How Was Your Commute Today?

[MojoGrrl]

Last commute of the year and I was about to toss in the towel...so sick of areshole drivers. Some punk-arse little sh*t stuck his fat, pasty-white, hairy arse out the window at us. I'm going to become a gun-toting, postal cyclist...

[Melalvai]

I got new tires & chain yesterday, my mechanic found the cause of the sticky rear brake cable (a kink), and new rear brake pads. Sadly, my front rim is worn badly and I need to build a wheel (I have a generator hub so it's not as simple as buying a new wheel). But with the tires, my bike has a new spring in her step and twinkle in her eye. She just wants to fly! I took the heavy basket off for the trip to the bike shop (which is 90 miles away), and since I am traveling with her again tomorrow to BikeMO, I didn't bother putting the basket back on, but carried what I needed in a bag. I guess after this weekend I'll find out how much of her energy is new tires and how much is losing that weight.

My daughter is in the marching band and there's a game tonight. On game nights she walks to school, because if she bikes she has to wait an eternity for traffic to clear out. She asked me to walk with her so that she could tell me about her day. As we were walking down the sidewalk, we heard a funny "honk honk" and we both turned around to see a cyclist barreling toward us. I stood where I was and she headed to grass on the right. The cyclist also swerved to the right to pass us and ended up riding straight into her!!

She's ok. I was not going to tell him that he was in the wrong...until he started griping that she shouldn't have moved toward the right. Of course I immediately tore into him all the mistakes he made.
1. Riding on the sidewalk.
2. Riding on the sidewalk at anything above a walking pace.
3. Passing on the right.

The only thing he did correctly was sound a warning. But it did no good because we didn't know what the warning was about and we didn't have time to react.

Other than that it's fairly irritating, there are actually so many things funny about this. A year ago she was on her bicycle and got hit by a truck. (She's fine now.) Then today she's walking and gets hit by a cyclist. Does that mean next year she'll be driving and get taken out by a hoard of marchers, like rock-paper-scissors?

Just before the incident she was telling me how she'd pricked her finger with a pin during Drama-- "Like Sleeping Beauty," she said. Then she took her left shoe off and walked without it, because it gave her a blister. The blister had burst and bled in her shoe. "Like Cinderella's stepsister," I said. Hopefully getting run over by a bicyclist is the end of her minor adventures today! (What fairy tale could this last incident be?)

Poor kid! I will have to do something extra nice for her tonight after the game.

[laura*]

This tale starts last week. My once a week multi-modal commute starts with a ride from town A, through town B, and to town C where I catch a bus at the start of its run. I was almost through town B when I spotted an orphaned woman's running shoe by the side of the road. It's not worth worrying about onesie shoes so I kept going. Fifty feet later, I spotted the other shoe: It was cowering between two traffic lanes like a scared bunny. I stopped, waited for a break in the traffic, retrieved the shoe, and walked back to get the other one. I then noticed I was 100 feet beyond the parking lot exit for a health/fitness club/gym. Aha! Someone must have placed her shoes on the roof of her car, forgotten them, and driven off. So - I biked back to the gym, asked if they had a lost&found, and left the shoes on their front counter.

Problem 1:
As I left the gym, my bike was acting funny - the chain didn't want to freewheel backwards smoothly. I limped the bike downhill to town C where luckily I'm a keyholding volunteer mechanic at a bike co-op. I was able to let myself into the shop, put the bike up in a work stand, and pull out oodles of weeds that had wrapped themselves around the derailleur pulleys.

Problem 2:
Yesterday, my front brakes started grinding as I passed the gym. Limp to the co-op, and spend an hour picking metal shards out of the brake pads. This was supposed to be quick ride to the grocery store and back home.

Problem 3:
Today, as I'm approaching the gym, my back tire goes flat. I roll the bike into the gym's parking lot, and discover there's a huge honking nail in the tire! The nail was through the tire, into the tube, and was poking zillions of holes in the rim side of the tube. 15 minutes, a medium patch on the tread side of the tube, and a monster patch on the other side, and I'm back on the road. I got to the transit center in time to catch the bus I wanted! (Last week I also did.)

So what's next? Why did returning the shoes earn me so much bad karma?

[redrhodie]

Why did returning the shoes earn me so much bad karma?

It's not bad karma. Sometimes the things that slow you down save you from a worse fate.

[Melalvai]

laura*, if it had been a car it would have cost you even more time and LOTS more money!

[laura*]

It's not bad karma. Sometimes the things that slow you down save you from a worse fate.

Hmmm. So perhaps the flat tire saved me from a tree that leaned over low across a road. The tree must have just tipped - there were no signs of any cars having hit it - no broken twigs, no leaves on the ground. I had to lean down over the handlebars to zoom under it, having noticed it too late to swerve. Except for low slung sports cars, any vehicles would contact at least the leafy twigs.

[uk elephant]

Had a lovely ride to work at dawn, catching a glimpse of the spectacular sunrise behind me. Bike spent the day at the LBS for some well earned tlc and I got to ride home with a clean bike with new chain and cables, and new inner tube in place of the one with a slow leak. We're ready for our big day out in the big city on Saturday.

[wackyjacky1]

Windy! I have just a two-mile commute, but on the way home this afternoon I was headed straight into a 20 mph headwind, with higher gusts. Felt like I was standing still, though I was pedaling like crazy!

[7rider]

My taillight hates me. It wants to leave me all the time.
The other week, it tried to commit suicide by jumping from my rack when I went over the lip of pavement onto a milled section. Alas, I caught it before it was smooshed by a car, and my LBS set me up with some brackets to re-attach it. This particular light, I attach to the back of the rear rack. Note the bracket on the back, for attaching lights.
Anyway, today the light again tried to commit suicide when the bracket failed, sending the light skittering across the road. Once again, I was able to rescue it. And fortunately, I was able to get home in the evening before dark. I think the bracket was aluminum, rather than steel, and thus softer and weaker. I need to hit up a hardware store for a good angle iron or something.
I love my light. So bright and flashy. I don't know why it hates me so.

[Melalvai]

My taillight hates me. It wants to leave me all the time.

My friend is having the same problem with her taillight. Hers is just a little cheap blinky but it also won't stay attached to the rack and it has left her 3 times.

[Sky King]

I just have to share the irony of a conversation I had this week. A new health and wellness center opened right across the street! They had an open house and I was visiting with one of the yoga and other mind/body class instructors. Bike riding came up and he commented that he only lived two miles away. I commented about how nice that is for his commute and he says "well after my training ride" I don't feel like riding my bike to work. That just threw me for a loop, here was someone who promotes healthy lifestyles but can't ride his bike two miles to his office. To each their own I guess, hope he doesn't run me off the road in his rush to drive to work after his training ride.

[redrhodie]

I just have to share the irony of a conversation I had this week. A new health and wellness center opened right across the street! They had an open house and I was visiting with one of the yoga and other mind/body class instructors. Bike riding came up and he commented that he only lived two miles away. I commented about how nice that is for his commute and he says "well after my training ride" I don't feel like riding my bike to work. That just threw me for a loop, here was someone who promotes healthy lifestyles but can't ride his bike two miles to his office. To each their own I guess, hope he doesn't run me off the road in his rush to drive to work after his training ride.

The only way I wouldn't ride if my commute was only 2 miles, would be if I walked instead.

[7rider]

So I get all the way down to the first floor by security, and realize I left my ID up at my desk. Grrrrr. So I ride back up to the 13th floor (yes, some buildings have a 13th floor! No superstition with these builders!). I'm wearing my jacket which had my screaming yellow reflective vest over it. Sort of like this:

Co-worker looks at me and asks "off to help school kids cross the street?".
Ha. I agree, grab my ID and leave. It's only while riding the elevator back down again that I realized I should have replied "off to my second job working road construction!"

Oh well. Got home before sundown anyway. That will change next week.

[malkin]

Oops.
Glanced at the weather... 0%chance of rain. 47 degrees...so I get dressed and ready to roll.

Double check the weather: 47 is the high. Current temp is 28.

Maybe another layer is in order.

[Melalvai]

I asked my daughter how she was going to school today. If she bikes or walks, and I don't have an early meeting, I go with her and then go to work. It was cold & rainy and she couldn't decide: bike, walk, or drive? Finally she said "You pick." So we walked.

Not even a block later she said she was glad we walked. The wind in the red & green tree against the dark gray clouds was SO dramatic. The rain was a light sprinkle. We were well dressed for the weather, our faces slightly chilled but the rest of us warm as we worked up some heat.

A few yards after that, a neighbor offered us a ride. Before I could say anything she had said, "No thanks, we're enjoying our walk."

She got to school and I turned around to walk home. The wind had been at our backs and was now driving tiny stinging drops of rain into my eyes. I enjoyed the excitement but she would not have liked that part.

I decided to bike to work, instead of walk. I have the right clothes for biking in cold rain, and it'll save time coming home this evening.