The return of warmer, drier weather is very much appreciated. The weather was beautiful Friday afternoon, so I rode the long way home along one of the local greenbelts, extending my commute to 40 miles for the day. Similar weather today.

I swapped tires on several bikes over the weekend, opting for narrower tires now that the weather has warmed up and days are longer. That made a big difference on my commute speed this morning, and I got to work about 5 minutes faster than my usual time lately.

Still cold (4°celcius) with a strong northern Wind and a bit of rain, doesn't look like the month of may.

What width did you change from and to?

I was on 23s and changed to 25s back in February. For my 12 mile ride on mostly smooth roads I don't think I'd want any wider.

This particular bike had 28s, Rivendell Ruffy Tuffys, and I swapped to Gatorskin 25s. I swapped the Ruffy Tuffys to my cross bike, which previously had Riv Jack Brown 33s. One of the Jack Browns got destroyed over the weekend due to a sidewall cut, which is what prompted all of the tire swaps. I will probably go back to using 32-35s on the cross bike but thought I would try 28s on it for a while since I didn't have a spare 32-35 tire to put on that bike.

I rode up a hill I've always had to walk part of. So, my day is a good one.

- Andy

More rains overnight after last week's drenching...but a lush green morning and 52F 11C. These are nice rides.

The commute in this morning was pleasant with the temp at 43f degrees when I left the house. The sun is out and shining and no wind, unlike yesterday's ride home. I extended my ride home yesterday by stopping to have my eyeglasses fixed after stepping on them Saturday evening. The winds were gusting the whole ride home, even with sunny skies I did not care for the wind.

I had a guy drive by and yell at me "Hey, use the sidewalk!" this morning right after turning from a residential road onto a main road with a dedicated bike lane. The best part about the encounter...the main street I turned onto has no sidewalk.

Good one, dude!

Biked to vote this morning for the first time. The polls are located at the local elementary school, which is right behind my house, so I usually walk to vote. However, I was running late and planned to bike commute today, so just rode by the polls on my way to work. Another beautiful day weatherwise, sunny with pleasant temps. Mid-50s F on my morning commute and it's supposed to reach low-80s by this afternoon.

Sunny, warm ride home yesterday evening.

Sunny, cool ride to work this morning.

Cool again, 1C/34F , but sunny , but, then again, a headwind . but, then again, 11C/52F with sun this afternoon . (I'm feeling a little manic today I guess.)

A cool 48F this morning - warmer than yesterday but felt cooler. I met an out of town cyclist who couldn't say enough about how great the trails are in Indy. Good to be reminded how lucky I am!

Forgot to mention: I stopped at a red light today, no cars in any direction and I would normally hop on my bike and go through it but I decided to wait it out. It didn't take long to change to green so off I went and made my left turn. About 20m/yds along the road, I passed a pickup going in the other direction and, for some reason, I listened to it and didn't hear any sounds of it slowing. Out of curiosity, I turned my head around and the intersection I just went through, still hadn't changed to green for the pickup but it blew right through the red light. I'm glad the light had changed fairly quickly for me, otherwise, things could have gone much differently for me this morning.

Cold ... 42 degrees, but the sun was out so that helped a little. The worst part was the wind ... ENE 10-15 mph ... which means a headwind all the way to work, and I felt it all. Also rode partly through a puddle on the MUP (there's a part that's still almost flooded) and got my left foot all wet. It was freezing when I got to work.

On the ride home last night I was about a mile from home or so, coming up to a stop light that I knew was going to change. I was going straight, but a lot of times I hug the shoulder instead of taking the lane, or in this case, I moved onto the sidewalk because where I would have been standing was a right turn only lane. So basically I moved out of the way of motorists so they could turn right on red if they wanted to.

Standing on the sidewalk, a guy pulls up to turn right, takes a look at me and gives me the finger. I'm assuming he felt like I "held him up" and made him miss the green light. So I was basically doing the guy a favor and I get the finger. ~shaking my head~ All in all, Milwaukee is a great town to ride in, but man there are some mouth breathing inbreds on the road from time to time. I've never wanted to be one of those "militant cyclists" but some days I think I should be.

Oh ... and on the ride home last night I had tailwinds, but I'd forgotten so. As I get close to home there's a series of climbs that, while I don't struggle up, are a bit of a challenge, and I'm riding up them last night, just flying, amazed at how much my climbing has improved. Then I realized the tailwind helped.

Sunny!!!!:d

Got to ride an extra mile plus this morning. Weather was great. About 66°F no wind.

1/3 of the way to work couldn't find my car keys in my pocket. Turned around started back. Halfway there heard a familiar knocking sound. Sure enuff the keys were there in my pocket all the time. DOH! Old age I guess.

bit chilly at 4C but at least it was sunny!

My front shifter (friction type) seems to be slightly damaged as it no longer stops at the usual places & was really loose but I was able to tighten it up & get both chain rings back in action.

My new wheels came in last night, Vuelta Corsa Pro from Nashbar, so I was excited about the commute this morning. With the new wheels the bike takes off like a rocket and practically throws itself uphill! Just kidding ... but at least they match and are more "racy" than the 36-spoke double wide I had on there.

I was just discussing with OLDSCOOL about his identical wheelset, they seem to be excellent for the pricepoint. So did you leave the stickers on?

So far I've only taken off the barcode sticker; I kind of like the stickers but that could change at a whim.

With the 25% extra off they're $110, heck of a price. I didn't realize they had bladed spokes but that's not something I can't live with. The deep "aero" profile is not really much aero at just 30mm if I recall correctly, unless you happen to hit the exact right size and shape tire (and who knows what that is), but I personally like that shape given a choice for a couple of reasons. So I'm tickled pink with them.

Another great ride in. I'm regretting wearing pants as it was a bit warm this morning and will be hot coming home.

Almost time to put the tomato plants in the ground.

Weather finally broke this Spring, 40s in the AM, into the 50s during the day. After a week of miserable weather last week, we have some sun today with more in the forecast all week.

So nice to be into good commuting weather. This AM, left the house in work clothes, no cold biking tech outerwear, just a wool shirt over a t.

Construction on a bridge -- the only bridge a few extra miles in either direction with a few more hills -- makes things interesting, although I can get through the asphalt vomit they now call a road faster on a bike than the cars trying to navigate the same post-apocalyptic roadscape.

New motivation: a used truck, E-350 utility van, which gets super-sucky mileage. Every mile I ride saves me $0.30-.40

My bike actually came originally with what I suspect to be a bad run of tubes. Both original tubes popped spontaneously (and loudly!) with the bike just sitting, within a few weeks of each other. Both of them failed right at the base of the valve stem. First time I had the wheels off in the garage and one popped with it just sitting there. Second time happened with my bike sitting near my desk in the office. That definitely caused a lot of head turning and running to see what happened haha.

So this morning I FINALLY got a ride in to work, first commute in 2 weeks, due to my bike being down all last week waiting on a new BB. My other bike I really just do not care to ride the 31 miles round trip, so I drove all last week. Low 60's and light wind this morning, and finally it's light out when I leave the house. Makes for a much nicer ride.

Great ride. Got passed over some speed bumps after I dropped my son off. It takes a little bit to adjust to no rear weight and one heavyish pannier on the front, especially the sway/swerve I get going over bumps from the off balance fork weight. So a fellow zips by with no warning on the downhill. I returned the favor on the uphill, just zipped by. I do think I said morning to him.

It was a really nice morning to be out on the bike, like always.

Mine was improved over the norm by improving the connection between my seat post rack and my seat post. Someone gave me a tip on here to shim it with old innertube and hey, it seems to have worked! The real test is on the way home, as it tends to do most of its swinging when I'm standing on an uphill.

M.