How Was Your Commute Today?

[azfiddle]

Wow Colorisnt - that is some serious commuting commitment. Yes, rule #9.

[colorisnt]

I loved it. It feels great to be flying around on a bike when everyone else has battened down the hatches. There's something empowering about it. I hate the rain usually but on a bike it doesn't bother me. That said, I never would have done that on my road bike. The minute the brakes get all squeaky is the minute I get nervous about riding in the rain. And I worry about falling. On this bike, I really don't have to worry much, though.

Since the only riding I did yesterday was as a demo on the bike I was selling and sold I am still at 11/14 days because I rode today!

[Catrin]

I loved it. It feels great to be flying around on a bike when everyone else has battened down the hatches.

Where is the LOVE button?

[colorisnt]

Haha. I was going to try to re-create it on a beautiful morning today. Rode about .75 mi from the BF's place on the new bike and then "pop". Popped the tube on a piece of glass bottle. Blargh. Walked it home because I found out I grabbed the wrong tube at the store (a Schrader not a Presta but the right "size"). FML. Back to the bike shop which I have been at every day minus yesterday since Thursday.

[DebW]

I've been battling winds on my commutes yesterday and today. Yesterday I was on the Belmont bike path heading towards Alewife when a side-wind was so strong it moved me sideways 4 feet and made me lean 20 degrees just to stay upright. Glad it wasn't a road with cars. I've been staying away from Huron St. where the top of the hill by Fresh Pond can have nasty side-winds. Today I was biking to work at 1 pm (tax day crunch) and the winds were almost as bad, plus some light rain. We're supposed to get 30 degree temps for the next couple of morning, so waiting til later in the week to change out my studded tires (though I've felt a little silly riding around on them when it's been 60 and 70 degrees).

Funny story: I was biking through Waverly Square a few mornings ago, and who should stop next to me at a stop light but Peter Mooney, the frame-maker who built my custom road bike about 10 years ago. Of course I said "You built me a bike". He looked down at the Bridgestone MTB frame I was riding, and I had to assure him that my custom Mooney was safely at home and not being parked in Harvard Square every day.

[colorisnt]

I want to try studded tires in the fall. This is going to sound like a dumb question but do you add the studs or do you buy a pair? And it's cool to see your frame maker!

I hate hate hate the hard wind. It was like that (gusts of like 25 mph) Saturday and I felt like I should have been swept away. Glad to be on the heavier bike on a ride like that.

[Thorn]

I want to try studded tires in the fall. This is going to sound like a dumb question but do you add the studs or do you buy a pair? And it's cool to see your frame maker!

Either, but it is easier to just buy studded tires. Make sure the studs are carbide or they'll wear out before the end of the season.

Oh, and...uh....err...you want to leave them on until the ice storms subside...I made the mistake of riding in with*out* studs yesterday. The weather was below freezing and it had rained the day before. I figured out all I had to do was avoid the puddles....didn't really think about the glaze on the road, not to mention the bridges...dumb, dumb. Stayed upright, but I should have had the studs.

[colorisnt]

Thanks for the tip. I will hopefully end up somewhere cooler (like back near Chicago weather-wise) or somewhere freezing (ie Canada), so those tires could be of use. Even here, they would be a big help in winter.

[rebeccaC]

I want to try studded tires in the fall.

Peter White has an excellent write up about studded tire sizes/profiles for different winter conditions on his website

thankfully I don't need to think about them

Rode to my early pilates class and back as I had a work meeting I had to drive to today. When I got home I rode to get some salted caramel gelato for desert for a neighbor friends dinner invite. a mere 9 miles total but hey I'm 16/16 for my 30 day pledge

[colorisnt]

rebeccaC, thanks, I will look into that! And congrats on that pledge! It all counts

I hopped on the bike and got here pretty fast today. I had to hop on the sidewalk for about 30 seconds and walk across a road to avoid traffic, but I did. Road construction has our only two ways out of our place completely frozen. The detours will have you sitting in traffic for 30+ minutes. I flew into work on the bike! Last night we flew down south of town by bike, even with a very steep hill and passed all of the cars sitting and not moving. So glad that we don't have to worry about that. Bikes are the way to go!

[Crankin]

I commuted for the first time in 2 weeks today. It was really warm when I left at 8:45, like 52. Was a bit overdressed and I had to use my "freshen up" wipes a bit. I really could have used my flat iron on my bangs, but I discovered not a bathroom in my office has an outlet. I might invest in a battery powered one, as the weather gets warmer. It was about 70 when I left at 5, and kind of cloudy and I rode home in short sleeves.. You can smell the rain coming, a great spring smell. Traffic was a bit quieter, as it's spring break this week, so no buses, etc. I also wore my Terry knickers that are for spin; they have a very minimal chamois that is fleece, and I actually could wear them as capris all day long. When I come in at this later time, people are arriving and so are some clients, so I feel a bit weird. No one ever saw me in my bike clothes at my teaching job, because I got there so early, but I will wear shorts when it gets hot.

[colorisnt]

People aren't always sure how to react to bike clothes (especially clompy shoes) but I don't think they care usually. Everyone in our dept. who rides is a road cyclist with clompy shoes. Most people commute in on cross bikes. I have just recently joined their "fraternity" or so they call it. I'm the only female on a bike but the male faculty members aren't afraid of spandex which does get them side eye from the grad students. I take the elevator up and it works great with my tiny bike. I sometimes surprise students waiting to see the academic advisor but usually they just gape and then turn to ignore me haha.

[Crankin]

Yeah, the only comments I've gotten from the other therapists is, "Oh you must be serious." I am wearing my mtb shoes with Frogs when I commute, so I am not so clompy with the shoes, although it's quite clear I am wearing cycling shoes with cleats. I did have one older (of course now, that means at least 65) woman ask me about what kind of riding I do, what tours I've been on, etc. It turns out she did a lot of touring up until recently. Most of the "looks," I get are from the admin staff, who try to scare me with cycling crash/injury stories. Apparently, just 2 weeks ago, the DH of one of the admins crashed going over a RR track while on business in San Francisco. He is really messed up, hip broken 3 places, was told he'd never ride again. Of course I didn't say that I always slow, unclip, and scoot over unfamiliar tracks. I did mention our closest friend broke his hip in a crash 4 years ago and was back riding in 4 months, but they just gave me a dirty look! My supervisor, who is a serious runner and avid cyclist, too, broke her collarbone by crashing into her DH a couple of years ago, but she is back riding.

[colorisnt]

Injuries can happen in ANY sport. People don't seem to get that runners are also quite prone to injuries because running is pretty hard on your body comparatively. When people tell me stuff like "oh, what if you fall?" or "what if a car hits you?" I tell them about my poor baby sister getting hit by a dump truck while out running or the season she found out she had been running on a hip fracture due to a stress fracture gone bad. They tend to not know what to say. My own mother worried a lot until she got back into riding with my Dad. They used to be road warriors so I think now she is starting to remember. The BF's family is all runners and triathletes so they don't bother us haha. They chipped in on his new Cross purchase this weekend as a birthday gift.

I rode in today in a dress (liner shorts under) clipped in and got some strange looks. I then put the bike in the car (boo driving) that was parked in my garage last night because we worried about hail damage and don't have a garage at home. Car is fine and the bike is now in it until I leave this afternoon.

[Helene2013]

We are used here seeing "sports" people coming into work, even in a 37th floor building in downtown Montreal. So we pay little attention. We even have showers for our staff who'd like to use one. It's business as usual.

As for falls, I can attest it goes fast.

Today, unfortunately, a 33YO woman just died this morning as she hit by a heavyload truck - almost east-town. Still unclear what happened yet but there is a bike path/sidewalk. Was she using it? Did she fall before and the truck happened to be coming at same time, no way to tell yet. At this point, only the driver can report the event but police is "re-tracking" the map to get the whole picture. So sad. Dying while probably getting to work.