jaxy357

Hi all and happy bike month! Today was my first commute on my new to me Terry bike. It went great and I hope she’s still locked up at the train station when I get there in about 30 minutes.

Terry “Susan B” 21 speed

jaxy357

I’m out of the loop. what are you studying? I did grad school years back and advise grads now. Might start taking fashion classes for fun this fall.

noglider 

I'm getting an MS in Education, specifically Special Education for grades 7 through 12. I'll be a subject matter generalist, ready to teach Math, English, Social Studies, or Science.

Strawbunyan

I woke up really tired today and finally decided a nice bike ride in the 15MPH winds should wake me, and I needed deodorant, so I took the Ole SLE up to the dollar general for its first commute. I made it there, got the stick, and made it back faster than my wife does in the van the bike rode excellently. I don't know why but this bike handles up hill riding better than my other bike that has HUGE rear cogs... pure math says this should not be the case..maybe I just hate spinning? Maybe it is the 10 pounds this bike doesn't have compared to the other? I don't know. Either way, today was a good day.

I took a route I don't normally take and all the traffic was very kind about me being in the road. Until now I have been riding on the right side of the white line ( my big giant hookworm tires made this possible without much worry about debris or riding off into the grass) but I am not giving any right of way on this thing, they are just going to have to deal with the fact that i am indeed a vehicle

pdlamb

Back on the bike after a storm the other day. Lots of trees still down; fortunately, the utilities company took responsibility for the tree that took out my power line (and internet!), but there's at least one that somehow missed the power line completely blocking a nearby intersection. Not sure when the city will get a round tuit, but we had a parade of roofing trucks yesterday that changed their sign by yesterday afternoon and now they're advertising stump grinding.

Clear, warm air unless you're exposed to the cool north wind. (No, I don't understand what I just wrote, but it seems to describe the situation.) Big "news" is that the cicadas are marching north. Wednesday I could hear them singing south of one east-west thoroughfare; this morning they've moved one big road north. They're like riding in a sci-fi movie, high-pitched, low volume background noise. (Maybe I can't hear them nearer the house for all the chainsaws and heavy equipment revving!)

Strawbunyan

Beautiful day today after a couple days of thunderstorms and since I had finally done enough shakedown cruises and made enough excuses....I rode the 1982 AD SLE to work today for the first time.
I usually fast during the day until about 4PM but on the days I ride I was eating a snack first...I forgot to do that today and had to pull over and barf a pot of coffee onto the side of the road. I also stopped for some photo ops on the bridge for the C&V forum. I still made good time though. The first half of my ride i averaged 18.6 MPH which i impressed myself with. Top speed was good considering i was on the breaks for that hill. Had i hit it wide open and spread my arms i would have been flying. All and all the bike did great, and I have a lot of work to do on the Motor.

Strawbunyan

And one from the ride home. My top speed has not really increased much but my average speed is up 3MPH from my original bike so I guess the flats and uphill areas are better.

pdlamb

Cool, clear morning ride. At least it was cool while I was rolling -- as soon as I stopped I was drenched in sweat and took an hour to cool down. Fascinating where the cicadas are singing and where they're not. Recent construction (in the last 13 years)? Nothing. Quiet, established residential neighborhoods? Yep, there they are. Going through some woods. CICADAS ARE DARNED LOUD!!

I think I need to wash my bikes again. Wore out a tire over the weekend, so I swapped front to rear and put the new tire on the front. This morning I was accompanied by a pair of banshees that cut loose every time I hit the brakes! OTOH, they seem to work much better. I'm thinking I must have wiped the rims clean(er) while dismounting and re-mounting the tires. Maybe that's why my hands were so dirty?

Strawbunyan

today I decided I would take it easy, and ride slowly instead of trying to audition for the TDF like I normally do. Somehow, that made me faster? I never got out of breath, my legs never wanted to die and i made it to work in record time. Hmmmmmm.
I did have my first angry driver.he was in an oncoming lane on a 4 lane road so a full 3 lanes away and going in the opposite direction and felt he needed to prove how ignorant he is by yelling at me to get out of the road...mind you, I was 1/2 an inch to the left side of the white line with NO other traffic on the road. I wonder who hurt him so badly. Stay in school kids......
I just gave him a thumbs up and kept moving.

Another gentleman tried to motivate me??? By screaming at me angrily to "go faster" LOL. (Also from oncoming traffic 4 lanes away and across a median)
These people should get bikes, they might stay in a better mood.

gaucho777 

Belated update from Friday...I decided to take one of my alternate, long routes home. My normal commute is only about 4 miles each way, but it's mostly uphill on the way to work, and I get some nice views of the SF Bay when I reach the summit. The nice thing is that it makes for an easy ride home at the end of a long day. However, if I have time and energy, there are a lot of non-direct ways for me to go home. On Friday, I did just that, and took my '72 Cilo Pacer through some back trails in Tilden Park in the hills east of Berkeley, CA, which extended my total commute to around 17.5 miles and 1,900' climbing. Livin' the good life.

Tundra_Man 

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1895:

Just realized I hadn't posted on this thread since April. Oops!

Today's forecast pretty much called for rain all day. When I got up this morning it wasn't raining at that point in time, but I could tell it rained quite a bit during the night.

I resisted the urge to take the road bike, and loaded my waterproof pannier onto my hybrid bike with fenders. The temp wasn't bad; around 60°F and humid. However, this morning was supposed to be the high temperature of the day, and it then was supposed to drop until it gets into the 40s.

In the first mile I encountered two idiot drivers. I suspect both were high school kids on their way to school. The first incident happened at a blind intersection in my neighborhood. There is a 4-way stop, where I turn left. There are large bushes and trees completely obscuring the view from the left, and because of the lack of visibility there are "no passing" lines painted on the road. As I reached the stop sign, a driver pulled into the oncoming lane to pass me, completely ignored the stop sign and turned left in front of me from the wrong side of the road. Had there been any oncoming traffic one or both of us would have gotten smoked.

Then about a quarter mile further down the road I reached another stop sign where I turn right onto a busy street. Traffic is usually heavy enough on this road that I have to find a gap between cars and try and join the flow the best I can. I picked my gap, and as I pulled out I hear the sound of an engine roaring. A driver behind me who was also turning right went at the same time as I did, and proceeded to pass me in the same lane mid-turn. Thankfully after that I had no other altercations and the remainder of the ride was peaceful traffic-wise.

The first 2.5 miles of my ride were bone dry. Then it started to sprinkle. At the 4 mile mark the sprinkle had turned into light rain. At the 5 mile mark the light rain had turned into steady rain, so I pulled off underneath an overpass and removed my socks and put them in my pannier. I find socks turn into giant sponges and wick moisture into my shoes. My feet actually stay drier in the rain without socks. As long as I was pulled over, I threw my phone in my pannier as well, rather than having it get soaked in my shorts pocket.

By the time I hit the 8 mile mark and pulled into the office parking lot, the rain had turned into a downpour. My sweatshirt was soaked and I wrung water out of my gloves. I figured out I'd lost my badge somewhere so I didn't have access to get into the building. It was now 7:15 and the front door doesn't automatically unlock until 8. Thankfully another coworker had also arrived early, and even more thankfully he saw my text to come and let me in the door so I didn't have to stand in the rain too long.

Normally on Tuesdays I do a split commute working from our company office in the morning and a client office in the afternoon. With the rain I'm probably just going to stay at our company office all day and work for the client remotely. When I first started working for this client they were pretty adamant about me being on-site as much as possible, but there's been a change in management at the client since then and the new management is much more laid back about my physical location, so I'm sure they'll be fine with it.

Strawbunyan

Tundra_Man your "consecutive commute" posts are very inspiring and they make me want to ride my bike to work more and more. Thank you for sharing your experience.

Strawbunyan

The one day so far this week that the forecast didn't call for rain....it rained on my way in. I am glad it did, it felt kinda nice. Even took my helmet off and let the old noggin get some cool off time. Wasn't bad, I was on my MTB and threw a whole mess of water off the front wheel into my face but my glasses kept it out of my eyes....first rain ride in the books.

Tundra_Man 

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1899:

I woke up somewhere around 2:30 AM and after that never did much more than doze until my alarm went off at 5:30. My brain wouldn't turn off as it tried to solve every crisis known to man. I was having a real problem with this earlier this year, but thankfully today was the first time it has happened in about a month. Although I generally try to avoid it, I think I'm going to allow myself some caffeine today.

Temp was 55°F with a light headwind. The skies were mostly blue, but it looked like some rain had passed by a few minutes before I left the house. About a mile from home it started to sprinkle, which was really weird considering the blue sky. The only thing I can guess is that it was coming from the dark clouds that had already passed by, and perhaps the atmospheric wind blew it to where I was? Not sure. In any event, it sprinkled in the sun as I rode for a few miles and then it stopped.

Where I get off the MUP, there's a stretch of busy road that I need to follow for about 1/4 mile when I can then turn onto a quieter side street. On the south side of this stretch there's a sidewalk that has no driveways or intersections, and very rarely ever has a pedestrian. I generally try to avoid riding on the sidewalk, but because there's no danger from cars turning and no pedestrians to annoy, I do break my own rule on this section, even though technically I'm riding on the wrong side of the road.

Anyway, I said all that because as I approached this area I remembered that they're beginning some construction today and are shutting down that stretch of sidewalk. Other than setting out a bunch of cones, they hadn't yet started working on my way to the office, so I went ahead and rode on the sidewalk. I'm guessing it will be unrideable when I'm heading the other direction later today.

pdlamb

Cool, clear day. Cool enough that I wasn't dripping with sweat when I stopped, but warm enough that I was getting damp rapidly.

Storms over the weekend brought down enough small sticks and leaves on the MUP near my office, that I hope all the lunchtime joggers go out there today and shuffle most of that duff off the pavement.

Surprise! at the office. Somebody was parked in my space! Not only have a couple more people started parking at MY shaded rack but somebody rode in on a cargo e-bike (Benno?). Monster panniers on the thing, big enough to stash a two year old with enough snacks and drinks to keep them happy for a 20 mile ride in each bag, and a front bag for a couple bags of groceries, plus a rear rack that you could strap a case of canned drinks on (with enough straps). Looking at it, I thought it might be big enough to be a car replacement. Would that work when the nearest housing is 5 miles away and through the year there's a 30% chance of rain every day? Dunno...

pdlamb

A beautiful, clear morning. Goofy the Garmin said the temperature was in the upper 60s; if I'd been born a few weeks earlier I'd happily be riding my age today.

I noticed that one of the old oak trees on my commute looked dead above 20' from the ground. I've never really seen that tree in the decades I've lived in the neighborhood. A few miles later, I connected a few more dots: (1) all the leaves and smaller branches were gone, but the largest branches were still there, not rotting and falling off (yet); (2) Two bigger, old trees were blown over in the tornado a couple weeks ago half a block from this tree. So perhaps the tornado had lifted 20' when it hit that oak, and just stripped everything above the first level of leaves. I guess I'll have to wait a few weeks and see if it starts leafing out again.

One more note. We were out of town for the weekend, and it just hit me that it's awfully quiet. In the four days we were away, it seems like most of the cicadas died off. Oh, there are a few still flying around and lying on the ground, but the background noise is almost gone.

ScottCommutes

I was transferred to another school and my commute dropped by a mile or two each way. The interesting thing about cutting the miles is that I'm just as tired - I simply go faster over a shorter distance. I save about 10 minutes each way, which is great. The miles I cut were the most urban - making left turns in traffic and dodging forklifts unloading building supplies from flat bed semis in the street. Now I ride into a secure parking deck under the building, park between some support columns by some handicapped spots, and grab the elevator.

macattack71

First commute of the year yesterday, never been so tired when I got home. Been off the bike too much, put a few pounds back on. I'll try to stay with it. 11.5 miles, all headwind it seemed like. Now that schools are out my commute is much more tolerable.