Darth Lefty 

I squeezed another rock into a car tonight. Ping! Two in one week? I had time and took it, toodling along a longer route. The last three rides have been this way. While most cyclists are breaking the law running red lights, I was rock hounding where I'm not supposed to instead. Got a leak in the process, made it home before needing air. I gradually gather enough rocks to make tree surrounds although a wall's worth would take a decade.

MauiWowwee

Got gassed out by a car this afternoon on my way in to work. I smelled the exhaust fumes and knew it was a janky toyota that was in front. Seen it pull over, without signaling of course. Figure the dude was at his destination. Wrong. A few more feet ahead, the car passes by with black billowing smoke from its exhaust. Broke my pace that I had, and also any clean air I was inhaling. Was not pleasant at all.

at_hiker59

I started my fourth week of commuting to work. It feels great to commute again. I've been biking around campus for 3+ years now but have been putting off commuting because the campus is up a hill and going home is a steady uphill. A bad knee - tore the meniscus a couple of times though never biking has made me put this off till now.

Occasionally I'll be riding home at night but I used to do that 30 years ago with the horrible lights we had back then. What an improvement these new lights are! I converted an old Trek 950 to thinner street tires and its working out well. I'm glad to be back to being a bike commuter.

InGrained

On my way home at midnight I actually saw another cyclist going the other way. Was nice seeing another cyclist at night.

esmith2039

Wasn't too bad. In the low 50's so put on a wind breaker. Oh course started getting hot on the last hill to work. I can live with it just have to make sure I take it off when I get stopped. 750 miles today looking forward to the 1k mark!

dcb23

Another week begins: 66F /19C A strong but warm headwind...had my rear spoke replaced over the weekend and the LBS put on some new rear pads and adjusted front and back brakes. Amazing how much of a positive difference those adjustements can make.

seafood

Last week, I got a flat tire on my morning commute. I was within walking distance from the office, so even though I was going to be late, I decided to walk the rest of the way. As I was heading along a stretch of road with a particularly busy and fast bike lane, I saw a bicycle suddenly slow down and jump the curb onto the sidewalk. A kid around 16 turns around, coasts over to me and asks, "Flat tire?" "Yes," I reply. And then I suddenly find myself on a receiving end of more kindness than I feel appropriate for one person in such a short amount of time. "Want a tube? I have a few. 700?," and he points to his back pack. I had to turn down his offer because I was pretty sure I had debris in the tire and would just ruin another tube unless I took my time with it, plus I was already so close to my destination. He smiled and rode away.

Ever since that incident, I'd been on the look-out for misfortune around every corner. I am not a particularly superstitious person, but this was just too nice an act for this awful city. Something has to happen to me this month to even it out. I had stomachache this weekend. Hopefully that did it.

jrickards

Today's the first day of Commuter Challenge Week and I drove in, bad boy!!! (I had to return a rental and didn't like the idea of potentially scratching the car with trunk-mounted bike rack that is too large to put on my bike to take to work so I'd have to leave it at the car rental agency until I could get back there with my car, ...)

Tomorrow then it is!!

tarwheel 

Looks like another week of ideal weather ahead and a little cooler than last week, which I like. Through the week, highs are supposed to top out in the 70s, with morning lows in the 50s and 60s. If all goes to plan, I might be able to ride my first 5-bagger in many months.

arsprod 

Beautiful morning, 45F and a bit of a tailwind... that means a headwind going home, crap! I really noticed the later sunrise this morning, sigh

wphamilton

I'm closing in on a full year since I last drove to work, 9 more commutes to go! I realize that it's objectively meaningless, except as a milestone that I never expected to see. Somehow it seems harder when you're counting down, but with this nice weather I think I'll make it.

ill.clyde

42 degrees, slight headwind from the north ... BRR.

I should have worn my shoe covers for sure, and I need to find the winter golf gloves that I wear under my bike gloves. My fingers were a little too cold today.

That said, it was a beautiful morning to be on the bike.

mgw4jc

I took off work Friday, so no commute. But I somewhat made up for it Saturday as I commuted to a neighborhood where I volunteered in a local running race. The race was partially along my normal route and I even had to leave at the same time. I helped hold cups of waters as runners came by in a half marathon race. A beautiful morning for it. One of the other volunteers had also ridden his bike and turned out to be a commuter also. He said he works for the town and rides to various destinations throughout the day.

Nice ride in this morning and I added a couple of miles. Cooler morning temps - low 50s F - are on the way this week.

dramiscram

Lot of Wind today, mainly cross Wind but still... I hate Wind. Cool and cloudy morning. Roadwork is over so as left home early I had time to spare when I came to work. I tought about taking the long route anyway but then the 30-40 kmh cross Wind would've become a 30-40 headwind for 7.5 kms.

dru_

Dear Mother Nature. More of today please. 62, no wind, just enough moisture in the air to make it pleasant. Only gripe was that the boardwalk sections of the greenway did have a little bit of a slippery moist glaze on them. Nothing that some judicious speed management can't overcome.

Also of note, Conti GP4000's are good, but still slip about a little on that moist glazing of damp wooden surface with leaf residue...

joeyduck

I had a nice commute and a few nice family rides on the weekend.

I went to a BBQ at my brother in laws Friday and rode there (expecting my wife to leave early for Zumba) and I would bring the boy home. But we just ended up staying and having a great time. I was packing up the left over salmon and getting ready to give it to my wife as she drove off. So I decided the race was on (only 6 blocks south and four blocks west). I threw the samlon on the pannier and strapped it one and jumped on. She just put the parking brake on as I got there, drats she won.

We went and had a BBQ at the beach Saturday, great to be able to load the panniers and the BBQ on the bikes. Had a nice time playing, swimming and cooking and biking of course.

We to the other side of the bay last night and got some take out greek and then ice cream on the way home. My wife almost ran into me and me into a car when she thought we were turning left and started to turn into me and the car behind us also was turning (he and I thought we were going straight), in all it was fine. On the way there some guy was trying to pass us and told me to get a bell. I then rang it and said I was not a jerk trying to pass at least 6 leisurely family riders, several walkers and families and kids in strollers. At one point I only had the little boy on the back and no front weight and we almost flipped backwards on a hill. Nothing quite as disconcerting as the front wheel lifting.

Some slight drizzle this morning, not too bad. Just shoe covers and a rain suit on the boy and we were off. Some landscapers almost took us out with 4x4s (lumber not vehicle). They were unloading them and came out into the road from behind a truck. I braked hard and yell wooh. All was good, I think I gave them a good startle.

RidingMatthew

i have ridden 6 days in a row. I even rode my bike to the next town to a friends how to watch a football game. My team lost but at least I got a great ride in. I made it home before it rained and brought much cooler temps as well. this morning was 58F and I was thankful for my arm and knee warmers today.

I ended up taking them off but they sure help on the major downhill .8 miles into my ride. 58F with 32mph wind makes one quite chilly.

hope to ride everyday this week that I work. I am off Friday. maybe a quick jaunt around the neighborhood to get some miles for the bike challenge.

PS 22.67 miles away from my goal of riding 2000 miles this year!

joeyduck

I found a twenty on the ground on our ride last night!

I feel bad it obviously feel out of someone's pocket when they were riding and cell phone surfing. But no one around claimed it as theirs before I picked it up. My wife questioned picking it up, I asked if I should tack a sign up with a "Found $20, please describe."

So it paid for dinner!

Hyperbole

The UN is in session here in Manhattan and I completely forgot. As I was commuting up First Avenue it was total grid-lock for a few blocks and 10-20 cops on every corner. As I debated which route I should take as a detour I came up to a red light deep in though and went to go put my foot down and forgot to unclip(!). BAM standing still crash right onto the bike path. Awesome. Cop came over and asked if I was ok. Just hurt my pride a little.

enigmaT120

Yikes, I think this morning was my first bike commute this month. My morning ride is now dark all the way to my bus stop. I guess daylight savings time will kill my evening light soon. I think I'm more visible to drivers at night, due to all my lights. But the ride is a lot more boring because I can't see any of the pretty scenery. I need the workout anyway.

Darth Lefty 

If it's a penny, and you find it sitting tails up, turn it heads up and leave it. Not sure that twenties are yet small enough to leave behind this way. I would still rather take the risk for the payoff.

caloso

Had planned to ride the road bike this morning, but came out to the garage to find a flat tire. Didn't want to deal, so took the fixed gear instead. It's great to have choices.

ill.clyde

Glad I'm on the bike instead of the highway tonight.



With a typical 45 minute ride, it's pretty rare that it would take me longer to drive than to ride ... but apparently tonight's the night!

the sci guy 

Fall is, um, falling in Houston finally. Was a pleasant ride in this morning - in the low-mid 70s. And still not a bad on the way home either.
Hooray! Now if they could just do something about the "roads" around here.

groovestew

I didn't expect to commute today; in fact, I started my day with my usual pre-work-from-home 18 km loop. Then, around lunchtime, my phone started screaming at me...no one could get their email! The horror! Couldn't fix the problem remotely, so I rode into the office to perform CPR on the server. (Actually turned out to be a worse problem than expected, but it's working again...for now.)

Truth be told, my first instinct in this kind of situation would have been to drive, since it's the quickest way to get to the office. But my wife and I recently took the insurance off our underused second vehicle, and she had our primary vehicle, so my choices were to ride or take the bus. It's a beautiful day, so it was a no-brainer. Got almost 50km on my legs today.