noglider 

First time riding in for a long time today.

Yesterday, I rode about two or three miles on Citi Bike before getting on the subway to work. A little riding is better than none at all. I decided not to ride the whole way because the edge of Tropical Storm Hermine is whipping through, creating tremendous winds from the north, so I avoided them. Today doesn't seem better, but I braved the immense winds. We dodged a disaster this year. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy did some impressive damage to this area, and it rattled a lot of nerves. Life will never be the same. We got a scare about half as big as 9/11, but the enemy is internal as well as external. Hermine is mighty, too; I can feel it. It just happened to swing out to the east so as not to do any harm, but another one will come before long, and I wonder if we're ready.

It took a lot of effort to ride today, but it was also delightful. I've come to be aware that I make a lot of heat with my legs, feet, and ankles, and they were bare today. I wore sandals, so that helped me pedal hard without fatigue. I'll try to remember this as the weather turns colder. The temperature was in the 70s (ºF), so not too hot, but very humid. I still sweated a lot from the increased effort required to fight these winds.

My route today



Here is my view of the river halfway along, with the marina in the foreground. A cyclist ahead on the right stretches against a bench. In the distance, you see the George Washington Bridge which spans the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York City.

A couple of interesting sounds:

1. Sometimes the wind swirls around the buildings and cliffs of Manhattan and I get an occasional tail wind. When it happened today, it was strong, and I was able to move quite fast. Moving fast and with oncoming bike traffic, someone moving towards me was passing someone moving in the same direction as he was. He rang his bell three times. The big speed difference between his bike and mine gave me a pronounced dopler shift on the pitch of his bell.

2. There are portions of my route which are right next to the West Side Highway and the Henry Hudson Parkway, where cars go fast. It makes for a loud sound with the car noises bouncing off the cliffs, barriers, and buildings. Still, there are some trees in patches, and the sound of cicadas -- a sound I love -- was still able to pierce over the very loud highway noises.

An interesting smell:

A middle aged man who appeared to be out for his pre-workday fitness ride passed me on his Pinarello racing bike. I won't make the gauche mistake of drafting anyone, but I tried to hang behind him so I could follow his pace. I had to let him go quickly. He had a gigantic cloud of body odor trailing him. I had to stay way back. I really hope I don't smell like that when I come into the office. I suspect I don't, and I change clothes and wash up after I arrive anyway.

Darth Lefty 

I'm probably off bikes until November, awaiting a surgery and then six weeks recovery

PatrickGSR94

Man I haven't posted in here in awhile. This past month has been a whirlwind of car problems from both my wife's old car, and my old car, and buying a new car for wifey. Add in some sickness and other things and I've just been commuting sort of off and on. My car was out for several days while I awaited a warranty replacement for a new distributor (those old things cars used to have lol). I rode to work one day, then tried to ride the next day but was too exhausted. Got a ride from wifey in new car but that meant 2 extra 25-mile round trips that day in addition to her stuff.

Monday I did a 40 mile Labor Day club ride, and tried too hard at keeping up with others. In the past I've rode to and from the ride, which usually ends up being over 60 miles, but I didn't have the time this year, and I'm glad because I was beat down after that 40 miles. I also ran out of my beta-blocker heart meds, which made for an elevated heart rate all Monday evening into Tuesday morning until I got to my last pill at the office, and then picked up my prescription yesterday afternoon. All is good now.

Rode to work this morning (instead of the usual Tu/Th commute this week). I suspect I will try to split commute tomorrow and Friday, leaving the car at work Thursday night. Nothing really to report this morning, just humid as all heck.

I also made a couple of videos. This one is from my commute on Monday, 22 August, where I had to leave the house at 5 AM to be at work and be ready for a 7 AM staff meeting. On the way home coming out of a side street, I had to wait 3 solid minutes to turn left, until SIXTY cars had passed my location. It was super annoying.


And then this one from last Thursday where I had the same van pass me at the same time of day, at the exact same location on the same hill, with oncoming traffic right in front of them, just like they did several months ago.


Fun times.

HardyWeinberg

Bummer. Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

vp1337

The morning was a bit chilly, but I've still sweated gallons. Riding home was sunny and hot, so yeah... Living with a mild hyperhidrosis is tons of fun. But at least no knobhead drivers today.

HydroG33r 

Hope the move went well... it was great to meet up with you and @timvan_78!

essiemyra

It was very foggy this morning due which caused be to be even more cautious than I normal. Other than that it was a good ride.

esmith2039

Wet! Don't mind it one bit though.. It did sting on the downhill run though!

tarwheel 

Very warm and humid this morning but it felt nice compared to what it will be this afternoon. Summer is not leaving easily this year, and high temperatures are supposed to reach the mid-90s for the rest of the week. Fortunately the sun is not as intense as in early to mid-summer, so the afternoon commutes do not feel as bad.

I'm going on another bike tour this weekend, a mini-tour along the Virginia Capital Trail from Richmond to Jamestown and back. That should be fun and we won't have to carry a lot of gear.

Wolfhaven

Storms overnight again but had just moved past by the time I headed out. Wet roads with puddles but the fenders handle it pretty well keeping me dry. Normally I ride once a week on my touring bike with loaded panniers with spare food and clothes for several days. This week I've loaded them three times. Hopefully tomorrow I can take my regular lighter weight commuter.

youthcom

I ran over a rabbit this morning on a dark wet Chicago side street next to a forest preserve during very light sprinkling rain. I didn't notice it, just felt my front wheel go over something. Went to pick it up the limp body off the middle of the road & laid it down on top of the curb. I hope that was a sign it didn't suffer especially since I like cute furry critters. I see roadkill all the time on my commute, but never thought i would be the cause of one.

baron von trail 

Hot and muggy, 73F with humidity around 80%. The headwind of 10mph made it bearable though. In faact, the breeze reminded me of the beach.

mgw4jc

@PatrickGSR94 - Interesting to watch your commute. You interact with traffic a lot more than I do. I'm on similar roads as you. I ride more to the right, just inches off the white line. I don't tell traffic when to stay back or when to pass as I feel they can make that decision and I'd rather keep my hands on the handlebars anyway. I would consider pulling off to let traffic pass, but I have yet to have enough of a backup to feel the need. Just different styles of riding - thanks for sharing!

mgw4jc

I left a few minutes later than I like this morning, but made up the time and got to work fine.

In our office parking lot there were 3 motorcycles parked side by side. I was wishing I had a kick-stand so I could park right beside them. It would look pretty funny.

arsprod 

Sorry to hear it but at least you have something to look forward to! Today was my first ride after cracking a rib. I drove yesterday, first time in many months, and it was a good reminder why I ride!

jrickards

Rode to work in the rain, light rain, this morning. Most of the rainy sound I was hearing this morning was from the breeze blowing the leaves of the maple tree just outside my bedroom window and dislodged water falling on other leaves so it sounded worse than it really was.

It was about 16C/60F when I rode it. Just in case, I wore a lightweight merino long sleeved shirt under my raincoat in case I felt chilled along the way and I was fine.

I thought the rain was over by 7:30 but it has started again and I have to ride downtown (10min) and back at lunch time for a promotional event for the Bike for United Way that a bunch of us are riding in next week so now that I'm warm and dry, I'm going to get wet again. The worst of it is wet shoes: paper towels don't dry them out enough.

I rode in the rain today, partly because the charity ride next week might be, at least in part, in the rain so I need to get used to it again.

Have a great day!

making

Think it got up in the low 90's this afternoon but the around 1100 on my ride in it seemed very nice.

HardyWeinberg

Rode 2 miles to drop my daughter near her middle school, then continued on 12+ more to a meeting. Got there w/ time to cool down and change. Usually don't ride to offsite work meetings, was nice to have a chance.

Johnny Mullet

My commutes since my last post have been great. The weather is working with me.

Atvar

First commute with my new high volume panniers on [actually, they're not really bike panniers, they're two adapted 40 liters (10.5 gallons) trekking backpacks].

I'm quite satisfied, since I moved to my workplace an amount of stuff that would have otherwise requested the trunk of a car.

Anyway, the added weight blessed me with the same acceleration capabilities of a freight train...

dcb23

75F/23C muggy humid and dark as can be.

I catch an interesting sound occasionally passing the North end of the landing strip at National airport....on approach and landing, the jets will leave a swirling wake of air that sounds like a hissing snake. Once on a humid cloudy morning I even saw a snake of swirling air whipping about in front of me, I thought I was hallucinating.

esmith2039

Rained stopped halfway and the wind the same. Not bad overall. Seriously pondering getting a speedo just for mornings like this.. lol!

baron von trail 

Raining when I woke up, slowed to a drizzle by the time I walked the dogs. A little mist left over when I left on the bike. Nice ride. Well worth the effort.

Wolfhaven

Cool morning ride. Wore a jacket and left the sandals at home. Focused on enjoying the ride and sunrise. Should be a very pleasant 75 for the ride home.

Tundra_Man 

Pouring rain, thunder, lightning, the works.

Still, it was better riding in to the office than it would have been trapped in a car.