^ this made me smile. Way to go, Tom.

Gorgeous day today, but I didn't ride. It's our 32nd anniversary, and we'll be driving out to watch the meteor shower after dinner together. I hope that we see some.

I am more of a masher myself and am working on spinning more. Gears are there to be used, right?

[MENTION=86492]tarwheel[/MENTION] 64F here across the state from ya. Take some good pictures of the Greenbriar Trail in WV too. I would like to ride it someday. I have camped near and it is on the List for someday.

Good ride but shorter than usual this morning. I left early to get some overtime. I am staying late today but I think I am done with the OT. My wife has asked me to not worry with it. (its not mandatory) If I drove my car it would probably not be that big of deal time wise but after working OT I need some biking to release the frustration of working more.

Pretty good ride today! Though I felt like I was fighting with my bike through most of it. When I got to work I checked it over and noticed the rear wheel had slipped enough in the dropouts to rub with the brake pads. Straightened it out and am ready for the next ride! Probably no ride home today, as the wife and myself and work friends are doing happy hour. Wife does not like to drive home after that. Yesterday afternoon was an enjoyable ~5 mile ride on my singlespeed through campus, which happened to be move in day. Stupid college has 4 sets of gates that for the last few weeks they had right, and now are wrong. I drew a rudimentary map, not to scale.

http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/...psvzinmjeh.jpg

Gate 1 and Gate 4 stop cars from going through that part of campus. The bike lane also goes around the gate. I'm not really sure what the point of Gates 2 & 3, but they interfere with the bike lane, forcing you to hop onto the sidewalk. Ideally, Gates 1 & 4 should be shut (the university decided to keep them shut all the time now), and 2 & 3 should be open. It was never right last spring, and a few weeks ago they finally got it right. Only to mess it up again....sigh.

Nice ride in, took a 15 mile route (6 is the shortest/straightest)

hahaha maps/diagrams are awesome :thumb:

Today I understand what you mean.

I'm typically an easygoing rider anyway, especially when the weather is gorgeous like today here in DC. But on this morning's commute, I found myself in the odd position of following cyclists (a line of about 4 or so) who were slower than me on the MUP I take for my commute. This is odd because the combination of my riding inexperience, relatively heavy bike, and limited gearing usually makes me one of the slowest riders. One of the riders ahead was just slow in general, and another was the "retired sprinter type" - fast on the flats, really slow on even the shortest climbs. So I just stayed in my easier gears and spun my pedals, enjoying the weather and views.

Later in the National Mall, I passed "retired sprinter", after the light turned green. About 10 sec. later, he blazed past me, lol.

I'm only moderately fast on flats and super slow on the shortest climbs. :P

Yesterday afternoon had much more comfortable temps and humidity, but that's always means northerly winds. It ended up being the worst case, steady winds out of the NE to NNE, and 98% of my commute is going north and east. So I had headwinds pretty much the whole way. I tried to take it easy going home, but I still had to work hard in some areas just to keep going. I got home with about a 12 mph moving average.

Was going to try to ride this morning but just too tired once again. Plus I have to pick up my son from his grandparents so having the car will make that much more convenient.

23 mile route home, really nice. Merged with another rider who was leaving a convenience store and I paced w/ him to a really high commute speed for me, it was awesome. He was older and better and had a nicer bike I was glad I could ride with him.

Specifically, he caught up to me and went ahead, then he was hanging to the right in a wide shoulder so I went ahead, then he said something about wanting to race and I just shadowed him the rest of the way. I am not up on roadie etiquette, I couldn't tell if he was asking me to take turns pulling a mini paceline or if he was telling me to stay behind him. Whatever, I went really fast with him. We yakked at traffic lights about nothing in particular.

I dunno man, I think you might be faster than this guy on climbs. He struggles on short rises that I can climb in 3 seconds by standing on my 2nd or 3rd highest gear. Also, his stamina is pretty bad in the evenings. That's how I passed him on one evening commute, when he just ran out of gas, and got to see that he had a cassette on the rear wheel, thus ruling out a single-speed/fixie. I hope he doesn't push himself so hard on his sprints that he has a heart attack or a stroke.

Saw two electric vehicles that looked like these on the MUP during my ride home:

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/ODAwWDU2NQ...Vn9xF/$_57.JPG

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...L._SL1500_.jpg

When I "race" with others, I know I'm really racing against myself. If I can just keep up with someone fast, it's a triumph, because chances are, I'm going longer, and my bike is a lot heavier. I saw someone in my mirror tail me for a few miles yesterday, and my bike with cargo weighed over 40 pounds, maybe close to 50. And he was hanging onto me because I was providing a nice pace for him. So even though some pass me handily, I'm still a champion of sorts.

I've seen that two-wheeler quite a few times. I do see the appeal. But that one-wheel thing is really strange. I saw it for the first time just a few days ago.

It was a very nice commute in this morning, the temp was 56f degrees when I left the house. The turkeys need to pick a side of the street, when they are on both sides I have to ride down the middle as I do not want to get to close as I am not sure I won't upset them and they may give chase. I am not wanting any part of that.

First day of multi odd commuting this week, I've been missing spinning my legs.

Made it out the door in plenty of time, sans water bottles and sans cell phone.

Back upstairs, a frantic search for the phone that was right where I left it, and a scramble out the door. Made great time, just in time for the train to start pulling away as I arrived. So here I sit.

Oh well, beats sitting in traffic.

Sometimes typos make it sound more fun. Love it.

I did forgot to mention the lady I scared on the MUP yesterday. I came up behind two ladies who were chatting and walking in the middle of the path. I said, "On your left," and although subtle, it appeared they moved over a bit. I saw enough room and started to pass. As I did, I said, "Morning."

"Aaa!" was her reply. I continued on without saying anything. She said something about "you scared me." But I was too far away by then to reply. Apparently she never heard the "On your left."

I saw deer in the same area on the MUP again today. That's 3 days in a row for deer somewhere on my route.

Really a beautiful morning ride in: 66F / 19C light breeze, some clouds.

Big news for me is an impending move. I'll be leaving DC after 12+ years and heading over the river into Alexandria, VA. It's a must do--I'm now married with two stepkids and my one-bedroom condo just isn't going to do anymore.

So my current commute of roughly four miles one-way is going to be morphing into a commute of at least twice that distance but likely more around 9-10 miles one way. Biggest challenge for me now is going to be figuring out my new route.

Anyone here in the forum who commutes from the Hunntington Metro station area to DC via the Mt Vernon train, I'd love to hear what rutes work for you.

And I'm pretty sure my almost-five years of unbroken M-F commuting will be broken at somepoint due to Winter weather :(

I have a similar problem with Canada Geese. The often block the roads along several stretches of my commute. I am afraid to get too close to them because they will bite. Sometimes they block an entire street and hold up traffic for a while. It's actually kind of comical when that happens.

I gave up on pushing big gears a long time ago, and my knees are better for it. I have always been more of a spinner than a masher because that's how I learned to ride. However, I had one of my bikes set up as a single-speed/fixe for a while, and I had no option but to mash it on many of the hills around here. I started developing serious knee problems from all the mashing, which took several months of physical therapy and reduced mileage to work out. I converted that bike back to a double crank with 9-speed cassette once I realized what was going on.

I honestly don't understand how so many cyclists get by riding SS/FX bikes, and wonder if they will pay for it one day with damaged knees.

Had a fabulous commute in. 70 and humid with no wind. Reminded myself to ease up the ride home is going to be brutally hot and humid. My opening stretch is 4 miles on a two lane highway with about an 18"-24" shoulder. Very little traffic this morning. Turned off and noticed a bike behind me. Heading down a back stretch of quiet rode he passed slowly and got to chat a bit. Then we were passed by another bike heading the opposite direction. I rarely see another bike and first time someone in biking clothes. Cruised in the rest of the way ending up with my fastest commute time of the year. Things just felt good. No deer this morning but for the first time flushed a brood of turkeys. Surprising they've survived this long with the high population of coyotes and wolves that cruise through the Municipal Forest. Looking forward to the ride home. Thinking of taking a detour adding a few miles on my way home.

Another nice morning commute today. Here's a screen capture from my rear video camera. I love the Roasterie Coffee DC-3 plane 'taking-off' from their building.

http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/...psh0rxittq.jpg

[MENTION=86492]tarwheel[/MENTION], I suppose if your terrain is flat enough, you won't do any or much damage. Maybe a little mashing is beneficial. I think I used to have a high cadence. I spent a couple of winters on a fixed gear with a low ratio, and I developed the ability. And recently, I think it might have been around 90, which isn't awful, but at my age and with my terrain and speed and distances, I need to increase it. I've never used a cadence meter.

Same here. Cooler north wind felt good but made it slow going. Only averaged 11 mph. No ride today. Caught a ride with a coworker.

My main problem with riding single-speed is that the roads are very hilly around here, and there is no way to warm up before encountering big climbs. If I could warm up for 15-20 minutes before grinding up the hills, I don't think it would bother my knees so much, but that's not possible around here. With my single-speed, I found that I had to attack the hills and then spin it out on the descents. My knees did not take kindly to that. However, I enjoyed riding single speed and would probably continue doing it if I lived in a flatter area.

I think the bike shop thought I was crazy when I had them install a mountain triple crank on my cross check, but I appreciate those extra gears when climbing the hills around here. I do occasionally mash if I'm feeling good, but usually pay for it with sore knees.