I took the rain bike to work Friday, not that it was raining all that hard but I hadn't used it since doing a few tweaks. My "rain bike" is a full-fairing (Coroplast) GMC Denali, kind of overkill unless it's really cold and/or really wet. It felt kind of sluggish, being heavy, but I couldn't really compare speeds since I don't have a speedometer on it and no one else was out. It's pleasant though when I get used to the lack of wind, and of course the rain doesn't impact me much. I then spent Sunday fixing up a design defect, evidently a mental slip when I built this years model, and securing some fasteners that I'd half-a$$ed put on to correct "later". I'm almost looking forward to some "miserable" weather to have an excuse to ride it now.

Still summer here, for good or ill. I have not been looking forward to this week. We had four major bad-news events in the last two weeks at work, and are waiting for the fallout. My hand hurts, the handlebars and bike I'm using aren't helping. It's a pledge drive week on the radio. I found the "Icebreaker Episode" of Dinner Party Download, which is a bunch of movie stars telling their kids' terrible jokes... the show started doing it for a sound check and now starts each episode with one and then publishes a yearly collection.

Knock knock
Who's there
To
To who?
No, "to whom"

25mph winds, flash floods, buckets of rain. Could go my whole life without doing that one again...

Yesterday morning, around 7h15 AM, at Tollembeek, where I take the train (half hour) to Brussels.
Lately I mostly commute to a further railway station where more trains arrive.

If you see this beautiful landscape, I don't have to explain you how my commute was yesterday morning, right?

Yesterday's ride home, work side, was 22 miles, 15 of it off road. A repeat of Friday's ride, sans flats . From work, it's about 2.3 miles to trail #1 , which is just over a mile and dumps into the levy trails (mixed surface - dirt, hardpack gravel, loose gravel). 8 miles of that boneshaking ride and it's to campion trail, a paved mup with no intersections. Use is such that you can ride as fast as you'd like, and there's the right mix of straightaways and twists and turns that it keeps things interesting. Terminates on another levy trail that's open on trail side but fenced on the other.... So I hop the fence. Alternative is to go under a bridge, but where's the fun in that?

Final 5 miles is road, busy but courteous(ish) drivers.

Didn't break any speed records, but it was an awesome ride. I plan on doing some iteration of this weekly. Now that I've ridden it twice I know the areas I'd like to tweak.



Was lots of fun to hop!

Got soaked on the ride home yesterday from steady showers streaming up from the South Atlantic. Heavy rain when I got up this morning with the same expected to continue all day, so I drove. When I left work yesterday, the radar seemed to indicate a window in the showers and I thought that I might make it home unscathed. However, it started sprinkling, then drizzling and then pouring within just a few miles, so I pulled up under a tree and put my raincoat on. It was so warm outside that the raincoat was really too much clothing but I don't like riding in soaking wet clothes. I also had to remove my glasses so I could see and rode all the way home without them. Like RidingMatthew said, I couldn't live in the Pacific Northwest or other areas where it rains all the time. We've had about 5 days of continuous rain and it's expected to continue through the weekend, and I'm about to go crazy.

Rain overnight, intermittant drizzle this morning's commute. Minor spill on the MUP 3/4 of the way to work. Only my dignity damaged, but I'm sure my heartrate spiked. This was exactly how I broke my collarbone at the beginning of the summer. At least I slowed down and didn't try to catch myself on with arm extended this time.

Oh well, life should be an adventure.

Popped a spoke last night on the way home during high-torque, hard acceleration as I crossed a road. Once again (last month, I cracked my rim in the area of an eyelet in similar fashion), I thought the snapping sound I heard was a chain issue, realizing only after I got home that I broke a spoke. Easy fix, but not until I buy some new spokes. So, no riding this AM.

My two worst weeks of commuting are Fall and Spring pledge drives! A balmy 70F this morning, very humid and wet from rain last night. 90% chance of rain this afternoon, which really means 'maybe' in the midwest

Drizzle and rainy days are continuing. I've been okay riding in it so far as it has only been damp and/or light rain. Really warm and humid today though - 72F, 95% humidity & 70F dew point.

My office moved yesterday. My department had been in an annex and has now moved back to the main building. It means about an additional third of a mile of gentle downhill on the way in. So far I've handled the additional mileage alright, but I'll probably need more chocolate to make sure I don't run too low on energy.

Could have ridden yesterday despite rain, but I was feeling a little worn out from the weekend, plus had lots of extra stuff I needed to bring in, plus errands to run at lunch, so I drove.

Rode today, bit of drizzle and rain left as I left the house, but that dried up fairly quick. Traffic seemed light(er) which was nice.

Exact same weather for me today. Sweating buckets after 15 miles.

Last weekend was starting to feel like fall, but morning today was a pleasant 72 F. Cut nearly 10 min. from my normal commute time by riding on a busy 6-lane street instead of my preferred route. The reasons: 1. Construction with heavy equipment like tractors blocking the quieter road on my usual route. 2. Rumors of cops ticketing cyclists not stopping at stop signs. I'm guilty of "Idaho-ing" stop signs, but I always stop if another vehicle got there first. Anyway, despite the traffic backup, I didn't have to filter or anything. Ok, I did switch to the sidewalk when the bus in my lane stopped, then switched back to the road.

The traffic backup was pretty bad - all the way to the airport. I passed several cars that never caught up with me before I reached the bridge to DC.

Great morning for a commute! Here I am on the South Walnut Creek Hike/Bike Trail in Austin, Texas. My wife has my rack and Ortliebs, probably forever, so I'm using my indestructible Chouinard Equipment (nowadays Patagonia) climbing bag I bought in 1983. The bag is supporting the bike (Wabi Classic) here. Hopefully this is a good "before" picture that I can later pair with an "after" picture when I lose 20 pounds. . . .

This morning was the "long" route, 11 miles. The short route to work is only 4.4 miles.

I drove today and was glad I did it poured down this morning. I don't think that I would have felt safe riding in this amount of rain. taking both kids to IHOP tonight while wife has some alone time knitting... looking forward to eating with my kiddos!

Evening commute...

First time in months that I've been drenched - like "I jumped in the pool with all my clothes on" drenched. I always ride at an easy pace when I commute, so I didn't have to brake hard. Mt. Vernon Trail wasn't totally emptied out by the rain - there were still some dedicated runners out there.

At E. Glebe and Potomac Ave, there was cyclist lying on the ground, in the middle of the intersection, with a bike lying nearby. He (I think it was a he) appeared to be unconscious, with a blanket over him, but was surrounded by concerned citizens, one of whom was on a mobile phone, presumably calling for help. Traffic in the direction of that intersection from Potomac Yards was totally blocked, because nobody wanted to risk moving the injured cyclist, though any of those cars could have just turned around and taken any number of routes through Potomac Yards. I did hear some sirens as I rode away from the intersection.

Got up at 4 am to get to the airport, my strangest commute in awhile. Air travel weirdness. I left the car parked there at the airport because everyone in the family would rather be car-free for 3 days than drive twice through Atlanta. Which is where the bike part comes in: my son took his bike to his job this time! And of course thoroughly enjoyed it. Evidently it's still rainstorming in Alpharetta but he just waited out the heavy part and hit the gap in the rain like a champ.

Last night I had nice tail wind. I could not look at my computer, but I was traveling at the same speed as traffic for large parts of my commute on a 50km/h road. Finished my 8 mile road with a 19.2 mi/h average, one of my fastest commute times. A lot of fun, but legs were burned out on the ride into the same wind this morning.

73F/23C muggy morning after heavy rains last night.

Wow that is scary stuff, hope that rider is recovering. I also got the full drenching coming into Alexandria from DC. This was my third commute to and from our new home over by Huntington Metro. Between 10.4 - 11 miles so far. This is a whole different ball game for me now after having a daily 4-mile one way but so far I love it.

I've discovered the importance of a good headlamp...will be shopping this weekend.

Warm and high humidity again today. Though it has not been too bad.

I'm helping a couple of friends load a truck for a move tonight. They live about 2 miles from my work, so I'll just ride there. Depending on how late it goes I may get a pickup from my wife later on.

A little cooler this morning upper 50's depending on which bank clock you go by. Supposed to be in the 40's from now on.. not riding tomorrow but Friday morning that might be interesting. First cold ride! Have plenty of gear just a big sissy when it comes to the cold!

I got thoroughly drenched yesterday on the ride home. Fortunately, it was warm. Along with the rain came a cold front so only 56F this morning and windy. The ride in was nice because it was a tailwind - trying not to predict how hard the ride home into the wind will be

Consecutive commute #110 :

Still fighting sickness. Felt like complete trash when I got up today. Sinus pressure so intense that all my teeth hurt. After I got everything ready I sat down in my chair and strongly considered staying home from work. However I really wanted to break 500 miles of riding for September, and was currently sitting at 485. I needed the 16 miles to and from work to put me over this mark. It was motivation enough to get me out of the chair.

Out in the garage I was pumping up my tires and again nearly threw in the towel and went back inside. But my desire to break that 500 mile mark was strong, so I forced myself to load up and head out.

Once riding I didn't push myself hard at all. I actually started to feel a bit better, although that's a relative thing. The teeth stopped throbbing but overall I still felt like death on toast. Temp was about 50 degrees and I had a light tailwind.

Made it to work. Once I ride home today I'll break the 500 mile mark, so at least I've hit my goal. We'll see how long I make it today. After taking some pain killers my head has calmed down a little, but I'm still constantly coughing and have a runny nose. Thankfully with my current work assignment I'm quite sequestered from anyone else in the office so there's little risk of me infecting others.

My wife was chastising me last night. She wanted me to drive to work this morning. My attitude was, "if I'm not well enough to ride my bike to work, I probably shouldn't be going to work at all." Well, I rode but it was a dubious decision.

I saw this comment on the WABA forums:

"A person there referred to the cyclist as a she--there were a bunch of floral print bags next to his/her wrecked bike and when I saw the cyclist, they appeared to have long hair. The cyclist was not in good shape it appeared. Conscious, but not moving. It appears the cyclist was crossing inside the crosswalk, and got hit by a driver turning left. This crosswalk does not always have a walk signal--you have to press the awkwardly located button to get the signal. Even if you have the walk signal, the left turning cars have a green light though. I have had a number of near-misses at this light because drivers aren't looking when they turn left. "

The only thing I don't like about Potomac Ave. Trail is that you have to cross the intersection of Potomac and Glebe to continue riding on the trail. Granted, this is nothing compared to WO&D and its multitude of road crossings, but it's still a trouble spot. I've habitually crossed on the north crosswalk but will start crossing on the south crosswalk to avoid cars turning left from Glebe to Potomac.

Did you know about the pedestrian tunnel under Duke St, near the intersection with Diagonal? I found out about that from the WABA forums. You have to dismount and walk your bike to enter the tunnel, or face the wrath of the security guard, but it's a nice option. Heading southeast on Diagonal, you'll see the tunnel entrance on your right after you pass the access road for the buses.

In the morning I prefer to take Huntington Ave. towards Rt. 1, then use the left turn lane to get on the MUP, then bridge, heading to Washington St. In the evening I prefer the Potomac Ave. Trail, then eventually the Telegraph-Eisenhower overpass to return home.

I have a Cygolite 850 mounted on my helmet for night riding, pointing just in front of my wheel to spot road hazards. The two lowest settings are fine, even on the darkest part of the MVT. It complements the dyno hub lights nicely. I got it for about $80 on Amazon - worth every penny.

Uneventful ride home yesterday, aside from the headwinds. Cold front coming through means north winds which means head winds for commuting home in the afternoon. Just a few sprinkles in one area (while sun was shining), otherwise a mix of sun and clouds, upper 70's. Pretty humid.