Darth Lefty 

Today the lady in the school office had the temerity to ask ME when the bus will start! hahaha oh man. Should start just in time for smoke season, most likely

groovestew

Back from a two-and-a-bit week vacation in the Rockies, during which I managed to get in an epic (to me) mountain trail ride. I don't own a mountain bike, but I try to rent one when I'm vacationing in the mountains, and it's a lot of fun. Even though Edmonton is in the middle of flat prairie, there's still a thriving MTB community here and lots of opportunity for single-track riding in the city's river valley. It's increasingly tempting for me to pick up a mountain bike of my own for local riding.

But now I'm back to work and back to riding my fixed gear road bike. This was the first sub-15C (~60F) morning in a while. My earlier prediction of cool mornings in August turns out to have been wishful thinking. It's been hot (relatively speaking... this is Edmonton, not Oklahoma City) and dry for the last 6 weeks, and only now the temps are starting to moderate a bit.

Have a great week, everyone!

Darth Lefty 

8yo got on the bus at 7:20. He had a hard morning, after staying up past midnight (we told him not to).

So I did it! Uneventful ride. Lubed the chain and put fresh sealant in last night. Think there was a slow leak the fresh sealant didn't entirely take care of before it got kind of low but should be fine now.

Hope this holds. (The schedule, not the sealant. Well, the sealant too, I guess.)

groovestew

Sunny, warm, calm, uneventful.

essiemyra

The commute was a damp and misty this am, though the temp was warm enough at 67 f degrees. It is no longer light when I am riding in the am. Oh well. I

groovestew

A little cool on the arms when I first started out, but I warmed up.

At the start of the pandemic, the city decided to drastically cut back on weed control, both chemical and manual, to save some money. More recently, they tabled a motion to ban herbicide use city-wide. That's been shelved for now, and they have committed to restoring funding to weed control, but for now, we have 6 foot high thistles encroaching on the paths:



About 2/3 of the way to work, all of a sudden I heard POP! Pfffffffffffffffffffffff... Yup, a flat in the front tire. No idea what caused it. No evidence from the tire or tube. Okay, I have a spare tube aaaaaand... the stem is too short for my rim. Dang it! Okay, I guess I'm patching, and I suck at patching. Here I had left home early so that I could get to the office in time for a meeting, and now I'm delayed a good 15 minutes. Anyway, the patch held, and I made it work and to the meeting only 5 minutes late, but still a bit sweaty. While waiting for the cement to dry before applying the patch, I took a photo of my stuff all strewn around:



Oops, looks like I moved the phone while the picture was taken. Sorry.

While I was working on the repair, an older gentlemen walking his dog stopped and asked if I needed a ride! I politely declined (I had already contacted a colleague as contingency), we chatted a bit, and he went on his way. Once I got going again, I saw him again watering his front garden, so I gave him a big smile and wave, and he smiled and waved back. There are good people out there!

Have a great day everyone.

Geergirl

My commute this year has sucked. Regaining stamina post-covid means I'm riding less than usual, and the torrential rain here on the prairies isnt helping either!

Tundra_Man 

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1485:

Commutes haven't been too eventful lately, so I haven't been posting much. Just riding back and forth every day, business as usual.

This morning was pretty nice. 65°F, a light wind and sunny. It was the first day of school and I expected traffic to be heavier than it was. I did get out the door about 10 minutes early, so maybe I was just ahead of the rush.

Was crossing a busy street heading west. Right as I entered the intersection the light turned yellow. About halfway through a driver coming from the opposite direction entered the intersection long after it had turned yellow, and quickly made a left turn directly in front of me. Thankfully I saw him coming and his turn was wide enough that I was able to stop and let him pass in front of me without hitting me. As he went by I don't think he ever looked at me.

groovestew

My patch held for the trip home yesterday, so it's probably good. On the way home, a couple of deer jumped onto the path a little ahead of me, so I stopped to take a picture.



Today, I took a detour to check on the progress of construction on a new path through a ravine. Looks like they're getting ready to pave, so hopefully it's done soon. Nice ride today.

pdlamb

@groovestew, very nice picture; how did you get the deer to pose for you? I've stopped and stared at deer for a minute or two, but they bolt as soon as I reach for a camera.

groovestew

I was a lot farther away than the picture suggests; the picture is massively cropped. I'm actually impressed with how much detail was retained by the cropping. After I took the picture, I moved forward a couple feet and away they went.

Chinghis

Today's commuting adventure on the LA River Trail (formerly known as the LA River Bike Path) came as I approached a runner coming towards me, on what I consider the correct side of the path - in my lane, running and facing traffic (me).

OK, cool, let me do a headcheck over my left shoulder, never know when a crazy-fast roadie might be coming up on you. Heck, I'll even look to the right, just a good habit. As we passed each other, I had one of those moments where you sense a presence near you ... And was passed by some jackass on an e-ped going about 30 mph. I was on my road bike, probably doing 17 mph, and he passed me like I was standing still. I flipped him off, hoping he saw it in the mirror, as I gestured that he should get off the trail. Ride your e-ped, fine, just have some freakin' common sense, and don't ride on trails meant primarily for bikes and walkers. Grrrr.

Darth Lefty 

I was on track for five days solid but my kid broke his pinky in PE today. So I'm WFH to deal with the kindergartners tomorrow while mom finds him someone to cast it.

It's a short ride now from the house straight to work, about 20 minutes. Good to be back.

groovestew

Well I managed 5 solid days this week, but neither of my kids broke any bones, so...

Around here, school starts next week Thursday, and then I'll be scaling back my riding since I generally drive my kids to school on my way to work. Technically my wife can drive them (and she always picks them up) but it's more time efficient if I drop them off. As long as it's nice weather, I'll try to keep riding a couple times a week.

Nothing much to report about today's ride. Sunny, warm, and uneventful. Didn't even see any squirrels (they've been quite active recently). I know I'll be taking the long way home due to major construction on a bridge that I pass under when I ride my normal route. The path is completely closed for the weekend while crews prepare to add a new lane to the bridge above.

Darth Lefty 

In the end I rode anyway because I wanted my complete week. I’m really glad to be back.

groovestew

Really dogging it today. I'm tired from a fitful sleep last night with many bad dreams, undoubtedly caused by eating too much fried chicken and rich creamy sides last night, topped off with a big bowl of ice cream late in the evening. All home-made (except the ice cream) so it's good for you, right? I think I could ride every day this week and still not burn off the calories from yesterday. Pretty nice morning for a commute though; just a bit chilly.

Have a great week everyone.

groovestew

Ever seen a murder of crows? There were several dozen in one area on the way home yesterday, but only a few let me take their picture. There were tons more in the trees off to the left.



This morning, a coyote screamed across the path only a few meters ahead of me, too fast for a photo. Nice commute; much better energy than yesterday, though I did get easily passed on a climb by a guy on a mountain bike. He kinda looked like Billy from Stranger Things.

groovestew

Last day before the start of school, so today is my last day of "regular" cycle commuting. I'll still ride, but not as often, and once it snows, I'm done. Pretty nice morning, sunny and not a breath of wind.

essiemyra

I was able to ride my bike to the assisted living I work on the weekends today. So that was nice and since work does not start until 8:30 am I am not riding in the dark. In 3 weeks I will be retired from my full-time job and just working part time at the assisted living for 14 hours a week and all all the biking I want!

Shortwave

It is so humid in Louisiana! Every commute ends with sweat, sweat, annnnd, yup, more sweat. Luckily my work has showers and lockers.

Someone was trashing a Trek Domane 2, so I took it and turned it into my new fixed gear commuter. (The bike is in great shape, the components were either missing or busted). Here's the bike now!

Darth Lefty 

New wildfire nearby. Started on Tuesday, the day of the record-ever temperatures. Hotter again today and everything is smoky. Bike riding not really in the cards. Weather takes a nose dive into the 80s next week, if they can get on top of this fire and it doesn't burn all the way to Nevada like the Caldor and Dixie fires last year

Tundra_Man 

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1496:

Woke up to pain in my lower right abdomen. It seems to have settled down the longer I've been awake. That was weird. I was starting to wonder if I was going to have to ride my bicycle to the hospital again.

Fall weather has arrived. It was 45°F when I left the house. Wore a sweatshirt. There wasn't any wind, so that was a rare treat. When I arrived at the office my hands were feeling pretty cold. They'll acclimate as the season progresses, but I haven't felt that since about May.

As I was riding, a younger kid about 11 or 12 was riding his bike the opposite way. He didn't have any gloves or head protection. As he passed he looked at me and said, "It's cold!" lol

AstroEng

Almost home today and my chain got a pair of loops in it. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I was in the smaller ring and in a high gear, so I guess I had too much slack in the chain and probably hit a bump. It was annoying, but relatively easy to fix once I took a minute to figure out how it was sitting.

9 years riding daily and that's the first time I've ever had that happen. I googled it at home later, and it seems like it usually happens when the rear wheel is off. I didn't see any references to it happening while riding. I guess I should measure the chain and make sure it isn't also stretched.

It was an absolutely beautiful day though!

Darth Lefty 

Took the truck for another go at the transmission shop and got a ride in thereby.

Return trip on Thursday? Friday? dunno yet

Darth Lefty 

Got a short lap in Wednesday too.

Schedule such a mess, who knows. Might take some commutes from house to work anyhow. It's the only time I've got to myself but it impinges a little on work time