ridealot

looks like the ride home yesterday is going to be the last good one weather wise in awhile. Colder temps are coming in at the end of this week.

Very nice ride home last night. wind at my back for once!

LittleBigMan

Yesterday's ride was interesting, since I was unprepared. I guess I'm not a good Boy Scout. Beautiful, warm temps in the a.m., but the misty air turned drizzly enough to get me wet down to my shoes. I never mind getting soaked, in fact that morning it was just what I needed, a perfect cooling.

But as I said, I was unprepared. I didn't have a change of shoes. I stuffed towels into them and wrapped my wet socks in a towel, too. As the day wore on, they dried bit by bit, but occasionally I had to leave my desk wearing my other drier socks without any shoes, and when I had to go further away from my desk, I had to put the wet socks and shoes back on.

Yuck.

Well, they were dry by the end of the work day. When I showed up at a local bike shop to bum some air on the way home, I was wearing my dirtier, now dry, socks (why in creation did I do that? :confused: I guess I was trying to spare my clean socks in case it rained again, but when I got to work this morning, I had left them here, Boy Scout that I am) I guess I looked genuine with all my road grime painted on.

Yuck.

But I enjoyed every minute of my day, strangely enough.

cat

1st commute in about a month, between vacation, moving, etc. It was a good ride, but it seems to have gotten dark and chilly in the last few weeks I need to get some glasses with changable lenses!

PaulH

My daughter's school bus was not running yesterday and I had left my car at the airport. Consequently, I had to break out the InStep trailer to bring Catherine to school. Since it would block the view of the tail light, I chose to remove the blinkie from my backup bike and attach it to the trailer.

I wasn't sure how some of the steep hills on the route would work out. However, we both had a great time! It was simething of a workout for me, but an enjoyable one. She has decided that it is much more fun than the bus.

This morning was less fun. After walking Catherine to the bus stop, I found I had a flat tire. Switch the blinkie back to the backup bike, pump up the backup's tires, and off to work.

Paul

brennser

last night was another rough commute - over the past few weeks I seem to be getting to way too many close calls with cars and its not as if I'm riding aggressively or illegally - last night I'm cruising up 14th St when an SUV (what else) pulls right out in front of me to turn on K - the light was green I clearly had the right of way - as I slowed down he then compunded it by stopping in the middle of the intersection - this caused me to suddenly stop but my front wheel went into a hole from some road works and I keeled over before I could unclip and ended up in an undignified heap right in the middle of one of DCs busiest interesections - only a cut knee but I'm pretty mad at drivers right now

tchazzard

Last night I was traveling in the center of an 8 foot bike lane and had plenty of lights on. Two trucks passed me, way too close. The first one yelled obsenities, while the next threw a beer bottle at me, which struck the rear of my bike. I was none to happy, but was unable to catch the license plate number. Luckily the bike survived, without even a single scratch or crack in the fiberglass shell.

Today I was greated to 33 F (.56 C) and steady rain. Once again, the Mango proved to be a great foul weather bike. I wore a long sleeve shirt, light fleece vest, gortex pants, no gloves. I was still way too hot and had to remove the vest, unzip the legs of the pants and roll up my sleeves. I did not get cold until I stepped out of the bike at work.

Schiek

Brennser-

Is it just me, or have you noticed a lot more man-made potholes in downtown DC intersections. I come from NorthEast and work at 15th and Eye. I swear the city is indiscriminately cutting up intersections and forgetting to refill the holes (15th and H comes to mind), or at the very least softening up the edges with asphalt. Taking the fixie through this mess is a daily challenge. I don't remember it being this bad.

brennser

schiek

its terrible - I don't know if they're laying cable again or what but there is about a 4 block stretch going up 14th street that has loads of long narrow holes running perpendicular to me that have not been well filled in - I'm amazed I haven't had a flat yet

mtessmer

I had a cloudy, gloomy but nice ride in this morning (day eleven without sun). The ride home should be nice, the clouds are finally breaking up. It's chilly though (27F/-3C) and I'll have the wind in my face, but hey, that's all part of the adventure.

Kodama

Same as it ever was: Cold, sunny, windless. Wore wool socks today and a scarf and was a bit warmer. Where is this Seattle rain I've heard so much about

vrkelley

Ah yes it was bitter cold here in Woodville. I took a spill on the bike trail. 1/2" thick glare ice...no way to break...just had to slow down and let nature take it's course.

BRRR

LittleBigMan

Well, I was about to tell one of my best buddies at work (we get along so well we can almost finish each other's sentences) about what it feels like to get to work under human power. Why was I stunned when he cut me off and changed the subject?

Well, I ended up telling him that I listen to him when he get boring, so why can't he do that for me, too? He laughed, and I was glad for the endorphins keeping me mellow from the ride in.

I saw a fellow cyclist a quarter mile ahead of me as I got closer to downtown, but he got away from me at the red light. I wanted to talk to him/her. Oh, well.

The ride was good. Nothing unusual, just the same great feeling after riding for an hour. I wish I had the stamina to do this everyday.

Ed Holland

Nice ride today - we're having a warm spell, plus sunny weather, which seems quite odd.

Bike path is still covered in leafy sludge, so my bike is filthy, but it is pointless washing it until the situation changes. This also makes me worry about grip.


Cheers,

Ed

tchazzard

Temps rose through the night last night. So was greated to temps in the 50s F and partial sun. A nice change from the onslaught of rain we have experienced over the past few weeks.

Jean Beetham Smith 

So I've been keeping quiet about my latest ride: a Terry Col de Madeleine. Got her Nov. 1. She now has 104mi/166km, and definately is a keeper. When I picked her up, I also got some of the new Cateye LED lights on zip cords. They can easily be attached to handlebars, bike frame, or arms and legs. Putting them on your arm makes turn signals more obvious at night. They aren't cheap, but cars seem to avoid them. Some people decorate their yard with lights, I decorate my bikes.

Ritz

Still healing.

Ed Holland

Hi Folks,

Jean - congratulations on the new ride! Also thanks for the info on the cord mounted LEDs. It sounds like these are worth checking out.

I had a spooky but beautiful ride home last night. After a warm, very still day it went cool in the evening, leaving very dense, localised patches of mist, sometimes just 100 yards or so. Riding through these was like something out of an old ghost story. From a distance, some of the patches had layers like tendrils creeping out of the darkness. In some places I almost had to stop because the mist was so thick.

Cool.

Have a good weekend,

Ed

mrfix

Nice cool day and a great ride in this morning, I did have a strange thing happen, it started to sprinkle and I looked up and couldn't find a cloud in the sky. It was raining, but there were no clouds, figure that out. It stopped after a few minutes but that was strange. The was a lot of debris on the side of the road from the past few days of rain, but the forcast is looking up, it's supposed to be a nice weekend.

TeleJohn

On my commute home last night a driver of a "Vermont Pure Spring Water" truck told me to "Get the f+++ off the road."

I hope the water is more pure than his mouth.

Other than that, a beautiful ride home.

blatod

The temp into work was 8F, no wind, really nice. First time I've ridden my mountain bike in about 1.5 to 2 years. Those knobbies sure add resistance and hum to the ride. My nokian studded tires should be in today, that will make me feel a bit more secure on the ice.

frankc

The ride in this morning was nice. The roads were still wet (on the southshore) and plenty of leaves. The temp was 44F and the skys were just starting to clear.
I just shortened my commute distance, so the ride now takes just about 30 min. (8.5 miles). This way I can commute pretty much every day.

I dont post much, but I read the commut forum every day. Its nice to see there are several of you who post on a regular basis. Its good to see mrfix and Jean, both from mass. I am also, I commute in the Taunton/New Bedford area.

Take Care and keep up the good post.
Frank

PaulH

I suppose the rejoinder is "get the f+++ back to Vermont."
Is there a way to report drivers for abusive behavior? I would think the company might frown on this sort of thing.

Paul

Zin

That happens here quite often. Normally when there is a cold front pushing up against the west side of the Continental Divide with a lot of out-flow type wind associated with the front. Very common in places like Browning, MT which lies just east of Glacier National Park. In the winter, they can have clear skies and get 4 inches of snow!

Ritz

Hey NZC7inMT, In your signiture line, are those MTB tracks? Looks cool. Thanks.

mtessmer

Well, our second day of clear skies, of course that came with cooler temps. It was about 16F/-8C on my ride in this morning. I had a great ride in tho, and my feet managed to stay warm (that's my only weak spot). I was wearing my Lake MX300 (or what ever) winter bike boots.