arsprod 

Steady rain while getting ready so I geared up. As soon as I hit my driveway it stopped so I ended up riding the whole 11 miles with rain gear on. I wanted to yell to each passing rider "it was raining when I left, honest!"

HardyWeinberg

50F, clammy, breezy, but no showers for the ride at least

PatrickGSR94

Yeah I don't get that. I always pull into the intersection when waiting to turn left, and when the light turns yellow, oncoming traffic stops, and then I go!

2nd day in a row commuting for me, and first commute in nearly 2 weeks on my road bike. I felt good and strong(er) this morning for some reason. My moving time was 7 minutes less than it was on my last morning road bike commute, and only 12 minutes longer than my e-bike commute yesterday, so not too bad!

Hoopdriver

30 minutes before sunrise and 20% of the cars were running without lights. Fewer cars in the morning, but if I can't see them it's worse than the heavier traffic in the afternoon.

Darth Lefty 

First day for hoodie and gloves. Dramatic crash from a heat wave a week back

PatrickGSR94

I can't stand when people just drive along oblivious and think they don't need to use their headlights. Especially when the car is a dark color.

Stadjer

I was cycling behind a 60 year old 6ft 6" transvestite/transgender today and when I was about to pass her she stuck out 5 6" red nails, I continued passing her and wondered if the nail polish wasn't dry yet and she went out cycling to speed up the process. But it turned out she wanted to make a left turn which was way too long ahead to already start moving to the left side, and she got mad at me saying that you can't pass if someone sticks out a hand. I replied that if we are going to nitpick about the rules, she had to look behind her first.

No one obeys that rule, but normally people just stop pedalling or give a small handsignal just before turning and it's up to the cyclist behind not to hit the other. Don't start nitpicking the rules with me because I'm better at that, allthough I don't care much for the rules. I have seen her a few times before, it's not the kind of person that goes unnoticed easily, and she seemed very friendly and I've never been afraid of road rage here. Nontheless, when I cycled on I got this image in my head of getting into a fight with a person 2" taller than me taking off her 7 inch stiletto (matching colour with the nails, size 15 probably) to hit me on the head with it, and me only escaping because of her tight dress.

noglider 

We should all just run our headlights all the time. That's what I do. I don't have to ask myself if the conditions merit doing so.

robertorolfo

New to this particular thread, but yesterday was a little more eventful than usual, so...

Riding home was a complete mess due to the UN General Assembly closing a lot of streets on the east side, and cutting right into my route to the 59th street bridge. Waiting at a light with a few other riders, some guy pulls up next to me and says, "Hey, Lotus."

Now, as a NY'er, I generally don't talk to strangers. But when I looked at him he immediately asked what year my bike was, so I figured he was 'Ok.' Then I glanced down and saw that he was also riding a vintage Lotus, so we exchanged a few more words and it was a pleasant interaction.

Fast forward and I finally get to the bridge, only to wind up with some serious dude in front of me (carbon bike, full gear, basically race ready). Well, I started my climb in my usual gear and usual cadence, and I guess he didn't like the fact that this carried me past him pretty briskly (I could hear him banging on his brifters a second after I went by). Fast forward a little more, and Mr. Hardcore can't manage to get past the guy on the 1986 Lotus riding with tennis shoes, soccer shorts, a t-shirt and a backpack caring work clothes, a lock... until the point where the path starts to level off and he begins drafting me into what must have been at least a 15-20 mile head wind.

As we reach the point of decent, I give a little signal as if to say, "better luck next time, and thanks for being a weenie." His reaction was to pull out and commence riding like a maniac down the other side of the bridge, which is replete with slower riders, people walking, people walking their bikes, people walking their dogs, people taking pictures... So at the traffic light after the bridge I let him know that the daredevil routine was neither impressive nor redemptive, at which point he went through the light to try and get away, while I laughed and turned toward my rout when the light changed. So a special shout out to Mr. Try Hard out there.

Can I ask what kind of lights you prefer? Regular battery powered or rechargeable?

noglider 

I think it's fun to laugh at the well equipped people who aren't as fast as they want to be, but not so cool to convey my disdain outwardly.

Sorry, I was talking about car headlights. I'm not sure about bike headlights in the day, though in heavy traffic, they do seem like a good idea. I prefer neither rechargeable nor disposable batteries. I usually power my headlight with a dynamo hub. Believe me, if you get one of these setups, you will wonder why you waited so long. (But I do have a racing bike that I won't make heavy, and I run a USB-rechargeable headlight on it.) My lights come on whenever the bike rolls, and they stay lit for a few minutes afterwards. I don't think about charging.

joeyduck

I agree but the tail light thing has frustrated me for twenty plus years. Too many idiots (car makers need to take some blame) drive with their daytime running lights on and oblivious to the fact their tail lights are off; the blame for the manufacturers comes with the fact they also have the dash lights on with the DRLs.

I finally felt vindicated when they actually had a segment on the radio about this issue and someone was doing some lobbying to change it. I personally run lights all day any day.

The weather has turned towards more fall here, we had a nice Saturday and then Sunday the rain started. Then last night it rained heavily all night into the morning. I didn't bike, only because I had to do the garbage and recycling runs; I likely would have stayed mostly dry by the time I left. The boat was another story. We use old gallon milk jugs with the bottoms cut off to bail the boat. This morning we bailed about 84 scoops. My estimate of 3 L per scoop average volume removed calculated to about 250 L of rain water in the boat (this is an unverified measurement and inaccurate estimate).

Anywho we are getting the tiling done this week to get our fireplace up to code so we can keep warm this winter. So with the weather it is well timed.

Tundra_Man 

When we got my wife's car a year ago, it took me a while to adjust to the fact that the dash lights were always on, and actually got dimmer when the headlights were illuminated. My truck has automatic headlights, so I was used to not manually flipping the switch. I don't know how many times I started driving her car at night and realizing after a few blocks that the headlights were off. My brain saw the dash lights on and just assumed that the headlights were on.

Took me a good six months to re-train myself.

robertorolfo

Believe me, I wouldn't have said anything if he didn't try to look tough by riding like a lunatic on the downhill portion. The way I see it (but I'm a noob, so I don't know any better), it's fun/ok to have a little climbing contest on the way up, if that's your thing, since the speed is invariably kept reasonable. But trying to see who can hit a higher top speed going downhill among pedestrians, dogs, people riding the other direction... is just stupid. Also, after the climb when it leveled off and this guy caught up, there was a huge headwind and this clown thought it was fun to sit right on my wheel like we were in the peloton.

My brother had one of those dynamo powered lights on his bike when we were growing up, and I remember that it never worked that well. It's seemed to need constant adjusting. But I wouldn't be surprised if they have improved a lot in the past 30 years, just live VCR's and Answering Machines... Still, I'm leaning toward the USB rechargeable route.

Hoopdriver

The bigger problem is that if they are in front of a car with lights, they are almost undetectable because you are focused on the lit car. With luck you catch an aberration in the shadow.

mgw4jc

I left work early yesterday which put me in the midst of a couple of school buses. One passed too closely and then shortly after made three stops. At the second one there was enough cars piling up behind that I just pulled off and let them all go by me. If the bus hadn't passed me I would have been able to leave them all behind at his first stop. Whatever.

Nice ride in this morning. Just dark enough when I leave that I'm putting on the clear lens glasses. I could switch partway through, but not really worth the effort.

liampboyle

High 70 degree range on the way home last night, so I was a bit sweaty getting in the door, but not dehydrated enough I couldn't enjoy a few hard ciders before bed.

This morning, mid 60's for temps with near 100% humidity again. There were several work vehicles in the bike lanes, and the shoulder of the heaviest trafficked part of my route, but the morning drivers were surprising cordial when I had to take up a traffic lane as a result. I think running with two taillights one blinking mode has actually been helping. I'm also working on training myself to take more of a center position in traffic lanes, than an edge position.

ptempel

What imagery. I ride in New York City just about every weekday but I have to say that I've never ran into a 6'6" transgender with 6" nails and high heel stiletto pumps. All I can say to her is: "You go girl!"

Tundra_Man 

Pretty good storm during the night. 60 mph winds, rain and a tornado spotted north of town. Apparently the sirens went off, but I slept right through it all.

This morning there were several trees that had lost their limbs, and more sticks and branches than I can count. The Park Department was out moving the big stuff off the MUP, and I'm guessing they'll sweep later. I wound up playing "dodge the stick" the whole way.

Between the constant swerving to avoid path debris, and the steady 15 mph headwind I didn't make very good time and it took me an extra 5 minutes longer to get the 4 miles to the client's office. Thankfully I walked out the door about 5 minutes early so you can call me Even Steven.

ptempel

I "braved" the rain yesterday. The ride home turned out to be a non-event. The roads were wet but no rain around 4:30pm when I left. Just got lucky, I guess. It did start raining later on when I was in the car driving home on the GSP. I'm unhappy with the longevity of the Performance Elite bib short. I have to look back at my receipt but I recall only having them for 6 months or so. The bib is pretty worn out and I don't want to showcase my gleuteus maximus to other cyclists anymore. Time to order anothe one. Will search BF for some suggestions. I still want to keep the price below $100. So maybe Castelli, Perl Izumi or Voler might have somthing. Should probably look for some sales on the usual bike retailer sites.

Edit: I ended up ordering a Simplicity Symmetry bib short from Voler: https://voler.com/browse/product/li/1B10032BLUXSM It was $69 so was hard to pass up.

Stadjer

The people are tall here, and a fine frame isn't very typical of the natives either. So I can understand the that a transgender wants to wear high heels for femininity, but while a 6'6" man doesn't really stand out, a 6'6" woman on top of 7" heels does. But the city is quite small so contrary to NY most people she encounters have already noticed her before and don't react shocked. To here credit, she rode a much too small ladies bike, but without bending the knees outside the handlebar like a cowboy, that's what a lot of men on much too small bikes do. Maybe that's why she started her left turn that early not to hit the knees with the handlebar by turning in sharply, and I should have been more considerate.

Allycat24

Painless is how I would describe my commute today - first time in years! I finally decided to get a cortisone shot in my left knee last week, after dealing with off/on pain for the past 2 years. What a difference! I'm trying to get my mileage up so I can do a century next month. It appears now that I'll be able to do the century. It might take me a while but at least I can train without pain. What a relief.

PatrickGSR94

Had that problem also with my wife's 2014 Mazda CX-5 we got last summer. It's our newest car by almost 20 years. It has dash lights on all the time, and a dimmer switch that lets you keep the dash lights on full brightness or have them dim down when the headlights come on. And yeah like you we've also gone a couple of times with DRL's only because the dash lights were on full brightness. But if you make it dim with the headlights and turn the headlights on when it's still light out, you can't see anything on the dashboard hardly. And so Mazda had to add a little dash light to tell you that the headlights are on, but it doesn't really help.

So I thought about trying to ride to work all 5 days this week. I rode Monday and Tuesday, but unfortunately didn't happen today. I forgot to set my alarm last night when I crashed into bed and didn't wake up until 6:30. Oh well. I'll try for a 4-day bike commute week, which would still be more than any week so far since I started in 2013.

arsprod 

Finally a dry ride and apparently summer isn't go out without a fight - supposed to be near 90 this afternoon. It's also walnut husk season aka slalom-on-the-trail season. If you've never seen these things they're big green balls, some nearly as big as a baseball and as hard. Part of my ride goes through heavily treed areas and these baseballs are all over the place. Running over them is terrifying if not downright deadly. Add falling leaves to the mix and I really have to pay attention.

noglider 

@robertorolfo, this dynamo is inside the hub of my front wheel, so I'm not rubbing a bottle-shaped dynamo against the sidewall of my tire. No adjustments needed. The lights are bolted on, and wires run from the dynamo hub to them. It's more reliable than anything by far.

I supplement these two lights with a battery-powered flashing tail light and a battery-powered spoke light. I charge the tail light with USB every month or so. I replace the button cells in the spoke light every two months.

noglider 

I rode the subway to work again today, because my wife is picking me up later, and we're driving upstate for the Jewish holidays. I didn't even get a chance to lift weights this morning, so I just did a few pushups. I ought to do a few more during the day.