opie

Beautiful here. 50F and sunny. Breezy. 10 miles, took it easy and didn't even break a sweat.

ZmanKC

Rain falling as I went upstairs to brush my teeth and grab my paniers. This will be my first ride with the new rain poncho I just received.

Put it on and headed for the garage. Opened the garage door and the rain had already stopped. I decided to keep the poncho on assuming it would probably start raining before I arrived at work.

It never did rain but the wind was blowing at 20+ mph. The poncho acted like a bright yellow sail making the portion of my commute into the headwind a tad more difficult. Average speed was 2-3 mph slower than normal.

EKW in DC

Cool and windy. Temp around 50 degrees, headwind 14 mph and gusting to 22 mph according to NWS. Fun! :-\ Felt a little slow, sluggish, and tired, and the headwind didn't help that, but I actually made it in in the same amount of time I normally do despite the headwind, the tired legs, and bad luck timing the couple traffic lights on my way.

Guess my pedicabbing work Thursday and Friday did more for my legs than I imagined.

candafilm

Today was my first time commuting to work on my bike. About 10 miles which I'm sure is nothing to most of you, but is quite a distance for someone who was as out of shape as I was. It was great. I may pick up a pair of cycling gloves if only to keep my hands warm.

The only part I had trouble with was a huge hill near the end of my ride. I made it halfway up and then decided to walk it to the top.

EKW in DC

candafilm - Nothing wrong w/ walking. Keep at it and just see if you can go a little farther and a little farther day after day. Before long you'll be pedalling all the way up. Good luck with the commuting! My commute is 7 miles. When I started I used to think it was a pretty good dsitance and a good workout. Now I usually wish my commute were 10+ miles. I never want to stop by the time I get to work!

JeremyZ

candafilm: As a last resort before I start walking up a hill, I'll try standing up and pumping on the pedals. Did you do this first? Just curious.

candafilm

I did not try that, but I will on Wednesday (not working tomorrow).

Ajacobs

It was a cool and damp ride this morning, going both ways. I am just glad that I do not work any later than I do. We are expected to have some really bad weather. You know tornadoes, hail, lots of rain....that kinda stuff. I am a true Kansan, I had better have my camara ready. Now that I said that it will skip right over Wichita. LOL. Weather should be good by morning, thank goodness, it will make for a really nice commute tomorow morning.
Have a great day!!!

caloso

Cool and sprinkling. Rained pretty hard yesterday but just spitting today. Should be the tail end of this system and then it'll be perfect weather for riding through the weekend -- and the Tour of California!

revelstone

the commute went almost normal. i have this one hill i take almost every day. when i started riding two, yes count 'em, two years ago, i had to walk part way up the hill. eventually i got the point i could ride up the hill. in about 15 minutes. then slowly over time i finally got the time down to eight minutes. stuck right there for about a year. yeah i'm slow i know. but today. six minutes. flat. it was great. and yet i still had fun and got to work. just saying. maybe i shoulda posted this in the 50+ section, cuz that's where i''m at. but still it was good doing that hill in six.

HardyWeinberg

48F, gray, sprinkly.

Left early for lunchtime errands because I forgot my daughter's lunch, so I needed to buy one and get it to her by 11. Stopped at Michael's (chain craft store) to get stuff for son's school project. Nothing to lock my bike to so I ... didn't (there were some trees but they looked either too big or too little). In and out, like always, and, you can guess, no more bike. All the ladies in Michael's were concerned and one had called 911 for me because she couldn't stand that I hadn't yet. Cops had recovered the bike w/in a half hour, pretty amazing. So potentially horrendous day was downgraded to 'eventful' status.

I am slack on locking, but I usually do some token effort, and I guess I was antsy enough around Michael's that I took the netflix dvd I was going to drop in a po box and, most importantly, checks to deposit in ATM, so at least they didn't get taken for a ride that they may or may not have returned from along w/ the rest of my bike.

phillyskyline

Philly decided to rip up every other street for repairs--then leave them all for weeks at a time with that annoying uneven surface. The street I live on has been ripped up for over a week, and now one of the major roads I use to commute has been torn up also. This morning I had to bike on the sidewalk for a block or two, and then when the sidewalk condition deteriorated as I got further into the bad neighborhood I commute to, I had to get off my bike and walk a block. I'm sure I'll be doing this all week...and next week...and probably the week after. The only other safe and direct route involves a road with trolley tracks, which can be killer if you're not careful. The one and only crash I've had (knock on wood) was when a trolley track ate my tire.

Chalupa102

58F and sunny with winds from the NW @ 17mph giving me mainly a tailwind. There was a party in my last class of the day. I ate a little too much there before i left the school and could feel it little bit in my stomach during the ride home. Had to take a detour because they were doing some road work. On one of the roads i was on going down a hill, i almost t-boned some idiot in an SUV. I was moving pretty fast going down the hill and there was a side road to the right of me. The SUV was taking a left onto the road i was on and decided he didn't need to stop. He completely blew the stop sign (didn't even make an effort to stop) and i had to slam on the brakes and swerve right to avoid hitting him. I was gonna yell "what the heck", but didn't really have the time cuz it happened so fast. It kinda came out as "TWHAT!" and a weird scream at the same time. Besides that little incident, it was actually a great commute even though my stomach wasn't feeling so great. I made a small pit stop at the hardware store to pick some things up. After that, i headed home and had a lot of energy climbing the hills to my house.

bugly64

My commute today started with the usual frigid temperature, 37F. Just before I arrived at my shop a pickup truck decided to make a left turn from a stop sign and cut me off, but I had self control and didn't yell expletives. The ride home my jacket remained stowed in the freeloader.

HardyWeinberg

After the lunchtime bike theft excitement I was on my way to get my daughter after work and a guy flagged me down, said he was attacked by a pitbull up ahead, his leg was bleeding. Fortunately it was after where I was going to turn off to get my daughter. So I went that way, called my wife to suggest she take an alternate route, and went on with it.

The trail network I connected up with after picking up my daughter could have been reached by the pitbull people, but I didn't see them. I did see a cop talking to a couple of hike-y looking kids, which I've never seen before (a cop on the trail, not hike-y looking kids, they are standard).

Anyway, it's days like this that make it worthwhile to me to post the no event commutes as kind of a positive control. Most days really aren't like this.

desuism

My dirt-cheap but really growing old quite fast Magna Glacerpoint had to be loaded up today. Being the resourceful man I am I threw everything in those reusable grocery bags which got bungee corded in place (along with my normal bag). This all worked fine, except for the extra weight, which felt like it was unreasonably slowing my bike.

So when I get back (thankfully my ride back was sans cargo) I get out my bathroom scale and do the trick of weighing yourself with something and then yourself to find the weight. It comes out to 37.1 lbs unloaded. I think I nearly cried.

All in all a good day then. (dear lord do I need to get a new bike)

fletchh

It is still chilly at 0 C ( 32 F) this morning. Enjoying the ride in during the lighter days. Tomorrow, the day is supposed to be warmer, albeit stormy.

desuism - The bike I use for commuting is 22 years old, and it just keeps rolling. It's all steel, down to the wheels. I don't take it on trips or ride
it in snow and ice, but when it comes to sticking to the road, it does a wonderful job. I would never lean into corners the way I do on that bike
on my very light MTB.

tarwheel 

My speed was slower this morning due to a headwind, but my overall time was less because I didn't catch so many freaking red lights for a change today. Funny, I made it to work 2 minutes faster than yesterday, even though the travel time on my computer was 2 minutes slower (the computer stops counting time when my bike stops at lights). So that means I spent 4 more minutes sitting at red lights yesterday.

vtjim

Mid 30sF. Sunny. The wind was alternating between calm and light headwind. Passed one pannier'd rider carrying a helmet on his handlebar. (Handlebar more valuable than skull I guess.)

I think I saw someone behind me but it never got close enough to verify.

Oh, and a bunny rabbit ran along side me for a couple of seconds.

EKW in DC

Temps in the low 50s w/ kinda swirly and gusting winds near the river. <sarcasm>Fun!</sarcasm> Looks like rain for the afternoon/evening. As long as I can make it to happy hour w/o getting too wet, I don't care about the ride home.

I'll spend the day hitting refresh on my UPS tracking page to see when my new bike goodies are delivered to our mail room. Have a pair of pedals and a new kickstand coming. If they make it before lunch, I brought all the tools I need to install both on my break. Tomorrow my new saddle should come in. (Thak dog that my pedicabbing income can finance these much needed repairs/ugrades to the bike.)

jyossarian

Almost got smooshed into the side of a truck by some JAM cutting me off to park in front of the truck. I yelled at him as I passed by, but he was so oblivious and his window was rolled up, I doubt he noticed.

groovestew

Despite having lungs full of phlegm due to a cold I'm still in the middle of, I flew to work this morning. That was thanks to the new-to-me classic Celeste Bianchi road bike I picked up last night (see this thread). What a difference compared to the heavy mountain bike I've been commuting on. My trip normally takes about 42 minutes, but today, it was 37. Full disclosure: I took a modified route to avoid some gravel parts, which may have been a bit shorter than my usual route. I've never measured either, but I usually take the one with gravel because it's nicer (riding though parks instead of on streets).

2su

got my wrecked bike back from the shop on sat... got different (narrower, lower) drops, and shorter/stiffer cranks (8mm shorter). It feels kinda weird cause I don't have as much leverage on the cranks. and I need to raise my seat a little bit but havent yet. But it has been so nice to ride my fav bike again.

except for the rain and super gnarly winds I faced this morning. sheesh.

Ajacobs

Wow! The tornado went out before it hit Wichita yesterday, thank goodness. The weather yesterday cleared the air and made for a lovly ride thismorning into work. Could look up and see some stars even through the city lights. Very little traffic, and 47 degrees F. On my way home the air was still so clean and nice. The sky was soooooo blue, light wind and 67 degrees F. A fantastic day! I hope everyone has one.

Grim

Little chilly this morning so I took it slow instead of bombing down the long hill down the where the road crosses a creek that I normally hit around 30-35mph. Mid 70's for the ride home. It was nice.

Back into the mid 80's for the ride home for the rest of the week.