Thankfully the temperature's been holding in the high 20's Celsius (low 80's Fahrenheit), making my commute to and from work comfortable, and because of the crisis, there's less people on the road which are driving substantially slower (in order to preserve any gas still left in the tank!).

Here's a couple of evening shots (sorry for the blurry one).

About to leave the office for home
http://i61.tinypic.com/smfyaf.jpg

Blurry pic of my evening commute home
http://i59.tinypic.com/whg095.jpg

After a short week last week, I'm back to the regular work week. A pleasant 70F this morning, but really humid (90%). Not a lot of traffic today as I imagine some are extending the long weekend.

Forecast is for low - mid 90s all week.

Pleasant morning ride, mid 60's, sunny and clear. A rather large fellow passed me on what looked like a brand new carbon Cannondale race bike. He was bouncing pretty badly which by itself would only make me think he didn't know how to ride. What really caught my attention was that the whole seat post and top of the seat tube were flexing... a lot! I don't want to be around when that snaps. Yikes!

Pleasant 70 degrees... a whole lot of debris on the greenway this morning. It made for a slower ride in having to dodge tree branches and other debris.

Bike advocacy meeting today so a dinner out for me and a fun time talking about biking and making it better in my community.

still super dry here. Smokey commute this AM: smoke from forest fires all around the province has been blowing into the city, so there is a thick haze and the sun is a barely-visible orange ball. You can feel it in your throat. No rain in the forecast, either.

It was a busy day on the roadway for wildlife this morning. I saw two deer crossing the road, and also a small bunny looked like he was being stalked by the two crows. When I went by the crows flew off leaving the bunny to run into the bushes. Hopefully the crows will leave him alone.

The commute itself was very nice as the temp was 65f degrees under partly sunny skies with the dewpoint at 70%.

I rode home yesterday. I rode back to work this morning.

Warmest morning of the summer so far, 77F. Pretty stiff headwind and high likelihood of more rain this afternoon... yay... not. June was a record rain month - hoping July doesn't follow suit

Cool and humid ride in this morning. Usually see a deer or six on my rides but nothing today. Deer were replaced with a few runners, a walker and one other guy biking. Normal is to see a lone runner. Supposed to be sunny and warm for the ride home. I'm sure the head wind I had this morning won't be there for a tail wind this afternoon.

haha made me laugh
I did the same !

Ha! I couldn't think of anything great that happened. Although yesterday I forgot to mention the dog that was walking down the street. He is known for chasing bikers and runners. It looks like he was returning home after having chased somebody, walking toward me on the opposite side of the road.

Sure enough as I got closer he started to cross toward me. I could tell he wasn't going to give much of a chase, but accelerated a bit anyway as he gave one bark at my rear hub. I'm amazed this dog hasn't been hit by a car yet.

Very hot and muggy as usual, but I am having to re-acclimate to the conditions after spending a week of vacation in cooler temperatures up north and in the mountains. I was totally fried last night after my return to bike commuting in 90+ temps. The weather is supposed to remain hot and humid all week so I might as well get used to it.

It was my 2nd ever commute. I got to work alive and I got home alive so it's an excellent commute in my book. A motorist honked at me just for being on a fairly busy 2-lane street at a red light. He turned around to look at me through his sunglasses after he switched to the other lane to pass me. Seems par for the course in cyclist-ignorant motorist interactions, but I was still in a good mood when I arrived at the office. Nothing like a good adrenaline rush to start the day!

75 F when I left the house, might have been 82-ish when I arrived at the office about 1.5 hrs later. About 88 F when I left the office.

I enjoy taking the scenic route in the morning and taking the alternate route in the evening to avoid all the tourists, joggers, walkers, etc. that are attracted by the scenery of the scenic route. No crazy motorist behavior on the way back - one car that was parked suddenly started entering my bike lane without signaling but this also seems to be typical. I just went around it and sprinted away, using a fortunately placed decline to help me accelerate.

Got home alive, burned almost 600 calories, saved money on subway fare - it was a good evening commute.

Rainy season here, meaning it's basically been raining everyday for over a week straight, and might continue for another week. However, yesterday morning it wasn't raining in the morning (yet), so I threw the seatpost fender from hybrid on my road bike and made it to work just as it started raining; it then rained on and off all day until about 5-10 minutes before I left.

This morning I decided to ride as it wasn't raining yet, and again it's been raining lightly on and off all day, hoping the it's off or very light rain to go home because I don't like getting soaked (will take train home if it's pouring) especially since I didn't put on the fender.

It was a very nice uneventful commute this am. No rain as of yet today, though it is on the way.

Congrats! It sounds like you are getting it figured out. Yes, you will have drivers honk, give looks, yell, turn unexpectedly, etc. Just be as safe and visible as you can.

I saw a little corgi dog up ahead on the side of the road. He saw me and started running in the same direction I was going but about 30 yards ahead. Then he got tired and went off the road again. I passed and he started giving chase. He seemed to be smiling the whole time. A car trying to pass honked so the dog would get out of the road. The driver slowed beside me and said, "That dog likes you!" I said, "I guess so!" and waved as he pulled away.

Ride home yesterday sucked. Started pouring rain about mid day and didn't let up until about 6p. I watched the radar and was able to wait for the tail end of the really heavy stuff. Flash flood warnings in effect until tomorrow - I took my mulligan and drove today

Yeah. I'm two hours west of Indy. The same storm kept me off the bike yesterday because it was about 90% certain that the front edge was going to hit at the exact time I usually leave to go home. It did too.

I rode today though. Even though odds are I will get wet on the ride home.

You're a better man than I. Weather rarely keeps me off the bike even in winter, but this constant wet and cooler temps just sucks!

I was on vacation last week, and several activities that have required a car this week, so commuting has been rather limited lately. I did commute on Monday and nearly came face to face with a tornado on the way home. I kept an eye on the forecast, but guess I should have watched the radar more closely. I had a great tail-wind and still thought I could be the storm home, but came up about 2-miles short. Suddenly the wind turned from a nice tail-wind to a ferocious head-wind and I could see a wall of water headed my way just up the road. I was close to a bridge that offered below-grade shelter and decided I should probably head there. I just made it under the bridge before all hell broke loose. Crazy wind with an unbelievable amount of rain coming from the sky. However, I was dry and protected from the wind... so all was good. My wife wanted to come get me, but I told her I was fine and I'd wait out the storm where I was. She finally came to pick me up about 45-minutes later after the wind and lightening died down a bit. Found out later a tornado was spotted very close to my location. Yikes! The low-quality picture is me under my bridge 'storm shelter'.


http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/...psalbhely5.jpg

I rode home yesterday and caught up with the Jimmy Johns Sandwich delivery guy as he was riding his bike home and another bike commuter friend. We all enjoyed riding down the fresh asphalt on the way home. It was fun to ride in a group. Even with riding in a group I was on fire yesterday. The ride to work was 19 miles and i average 16.1 miles per hour and 7 of the miles was on a gravel trail. THe ride home was 11.1 and I average 16.3 home. First time I have double commutes above 16mph avg. I am not sure where the speed came from but it sure was fun to ride fast.
I rode in this morning average 15.7 and I felt slow :(

Thanks! I need to get better about making eye contact (well, as best I can as I prefer to wear my cycling sunglasses) with motorists, looking over my shoulders at motorists, etc. My morning route is longer but I finish it faster than the evening route because there's a descent on the MUP I mainly ride on, that boosts my speed to 30 mph, plus the final sprint to the office on the busy 2-3 lane street. I prefer the more easy going routes home, with just the one sprint to get to the bridge over the Potomac, and I try to save my legs for that final climb up to my house.

So far I've only had one dog encounter - I think he/she was about the size of a corgi. Might have been a puppy. He/she got excited and nearly ran directly in front of my front wheel. Other dogs that I've seen have been reasonably calm or restrained by their humans.

I average 10 mph. :)

I'm still new to bike commuting. My ride is only about 12 miles each way, but my stamina isn't great so I try to save my legs for the couple of sprints that my commute requires, and the climb up the hill to my house. When a descent gives me a boost though, I do shift to the highest gear on which I can easily pedal without mashing to sustain my speed until the momentum runs out.

well you are the Governor. you have to ride at a distinguished pace.

Probably the toughest commute I've had to date. Needed to run some errands so I went down to wally-world, ride down was just fine. Walked out of the store, got on my bike, turned out of the parking lot, and the skies just opened. "Torrential" would be a vast understatement. The roads went from bone dry to FLOODED (3-4" of water) in the span of twenty minutes. But, figured I wasn't going to get any drier so I followed my motto of Embrace the Suck and kept going. By the time I got back to the apartment I was soaked from head to toe, two boxes of pasta in my bag were pretty much ruined, and I'm going to have to clean off the bike tomorrow.

Rewarded myself with a big ol' cup of Irish coffee, totally worth it.