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2020! The “How was your commute?” thread!

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2020! The “How was your commute?” thread!

Old 06-18-20, 07:40 AM
  #426  
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Consecutive bicycle work commute number 983:

Pouring rain this morning with wind, lightning and thunder. The only thing missing was hail (thankfully.) It was a tough morning to get myself motivated to go out and ride in the downpour as I really didn't need to other than to keep my streak going. But I sucked it up and went 12.6 miles before returning home and starting to work. At least the temp was a pleasant 72 degrees, so I wasn't cold at all. Just soaked to the bone.

I saw one other guy on a bicycle this morning. He was commuting, but didn't look like a seasoned commuter as he didn't have a helmet, glasses, mirror, cycling clothes, etc. I strongly suspect DUI.

Been having a real issue lately with sweat running into my eyes and blinding me with the pain. I'll be riding and suddenly it feels like my eyes are on fire, and there's no possible way I can keep them open. Even today during the rain I was having lots of trouble after about 8 miles. Wiping my eyes fixes it for about 10 seconds and then the sweat runs into my eyes again. Not sure why all the sudden this became a problem for me in the last month. I've been commuting regularly for 14 years and until now it's never been a big concern.
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Old 06-23-20, 04:42 AM
  #427  
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The ride this morning was pleasant with plenty of fog around. I did not look at the temp but it was not uncomfortable either way. There was a yellow cat sitting in the middle of the road but he was so far ahead I could only make out something in the road as I got closer he walked over to the side and started walking down the side of the road, off and about.
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Old 06-23-20, 01:37 PM
  #428  
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Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've checked in on this thread (and BF in general). I see most of the posts in this thread are from familiar names, and understandably sparse! I've been working from home, and recently started back in the office. Finally did my first official bike commute of the year, my latest start yet (which I say every year...). Hope everyone is healthy, and I'll be sure to check in here once in a while.
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Old 06-25-20, 10:09 AM
  #429  
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It was a pleasant ride in this am, the temp was 58f degrees. I was so busy at work this am, I forgot to check in till lunch time.
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Old 06-25-20, 10:18 AM
  #430  
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Got absolutely drenched in a downpour riding home on Tuesday - nice way to cap off my first bike commute of the year. Today was commute #2 of 2020 under nice sunny skies and cool temps.
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Old 06-26-20, 04:07 AM
  #431  
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Originally Posted by groovestew
Got absolutely drenched in a downpour riding home on Tuesday - nice way to cap off my first bike commute of the year.
If you say so, but I guess at least your on the bike riding! so all is good.

It was a pleasant uneventful commute in this morning with the temp at 60f degrees and the best part is it is Friday!

Enjoy the weekend!
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Old 06-30-20, 03:28 AM
  #432  
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Had a big(ish) win today. Current commute is only 4 miles one way riding my longtail e-assisted cargo bike. I usually have my day bag, lunchbox and tool bag so my bike weighs a ton. I can pedal most of the way but due to a long term back injury and a recurrent knee injury, I almost always need to use the motor somewhere along the way. Today I didn't! Still needed a little push from a dead stop, but otherwise the entire ride was motor free. But let's not talk about commute time this morning though.
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Old 06-30-20, 04:27 AM
  #433  
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Seems we are stuck in the clouds, also there was a fine mist, but I did not let that stop me this am. It was a pleasant uneventful commute.
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Old 06-30-20, 07:59 AM
  #434  
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Consecutive bicycle work commute number 991:

For the first time since early April I actually went inside the office this morning instead of just riding by it. I have an 11:00 meeting with a client that they wanted to do face-to-face. So I rode to the office for the morning, then I'm planning on riding back home over lunch and finishing the day at home. I don't yet have a permanent return to office date. At the moment I don't even have a desk because they hired some new people and are short of space, and seeing as I'm normally working from a client location I got to move my stuff into a box for a while. This morning I'm sitting in a storage room to work, with another co-worker in the same situation. While my at-home workspace isn't ideal, it is better than this storage room.

77F this morning with 98% humidity. I rode 16.5 miles and arrived at the office completely drenched. We're supposed to take our temperature before we enter, and seeing as I hadn't used this new-fangled thermometer it took me a minute to figure out how to use it. Meanwhile there's a line of people waiting and watching me drip sweat all over everything. That made me a bit self conscious.
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Old 06-30-20, 08:21 AM
  #435  
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First time actually commuting to the office since March. Also the first time since I bought my house. The new route is 6.4 miles, so I'll be taking one of several different options for a longer way home most days. About the same time to get to work as my old commute (which was 5.0 miles). It's still all gradual uphill (only 365 ft in 6.4 miles).

It was rainy and chilly (48F) this morning. I hit quite a few puddles that were deeper than they looked. I rode the velo though, so I stayed dry. Once this system passes, I'll ride the two wheel bent most days.
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Old 07-01-20, 02:58 PM
  #436  
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My employer announced a 30 day pause in their reopening plans, based on the ski jump of cases in the last month, and that was before the announcement today that public businesses in CA must shut again. We are not open to the public and we are "essential" so that doesn't apply, but it does set the tone.
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Old 07-06-20, 09:25 AM
  #437  
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2.6 mi from the Park N Ride realized my backpack was missing!?! Instead of 7 mi I got 12 mi to work this morning. DOH!
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Old 07-07-20, 10:53 AM
  #438  
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Consecutive bicycle work commute number 995:

Had a cardiology appointment at the heart hospital, so I rode the 12 miles there. When I left the house it had just finished raining and the streets were wet. I took the hybrid with fenders. Except for a few puddles, I probably could have gotten away with taking the road bike as the sun came out and my ride home from the hospital was on completely dry pavement.

About 6 miles from home I started hearing a "thump, thump, thump.." coming from the front of the bike. At a stoplight I looked down and saw a bulge in the tire. It was still holding air so I decided to milk it as far as it would go. I made it the whole way back. Upon inspection I found a hole in the front tire. And when I say hole, I mean obviously visible hole more than 1/8" in diameter. I could clearly see the tire liner.

On a related note, my tire liners (Rhinozillas) just made me a firm believer in their effectiveness. I would have been stranded a long ways from home without them today, as with a hole that size in the tire no patch or replacement tube would have gotten me home.

Here's episode 11 of my bicycle commuting adventures video:

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Old 07-10-20, 09:11 AM
  #439  
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2020 bicycle work commute number 3:

Cool and sunny. Lots of puddles from a big thunderstorm last night, but it's been so wet again this summer, there's permanent puddles on some of the paths anyway. Got pwned by a mountain biker; hope it made his day.

Have a great weekend, all 5 of you who post here.
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Old 07-10-20, 02:50 PM
  #440  
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Six! I come in (very) occasionally.

Today was kind of crappy. We've had lots of "June Gloom" (look it up!) this week, but this morning it burned off super-early, in the middle of my 45-minute ride. I find I prefer coolness and moisture, I guess. Roads were pretty empty, which was nice, but the remaining few cars on the road were real 'holes about it today - two made turns right in front of me that they didn't need to do. And I've been very good about not yelling at people lately.
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Old 07-10-20, 04:04 PM
  #441  
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Consecutive bicycle work commute number 998:

Today was rather, er... interesting. In all my years of commuting, this was a new one:

So after yesterday's ride I hopped in the shower and when the water hit a certain spot, ZING! I looked down to investigate, and somehow during the ride something must not have been positioned right and I managed to rub off a layer of skin on the end of... well, the end of something where you don't want a layer of skin rubbed off of.

All day yesterday I was hobbling around as one wrong move and, ZING! Most of the time it reminded me a lot of how my catheter felt after my open heart surgery. Every once in a while things would get in the wrong position and really get my attention.

This made me curious how this morning's ride would be. It was great weather, with the temp around 70 and hardly any wind. It would have been a great day to ride the MUP all the way around the city for a 22 mile loop. However, once I got on the bike and started pedaling, I quickly surmised that wasn't going to happen today. In fact, had I not had my streak going I would have promptly gotten back off the bike and bagged the ride for today.

I decided that I could somehow force myself to ride to the bottom of the hill that marked the one mile mark from my house, and then ride back home. It would be a pathetically short ride, but at least it would be a ride.

Once I got to the bottom of the hill, stuff was, um... positioned a bit better and I decided maybe I could ride a bit further, so I kept going. Every so often I would have to stop and re-organize things down there, but when I eventually got back to the house I had logged 14.35 miles total.

Hopefully by taking the weekend off things will heal up. Right now there's a big scab in the last place I want a big scab.
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Old 07-10-20, 04:09 PM
  #442  
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Make that seven posters!

I'm averaging about one commute per month. Telecommuting is a great way to keep the paychecks coming, but there are things I just can't do at home. Today was different. Midday ride to the corporate office to pick up some company goodies. I think they're getting ready for a contract recompete, and figure if all of us working at the customer's office start wearing corporate logos, it'll be great advertising.

The ride itself was hot, into the 90s (Fahrenheit, I hope!), but there was a gentle breeze that helped me stay, if not comfortable, at least tolerable. I took the long way; the office park was almost as quiet as the neighborhood streets. Somehow it seemed like every street or road I took hasn't been paved since I last worked at corporate, 8-9 years ago. I may have to get a gravel bike to keep riding these city streets. N+1, hooray!
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Old 07-13-20, 04:35 AM
  #443  
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It was a pleasant ride to work today with the temp at 72f degrees and some humidity. The ride home has the potential for bad storms so the weather may determine my route home. Anyway due to starting a part-time job( Saturday evenings 4:30-7:30) I have been working two jobs cause the pt job wanted to train me. Training is now over so my I am back to my normal schedule and can ride again. Also I have let the weathermen scare me off a few days due to unfavorable condition whether it be thunderstorms, or high heat and humidity. I am done with the weathermen and fear.
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Old 07-13-20, 07:23 AM
  #444  
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Originally Posted by essiemyra
It was a pleasant ride to work today with the temp at 72f degrees and some humidity. The ride home has the potential for bad storms so the weather may determine my route home. Anyway due to starting a part-time job( Saturday evenings 4:30-7:30) I have been working two jobs cause the pt job wanted to train me. Training is now over so my I am back to my normal schedule and can ride again. Also I have let the weathermen scare me off a few days due to unfavorable condition whether it be thunderstorms, or high heat and humidity. I am done with the weathermen and fear.
Weathermen and politicians are the only two types of people in the world that continually lie to us, yet we keep believing them.
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Old 07-14-20, 04:32 AM
  #445  
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Originally Posted by Tundra_Man
Weathermen and politicians are the only two types of people in the world that continually lie to us, yet we keep believing them.
I am so over the weathermen.

I took the direct route home last evening due to the black cloud that was out over my work and it followed me home. Which is weird because my ride home is east to west. I thought mostly the clouds go west to east. Well anyway, I made it home before the rain started and did not extend my ride but I rode which is way better than not riding.

The ride this morning was pleasant with the temp somewhere in the 60's with some humidity again. With the threat of storms again this afternoon. Ohhh and best part is I found a $20 dollar bill on my ride.
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Old 07-14-20, 12:44 PM
  #446  
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Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1000:

Milestone day! The big 1000. I've now commuted by bicycle without driving 1000 work days in a row. The last time I drove was February 10th, 2016.

The last couple of months I've been working from home and doing my commute by riding to the office (or an equivalent or greater distance) and then back home before starting my work day. However, for day 1000 I decided that I actually wanted to ride to the office and work there. Rain was predicted for this morning, so last night I packed my panniers that I use on my hybrid with fenders. My wife remarked that while packing it looked like I had forgotten what was once such a routine that I could do it in my sleep. I agreed that I felt a bit out-of-sorts as I was trying to remember everything I needed to take.

This morning I awoke to dry pavement. The rain that was supposed to happen hadn't. I momentarily considered switching to my back pack and riding my road bike, but decided I didn't want to bother repacking everything. The ride to work was cloudy, but comfortable. I did notice the wind was blowing from the north, when the forecast said it was going to come from the south. Maybe that's why the rain never showed up.

I arrived at the office and took a commemorative photo. I went inside and started to unpack when I realized that I had left my laptop at home. All the VPN stuff I needed was on that laptop, so I couldn't work without it. So I spoke to a couple co-workers for a few minutes, then loaded up the bike and rode back to work from home. During the ride back the sky grew awfully black and I thought the rain was finally going to happen, but it never did.
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Old 07-15-20, 04:41 AM
  #447  
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I took a route home last evening that takes me off the main road and extends the ride by 2 miles. When I got 1/4 mile from my house the thunder started as did the very light rain. I made it home and then the lightning and thunder arrived just as I was locking up my bike. Good ride.

This am's ride was cloudy and spitting rain which I did not notice in the dark when I looked out the door to check the weather before I left the house. The temp was 61 f degrees so it was cool but comfortable.
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Old 07-15-20, 07:56 AM
  #448  
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This morning was one of those odd mornings that I felt like my legs just didn't have any juice, so I was just cruising.

Turns out I was a good 3 minutes faster than my monday ride. Strange how that works.

The new commute (I bought a house and moved) is now 6.3 miles to work compared to the old commute of 5.0, but still a steady (slight) uphill the whole way. Yesterday, I detoured a bit to avoid a long wait for a train. Probably didn't save much time, but at least I was moving instead of sitting there waiting.
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Old 07-15-20, 09:10 AM
  #449  
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Originally Posted by essiemyra
I took a route home last evening that takes me off the main road and extends the ride by 2 miles. When I got 1/4 mile from my house the thunder started as did the very light rain. I made it home and then the lightning and thunder arrived just as I was locking up my bike. Good ride.
Some days things just work out!


Originally Posted by Notso_fastLane
The new commute (I bought a house and moved) is now 6.3 miles to work compared to the old commute of 5.0, but still a steady (slight) uphill the whole way.
Uphill both ways?
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Old 07-15-20, 10:52 AM
  #450  
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Originally Posted by pdlamb
Some days things just work out!




Uphill both ways?
Through 3 feet of snow, even in the summer!

I just compare the ride in, which is pretty much direct. I almost never take the direct route home.
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