Shortwave

This was a good one! I was thinking
Tundra_Man had lost his mind. Lol

noglider 

Lovely weather today for riding a bike. I had a tailwind going into work. As you know, that makes me happy.

Rat count: 3 (1 per ride), all of them dead. That's about average, I think. I see live rats less often. Why am I mentioning this? I dunno, I just hate rats.

My commuting is in three parts:
1. home to work
2. work to grad school or rehearsal
3. grad school or rehearsal to home

I got a lot of smiles today. I see tons of bike commuters here in the city. I'm the only bike commuter I see who wears a tie. I'm not sure why people smile at me, but maybe it was my pink shirt and red tie. I don't mind being weird.

I got another flat tire! This makes four in less than two months. Maybe these Continental GP5000 tires are not good for commuting. Yeah yeah, anyone would have told me that, but I had to try them. They ride great. This flat was less inconvenient. I got out of work (an elementary school) and found my bike locked to the public rack with the flat tire. There was a sort of party outside with everyone watching the big solar eclipse, so I chatted with the kids and their parents while we watched the eclipse. I wasn't in a hurry, as my Monday class starts late.

I think a new rear tire might be in my near future.

George Washington Bridge. Under it, you can see the Little Red Lighthouse.

Solar eclipse, 2024-04-08

Lexington Ave as seen from the Skybridge at Hunter College

Tundra_Man 

I've been running Continental GP5000 tires on my road bike the last few years. I agree they're not supposed to be for commuting, but I haven't found they flat any more or less often than other tires I've tried. My road bike is my primary commuter if there's no precipitation in the forecast, so they see a lot of hard miles. My only beef with them is they cost at least $60 per tire and I only get about 2,500 miles out of a set.

pdlamb

FWIW, Gatorskins pick up a fraction of the flat-causing debris that the GP5000s do for me. Paselas and Pasela PTs are intermediate.

Tundra_Man 

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1871:

It was an absolutely glorious morning. 42°F, light wind and sunny. It was so nice I went out for a 1.5 mile walk before I hopped on the bike. Then while riding I realized I was running a bit ahead of schedule, so I tacked on a couple extra miles just for fun. There was a bit of a headwind, but not enough to make it tough to ride against it.

It's supposed to get into the 60s for the commute home. I wore shorts for the morning commute. First time since fall, I think, that I wore shorts in the morning. Behold the pasty white legs!

I'm way behind on my video editing, but I did get the most recent winter edition of my commuting video done:

noglider 

I think I'm at one of the spectrum, the end where people want nice tires and don't mind extra punctures. I hope this is just a streak of bad luck. I inflated the tube this morning, and it looks like the last one was caused by a shifted rim strip, so I can't blame the tire. If my luck stays bad with these tires, I'll probably use a Pasela on the rear. I used to like those a lot, and they're inexpensive. I paid only $50 for these Continentals. Watch for sales!

Gatorskins sound like tires with a harsh ride. Am I wrong?

gaucho777 

Well, this happened…



I was still a couple miles uphill from the school where I teach when the derailleur exploded. Everything was working fine until the cage unexpectedly detached from the derailleur body. The chain got stuck pretty good between the spokes and freewheel. I started walking the rest of the way when a good Samaritan stopped and offered me a ride. I got to work just in time, so as not to strand my fourth grade class without their teacher to start the day. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to put the derailleur back together because I discovered I left a bushing somewhere along the side of the road. Fortunately, I have a couple spare Record rear derailleurs at home in my parts bin.

Tundra_Man 

^ Oof! I don't think I've ever had a derailleur completely explode like that. Hopefully the chain going into the spokes didn't damage the spokes any. I had that happen once when a derailleur shifted my chain too far over the back of the cassette and into the spokes. Wedged in there pretty good. Once I fished the chain out I started breaking spokes as the chain had weakened them, and I wound up having to get a new wheel.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1872:

41°F with a 20 mph headwind. I was extremely optimistic by wearing shorts. By the time I got to work my knees and thighs were beet red and an hour later are still hurting a little.

But I survived. And my derailleur didn't explode. So I got that going for me, which is nice.

Smaug1

Man, you guys running the 50 year old vintage bikes are a different breed. Why put yourself through that for a commute?

First post in this thread, at least for several years.

The other day, I had brought my gravel bike to work, but forgot I had a lunchtime appointment across town. Of course I got a late start on that and it was uphill and into the wind. I mashed too hard starting from too high of a gear and messed up my knee.

So I took my Ride1Up Portola eBike in for the 2 mile commute today. No sweat but a little exercise, I love it.

I joined the "Challenge Yourself to Ride 5000 Miles in 2024" Club in Strava and eBike miles don't count, so I need to get back to the mBike ASAP.

I wish my commute was longer than 2 miles, but I feel like an idiot extending it artificially, like my one club buddy does.


I need to get a mirror on it. My new helmet won't accommodate a mirror because of the fancy flip-down visor.

Strawbunyan

another 5.6 miles in the books. I did not concentrate on "cycling" at all today. Ignored pace, MPH, cadence, gear...loose dogs,all of it. Just had fun and enjoied the scenery and ride, never letting myself get tired or over exherted. Some members suggested I ditch the backback so I did. I found an old sling pouch and rigged it to the bars...it worked great and I guess I am do used to being encumbered with a big bag i didnt realize how much nicer it would be without it...thanks for the tip. I had some extra money left from the purchase of the bike that i was going to use for racks and bags and what not but I accidently got addicted to old 80s and 90s road and touring bikes and may have spent it all so the sling bag wtapped to the bar will do for now. Cheers.

noglider 

50 years, wow that's old!

Oh snap, my bike is 50 years old! Exactly 50 years!

pdlamb

Nice day for a bike ride. Too bad it ended up at work. :/

We've had some crazy weather lately; wind gusts over 40 mph kept me huddling inside last week, and on a weekend ride, the forecasters were off by 10 mph when the gusts were "only" 30 mph. But today, hardly any wind, bright sunshine, what could go wrong? Oh, that idiot that slo-mo crowded me in the bike lane before cutting me off in an attempted right hook, that's what. Fortunately I was able to dodge her.

Most of our trees are leafing out or already out. I think the Zyrtec I took yesterday mid-day was still working, thank goodness. We've still got half a Costco pack for when the pecans start pollinating and my wife starts suffering. Azaleas and dogwoods are just about gone. And swallows were back, swooping over and around the creek that's near work. I think they were barn swallows.

Smaug1

My 1972 Schwinn Varsity is 52 years old, but if my commute were much more than 2 miles, I would not often take it.
Maybe it was this thread, but I joined my local Coffee Riders group and brought the old Schwinn Saturday for an 18 mile jaunt. It was noticeably more work up the hills as my modern bike (it weighs 37 lbs) but it kept up just fine. As easily as my modern gravel bike that weighs 20 lbs. less, anyway!

Tundra_Man 

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1875:

It stormed a good portion of the night. I woke up when the first of the storms hit at about 1 AM, then my brain turned on and I laid there and I tried to solve all the problems of the world for a few hours. Thankfully I fell back to sleep. A few lighting/thunder combinations and some hail woke me up occasionally, but I was able to keep drifting back to sleep between them. To no surprise, when the alarm went off I didn't feel very rested.

Tuesday is my "weigh myself" day. I'm now down 15 lbs since I started trying to get my eating under control 7 weeks ago.

There was a strong east wind blowing at 25+ mph. East winds aren't real common around here, and generally indicate storms. Thankfully one storm came to an end, and gave me a window to ride 8 miles to our company office, experiencing no more than a few sprinkles. About five minutes after I arrived, another huge storm hit. The timing was perfect. I'm going on the notion that this means it will be a good day.

The wind coming from the east meant that I had a tailwind on the way to the office. That also means I'll have to fight it on the way home, but hopefully by then the rains will have subsided so I'll at least stay dry.

Because of the rain/wet roads I took the hybrid bike with fenders. This was the second time I've ridden this bike since I built the new rear wheel. It was the first time I'd built a wheel from scratch, and while I certainly didn't break any assembly speed records, I'm extremely pleased with the results. I got the spoke tension nice and tight, and aggressively stressed the wheel about four times until it stopped going out of true between stresses. The wheel spins extremely true on the bike, and along with the new brake pads (both front and back) has made the bike a lot nicer to ride. Looking down and watching the wheel spin perfectly straight brings me a real sense of satisfaction.

I don't know if I'll always build all my wheels going forward, but I'm glad I was able to add this skill to my repertoire.

ascherer 

This one's 53. Today was my first commute of the season, and I am unabashedly a fair-weather commuter. There were a lot of riders out this morning, way more than I remember from last season, especially in Central Parl. Maybe because it's such a nice day in the early season? I'm expecting jammed bike lanes on the trip home.

noglider 

You're also one of the stylish-est commuters. (To coin another word)

Amitoj

First commute of the season this year for me and only one impatient driver over 15 miles. I'll take it.
It's been a bit of a struggle getting back on the bike after I was hit by car back in July last year during a randonneuring ride in Western NY. One broken vertebra, cracked bike frame and the fact that the driver ran away has taken a toll on the body as well as finances. At least it was not my only bike, so I can still ride. Grateful to be alive and kicking!

noglider 

My goodness, @Amitoj. I'm sorry it happened, but I'm glad you're alive and able to ride.

Today's rides were pretty darned good. I had a moderate crosswind in the morning which felt like a headwind, but I suspect it didn't hinder me much. I need to get to work on time from now on, and I was concerned about that. So I pedaled hard. I'm not sure how much time I made by pedaling hard, but it's good for me, and I made it with a few minutes to spare.

Rat count: 1 dead, very fat.

The ride from work to class was pretty good. Until recently, I found this route annoying, but I've gotten used to it. One upside to today or my conditioning or whatever is that I'm getting less upset at how people drive. One downside to the way I rode is that even though I told myself I should take fewer risks in traffic (since I'm getting older), well, I did at least one dumb thing I promised not to do: I slithered between a bus and a tall truck that were both waiting at the light. This leg of my commuting was my fastest time ever.

Lots of people smiled at me as I rode. Then I realize that I must look pretty darned unusual. I might be the only one who commutes on a bicycle in Manhattan wearing a tie. Today I wore pink trousers, a black shirt, and a black tie with multicolored polka dots. OK yeah that's pretty unusual. So be it.

Of course, after a long day, I ride home from class gently.

ascherer 

I may be stylish-est but you wear a tie.

Shortwave

This morning’s commute was a bit chilly (concerning Louisiana weather). However it made for a beautiful sunny morning ride. I even stopped to snap some pics.



Steam coming off the pond

A bird, just chillin’