How Was Your Commute Today?

[Sky King]

Two humorous incidents on Monday. I dropped our car off for servicing, as I walked in the man behind the counter says "you made it" I have never been to this shop before as the DH usually takes it in, so I said, oh, did you recognize the car? He says "no I saw you get your bike out of the car and knew immediately which appointment you were" then he shared with me the best way to get to the MUP
2nd humorous? moment - after leaving the mup, I have a fairly busy street with a major intersection that I ride through. prior to the light a right hand turn lane appears necessitating that I change lanes in order to continue going straight. I look over my left shoulder, see traffic but it is far enough back that I signal and move to the left. I hear a horn honk??? so I just waved and decided to take the high road that they were approving of my signal and my bright green jacket as there weren't any cars close enough for them to be concerned that I was "cutting" them off. In fact the light turned green just as I approached so I kept on pedaling and was through the intersection before any of the cars that had been behind me when I changed lanes even caught up to me.

[redrhodie]

Wow, was it warm today! I got sweaty. Weird November.

[malkin]

You rode!
Yay you!!


I got plenty of exercise coughing.

[tzvia]

Boy am I getting beat up. Construction on both sides of the blvd; metal plates, potholes, bad repairs and cut road sections for pipe that are poorly filled. Lots of debris. Dirt and mud. Getting fenders in my alu Fuji road bike would be quite a trick if I use wider tires so it's been fun trying to stay clean going to work (no showers). It really needs some 32c tires or greater, but it won't take more than 28c because of frame and brakes. So I go to the REI to buy some 28c tires for whatever relief I can get. Almost ready to call it quits but I love commuting. My commute is a straight line down that street so avoiding it would take me way out of my way.

REI was strangely not as busy as I thought it would be, so I took time and walked around the bikes. A steel commuter that can take wide tires and fenders would be nice. And I really don't mind going slower on a heavier bike at this point. They had a clearance sale, so I ended up buying the Novara E.T.A. size small, and fitted my lights, saddle, seatpost and pedals on it yesterday. Yea it's heavy, but the gearing range works in it's favor. No fenders yet, but I am looking into which ones to get. Rode it around the house, wow what a difference, almost feels like suspension. Most of the extra poundage feels like the wheels and tires, maybe one day I will get a lighter wheelset (29ers will work on this hybrid frame) if I can find a good sale. The 35c tires feel stable in the sand and lose pebbles from the construction sites. Just need to lower the stem a bit and it will be ready for next week. Yea!

[Sky King]

REI was strangely not as busy as I thought it would be, so I took time and walked around the bikes. A steel commuter that can take wide tires and fenders would be nice. And I really don't mind going slower on a heavier bike at this point. They had a clearance sale, so I ended up buying the Novara E.T.A. size small, and fitted my lights, saddle, seatpost and pedals on it yesterday. Yea it's heavy, but the gearing range works in it's favor. No fenders yet, but I am looking into which ones to get. Rode it around the house, wow what a difference, almost feels like suspension. Most of the extra poundage feels like the wheels and tires, maybe one day I will get a lighter wheelset (29ers will work on this hybrid frame) if I can find a good sale. The 35c tires feel stable in the sand and lose pebbles from the construction sites. Just need to lower the stem a bit and it will be ready for next week. Yea!

I can't wait to hear if you really ride that much slower, you may surprise yourself. The 35C's should make your commute much more enjoyable. I suggest you take a look at the SKS longboards or a simple planet bike fender to complete this great new commuter bike!

[tzvia]

well, it rained last night and most of today- it was pouring this morning, so I took the truck to work .

It just started raining again. Supposed to rain more tomorrow. Gonna stop by the LBS tomorrow after work- they have the Planet Bike fenders in the 'Hybrid' size in stock. They should work well. While I don't plan on riding in the rain, I would like to not worry about getting mud thrown up on me after, with all the dirt having been washed into the bike lane.

I am starting to miss the hot summer...

[Melalvai]

I got studded tires (Schwalbe Marathon Winters, carbide studs) on Sunday. I immediately switched from dreading the cold to I can't wait for snow and ice!! And therefore the forecast is rain and upper 30's for the next two weeks.

Since they are carbide studs I can ride on regular pavement, which is good, because I wasn't sure I'd be up for switching the tires out every time the weather changed, and what would I do if it was snowy in the morning and clear in the afternoon? So I'm riding on the studded tires right now.

My bike is not light, quiet, or fast. It's a commuter bike, and I have a rack, an enormous basket, jingle bells-- and when I re-built my front wheel with the new rim, I dropped 2 spoke nipples inside. So they rattle.

It's now noisier, heavier, and slower than ever before, with the studded tires!

[WindingRoad]

Tzvia that sounds like a pretty nice bike! It will be great for gnarly commutes.

Today's commute was warm actually, kinda nice, wish this weather would hold out for a while but I'm sure the nasty stuff is coming. I had a driver scare the crap out of me though. Apparently she didn't see me until she started to pull out and then she hit her brakes at the last minute.

[tzvia]

Well, I got in some 4 rides on the Novara. Yea, I'm slower, by about 6 or 7 minutes each way. Expected. I can feel the tires spin up due to the extra weight there. But being 35c and having a steel frame just made it absorb the potholes and metal DOT plates. Sand was no biggie.

That's the good. The bad? Maybe not bad, but I gave that mustache bar 4 rides and I just don't like it. I've got an MTB riser bar in the garage, so I put that on, then went to shorten the cable housings and...

I should have guessed. The brakes felt a bit mushy, but I chocked it up to the extra weight on the bike being harder to slow, and this being my first cable disk brake bike, was not sure how it should feel. When I went to shorten the cables, I discovered that the REI idiot who assembled the bike used derailleur cables for brake housing. If anyone here likes to self-wrench as I do, please remember- never do this. Brakes use higher cable pressure than shifting, and require the housing that uses the flat metal that wraps like a barber pole around the inner sleeve. That housing can be used for shifting in a pinch, but will increase resistance so may impact shift quality. But using the shift housing -bunch of lengthwise stands- for braking is dangerous. The pressure will make the strands bow out (mush mush) and they can fail - make your brakes fail - when you really need them.

So I replaced the housing, of course. And the mushy brakes became just wonderful. Now the bike feels like a nice cro-mo rigid mtb. So I ordered up a wheelset from PROWHEELBUILDER, nothing fancy but over a LB less than what is on the bike now and will be using a Ultegra 12~27 that I have in my spare parts bin. Heck, I might even throw a 11~34 on the original wheelset and some cx or 1.8 29er tires for trail riding next summer. That should be fun.

Oh- and i took the truck to work the latter part of last week, as I don't trust the pre-holiday drunk drivers.

[7rider]

Sigh.

I can tell when I've "fallen off the wagon" and haven't been commuting regularly.
I tend to forget to pack very critical things in my bag and I'm faced with a moment (or day) of panic as I'm standing there, in the locker room, ready to jump in the shower, and have a freakout, thinking, "OMG, where is my (fill in the blank)?????"

If practice makes perfect, lack of practice makes you look like an idiot.

[tzvia]

Strange ride to work. Last week, heck even yesterday, it was cold. That is, cold for L.A. Upper 30s, lower 40s f. This morning, a Santa Ana wind was developing (blowing down from the north/north east). It's a dry warm air mass because the air is friction heated by going up and over the mountains, and from the air molecules rubbing against each other. By the house, it was in the upper 40s, but when I reached a major intersection, the temperature shot up, like I was standing next to an open oven set to 300f. Crossing the street, the temp dipped again. It kept doing this all the way to work. Wild swings in temperature block by block. And the winds got stronger as I crossed across the valley floor.

Must have been 75 degrees on the way home, with a great tailwind.

[shootingstar]

Back to cycling to work for past few days-- it's been -14 C to -10 C with a wind at 30-40 km/hr. So my eyes are watering even with wearing protective glasses.

Then into a building, I'm sweating.... But feels good, even if the ride is short. I load up on groceries ....if there should be another snowy/storm this winter later on.

[Melalvai]

Yesterday someone said "It's supposed to be in the 50's next week." I replied "I guess if I can't have snow and ice, 50F in February is a decent compensation." Not an hour later I looked out the window and the snow was coming down hard! I'll take both!

It was pretty warm for the amount of snow. The ground was mostly slushy. My snow tires performed beautifully.

[Atlas]

Today was the first time I've ridden more than a mile since September! I had a major knee injury then and haven't been able to do anything for months. It was 60ºF today (in Iowa? In JANUARY!?) so I went out and now that I'm home it still doesn't hurt! This is so exciting! If all goes well and I don't feel any aches throughout the night I can finally start back to bike commuting in the morning.

[soprano]

It was so nice out today. This morning was 45 degrees, and then 65 with sprinkles in the afternoon. I could get used to this. Can I bottle it up and have some to pull out during the Texas summer?

Congratulations Atlas on getting back on your bike! I spent 6 weeks last winter nursing a badly sprained wrist, and I remember feeling so relieved and happy when I was able to ditch the bus and bike commute again. Isn't it nice?