the bike I feel okay but it's a fight just to get out of bed since I'm back from the vacations.

by the way the morning commute was nice.

Feel like I'm quoting myself.

Ride was good this morning, headwind the whole way though. Took the Jake today. I installed EggBeaters last week in anticipation of CX season starting this Saturday, and last Saturday I found a screaming deal on some new MTB shoes so I wanted to shake down both the pedals and the shoes.

Woke up at 4 a.m. to the sound of my dog puking and then tossed and turned the next two hours, feeling like I was drowning in snot (allergies or a cold, not sure).

Same as yesterday, upper 50's but no wind. I can't figure why it feels so cold - must be high humidity.

What's the deal with riders that don't know how to change a flat? I don't want to sound sexist ('cause I'm not) but today was the 2nd woman I've encountered in the last week who had a nice road bike, all the fixins, but no idea how to change out a tube. I don't mind helping out, but c'mon lbs's - let's do some basic education here!

Was she hot?

Well, I'm sitting at home right now (when I would normally be at work), so it was not a great morning. However, it may not be as bad as I'd feared (hoping).

I started off riding as normal. Felt fine, even though I slept poorly last night. Developed a sudden, sharp localized pain on the back of my left thigh. Fearing a hamstring injury, I turned around and headed back to home.

That's the bad news.

The good news... after some checking, it looks like some kind of bee sting or spider bite... which I will sooooo take over a hamstring injury.


So today, I'll have to ride vicariously through the rest of you.

First commute in Atlanta this morning. Wasn't bad at all; weather was great. I'm very surprised at the number of folks commuting. I don't know if it's the Beltline or what but it's a very different scene from a few years ago. We'll see how the ride in afternoon traffic goes though...

Long story here. Please scroll on past if you have a short attention span and little tolerance for wordy windbags like me.

I started riding to work about two months ago on a bike I hadn't ridden in 5+ years (since before our kids were born - that's how I know). It is a full-suspension Mongoose MTB with knobby tires, and I was out of shape. I timed myself the first few times and my commute took about 35 minutes. The fastest I ever did before I quit paying attention was 32 minutes.

This morning, on my '93 Raleigh rigid MTB from craigslist with commuter tires and being in much better shape, I made it in 25 minutes. I'm enjoying commuting by bike more than I ever imagined I would.

Sometimes on the way home, I take the long way for more riding fun and excercise. Last night we had a light rain (note to self: get fenders!) and I decided I needed to stop at a nearby store that's a bit out of my way but not too far, and the light rain was fun to ride in.

I decided to take a short-cut through the parking lot of a golf course that I've played once before. I remembered there was a cart path leading to the back nine that went through a tunnel under a major road. My faulty memory told me there would be an option to get off the cart path and then cross the sidewalk and get on the road to go about a mile down the road to Target.

There wasn't, and I ended up in a gated community. I couldn't find a way through the gate out of the neighborhood to the street that was ten or fifteen yards away, so I continued on the golf cart path because I remembered it went directly to the intersection where I wanted to be. Fortunately, there were no golfers around due to the rain or I would have turned around.

So, I got to where I wanted to go and was maybe 100 yards from the Target store, but there was a tall iron fence all around the golf course! There were houses all around the golf course, but the fence separated me from them. I had to ride four holes before I found a place where I could get off and carry my bike through someone's back yard and down their driveway to the street and then ride back around those four holes to the other gated entry/exit from this neighborhood. Fortunately a car was coming in as I arrived and I was able to zoom through the gate before it closed automatically. There were guard houses at each gate but I think they were more decorative than functional. I assume the residents have gate-opening devices in their cars, and that's why I couldn't get out at the first gate.

That was a fun and unexpected detour, and I managed not to get chased by either the golf course ranger or the cops and/or private security (just guessing) inside the gated community of large homes.

My commute today was slowed down because I kept getting my bellbottoms caught on my water bottle cage. Anyone got any ideas?