wphamilton

What's your plan, to deal with something like this? There were some attacks this summer on the Silver Comet trail here also so I've given it a little thought. I can't imagine having time to get a weapon out of a backpack during an ambush, and I can't see getting one ready every time I saw a suspicious group of people up ahead. I like to think that we can be alert and deliberate enough to present a less tempting target but that isn't completely realistic.

I have some pepper spray that I velcro under my top tube, very easy to retrieve and aim quickly. But I never ride with it and I question the effectiveness against multiple attackers.

spivonious

Awesome weather on tap this week. It seems like Fall is coming early this year.

If I'm coming up to a shady-looking group of kids, I make eye contact and keep pedaling. Fortunately, I don't have to ride through any areas like that on my commute.

ill.clyde

Great question. Like spivonious, I make eye contact too, and don't dawdle. But I wonder if they like "rushed" him or something, maybe knocking him off his bike while he rode past? There aren't a lot of details about "how" they managed to assault him. But if that's what they did, about the only thing to do is to haul a$$. I don't treat my commute as a race, but I do view it as a workout/training session, so I typically ride pretty fast. I'd guess that works in my favor, but I'd also be prone to stopping if someone was blocking the path, etc. And if that's the case, I'd be a wide open target.

Like I said, this group caught my attention right away. They looked out of place so I'm glad I noticed. The thing is, where it occured, it's not a bad neighborhood.

But maybe something like pepper spray would be a good idea.

arsprod 

I shared a couple weeks ago a friend was attacked by 3 teenagers on the mup here, he ended up with a broken cheek bone. He's now carrying pepper spray but I think more for his comfort than effect. Ever tried to pull pepper spray on a dog even one you see it far in advance? I can't do it fast enough. I'm convinced the best and only thing to do is scream like hell and act like a total psycho.

Woke up feeling dizzy this morning - made for an interesting ride!

joeyduck

I had a nice ride this morning. Very slow and lazy morning, son wet his bed, we all wanted to sleep. So new sheet, new pants, back to bed. Left about 1 hour late.

I got a new bike Friday night! It is a 1999 Rocky Mountain Turbo, full ultegra, CF fork, Easton Ultralight tubing. Perfect size, did a few minor adjustments Saturday and that was all! Guy was near identical in size to me and he was the only owner. It is used but in excellent condition, yellow in color.

So my first ride ended up being to work this morning on it. It is such a different beast than my 36+ pound LHT; the turbo weighs in at 10.3 kg (22.7 pounds) on the warehouse scale with tool kit and water. I dropped about 6 PR's and 14 top three PR times in my 11 km commute; my legs are tired and always slow on Monday mornings. I can not wait to see the return ride up the hill this afternoon. I think I am going to love going faster and longer. Just a few seat placement tweaks and a pedal tension adjustment and it is great.

My wife and I went out for a few km ride out to our anniversary dinner Saturday. We had about a four block stretch on a fairly busy main road I usually commute on with my son. My wife is not fond of riding in traffic and feels I am aggressive (she mistakes frustration at idiocy while driving with aggression and thinks it carries over to biking). I will take the lane approaching lights and in traffic.

Anywho a yahoo in an older Suburban did not like being behind me approaching the red light, so he rev'd his engine a few times. He scared the crap out of my already nervous wife; defeated what little semblance of safety I portray having to her. She said he had a twinkle in his eye. I meanwhile held my line and turned in a block while he went around me and lost no time. She had stopped behind me and waited at the curb till he passed then caught up.

That is actually why I prefer taking the lane at a dangerous intersection; otherwise some jerk like that my try to play chicken with us on the shoulder. With my position he has to acknowledge my presence, even if it was with revving his engine. Meanwhile my wife says it takes one person to just twitch and snap and mow me down. I let her I know I can not control that, they will do it regardless of what I do and I have life insurance (I know not much consolation).

Luckily I got her to let it go and that no one has ever rev'd their engine at me before (true) and it is not a big deal. We had a great dinner at a nice french place, a nice local Gamay, then the new Woody Allen movie (I feel asleep during it). A great night.

groovestew

Normally I work from home Mondays, but I had a meeting in the office today so rode in. Got there, found out the meeting was cancelled. Hopped on my bike and went straight back home. The kicker is, had I checked my phone just before leaving home, I would have seen the email telling me the meeting was cancelled. Oh well. I got a nice ride in, though I'm busy enough that I would have rather had the extra 1.5 hours to work. Which, I suppose, begs the question, "Why am I putzing around on BF?"

DunderXIII

What's the hell is wrong today?? :-) The ride home was crazy. Got the gamut of evil bikers (shoaling, drafting), tons of slow people. The worst part is that there were 2 (!!!) accidents happening near me! In the 1st one a girl got her front wheel stuck in a grate while accelerating down an underpass; she went over the bars. I stopped to check and she was very severely bruised and scratched but (adrenaline?) she said she was ok and rode on. Man, I hope she's ok. Less than 10 minutes later I hear a huge scream behind me and basically see a helmet and a bike over it. Another girl, but this time she was in a very severe condition, someone called the ambulance and urg, I'll spare you the details. I didn't stay to watch, enough of a crowd gathered to give assistance. Anyway; the ride was kinda awesome (??) I mean, physically and weather wise. But so ... weird..

It's the return to school ??

GPH

Funny, I'm in Montreal too and I thought there were a lot of dangerous people on bike today, must be something in the air! The bike lane on Clark was especially crowded when I got back from work at 5:30-6.

MikeRides

Had a good ride in today. My distributor called around 4:30 as I was ready to leave to say he was going to be a couple hours late. My first thought, okay no problem I had some bills to pay online and could use a second cup of coffee. 5:30 rolls around I was headed out the door when my daughter walks out of the house wide awake and dressed asking if she could spend the day with me. Hesitant at first since Monday mornings are ordinarily very busy and it'll be twice as hectic with the late delivery, I answered "Sure, get your bike". She spent the day refilling ketchup bottles, salt/pepper shakers, and assisting with the serving of orders. Probably not what she expected when she wanted to spend the day with me.

The ride home wasn't so great. We nearly got cut off by a tractor trailer that decided to cross the center line to give us extra unneeded room without looking ahead at the oncoming traffic and quickly swerved back into the right lane-crossing the white/fog line- as we were riding on the far right on the extra wide shoulder on the state road. The first time since I started commuting has that ever happened. Then as we were coming down the one mega hill on my commute she ended up taking the turn at the bottom of the hill too fast, hit a patch of sand and skidded to the ground. When I caught up the bike was on top of her and she had blood dripping from her elbow and knee. A good example why we should carry first-aid kits; I cleaned up her wounds and patched her up. She started riding the remaining 2 miles, got maybe 1/4 of a mile and decided she couldn't ride any further. She was limping the next half mile before I decided to carry her and walk our bikes the rest of the way-thankfully she's not too heavy. Official cleaning and bandage replacement as soon as we got home followed by some children's Tylenol to ease the pain she's feeling better now.

Just when I thought we made it through the summer without any accidents

DunderXIII

!!!! I rode at 4:15pm to 5:00... the accidents happened on Christophe Colomb near the park and Boyer near St-Zotique (going north). Yep.. something in the air alright! Thanks for corroborating! :-)

esmith2039

A bit muggy but not bad. Woke up this morning to lightening and I thought rain. Thought to myself yay I have a reason to drive today! That was until I looked out the front door dry as can be. Oh well hopped on the bike a rode. Worked on the bike last night.. cleaned the chain and relubed the chain and cassette with trans fluid. Also figured out what the noise was, was cutting the rear shifter cable, a bit too quiet now!

essiemyra

The ride in today was nice as I was able to add a little extra miles. I took a somewhat different route and loved being off the main road. The temp when I was leaving the house was 49f degrees with the sun coming up. What a pleasant way to get to work!

mgw4jc

I saw two school buses today. Something I haven't seen for a couple of months. Although the local school started back, I haven't noticed a huge difference in traffic levels. I think it may be that my route is not high volume anyway. The buses were both in each of the neighborhoods I cut through.

Muggy, but not horrible out. My wife picked me up yesterday afternoon, thus no ride home. Perhaps a good thing as I *might* have been soaked by one of the little thunderstorms that was rolling through.

ill.clyde

Love that first commute back after a few days off. The legs feel so fresh

Back at it today, odd sight that is likely a follow up to the assault that happened on the MUP last Friday. Saw an older guy, on an older mountain bike, sort of plodding along, with what looked like an ax handle or "whooping stick" of some kind.

mustridebikes

The first day of school for a few schools today, so some increased bus traffic but nothing too bad. Tomorrow should be fun in the afternoon, heat index 100+ and plenty of humidity

dramiscram

The forecast were wrong, no Wind at all today, with a nice sunny sky but a cold 9° celcius (for august) when I left home.

tarwheel 

Our storm weather continues, seriously cutting into my commuting mileage. We've had waves of thunderstorms for the past few weeks, typically erupting about the time of my usual afternoon commute. As a result, I've been driving much more often than usual to avoid getting caught in storms. Right now, our rainfall total is about 10" above normal for the year to date. Hopefully it will dry out some tomorrow, altho it's supposed to start up again on Thurs-Fri.

arsprod 

I noticed a couple homes where parents were taking pictures of their kids outside their front doors. How many car drivers would notice this?! I also noticed that it's a little darker in the morning which means one thing, the days are getting shorter and almost time to think about lights again

andyprough

From the actual news story: "The man got his property back and was not injured seriously."

A few things:
1. All four teenagers were quickly arrested. Have to assume it's highly likely that the teenagers knew the bike rider. Otherwise the cops would have a terribly difficult time finding four random kids, a bike and a backpack

This sounds to me like a stupid neighborhood/family fight, or a marijuana deal gone bad. Or both. Lesson to be learned - a) don't smoke pot, b) if you must smoke pot, don't buy it from teenagers in the local park, c) if you must buy pot from teenagers at the local park, don't ride your good bike and don't bring your expensive backpack

PatrickGSR94

Nice ride this morning, although a bit sluggish. Feeling a bit tired. We'll see how it goes this afternoon with the heat. Forecast upper 90's later this week, which will be the hottest it's been so far this year. I'm hoping we get through August and September with no recorded triple-digit days at all (had several last year).

But with heat and humidity means I get a tail wind on the way home.

wphamilton

I've put the headlight back on already - when the weather rolls in it's already getting dark if I'm even a little late leaving work.

It's been a while since I've done anything really interesting to the bike, or on it. I feel like buying a time trial bike or fixed gear, just to change things up. Maybe an e-bike conversion, that would be a new direction ...

ill.clyde

Most teenagers don't know middle aged bike commuters, so I'm sure it wasn't anything like you're suggesting.

Plus, I saw the kids, they stuck out like a sore thumb, and there were four of them, so "getting away" wasn't easy. Plus, the trail parallels a busy street, so catching them wouldn't be difficult either. Throw in a vibrant, busy commuting community on that bike path, and it's not much of a stretch to see why they were quickly caught. They weren't the smartest kids in the world, assaulting a guy basically on rush hour on the MUP

bconneraz

great ride in today; looks like I'll be running my lights from here on out. Fall is on the way.....

RidingMatthew

I rode this morning in the high humidity.... everytime i stopped for a light my glasses fogged up. I am hoping to dodge the rain in the evenings for the next three days to get at least 3 days of commuting.

@tarwheel how do you know you are up on the rainfall? where do you look for that information?
just curious

spivonious

One of my favorite benefits of riding. You notice so much more when you're not whizzing past in a car.