making

Due to having to travel most days this month I have not ridden until today. An absolutely perfect day.

arsprod 

Upper 50's with a pretty good headwind. I connected with a commuting friend and made the mistake of riding his pace - now I'm toast and have a long day ahead. Probably need to schedule a nap!

RidingMatthew

i agree beautiful weather this week so far.

Elphabasan

Had a great commute in today! Saw a gigantic black rat snake sunning on the sidewalk. Second time I've seen him -- last time was last week.

I have got to learn how to bike up hills. There's one right near the start of my commute that goes on forever (well, it feels like it does), and after a 13-mile ride for fun yesterday my legs were like jelly when I got to the top this morning. The feeling wore off quick enough, but still!

Hope everyone's having a good day,
Ash

MEversbergII

Gear down. Don't be ashamed to spin up or zig-zag (if that is safe on this particular hill).

For me, my commute was beautiful. Cool and sunny. Tomorrow is supposed to be very rainy, so I brought tomorrow's work clothes in with me today. Realizing I need to invest in a real messenger bag soon.

M.

jrickards

A steep hill at the beginning of a ride is tough, my ride home starts that way, well, not very steep nor very long but unwelcome nevertheless.

joeyduck

Today was a great commute. It was a bit humid here, which is unusual and what I do not miss about the east. 91% humiditity when I left for work! At least it was only 14°C.

I did not toe my brakes in properly after replacing them this weekend and they squeal like a dump truck. Which I kind of like and makes people look around a bit confused.

HydroG33r 

Weather's gotten nice here in Vancouver, so decided to take a scenic route along the river I'd never taken before... 18.75 miles vs my usual 13.75 mile commute. Usually I'll climb a bit from my house at 100 masl (330 feat above sea level) for the first half of my commute before dropping down into my office at about 30 masl (100'). This was definitely worth dropping down to sea level then climbing back up & over the ~90m ridge between the river & my office.

johnalexie

Heya form NYC.. l love riding my bike to and from work its nice and quiet specially the Manhattan bridge at night , but sadly tonight I got my 1st summons coming out of my building for riding from building to street, but what can I say didn't know area was considered a sidewalk oh well live and learn I guess..that wont stop me from enjoying the night rides

dcb23

Welcome!

66F/19C a bit humid but another perfect ride in. So strange to see daylight at 06:00 when I roll out of my building.

essiemyra

The ride in was very pleasant with sun up and bright blue skies. What a good way to start my day!

mgw4jc

I left about 15 minutes early today and added about 4 miles onto my normally 12 mile route. Nice to try some different routes. The temperature has just been great lately.

tarwheel 

I was hoping for an easy ride this morning because my legs have been sore lately, somehow I seem to have strained my calf muscles. No such luck. Altho temperatures were very mild in low 60s, I had a stiff headwind all the way to work and the humidity was way up. I was drenched in sweat by the time I got to work, even tho my average speed was about 1 mph slower than usual. My goal for my first 5-day commute week in quite a while is starting to look less certain because my legs are telling me to take a rest day. My commute route is so hilly and long that it is hard to just ride at a recovery pace, particularly when I'm fighting headwinds.

FenderTL5

Tough ride home yesterday afternoon.. 18mph headwind with 25mph gusts. Not Chicago-windy but couple that with the hills in Nashville and it was tough sledding at times.

This morning is my first morning this year with the short sleeve t-shirt. I've been wearing long sleeves or a light rain/wind-breaker. It was interesting noticing the cool spots on my arms. I'd be comfortable, then suddenly it would be cold for a couple pedal strokes then warm again.

JPinWI

The weather has finally turned!!! 60 with heavy fog this morning...foggy to the point I had to stop and listen for traffic when I was crossing a couple of county trunk highways. Should be an great week for riding..sunny high around 70. I'll take it! :-)

jrickards

Mild (10C/50F) and overcast. Slow ride in this morning, started late because I had some stuff to do before I left the house, not happy about it, was thinking of abandoning the ride and just bussing it but talked myself into a shorter ride and just took it easy, feel better now that I've ridden in.

ill.clyde

I'll echo what JPinWI said ... things are looking up here in Wisc.

This morning's ride was beautiful ... a little foggy but in the city it wasn't too bad. I ride through quite a temperature swing right now. Live close to Lake Michigan, so it was quite cool (mid to low 50s) when I took off this morning, even had tights on, but by the time I got to work in the near north burbs it was mid 60s. Supposed to be low to mid 70s tonight for the ride home. Might extend the commute a little tonight, depending on how I feel after my workout.

Planning to commute tomorrow too, but I'm off Friday to make it a four day weekend.

wapiti

On the way home last night I got thinking, what the hell chance do we, as cyclists, have when no one seems to be able to understand what hand signals mean.


One turn I make, a right hand turn. I always signal my turn at this intersection as the traffic is moving pretty quickly so I like to let people know I'm turning onto the cross street and not going straight through. Cyclist comes down the cross street to my right, comes to the stop sign and stops, he is clearly going to make a left but there is no hand signal. He sees me signalling the right turn, looks at me and does the same thing! I'm going through my turn looking at him and he's standing there looking at me with his arm in the air, signalling a right hand turn! I don't know if he thought I was waving at him or what, but I think it suddenly dawned on him because he pulled his arm down and looked the other way, but Jesus wept.


Then, a little bit later, signalling to make a left onto a side road. A guy coming down the road toward me, starts waving at me and pulls over because he thought I was waving him down! Nice enough, but jeesus ........

Allycat24

Getting more humid but uneventful ride in. Supposed to have some rain and t-storms this afternoon. I actually wanted to comment about yesterday. I had the unfortunate experience to have to ride through some garbage that fell out of a garbage truck and did my best to avoid the worst of it, which smelled like spoiled milk. Phew! However on the way home, I had the pleasant experience of smelling honeysuckle for a long stretch of my ride. So, everything balanced out!

rpcleary

Rainy and wet today, rode the mountain bike to work. Don't think I'll be riding along the lakeshore on my return route today

arsprod 

Note to self - when riding in warmer weather (finally) to the dentist before work do not wear a dark shirt that shows every spot of sweat

mgw4jc

I have adopted a modified signal. My arm does the same, but I actually point with my finger also. Left turn is left arm out to left side and pointing to where I'm going. Right turn, I kinda look like I'm about to put my finger in my left ear, but I think it is a little more obvious what I'm about to do.

RidingMatthew

62 degrees a little more humid but pretty ride this morning

joeyduck

It was a nice commute with the little man this morning. Though we were not very talkative, I was grumpy at him and he was grumpy at me. Getting a three year old out the door is tough at times. My wife said to just drive when he was not getting cooperating at the 30 minute late mark. But I knew the bike would blow away the frustration and the car would make it worse.

Though had a few impatient drivers last night on the way home. Some woman kept trying to pass me on the right while going 45 km/h on a fairly residential street. Also between yesterday morning, afternoon and this morning I have had about 10 cars block intersections. It was weird to have so many. One was a semi taking the whole intersection, there was no safe or easy way around with the child seat. We just had to wait a full light cycle.
@mgw4jc Why not just point right with your right hand? I know it is not what we were taught as kids, but that was based on driving a car. It just makes sense to point left or right. I do usually add the traditional left hand up for a right turn while I adjust gears for the turn, after pointing with the right hand. I still do left palm down and back for stopping. I usually say right hand, left hand or stop hand and my son will mimic my motions. Though I forget he is not there and still call out after the drop off.

I find the pointing is very effective, people are usually courteous. They are probably surprised I am as fast as them in most cases with traffic. I also find people are good about with the stay back hand wave. I had a yahoo try to pass coming into a 90° corner a week ago, I just looked and waved to stay back and he did, thankfully, since a car was coming the other way.

ill.clyde

I'm a pointer too ... most motorists these days don't know the old type hand signals anyway. Pointing makes your intentions very clear.