CommuterRun

Today was the last day of duck season, but I haven't seen enough around lately to make it worthwhile so rode the Townie to work. Towing my little utility trailer with a cooler and my pack on it, on a paved road, is so much easier than towing a canoe full of fishing stuff down a sand road.

Sloppy weather, heavy overcast, rainy, windy, not cold, though. High today was 69 low tonight forecast to be 56. Had to buck a bit of a headwind going this morning, but flew the Townie home this afternoon with the wind at my back.

squeakywheel

Went to work for a few hours this afternoon. Nice ride in even though it was raining. Cold, snowy, and windy on the way home. Couldn't get traction on the big hill and had to walk.

BTW. The dogs were barking at me something fierce, but stayed in their yard. The invisible fence must be fixed.

fordfasterr

easy ride... didn't push it considering that i'm still a little worn out from yesterdays 3 hour track adventure. =)

fordfasterr

Those are some really nice looking dogs.

I wonder if they will be nicer to you if you fed them some hot dogs or something ?

I would try that.. I bet they would try to hump your leg every time they see you after you do something nice to them like that... most likely they are beaten by their owner on a daily basis ... so they are kind of mean to strangers...

=)

balto charlie

Foggy, warm It was kinda spooky. Don't like riding in the fog next to cars.

ctoddrun

Day 2! Cool - upper 30's when I started riding, but was plenty comfortable after about 10 minutes. Came across a small, scattered pile of flat black (matched the pavement perfectly!) 4" jagged rocks on the shoulder of the busy road I travel - probably fell off some truck over the weekend and was swept / blown to the side. Saw it before I hit it, but not early enough to avoid it altogether. Took a pretty solid blow to the front tire. Fortunately there is no apparent damage and I stayed upright. Sure got my attention! Great sunrise brewing as I ended the ride, but I was a bit too early for the real glory. Once again, I'm wondering why I waited so long to start this...

Wulfheir

My friday afternoon commute turned into a 3-bar drunkfest ending sometime after midnight. It was really liberating to be able to hop on my bike and hit another pub where some other friends were without hassle. Usually, I know it's time to call it quits when I get to the last $20 in my pocket, then arrange for a cab ride home. But I felt totally free. It was my first time out on my bike for a night on the town, but it'll probably be my last since the wife is back in town and doesn't bike.

-5C this morn.

Thx for postin' the pics Jack, funny stuff.

Silverexpress

Nice fast ride this morning. Watched the sun come up halfway thru the commute (10 miles). Spent yesterday evening swapping out my Nokian studded winter tires for the slicks. It's been unseasonably warm here in SE Michigan. ...time for a snack....c u later

luckysnafu

Very mild and sticky ride in this morning. Already in the 50's and humidity is sky high. I was sweating early and regretting that I had pants on. Made it in pretty fast today and should have a nice warm ride home, predicting upper 60s here this afternoon. My goal is to ride at least 150 miles a month and it looks like I will get it this month

thdave

Great ride in today. Sunshine and 40's. Where is everybody? I saw one man walking his dog. He's a regular. Always like greeting him and he gave me a big smile when I rang my new bell. Fun!

I was a little slow today, but pumped it out on the one big climb I have.

pinkrobe

Bleagh. I feel like crap today. Even my breakfast Coke isn't rallying me. Everything felt wrong on the way in. Steering too twitchy, seat too hard, knees hurt in weird places, sun too bright, clouds too... cloudy. I wanna go home!

DeeMaGlee

This morning my bike took me to work, instead of me taking it to work. It sailed up and over the hills. It got impatient with stupid, slow, lumbering cars at stop lights.

I think it was happy that I overhauled its bottom bracket on Sunday for the first time in its 25 years of life. The poor thing was dry as a bone... The cups are all pitted.

click...click...clickclick.....KLANG! going up a hill.

Ouch!

It's much happier now with new bearings and packed with grease...

Two weeks ago I overhauled the pedals too, thinking that's where the noise was coming from. I love using tools! A bike shop mechanic sounds like an idyllic job, but that guy at City Bikes (Connecticut Ave at the Capital Crescent trail) on Sunday was not relaxed. He did have the harried, caffeine-overdose look to go with the manic rave music thumping in the background though.

My dear wife bought me a bike maintenance book for my birthday 2 months ago. Why'd I never think of that? Now I have money to buy real tools like a crankarm extractor, instead of hacking at it with a hammer and screwdriver like I did when I was a broke teenager...

James55Thompson

I had a very good ride in this morning. In fact, I went back home after dropping my grandsons off at school, changed my clothes and rode into work. The temps are in the 50s with a forecasted high of 63. I just didn't see myself driving on such a lovely day. I also wanted to bike in today so I could past 300 miles for the month.

mtessmer

Ahhhh, pretty ride in this morning. We had a fresh coat of snow covering the land and roads (about an inch) and it was only 25F which made it pretty comfortable riding. I debated on my way it to take an extra loop but came direct instead. Dang, I knew I'd regret it. Well, I'll do an extra loop at lunch and take the long way home. Plus the sun is showing it's face, we haven't seen much of that this winter.

caloso

A harried morning: I washed, lubed, and trued the rear wheel of my commuter last night but didn't get around to putting the fenders, saddlebag, and lights back on it. So I came out to the garage to find a naked bike. I'd forgotten what a good looking bike it is when it's clean and stripped down. But it's going to be a late day at work, with a good chance of rain, so I need all that other stuff. Took probably less than 5 minutes, but that still made me 5 minutes later than I needed to be.

halfbiked

T'was a lovely morning for a ride. Though I did have my first commuting-crash, which wasn't so bad. Got a little overconfident in the snow & hit an unexpected path edge. Ooops!

FormerBMX'er

When good commutes go bad!

My commute to work went about 1/2 mi before I caught a flat. I quickly pulled over to the side to assess things..."hmm, no time for finding holes, I'll use the spare tube". Within minutes I had the spare tube installed, so I reached for the mini-pump I got for XMAS. WTF! "I can't engage the fr!gg!n thing"..."how do I attach this thing, it's suppose to be Presta and Schrader". After 5 min of screwing with the pump, I decided to walk back home and change pumps or get the cage.

As luck would have it, once I got home and played with mini-pump some more, I found that I had to press down on the head (hard), twist and pull it off where beneath it was the rubber gasket I had to flip to fit Presta . So, I went to put air in the tire using my floor pump since I was home and the stem screw popped off . I guess I damaged it trying to use the Schrader attachment, but I really wasn't pressing that hard. Inevitably I changed clothes, took the cage and arrived an hour late.

What I've Learned:
1) Try new stuff before hitting the road
2) Keep a Schrader to Presta adapter handy ( I passed a gas station )
3) Bontrager tires (in my experience) are of questionable quality, 3 flats in 10 months (2 Bonty Selects, 1 Race X Lite)

LilSprocket

Avoided the car all weekend and put 60 miles on the Roadie but eh, it was soggy here this :am so I wussed out and took the car
but I am living vicariously through all of your posts. Thanks for enlightening an otherwise typical Monday

jyossarian

Warm. Unseasonably warm. I like it. What I didn't like was that I was supposed to be working from home today. But then the VPN server decides to take a lunch break so I packed it in and came to work for the rest of the afternoon. Oh well, what the hell.

Rothaí

OK ride in, doing what I thought was a fair speed until this fella flies past. Tried catching up but no way. I just decided it was Lance Armstrong on holidays in Ireland. Heavy traffic as usual....I can't wait till the days stretch and it's daylight coming and going.

eastbaybob

I carried a picture to work this morning. It didn't fit in my saddle bag, so I carried it in a plastic bag, using my hand. It took about ten minutes to get to the office.

jyossarian

I can't even remember anything about the ride home, that's how unremarkable it was.

tomg

FOG in am, new planet-bike flashers paid for self again, +/-35deg! on return, the sun burnt the fog off, temp +/- 60 deg (i stopped back at home during the day med runs and changed to short pants). with the wind on my back, 60deg, shorts, 700x23 tires, and leaving work for the day, i was momentarilly in "the zone" !

o-dog

amazing commute today!

we had a high of 58 degrees today, and lucky me, I didn't have class until 4:15! so at around 12:30 I rode in to campus and did a 3 hour ride around town... mainly the places where I usually ride but still... so much fun. can't wait for the weather to get warmer.

the ride back was my first night commute of the semester, since the above class in question goes until 6:40... great ride back... it was a little cooler. rode by the aftermath of a car crash about halfway through the ride back (at a rather dangerous intersection on my commute route)... hope everyone involved was ok and there were no serious injuries.

weather report says rain and heavy winds tomorrow...

smoaky

My first day commuting to school after 6 months off. Took my brand new raleigh supercourse. I am way out of shape and was only going 16mph roughly most of the way. It was a beautiful day in manhattan though. Like tomg said, lots of fog (which looked awfully cool in the morning), but the sun came out later. On the ride home I rolled up my corduroys and put my jacket in my bag. Nice ride home. Once I get in shape I think I'll try to go to the end of the bike path or the WTC site and ride back up to my school. Until then its a 11mile round trip. Best part is passing the cars on the west side highway, and I was only going 20 max.