the commute was fine...

until a woman stepped out in the cycling lane in front of the cyclist in front of me. then she backed off. then she did the same thing to me when i passed. why do people stand next to the cycling lane? why. in any case, i had to yell.

also a man walking in the cycling lane deciding to throw his cap in the air and not catch it. then leave it in the middle of the cycling lane. then retrieve it. needless to say i had to yell again "sir, please move" in the same boss voice.

well it's the beginning of spring

so...i'm actually pretty happy the weather is crap today and the rest of this week. warm weather makes for more accidents and careless ones at that, it seems.

i saw a man on a citibike yesterday in his work clothes dash thru the slew of pedestrians with babies in strollers and tourists on bike that were waiting at the crosswalk. JUST to get up the ramp to the manhattan bridge. just for speed. no yielding. nothing. it was annoying to watch.

I'll give ya 20 bucks if you get them to video you riding with an old toilet strapped to the bike.

I managed to ride around the rain for the most part. Just a little mist and sprinkle on the way home. I don't usually ride in wet conditions. Anyway, I noticed some strange noises from the middle chain ring, just on certain cogs though. I'm assuming it just needs a good cleaning after getting a little wet.

Perfect commute home. Sunny, 20 mph tail wind, and zero problems with motorists in 15.5 miles. Everyone passed me easily, or waited momentarily until safe to do so, and went on with their day.

I was listening to a local radio station just before quitting time yesterday and heard about a multi-vehicle accident involving a tractor trailer. I brought up Google maps traffic and sure enough I-77 was red in both directions for several miles. It stayed that way for about 3 hours.

My ride home was unaffected, but I did have a few sprinkles on the way.

The humidity is starting to get noticeable again, although it is still cool enough to not be too bad.

Well that was exciting! Upper 50's, fog and light rain when I left the house. About midway weather service issued severe thunderstorm warning including quarter sized hail. About a mile from my office it went from cloudy totally black in what seemed like 10 seconds. Nothing motivates speed more than abject terror!

One day a couple years ago, I was heading south (at the green pin), and the radar looked like this, also heading south chasing me. Believe me when I tell you I pushed HARD!

https://scontent-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hp...51&oe=55E4D7C2

i told my wife about this and even debated it. She shook her head said you are so weird. It is tempting but the Dump is pretty far ride and I would only be able to take portions of the toilet at a time. If i had one those fancy bike trailers maybe haha.

that is awesome. glad you had a great ride. Savor them!

it rained a lot last night and the roads were wet and it was a little foggy/ humid in spots but it sure felt good to ride. I hope I can the rest of the week. t-storms and high percentages. trying to decide if it is worth taking the chance.

I had that happen last Spring. I turned around and went back to the office! :)


Yesterday's very nice tailwind on the way home turned into a headwind this morning. I beat the rain in, but will probably get hit on the way home. Of all the days to forget my rain gear!

so would you carry rain gear if you know they are calling for rain? even if it is warm? thinking about carrying my raincoat tomorrow and friday and hoping to dodge t storms.

A bit chilly at -4C/25F, but a nice, uneventful ride in. Got passed by a gentleman several years my senior, but he seemed to peter out at the bottom(?) of a hill, and I passed him back. Go me! Trails are now mostly dry, and some of them have already been swept clean of sand. Almost time to get out the road bike.

I've been forced to take a little "vacation" from cycling and bike commuting. I traveled to Georgia over the weekend without any bikes and had an allergic reaction to the high pollen levels. The pollen had skyrocketed in NC by the time I got home, so I've been trying to stay indoors. It is really bothering me this year, the worst in many years. The weather forecasters keep calling for rain, which would knock down the pollen levels, but the rain has been so light that it hasn't helped much.

The weather forecast today called for rain and isolated thunderstorms. I almost rode the bike in but decided I'd better not test it. Anyway, I finished my my workday by being cramped in the bottom of a stairwell, waiting out the surprise tornado warning. Then drove home in some pretty big hail. This was one of the few days when it was a good decision not to ride the bike!

I forgot to post this but last week I got my first flat in like 6 months and I completely forgot the protocol!

Forgot how to use tire lever, wasted my 1st CO2 can by partially inflating my spare tub first before sitting it inside the tire...only to forget that it fizzes out if I take too long. Used the 2nd CO2 to inflate only to realize that the tire won't fit through the brakes if its already inflated...so I had to let the air out, insert the wheel and re-inflate. Flatted out again less than a mile because I forgot to check that the tube was completely seated under the tire.

Basically I went through 3 CO2 cans and still ended up taking the train home. This never happened back when I was running $20 tires and flats were a regular occurrence.

Arg. Unlocked my bike for the ride home, discovered the front tire was flat. Found a tiny hole on the rim side of the tube. Rim tape was in place, no idea how the flat occurred. Pulled a new tube out of my repair kit, and discovered it had a Schrader valve, and my rims are drilled for Presta. How the heck could I make that mistake? I haven't had a Schrader rim in aeons. Plan B: patch the old tube. That went okay, and I was on my way.

About 1/3 of the way home, back tire went flat. WTH? Again, a hole on the rim side of the tube. This time, I found the rim tape was shifted and a couple of spoke holes exposed. Why plastic rim tape even exists is beyond me, much less why I put it on the rim in the first place. Patched the tube (twice - rushed the first patch and it didn't stick) and I was on my way.

Since I was running late, I took a shorter route home which goes past an off-leash dog park. Most dogs are well behaved, but there was the inevitable dumb mutt that ran at me barking while the owner stood there looking stupid. I like dog owners as much as they like cyclists. We don't get along in this city.

Kudos to the cyclist who stopped to ask if I had all the tools I needed while I was fixing my second flat. Much appreciated.

My new slicks arrived, time to take of the studs. Raining and 36F on the ride home. Hipsters in black denim looked very unhappy, while I cruised along, warm in my rain gear.

4/6/15
first commute for me this year.
rides went event-less, dancing predictable with drivers, 21.4 miles total
weather: 55 deg Fer AM, 60 deg PM, dry, W/8 knot wind support PM ride!
a great start!!!

I ride 11 miles a day to and from work. The ride in this afternoon was decent, a little chilly. The ride home was cold, and misty. It wasnt sprinkles but it wasnt rain. I just got damp. Cold and damp. But I beat the rain! I just picked up my new rain pants today. I ripped my last pair over the winter. I used them as a wind breaking layer before I got my bellweather pants. Im glad I didnt have to use them right out of the packaging!

Wohoo almost beat the rain. Starting coming down real good about 1/2 mile from work. Actually wanted it sooner so I wouldn't have to wash my shirt tonight. Had a good tail wind also which is relief after the last couple weeks.

Warm and humid today. About 62F on the way in and getting up to about 86F this afternoon. I do like that the amount of gear needed is much less in the summer.

If the afternoon thunderstorms hold off, this week will be the first week of 10 full rides in a pretty long while.

I love when that happens! Ride in wasn't as exciting as yesterday but still rain and mid 60's. Of the three ride legs yesterday I got poured on three times. I wasn't sure all my gear would dry out and some didn't. Good thing it's warm!

[MENTION=86492]tarwheel[/MENTION]. i was wondering where you have been. sorry to hear about the allergies. We had a nice t storm here last night at 2am because it woke me up and I had to shut some windows.

I think that is what I like too way less stuff to layer up with which saves time.

I hope I can avoid the afternoon thunderstorm as well. I had a good ride home yesterday added some miles to make it 20 so 31miles for the day and 12miles this morning. I am not sure what my plan will be tomorrow calling for even more rain storms tomorrow.

we've been having wave after wave of thunderstorms rolling through chicago since last night.

i checked the radar this morning and thought i saw a big enough opening between two waves to squeeze in my short 5 mile commute.

the first 4.75 miles went great, nothing more than mist/very light drizzle. then the skies opened up biblically for the last 1/4 mile. oh, so close!

at least my newish nashbar panniers got their first real deluge test and performed flawlessly. nothing but bone dry on the inside. so that was nice.

it's windy today. i'm guessing due to the huge storm system in the mid west and the south (tornado warnings).

yesterday and today's commute were good :) lots of cars today making exceptionally bad judgment calls. someone decided to stop at a stop sign, not pull over, then the passenger door (back) swung open right in front of me. i had the wherewithal to go slow (i'm glad i did) and stop and yell at them about them nearly dooring me. the guy looked scared and apologetic.

yesterday i rode quite quickly with no issue.

lots of potholes to and from work. i just found a form on nyc.gov/311 to file a report on potholes. i've seen some re-pavings but not enough. it's quite bad. well where is the money to fix the roads going?

not happy to see this, the ny state legislature - most of whom do not show up to session, taking not only salary but pension while they are working. this doesn't help the state and the many infrastructure like bridges/roads exceeding 50 years of age. and education in NY state. geez if anyone needs funds, it's education.

New York state legislators' salaries: Who gets the most money, who double dips? | syracuse.com

it's disgusting. padding the pockets of these leeches is not where i want my taxes to go.

Unfortunately, I'm staying off my bike until the pollen subsides. Today we had the second highest pollen count over the past decade. It's bothering me a lot even though I'm staying indoors much more than usual. I few years back I kept riding right through a heavy pollen season and got quite sick from it. Hopefully all the rain will clear things out in a few days.

It was a nice ride in this morning. It was a few ticks warmer (at about 46F) than it has been lately so I opted for shorts instead of pants and didn't wear the ear warmers. Traffic was light and I didn't hit many red lights. You can't ask for much more than that. It should be just under 70F for the ride home. Nice.

Lately I've found that when I'm stuffy, a good ride seems to clear me up even with the pollen out. I'm highly allergic to grass and was pretty stopped up after doing a bunch of yard work on Sunday. But then after riding to work Tuesday morning I was pretty much cleared up.

I was going to ride this morning but was just so tired, plus it was windy, and threat of thunderstorms starting mid-afternoon. So I drove, and I hope to be able to ride tomorrow, which would be a pretty rare occurrence for me to ride on a Friday.

first commute in a few weeks since my knee went for a ****. Great weather for a ride.

To prevent reoccurance: Lots of stretching, using a foam roller and strengthening the side-to-side motion of my hips, as well as gradually easing back into cycling.

I won the lottery for RAMROD registration... Seattle area ride with 10,000ft climbing, 168miles, one day. So yeah, easing back into cycling and working up to that.

It was much nicer traffic wise than yesterday. Though it was gusty and hot (around 90). I took a little detour on our local greenway next to the Congaree River. Thought I could an extra 2-3 miles out of it, but it ended up being only 1.http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/...pswemkk5tj.jpg

No commute for today. The wind worked me over good last night. Winds were out of the NW at 24 and gusts up to 30. I had to use the highest gear alot and still felt standing still! Going to start paying attention to the wind versus the temp, a few places makes it extremely dangerous. Oh well might as well rest and get home sooner to get the RV ready for the lake tonight.