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2015!! How was your commute today?

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2015!! How was your commute today?

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Old 08-11-15 | 12:35 PM
  #2076  
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From: Memphis TN area

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Which bike race event?
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Old 08-11-15 | 12:46 PM
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Originally Posted by PatrickGSR94
Which bike race event?
Tour of Alberta 2015
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Old 08-11-15 | 01:08 PM
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Originally Posted by groovestew
hmm Steephill.tv covered it last year but not this year it seems, weird.
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Old 08-11-15 | 11:32 PM
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It's always nice to have a nice coffee ship and a selection of fresh baked stuff to start the day off. I always can justify spending the $ when I don't ride the bus and redirect it to my tummy. I have not missed many days at the coffee shop but today I rode right past. I had time. I had money. Just had to interrupt the habit.
I survived it. I still had a nice ride.
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Old 08-12-15 | 12:30 AM
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Too hurty and time-crunched to do anything but ride straight home the easiest route.
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Old 08-12-15 | 05:07 AM
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The ride in was a nice uneventful ride. The temp was 67f degrees when I left the house this am humid and partly cloudy.
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Old 08-12-15 | 05:19 AM
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I rode the fixed gear in today! So now I know that I can tackle the hills well enough to used the fixed gear for local recreational riding, too. I had been worried about that.


And, my new riding buddy and I rode together again. We meet up ~ 1/2 mile from my home.

"Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship..."
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Old 08-12-15 | 06:50 AM
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What a difference 20 lbs makes. Air pressure that is. I pumped my tires up to over 110PSI this morning and the ride in was a glide. It felt like the wind was at my back the whole way, which it was not. I'll need to check my air pressure more often.
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Old 08-12-15 | 06:52 AM
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From: Mooresville, NC (Charlotte suburb)

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A good ride home and a good ride this morning. It was even kinda cool starting out this morning.

A saw a mama and baby deer standing just off the MUP this morning. That's a two deer sightings two days in a row. They watched me for a moment and then bolted back into the woods.
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Old 08-12-15 | 07:16 AM
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Fantastic ride in this morning. Cooler temps, lower humidity, beautiful sunrise, wonderful blue skies... just awesome! Probably the best 75 minutes of my entire day.
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Old 08-12-15 | 07:16 AM
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I made a good call driving yesterday as we had a lot of rain, including a monster thunderstorm during the afternoon commute time. It was raining so hard that the streets were flooding like crazy, and the water flowing along the curbsides was knocking over large trash cans and carrying away bags of leaves. I don't know what I would have done if caught riding in a storm like that with no place to seek cover. I actually saw a roadie -- who often passes me on my commute home in afternoons -- out riding during the storm. He was dressed in black with no lights of course.

The storms resulted from a cold front passing through, so the weather is beautiful today with sunny skies and low humidity. Very pleasant ride this morning and should be even nicer this afternoon.
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Old 08-12-15 | 08:57 AM
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luckily I rode yesterday and knew that I was staying late and took my chances with the 60%+ chance of rain. It rained when I normally would have been leaving work but since I worked some Overtime I was able to ride home with basically almost dry streets. I am glad to have my commuter back.
I ordered a new light Cygolite 820 from Amazon on Sunday and it arrived yesterday. Today was the maiden voyage and I like it so far. My old light was barely giving me 30+\- minutes of light. I left early this morning to do overtime in the AM. I was actually a little cool and wished I had my wind breaker vest on at first. I probably would have taken it off though due to the humidity. I liked the way the light worked.
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Old 08-12-15 | 09:00 AM
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From: Memphis TN area

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I still love my Cygolite ExpiliOn 700! Nice commute today, a little cooler, although not as fast as Monday since I didn't have nearly as much tailwind. It was like 4 MPH at my back instead of the 15 MPH wind on Monday morning. Clear and sunny, though, instead of Monday's impending rain that I was trying to outrun.
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Old 08-12-15 | 09:01 AM
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From: Lexington, VA USA

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Originally Posted by baron von trail
What a difference 20 lbs makes. Air pressure that is. I pumped my tires up to over 110PSI this morning and the ride in was a glide. It felt like the wind was at my back the whole way, which it was not. I'll need to check my air pressure more often.
I have a friend who commutes too and the bike shop told him run his tires at 60 and he could not figure out why he was getting flats and having tire trouble. I recently said what does the sidewall of the tire say? Run it closer to that. He said he is 1-1.5 mph faster now.
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Old 08-12-15 | 09:02 AM
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Originally Posted by PatrickGSR94
I still love my Cygolite ExpiliOn 700! Nice commute today, a little cooler, although not as fast as Monday since I didn't have nearly as much tailwind. It was like 4 MPH at my back instead of the 15 MPH wind on Monday morning. Clear and sunny, though, instead of Monday's impending rain that I was trying to outrun.
I like the fact that there the lights are designed to not blind motorists> I like the many different modes too. I hope the battery lasts a long time. Is it better to run it all the way down or keep it charged up?

at the wind was at your back!

Last edited by RidingMatthew; 08-12-15 at 09:24 AM.
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Old 08-12-15 | 09:14 AM
  #2091  
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From: Memphis TN area

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Originally Posted by RidingMatthew
I like the fact that there the lights are designed to not blind motorists> I like the many different modes too. I hope the battery lasts a long time. Is it better to run it all the way down or keep it charged up?
I don't like to run it down all the way, in case it happens when you're out in low light conditions. Over time you'll get a feel of when you need to recharge.

In summer months when my commutes are all in daylight, I run the Daytime Flash mode (press and hold power button for a couple seconds, light will change to 3 quick flashes at max brightness), which will go a VERY long time on a charge, like 2-3 weeks (if not more) of commuting 2.5 total hours per day, 2-3 times per week.

In winter months when a good portion of both commutes are in low light or dark conditions, I run the light on the night "pulse" mode, which keeps the light on about Medium but flashes off a couple times every few seconds. I love that mode for being able to see the road but not being seizure-inducing to others. For those times of the year, I can get 2 or maybe 3 round trip commutes (31 miles round trip) before having to recharge, so basically I recharge about once a week. If I do any other recreational rides, however, I may have to charge it twice in a week.

One time last winter I rode to work with the light's power button flickering, meaning the battery power was starting to dip. But then I forgot to charge it at work. Going home the power button was flashing quite a bit, and I had to take the light down to the Low setting to keep from losing it completely before getting home. I was having to rely on car headlights more so than my own light. It was awful. Don't let it get down that low.

Also note that the light will get dimmer as power runs down. It won't stay full bright and then shut off abruptly or anything like that.
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Old 08-12-15 | 09:26 AM
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[MENTION=301784]PatrickGSR94[/MENTION]

THANKS for the information.
I started with med then dropped to low this morning then eventually switched it over to daytime flash for over half the ride.
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Old 08-12-15 | 09:30 AM
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Very humid, lots of puddles from the rain yesterday and some new and bigger pot holes showing up everywhere. Unfortunately it seems I need my light and ankle reflectors again at 5:15AM as the sun doesn't wake up as early as me anymore. Really like my lights as my coworkers say the see me from just over a mile away.
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Old 08-12-15 | 12:22 PM
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Originally Posted by PatrickGSR94
hmm Steephill.tv covered it last year but not this year it seems, weird.
I don't think they're attracting as many big names as they did in the last couple years, so maybe it's not getting the international attention it did before.

Road to the downtown office again today instead of working from home. My fixie has been having tire troubles so I took the old Bianchi instead. Lovely bike, that.
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Old 08-12-15 | 11:46 PM
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Just started riding again after recovering from a broken wrist. Just picked up a 2015 Specialized Allez Expert and really enjoy this more than the last Allez I had. Almost everyday here is a great day to ride (Hawaii) and today was no exception. Bright and sunny with minimal wind for the morning ride in, and about a 15 mph tailwind for the ride home. I think this could be a new way more than a couple days a week that I could do from now on.
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Old 08-13-15 | 05:03 AM
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It was an uneventful nice commute to work today.
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Old 08-13-15 | 05:03 AM
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Rough week back at it. Vacation last week driving over 2500 miles so little time to ride. First flat today.. well it'll be flat by the time I go home. Not sure if I'll fix it or call my tow truck.
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Old 08-13-15 | 06:23 AM
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From: Mooresville, NC (Charlotte suburb)

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I had a rough ride home yesterday afternoon, mainly due to low energy. Just about a bonk. I probably should have had a better snack than a Jolly Rancher before leaving work. I felt much better after a lasagna dinner.

Beautiful ride in this morning. A nice 65F and low humidity. I'm beginning to sense fall is in the air.
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Old 08-13-15 | 06:28 AM
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From: Raleigh, NC

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Great ride this morning with coolest temperatures in a while (63F) and low humidity. The weather has felt like September here for the past few days, a nice break from the heat and humidity. I'm heading up to WV tomorrow afternoon for 3 days of riding on the Greenbrier River Trail, where it should be even cooler.
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Old 08-13-15 | 08:58 AM
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I'm 54 years old and have finally faced that I push gears that are too high. The last couple of weeks, I'm working on spinning faster in lower gears. I'm getting used to it, and if I'm not imagining it, I feel fresher after riding. In conjunction with this, I'm climbing more slowly so that I can be more kind to my knees. It's a challenge not to challenge myself, if you know what I mean. I feel macho when I climb, and I'm proud that I can climb faster than most young people. Another of my macho ego trips was to use as few gears as possible. I'm trying to give that up. Yesterday, I went through many gears to keep my effort level low. It's hard to give up this egotistical habit.
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