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The 2022 How Was Your Commute? Thread

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The 2022 How Was Your Commute? Thread

Old 04-27-22, 02:15 PM
  #101  
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Originally Posted by Welshboy
It's only Wednesday but my working week is over as I'm back on my contracted three-day week (31.5 hours). Lovely Spring weather and I took my CAADX for a spin around a 'common land' field next to my workplace but it needs lower tyre pressures really.
Cannondale cross bikes are cool. I got a used old '98 CAAD3 XR800 for a little while. It was a good commuter and I tried to learn everything about it. A funny mix of road and mountain frame tubes, with canti's. Even then if you read the bumf they were pitching it as dual duty for commuting, so it had rack and fender mounts. I was able to use it with a kid seat once I traded the rear brake for mini-V. The model kept changing its name but you could tell it was a continuation. In the 2000's they added a version with disk brakes, even though it was "outlaw" for UCI 2003-2010. Long before all this gravel bike stuff. Around 2010 they finished moving their top end production to China and the carbon SuperX became the top racing model, so here's the CAADX to keep filling that affordable heavy duty race-and-commute niche. Different geometry than a gravel bike, less stack, more reach, steeper. Feels fast.
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Old 04-28-22, 01:54 AM
  #102  
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Originally Posted by Darth Lefty
Cannondale cross bikes are cool.
Yes, I'm so happy with my 2012 CAADX and the gorgeous super smooth welds but I did get the infamous 'Cannondale Creak' after I re-built it from the frame up. A club mate recommended the FSA BB30 conversion kit (about $21) and it's worked a treat when paired up with a Tiagra 4700 chainset and BB I had in the spares box. The shifters and mech are still Tiagra 4600 as the BR-CX50 cantilever brakes are compatible.

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/fsa-bb30-co...sku=5360430832

Anyway, to combat my rapidly falling fitness due to my shortened commute I've started going out for an hour before going to work and have a lovely 12.5 mile loop that immediately gets me into the countryside and even has a bit of single-track gravel for me to play with. This has lifted my workday mileage to a more respectable 18.5 miles.
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Old 05-02-22, 04:19 AM
  #103  
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A very pleasant commute this morning. It was light when I left the house at 5:30am. It is nice that has finally happened.
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Old 05-02-22, 01:17 PM
  #104  
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After getting mostly skunked the last few weeks, on this first workday of bike month, I did get a short lap in
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Old 05-03-22, 08:23 AM
  #105  
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Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1412:

The last two mornings have had wind speeds more in line with normal for South Dakota (10-20 mph.) Are we finally done with the constant 20+ mph winds that we had for more than six weeks? I sure hope so. In any event, I have been thoroughly enjoying the easier riding this week.

Air temp was a balmy 38° as I rode to work. I came up behind a guy on the MUP riding in street clothes with a backpack, no ear protection and no gloves. My immediate thought when I see commuters dressed like this is, "DUI." He did have a helmet, however, which most people riding due to a court order do not have. I accidentally startled him as I announced I was passing. He smiled and said, "I didn't think anyone else would be out here on such a cold morning!" Dude, you have no idea if you think this was a cold morning. lol

Speaking of cold mornings, (and I was,) in my 13 years of riding bicycle all year long I have crashed at least once every winter. That is, until this year. Now that it's May I think I can safely say I finally made it an entire winter season without hitting the ground. I think one of the reasons to which I can attribute this is because we had so little moisture this year compared to most. While I would prefer not to be in a terrible drought, I will at least celebrate the fact that I stayed upright all winter.

While riding across town at noon to head to a different client location I think I am going to swing by our local motorcycle consignment dealer. My old motorcycle is 23 years old and is really starting to show its age. The dealer has a newer, fancier motorcycle that I've had my eye on, and I'd like to take another look at it. Vehicle prices have gotten insane, so I'm not sure if I want to spend that much money. However, when I'm old and gray I'm not sure if I will matter all that much if I saved a few thousand dollars or not. In any event, I'm going to wager that I will be one of the rare people who shows up at the dealer on a bicycle in order to check out a motorcycle. Even if I do end up buying it they'll have to set it aside for me to come back and pick it up at a different time, because I'll have to finish my commute to the client's office via bicycle. I'm not going to break my bicycle commuting streak, even for a new (to me) motorcycle.
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Old 05-05-22, 07:06 AM
  #106  
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Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1414:

Lapse in judgement today. It was supposed to rain during the night, and taper off during the morning.

When I got up the roads were damp, but no rain was falling and there weren't huge puddles on the pavement. I had packed for the road bike, so I decided to take it despite the residual moisture. I hoped the little bit of wet on the ground wouldn't be enough to warrant riding a bike with fenders. I also figured I didn't need waterproof panniers and that my backpack would be fine.

A mile into my ride it started to rain. Not a torrential downpour, but very steady. By mile six the rain had stopped, but the roads were very wet and there was lots of spray coming off of tires (both my own and passing cars.) I got to work pretty soggy. My clothes were soaked. My backpack was soaked. Thankfully my work clothes aren't soaked, just have some damp spots.

Sometimes you gamble and win, and sometimes... well, you know.
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Old 05-05-22, 01:08 PM
  #107  
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Today might have been my last chance for a bike commute for a while. Kiddo is moving to full time in his "program" one town over. I needed to WFH so I skipped it... c'est le guerre
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Old 05-09-22, 04:17 AM
  #108  
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A pleasant commute to work today. The temp was a bit on the chilly side at 38f degrees this am. I saw a deer this morning but he was quite a ways ahead of me.
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Old 05-09-22, 07:13 AM
  #109  
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Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1416:

Spring suddenly showed up this morning. The morning temps jumped from the 20s and 30s last week to 61°F. I wore shorts.

The wind was blowing hard at nearly 30 mph, but it gave me a healthy push all the way to work. Riding home tonight heading into it is going to bite.
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Old 05-09-22, 12:50 PM
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I did get one more lap on Friday, because the day care had a mother's day tea party at pick up time and she got them. That's probably my last commute, per se, for quite a while.

Once last week and today I tried a dawn-patrol 3-mile ride at 6am. It was nice and got the blood moving. If I started earlier I could go further. I need to do it early enough it's before the early-bird 5yo boy is likely to be woken by the coming and going, so he doesn't come downstairs alone and either 1) panic 2) wake up mommy or 3) get into mischief.
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Old 05-11-22, 05:19 AM
  #111  
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Another pleasant yet chilly commute. The temp was 42 f degrees. But it is now light enough when I leave the house so that is nice.
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Old 05-14-22, 11:29 AM
  #112  
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I rode my bike to work today but on Saturday's I work at an assisted living. So the ride and hours are different. I rode the bike path and I regret that as too many people on that and they stop in the middle of the path, not realizing they are on a road. Anyway the path is nice in that it keeps you off the main road. I get out of work at 7:30 pms so it will still be light out when I go home this evening. That is a good thing. Though I ride in the am in the dark, that does not bother me. But at night riding in the dark bothers me so much more. There are more people out on the roads at night than in the am also.
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Old 05-16-22, 04:20 AM
  #113  
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A great way to start a yucky morning. It is foggy out with a bit of mist in the air. I rode my bike anyway. Also along the way, I saw a fox running down the middle of the road, when he realized I was close to him he went back to the side of the street he came from. Other than that an uneventful ride, which is good for a foggy morning.
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Old 05-16-22, 01:14 PM
  #114  
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Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1419:

Today was my first commute since last Wed. The morning was nice at 51°F and there was hardly any wind. I took the road bike. But today's commute wasn't as interesting as the commute that didn't happen last Thursday.

A week ago I started feeling off. I thought it was allergies and our recent change in weather, but I slowly got worse. By Wednesday night I was feeling pretty bad so I took my temperature and discovered it was 102°F. Well, that's definitely not allergies and/or a weather change. Thursday morning I woke up feeling poor and still had the fever, so I didn't go into work.

Deciding I should be proactive, I took a Covid test. Positive. Nuts. I made it over two years without getting Covid and finally succumbed to the virus. No idea where I picked it up at. So I informed work about my results and told them I wouldn't be back in for the rest of the week. I'm vaccinated so I only had to wait until at least 5 days had passed since my symptoms first started, and I no longer was running a fever. That cleared me to be back to work today.

Late Thursday afternoon I looked out the window to see an interesting sight. There was a giant wall of dust barreling towards the city. Apparently it's called a "haboob." When the wall of dust hit, it darkened the skies and made it look like night. Driving this wall of dust was a derecho which is essentially a straight-line tornado. The storm hit, and trees, roofs and other debris joined the dust in the air.

Right when all this happened I glanced at the clock and saw it was 5:10 PM. The storm lasted about 20 minutes and left a ton of destruction in its wake. A good chunk of the city lost power for several days (thankfully I never did.) Had I not been sick I would have been coming home from work on my bicycle when this storm hit. My wife is convinced I wouldn't have survived. I replied that I think I would likely have lived, but definitely would have had a story to tell.

So I guess if there's an up-side to getting Covid, that was it.

Here's a time-lapse video of some of the storm:
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Old 05-17-22, 04:15 AM
  #115  
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A very pleasant yet uneventful commute this morning. The temp was 55f degrees and I am leaving just about sunrise time and there is plenty of light.
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Old 05-18-22, 04:15 AM
  #116  
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Just adding to the collection of pleasant commutes to work. This morning I saw 3 deer. One was on the opposite side of the road while the second stood to look to cross over and I stopped my bike as not to frighten the deer. So the second and third deer crossed the street then I went on my way.
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Old 05-18-22, 01:50 PM
  #117  
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It's been a relatively dry Spring in the UK and I've not used the car for many weeks now especially on a very short commute like mine (just 3 miles each way). This week however, I had a right old soaking on Monday morning on my way in but changing and drying facilities are better at my new location and it's given me the resolve to give the car a miss for the remaining six weeks of my contract. Whilst we've not had any real warmth to our Spring (yet) I've quite enjoyed riding in short sleeves.
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Old 05-20-22, 01:45 PM
  #118  
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Had to go to the office for some of those "must not be removed from this building" things. Just a quick in and out; except there's a mid-20s mph headwind at the temps, that were only low 60s last week, are pushing 80F already. So the trip in was a slog.

Coming home made up for it. More trees on the homeward leg for a bit of shade, and that horrid headwind turned into a terrific tailwind. I wasn't even sure such a thing existed!
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Old 05-20-22, 03:56 PM
  #119  
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Short lap today. Not a work day for my wife so I convinced her to do the afternoon kid run. Windy so I did the short route from home, and took the MTB to do the dog-walk trails on the way. Enjoyable!
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Old 05-23-22, 04:11 AM
  #120  
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Back at Monday again, and it was a pleasant yet uneventful commute. The temp was 65 f degrees with a light breeze.
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Old 05-23-22, 07:24 AM
  #121  
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Consecutive bicycle work commute number 1424:

Wheeled my bike out of the garage, hopped on and SNAP! My chain broke. Glad it happened in the driveway and not halfway to work. Turns out my missing link gave up the ghost. I know KMC lists these things as "one time use only" but I'm too cheap to spend $10 for a new one every time I take my chain off to re-wax it. I find they last about 10-15 disconnects before they break.

Rolled the bike back into the garage and threw it on the repair stand. Thankfully I keep a couple spare missing links in my parts cabinet for precisely this reason. Grabbed one and in about 5 minutes had the bike ready to ride.

The temp this morning was a chilly 43°F. I wore shorts out of principle. It's late May and I refuse to wear winter pants. Actually the temp wasn't too bad as I had a 15 mph tailwind.
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Old 05-24-22, 04:46 AM
  #122  
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Another pleasant commute this morning! The temp today was cooler at 52 f degrees.
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Old 05-26-22, 04:01 AM
  #123  
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Another three-day week with just the one commute in the rain on the way in to work yesterday. I'll take 1 in 6... but not in Russian roulette! It's unlikely that my contract will be extended after the end of June and I'm torn between looking for another part-time job or becoming fully retired. One part-time job I looked at has a 12-mile each way commute similar to the one I did for a few months last year but it's not a nice route so I'll probably pass on that. Anyway, holidays next week so I'm parking up the commuter and getting a few miles in on my road bike.
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Old 05-26-22, 05:22 AM
  #124  
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A pleasant but interesting commute this morning. As I was riding down the road the turkey was running in the same direction. Which caused me to feel like I was chasing it. Which was not my goal. I wanted him to leave the road so he would not feel scared and try and attack me. No need for turkey attacks on the way to work.
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Old 05-26-22, 09:16 AM
  #125  
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Good morning! It's May 26, and I rode to work today! Last year, I didn't ride until July, so I'm ahead this year. I enjoyed reading through the posts here and hope to be cluttering things up with my own over the next few months. It's a beautiful day in Edmonton after a long winter and a cool and damp spring. Perfect for a first commute of the year. Hope everyone has a great day.
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