Same pickup truck guy that yelled at me on Monday's ride home again leaned out the passenger window to say, "Get off the road, dumb a$$!" I didn't respond, but would have to liked to offer, "I'm not a dumb a$$. I'm a smart a$$!"

Good ride in this morning. Sweaty though. I caught up to another rider who was out for leisure miles. We chatted a bit and he was interested in my commute. He said he commutes by bike too, but only a 3 minute ride.

Distracted, no, unattentive driver day today. Had to brake sharply for the woman (no lady, she!) who decided to pull out of the stop sign instead of waiting for me, the slow bicyclist (who almost hit her car...). Then a wild swerve to avoid the pickup backing out (although he might have seen me when he got to the road...)

I know it sounds like, "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?" But the rest of the ride in was calm. Warm, and I'm dripping as I cool off, but a good ride.

I actually thought about you as I went around every sharp corner! Having a freshly healed sternum is bad enough without adding injuries like yours to the mix.

Today on the way in it was about 70 degrees and the humidity was 91+% . I had to stop to get a bandanna out to wipe my face. I felt like i was melting... there was ZERO evaporation going on.

Good, at least something good can come from it. I thought for 2 years that I was careful enough on the FG for it not to be a serious problem, but it only takes a moment.

Ever get behind someone who's faster than you but doesn't know how to downshift? So at every intersection you pass them because they're trying to crank a huge gear and then they get up to speed and pass you until the next intersection. I finally backed way off to give him enough of a gap that we could stop playing cat and mouse.

Cool this morning at 60F. May be the first day this week it doesn't get to 90

Nice ride in this morning, a bit cooler than I was expecting. Rode 4 of the 5 days this week but each morning I am loosing a bit more light so I think I might need to upgrade my front light to something stronger if I continue to ride. Last year was my first year of bike commuting and by this time last year I had to stop riding due to all the construction along my route. This year I can keep going so looks like some shopping this weekend for me.

Coming up to the last left turn, I see one car coming up in the far left lane and the other two lanes are clear. So I wait over in my bike lane for him to get by, and wait ... for some reason the driver is just slowing down. It's an unprotected green at this point. Finally, he's going only about 20 and still about 200 feet behind me so I cross over, roll into the intersection in a gap in oncoming and make my turn. No problem, right?

But then pulling into the bike rack at work, this same idiot pulls up and yells out his window "You got a death wish? I had to slam on my brakes!". I calmly told him where he could put his "deathwish", but he wanted to argue some more before driving off to park. I was flabbergasted that an employee here at the office would act that way - that's a first in over 9 years here.

I thought about getting his info and taking it to HR, but I'll let it pass this time. Maybe he's having an "episode". But I did speak with security, just in case, and if anything at all happens again we may have a problem.

Finally got around to syncing my rides and was not sure about my total mileage for the week. If you go Sunday through Thursday I had 120 miles. If you count Monday through Thursday, I had 97 miles. I had to convince myself to take it easy this morning and not try to go faster and faster and just enjoy the ride. I got to work after 13 miles and am excited that today is Friday.

I did have one woman come up behind me and then slam on her brakes hard enough that I saw the front of her SUV dip down. I was concerned she did not see me as I was climbing a hill. I heard yell something ignorant but ignored her and kept on pedaling. SHe stayed back and gave me space.

"slow to speak, slow to get angry"

Consecutive work commute number 766:

Well, after 13 years of bicycle commuting it finally happened. I got hit by a car.

My good road bike was still on the repair stand waiting for parts, so I decided to pull out my vintage Panasonic and ride that. I noted as I pulled away from the house that the battery on the computer had gone dead, so I had no idea how fast I was going. I had to stop for an appointment at the hospital before work, so I took a different route than my usual one.

About three miles from home I was coming through a residential boulevard when a car left hooked me. The guy didn't signal or slow down, so by the time I figured out he was turning it was too late. I guesstimate I was going about 16 mph when he made the turn. I managed to scrub off most of my speed and hit his passenger front fender and then hit the ground.

My feet didn't even come unclipped from the pedals. I laid there for a few seconds processing what had just happened, and then sprung to my feet. The guy stopped (thankfully) and got out of his car. I had the adrenaline going now and was ready for a confrontation. The guy immediately asked me if I was OK, and I responded that he needed to pay attention for oncoming traffic. He said the sun was in his eyes as he made the turn, and I told him that he needed to slow way down if he can't see anything in front of him.

He kept saying he was sorry over and over, and I noted the guy was visibly shaking probably realizing how much worse this crash could have been. At one point I thought he was going to burst into tears. Once I saw he was taking full responsibility and was truly remorseful, I calmed way down.

My right elbow took the brunt of the impact from hitting the ground and I lost some skin. I'm sure I got a little bruised up and will feel that later. But all things considered, I was in pretty good shape. I don't even think my helmet hit the ground.

I snapped a picture of the guy's license plate, and he gave me his contact information. I mentioned that I was heading to the hospital anyway, so he told me to please call him if I'm at all hurt.

I picked up my bike and assessed the damage. To my surprise other than a few more scratches added to the many this bike already had, everything looked ok. The wheels still spun true. The handlebar was a bit out of alignment, but I was able to knock that back close enough to ride.

Deciding there wasn't much more we could do at this time, we hugged and bid each other farewell. He again told me to call him if there was any damage to me or my bike. He really seemed like a nice guy that just made a terrible mistake. I'm pretty sure he learned something this morning.

I finished my ride to the hospital. I noted I was a little gun shy when I would encounter cars. After arriving I went in the restroom and scrubbed the gravel out of my elbow. Once clean it looked a lot better. I hit it with some alcohol (yow!) just to make sure I got the germs out.

After my appointment I rode to work which thankfully was much less eventful.

Part of me is grateful that I wasn't on my good bike so it didn't get damaged. But part of me knows that the brakes on my good bike are so much better than the vintage brakes on the Panasonic that maybe I could have stopped in time and just had a near miss?

^ yikes, glad to hear that both bike and body sound mostly ok. be sure to thank your guardian angel.


here in chicago we had a ridiculously gorgeous morning for a bike commute in july

67°, 55° dewpoint, sunny, light winds.

oh how i LOVE a low dew point!

Bit of a tense ride home on Wednesday. I pulled my bike out of storage and discovered the front tire was flat. Normally I'm well equipped to deal with such a situation, but I'm all out of patches in my patch kit (long story), and the stem on my spare tube wasn't long enough to fully poke through the deep-ish rims. If I had had my good pump that screws onto the valve, I might have been okay, but the pump in my pack only clamped on with compression, and I wasn't able to get enough stem into the pump to get a good grip. I maybe got 10-15 psi into the tire before the pump wouldn't hold onto the stem anymore. (This is a 700X23 tire, and I usually pump it to about 90.) So, I rode home very gingerly, with hands on the tops and my @$$ hanging off the rear of the saddle to shift my weight as far back as possible and keep the front light. I was in serious risk of a pinch flat with that little pressure in the tire, and rode very carefully to avoid potholes, personhole covers (can't be too PC these days...), curbs, big cracks in the pavement, etc. I did make it home okay.

No ride yesterday, but I did manage to finally get to the bike shop yesterday evening to pick up a couple new tubes and a new patch kit. The Gatorskin on the front of my fixed gear was getting threadbare, so I picked up a new front tire too, a Continental GP5000! A bit pricey at $100 CAD (that's what, about 6 bucks American?), but man, that tire is the shizz. It completely negates the effects of headwinds, amplifies the effect of tailwinds, easily added 5MPH to my average speed, I can climb like a goat, and take hairpin turns at 40MPH.

Okay, the tire does none of that, but it is definitely quieter on pavement than the Gatorskin. That thing was loud AF. Just need to clean my chain and my fixed gear will be deathly silent.

Wow @Tundra_Man, glad you're okay.

@Tundra_Man - WOW! Scary for sure! Glad you are mostly alright.

Friday finally. Seems like it has been a long week, perhaps because last week had a holiday to break it up.

Got an email that said my SiriusXM car only subscription (~$6/mo) now includes online listening. So now I'm station surfing at work.

Was this supposed to be bike related?

Ha, I'm that guy! I'm not necessarily faster than you, but I'm either riding a fixed gear, or riding a geared bike like it's a single speed. I know how to shift, I just choose not to.

Lol, do you get mad that I pull away from you at every stop and then you catch up? :)

not a bit!

It was a very pleasant commute this am with clear skies. And the work week begins.

Temperature read 68F halfway in. Lovely, I don't remember the last time I saw the temp below 70. Downside is the dewpoint had to be close to that.

Looked like it might rain any moment, but it held off long enough for me to get in to work. :)

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 767:

Went out early for my 3 mile walk/run. Temp was 76F degrees with about 90% humidity. It was so sticky that about two miles in I had to take my sunglasses off because they completely fogged over.

Over the weekend I got the parts I needed to fix the bottom bracket on my good road bike, so I was able to ride it today. Arrived at the client's location completely drenched in sweat to the point where I could wring it out of my clothes. Thankfully I got there early and could clean up and change into my work clothes before too many people saw me.

Heat index is supposed to be well over 100F this afternoon so I'm going to need all the easy pedaling advantage the road bike gives versus my other bikes. I'm not complaining about the temp, though, as this was the weather I was praying for in February (when it was 126 degrees colder than today!)

Looking at highs in the mid 90s all week. Yippee!

Nice ride this morning though. About 14.5 miles total. I'm seeing more riders out and about. Some road bikes, some hybrids, some mountain.

Perhaps it's because Le Tour is on?

Nice sunny morning, a bit cool on the bare arms (14C/58F), but a pleasant ride overall. Tried to draft a bus that pulled away from a stop just ahead of me, but he gunned it and got away too fast. Or maybe I'm just not that strong.

Today was a pleasant ride in it must have been the cooler temps and lower dew point aka it did not feel like a sauna. I got sweaty but my halo headband actually had a chance at evaporating sweat this morning.

are you serious?

:foo:

Yes I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d29bd8c320.jpg