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2014!! How was your commute today?

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2014!! How was your commute today?

Old 06-23-14, 01:40 PM
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Beautiful ride this morning. Low 70s, bright sunshine, and low winds ... the kind of morning that makes you glad to be alive. I was enjoying it so much I ended up making a personal best time without even trying. Made me wish that I could have kept on biking instead of having to go into work.
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Old 06-23-14, 02:06 PM
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Originally Posted by dcb23
Scary stuff there.
It was a little disquieting when I realized that he was missing part of the his car's molding and I wondered if he lost it side swiping someone.

Originally Posted by jrickards
Unless they hit you, you don't realize how close a pass has actually gotten until they get past you and then you realize, wow, that was close. I've been able to calm myself down after one of these knowing that the pass occurred with no incident but it unnerves me for a bit afterwards.
It didn't hit me how close it was until I got home and watched the camera footage. Honestly the arm waving was as upset as I got. Passes like this, well usually they're not that close, happen all the time on that AVE. Fortunately the city is supposed to be putting in a bike lane sometime next month and taking out a car lane. Unfortunately the lane won't be protected.
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Old 06-23-14, 02:06 PM
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Originally Posted by dramiscram
Another bird attack this morning. I'll try to post it tonight. Last thursday I caught it nicely on my camera but I had a 4 minutes video for a total of 3 seconds of action. As I know nothing about computer I wasn't able to edit the video to shorten it. This morning I caught it again but as I now know exactly where the bird is (within a 100 ft range) I managed to get a 20 seconds video.
As I was riding in this morning, a couple of seagulls circled over me for a few moments: I was a little concerned about be shat upon but it must have been just a coincidence that I was where they were circling.
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Old 06-23-14, 06:30 PM
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A beautiful day! Sadly it brought out the fair weather crowd which made my commute a little painful today. But otherwise it was great!
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Old 06-23-14, 10:35 PM
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Here's a link to the thread I put up about the 'bird attack' I suffer from every morning.

https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/...l#post16876978
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Old 06-24-14, 12:18 AM
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I haven't posted in here in quite sometime. Between having a toddler and traveling, it just hasn't happened. However, I've continued commuting on my trusty stead only missing a handful of days each month and keeping my monthly miles between 100 and 150.

Today's ride was great. Low 50's in, and low 60's coming home. It was a frustrating day at work to say the least; one of those days where the crap starts as soon as you walk in, and doesn't stop until you leave. It was nice to be able to work out the frustration on the ride home, rather than hold it in until I got home and let the family bear the brunt of it.

Here's to hoping tomorrow is a better day at the office.
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Old 06-24-14, 04:54 AM
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It was hot and humid this morning. But I changed my bike-day alarm to a Stevie Wonder playlist so last week I rode in with "Sir Duke" in my head. Today it was "Reggae Woman." THAT will help keep your cadence steady!

I also saw a dead juvenile rattler in the road.
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Old 06-24-14, 04:55 AM
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I have an annoying problem to deal with. After getting new tires installed, the rear fender now rubs. No matter how I adjust it, the tire is still rubbing.

I might just take the whole thing off and look for a smaller fender setup.
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Old 06-24-14, 05:13 AM
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Today the commute in was nice. I went a different way home last evening that has some nice scenery. The are many options for the way home, and the way to always is the same.
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Old 06-24-14, 06:12 AM
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Warm - 75F - and humid again this morning, but still an enjoyable ride. The wife and family are on an overnight road trip, so my trip home may be longer than normal. I'll have to look at a map and see what I can get myself into.
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Old 06-24-14, 06:28 AM
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After a one-day respite from the heat and humidity, it was feeling much muggier and warmer this morning. Cool, dry days during the summer in the South are about as common as 70-degree days in January. Temps are supposed to reach the 90s for the rest of the week, with high humidity. Some people love this kind of weather, but it's my least favorite.
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Old 06-24-14, 06:53 AM
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Mild temperatures, 16C/61F, but HUMID, 90% so I was dripping after my ride in. Looks like rain this afternoon, hopefully, it will be cooler, otherwise, I will die on my long 44km ride home.
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Old 06-24-14, 07:48 AM
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No commute today. I'm off as are all the Quebecers because today is 'La St-Jean Baptiste, fête nationale des Québécois'

Quebec's day if you like, it's a provincial holiday.

Have a nice day everyone, Me I will try to get sober in time for tomorow....
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Old 06-24-14, 07:57 AM
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Scary ride home yesterday - within 15 mins of work the skies went from cloudy to black, nice tailwind became wicked crosswind with gusts up to 50mph (according to the news). I crabbed my way to a meetup with some friends and missed most of the rain. The joys of riding in the midwest! This morning was low 70's, humid, gray, lots of debris from yesterday - ride home could be interesting again.
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Old 06-24-14, 09:13 AM
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Originally Posted by dramiscram
have a nice day everyone, Me I will try to get sober in time for tomorow....
You want to be alert for your daily attackers, you want to be on your game or they'll carry you off!!!

Enjoy the day!!! Bonne fête!
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Old 06-24-14, 12:43 PM
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Yesterday was a good commute. 38 miles total for the day (in four legs of 6, 5, 5, and then 22 mi). Upped my cadence and speed on all legs. Weather was nice and the wind was cooperative. Made it home just as it got really dark. I think I need to find some clear glasses as I hate starting out in shades and then have to ride with no eye protection. But I don't want to carry a second pair of safety glasses if I don't need to.
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Old 06-24-14, 02:28 PM
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St. Jean Baptiste. I love the provincial celebration of a country within a country. I honestly enjoyed it when I lived in Plattsburgh and would come up to Montreal.

I had a nice ride this morning. Used strava on my new smart(-er than me) phone and it is confusing the segments people make. A segment on my commute is home to day care, then day care to work, then back again. Not 400 m along a busy cycle path. Though I felt pretty good, the ones I rode through were usually top 50% or better with the kid and around 30% or higher without him. A few I was at the bottom, but they were sections I feel can be unsafe with the kid. I few I was in upper regions.

I did get a KOM for my own private segment. There were only these dinky segments of 500 m or less along a bridge, so I set up the full span of 1.8 km. Maybe I will open it up and see how others do. Can you report false reports on the strava? There was a claim of 75km/h on a segment (triple my speed) and 20 km/h higher than the next one.

Otherwise it was a great commute and I like to ability to track my own rides in more than my mind.
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Old 06-24-14, 03:01 PM
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Originally Posted by joeyduck
I had a nice ride this morning. Used strava on my new smart(-er than me) phone and it is confusing the segments people make. A segment on my commute is home to day care, then day care to work, then back again. Not 400 m along a busy cycle path.
I'm confused... did you create segments for home to daycare, daycare to work, and back again? I don't have these longer segments for a couple reasons:

1. I often vary my route between point A and point B.
2. I have privacy zones set up around my home, office, and kids' daycares, so I won't show up on leaderboards for segments that start/end within ~500-1000m of those places.
3. Longer segments are subject to traffic, stop signs, lights, etc, so more luck involved.

Instead, I just use veloviewer.com to filter down my activities (e.g. start city, min/max distance) and create my own leaderboards for my whole commute.
Though I felt pretty good, the ones I rode through were usually top 50% or better with the kid and around 30% or higher without him. A few I was at the bottom, but they were sections I feel can be unsafe with the kid. I few I was in upper regions.

Originally Posted by joeyduck
There were only these dinky segments of 500 m or less along a bridge, so I set up the full span of 1.8 km. Maybe I will open it up and see how others do.
Often people will just create a segment for the ascent portion of a bridge or stretch of road. I like to see segments as short as 200-300m if it's a reasonable hill (e.g. >4%); really, hills with >10-20m of elevation gain are reasonable to see. And you can hide segments if you don't want them to show up in your feed.

I typically don't like segments that have lights in them (e.g. there's a couple segments starting on 10th Avenue @ Clark Drive; one ends at Fraser, which is the one I look at because it's about 800m, average a little over (really more like 3 x 1 block hills @ 4% with 1 block flat sections between). The other ends at St. George's, a couple blocks descent past the crest (and traffic light) at Fraser. I don't see the point in mixing in the 2 block downhill coast and the traffic light, so I hide that Clark to St George segment.

Originally Posted by joeyduck
Can you report false reports on the strava? There was a claim of 75km/h on a segment (triple my speed) and 20 km/h higher than the next one.
Yes you can. See here.

Originally Posted by joeyduck
Otherwise it was a great commute and I like to ability to track my own rides in more than my mind.
I hope you continue to enjoy it, and that it's worth the hassle of of the smarter phone...

If you want, you can request to follow me on Strava from this activity.
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Old 06-24-14, 03:23 PM
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Originally Posted by HydroG33r
I'm confused... did you create segments for home to daycare, daycare to work, and back again? I don't have these longer segments for a couple reasons:

1. I often vary my route between point A and point B.
2. I have privacy zones set up around my home, office, and kids' daycares, so I won't show up on leaderboards for segments that start/end within ~500-1000m of those places.
3. Longer segments are subject to traffic, stop signs, lights, etc, so more luck involved.

Instead, I just use veloviewer.com to filter down my activities (e.g. start city, min/max distance) and create my own leaderboards for my whole commute.
Though I felt pretty good, the ones I rode through were usually top 50% or better with the kid and around 30% or higher without him. A few I was at the bottom, but they were sections I feel can be unsafe with the kid. I few I was in upper regions.



Often people will just create a segment for the ascent portion of a bridge or stretch of road. I like to see segments as short as 200-300m if it's a reasonable hill (e.g. >4%); really, hills with >10-20m of elevation gain are reasonable to see. And you can hide segments if you don't want them to show up in your feed.

I typically don't like segments that have lights in them (e.g. there's a couple segments starting on 10th Avenue @ Clark Drive; one ends at Fraser, which is the one I look at because it's about 800m, average a little over (really more like 3 x 1 block hills @ 4% with 1 block flat sections between). The other ends at St. George's, a couple blocks descent past the crest (and traffic light) at Fraser. I don't see the point in mixing in the 2 block downhill coast and the traffic light, so I hide that Clark to St George segment.



Yes you can. See here.



I hope you continue to enjoy it, and that it's worth the hassle of of the smarter phone...

If you want, you can request to follow me on Strava from this activity.
I was more referring to my commute being two general segments to me as a commuter, before strava.

I only created the segment for myself for the knight st bridge. I have not created others, yet.

The ones I mean were the 10 or so segments from Nanaimo to Victoria/Commercial/Clark/Fraser. I have also started to sift through and hide those. Also I feel they can be a bit dangerous with rush hour and they are not a section made for racing, in my opinion. I am fine with the hill up after the park at clark to fraser. Though at that point I am tired and slow on the last one.

I completely understand the short hill segments. I was surprised no one created a longer knight street bridge to encompass the whole span.

I was more taking a stab at roadies who like to brag they "got a kom on this 200 m strech man, it was awesome, I was ripping it up." Or however roadies talk.

Overall I like it and I will adjust it for my regular main road sections where I go faster. It is just sifting through it all.
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Old 06-24-14, 05:51 PM
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Haven't posted for a few days. Pretty normal commutes for the most part, except for last Thursday and this morning.

Last Thursday I was on my down the hill I have to deal with every morning, creek at the bottom and a bridge. The water in the creek is very high right now from spring run-off. Coming down the hill I saw what looked like a bird, but it was low.

I got closer and realized it was a Hawk, struggling with a fish it had got. It was struggling to get height. The fish it was holding onto had to be a foot long, which is probably the wing span of the bird, and my guess is it weighed more than the bird. I pulled up and watched it struggle off into the trees. Hope it found the nest.

This morning, coming down that same hill, a bit of rain falling. The road was wet and I was doing my usual morning thing of seeing if I could hit 60 kmh. Across the bridge and hit the brakes harder than i ever have before as a full grown deer came blasting out the brush across the road at full speed.

I have to change that tire tonight as I wore a flat spot in it.

I will likely never wear those bib shorts again.
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Old 06-24-14, 05:52 PM
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Originally Posted by jrickards
As I was riding in this morning, a couple of seagulls circled over me for a few moments: I was a little concerned about be shat upon but it must have been just a coincidence that I was where they were circling.
Sure they weren't vultures??
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Old 06-24-14, 07:43 PM
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Originally Posted by wapiti
Sure they weren't vultures??
No, I don't, now you're scaring me!!!
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Old 06-24-14, 09:19 PM
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First commute in several months. Mild weather, light breeze. Absolutely wonderful.
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Old 06-24-14, 11:26 PM
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To work: 14:00-15:00
Eldest on her own bike; youngest on trail-a-bike attached to my bike; wife (prime power) on ebike. My wife and I teach at a community college 8 miles from home and this was our second commute as a family.

Home again: 22:30-23:45
Eldest still on her own bike; youngest in trailer attached to my wife's ebike.
Eldest takes a spill off the edge of the dark road, but only minor scrapes (~12 mph). Her basket may have blocked her light from showing the edge. A lack of fog line was not helpful, either.
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Old 06-25-14, 05:15 AM
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It was a very nice commute this am, with the temp at 60f degrees. I had to go straight home last evening as we had dinner plans with my brother who came to town.
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