Ha, 7. That's what happens.
I took a tour of DC with Maidei this morning. It was cool and gorgeous, and most of the tourists hadn't come out to play yet. It was nice.
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Major Senior Moment this a.m.
So..I'm in the locker room, on the phone with DH -- I call him and let him know I arrived in one piece -- and simultaneously unloading my pannier while yanking stuff out of my rental locker. I reach in to the bottom of my pannier.
OMG!!! Where's my towel??? I can't believe I forgot my towel! No wonder I had so much room in my bag for my lunch bag, a box of tissues, AND my sneakers for an afternoon circuit class. Oh, man....I'm gonna have to dry off with a pile of paper towels. That is gonna stink.
I plop down onto the bench by my locker in despair. Right onto my towel...which I had already taken out of my pannier, but had no recollection of doing so.
Sigh. Major brain-fart. DH is laughing, saying "Where's the baby? Der he is!" - a scene from Ice Age that just tickles his funny bone.
2007 Seven ID8 - Bontrager InForm
2003 Klein Palomino - Terry Firefly (?)
2010 Seven Cafe Racer - Bontrager InForm
2008 Cervelo P2C - Adamo Prologue Saddle
Ha, 7. That's what happens.
I took a tour of DC with Maidei this morning. It was cool and gorgeous, and most of the tourists hadn't come out to play yet. It was nice.
2007 Rivendell Glorius/Trico gel with cutout (not made any more apparently)
2005 Specialized Sequoia Comp/Specialized Dolce
2006 Kona Cinder Cone/another Trico gel
1986? Bridgestone mixte/Brooks B72
1991 Bridgestone 300 Xtracycle/Terry Gelissimo
Specialized Ruby/Selle Italia Flow
1991 Specialized Sirrus, steel frame
Dahon Eco C7
Surly Long Haul Trucker/Terry Fly RS
Trident TWIG Recumbent
Specialized Amira Expert WSD, Ruby Expert
Trek Madone 5.2 WSD, Bontrager Affinity 2 WSD
Trek Madone 4.5 WSD, Bontrager Affinity 1 WSD
So far it has been cool enough in the early mornings to cycle in work clothes and arrive at work fairly presentable. The evenings are another story. I think I'm going to need to bring lighter clothes for the ride home.
Deb
2016 Kona Rove ST (M/L 54) WTB Volt
Camp Stove Green Surly Karate Monkey (M) WTB Volt
Kona Dew Deluxe (54cm) Brooks B67-S
Oh, that happened to me once. I went commando until 10am, when the Gap outlet around the corner opened. The only undies they had were girls, though, so I got the girls XXL and was saved. Never forgot them again (I actually kept a couple in my desk drawer just in case). I just didn't feel right going commando at work with only one layer separating me from my coworkers.
Specialized Ruby/Selle Italia Flow
1991 Specialized Sirrus, steel frame
Dahon Eco C7
Surly Long Haul Trucker/Terry Fly RS
Trident TWIG Recumbent
1.5 miles from home, and my bike starts to feel like something is wrong. The fork feels like a noodle. Aaa crap, a flat, a nice slow leak.
Luckily I'm in front of a DWP building with a large concrete slab for landscaping. Plenty of room to sit down and take apart the front wheel while in the shade of the building. A nice breeze helped, as I had just pored some water in my helmet and down my back so was feeling rather cool. Well, I searched inside and out but could not find the bugger that punctured the tube, so I am half expecting my spare tube to be flat tomorrow. At least I had a frame pump instead of a mini pump, it was nothing to get the tire up to 80psi.
Tzvia- rollin' slow...
Specialized Ruby Expert/mens Bontrager Inform RXL
Specialized SWorks Safire/mens Bontrager Inform RL
Giant Anthem-W XT-XTR/mens Bontrager Inform RXL
Fuji Newest 3 commuter/mens Bontrager Inform RL
Novara E.T.A commuter/mens Bontrager Inform RL
Nice ride this morning, perfect temp, good times, and Wednesdays is group ride morning with work mates.
Then, we happened upon a jerk! Now, I have 3 bikes - I have a commuter with panniers, etc, if I'm straight bike commuting; I also have a road bike that I ride when we do group rides, as I will often bring a week's worth of clothes to work on Mondays and since we have lockers, I don't have to bring much as it's already at the office. So, here the three of us are, cruising up the road, single file, before 7am (before "rush hour"), on a nice, wide, 4 lane road - one that doesn't see a lot of traffic, especially going north like we were (the freeway is to the south), AND even though it's my road bike, I STILL have a light on the back. We're cruising pretty good due to the hills, 30+mph (speed limit is 35 there), and we pass a guy on a mountain bike who's riding on the sidewalk, so it's not like we "passed" him or pushed him into the curb - he was never in the street. We get stopped a signal, and he catches up to us, and yells at us for riding in the street! At first, I thought he was just commenting as though he wasn't comfortable riding in the street, as he said "I can't believe you guys are riding in the street". Then he proceeds to tell us that we need to be more considerate of everyone else, that it's "rush hour", look at all the cars around us (we were at a signal!!!), and he can't believe how inconsiderate we are riding in the street at this time of day. We had NO issues with cars at all, as traffic wasnt bad at all, we werent blocking any cars, and no one had to wait for us - I purposefully plan our routes to avoid the major thoroughfares especially during high traffic hours. This, coming from a guy riding on the sidewalk, darting out into the street unexpectedly as he crosses the street from one sidewalk to the other, and WE'RE inconsiderate? He was totally mad that we were riding in the road - no other reason, like we shouldn't be because that's where cars go especially, at that time of day. God forbid he infringe upon pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk, or just dart into the street as he crossed.
It just bugged the heck out of me, as I commute several days a week by bike, usually on a more heavily travelled, 2 lane road (with bike lanes), and I totally feel like this jerk had something against road bikes; like he was the urban commuter and we were those jerks that give cyclists a bad name. I swear, if I were on my commuter with panniers, and not wearing a jersey, he wouldn't have said anything to me - just a case of cycling prejudice!!!!
And, that's my rant for the day!
Jenn K
Centennial, CO
Love my Fuji!
Even if you did slow someone down a little you have a right to the road, and as you already know it's much safer and actually more considerate than sidewalk cycling. I think you will feel less frustrated with this uneducated and biased cyclist if you become a League Certified Instructor and start teach the bike class in your area.
2009 Trek 7.2FX WSD, brooks Champion Flyer S, commuter bike
2009 Trek 7.2FX WSD, brooks Champion Flyer S, commuter bike
Today's commute has been an exercise in Logistics.
The car needed an inspection for its upcoming license renewal and so I drove. It felt so odd. I dropped the car off and walked to my office. Then I realized I'd left the checkbook at home and didn't have any way to pay for it. (A long complicated digression about moving, changing banks, waiting on one debit card and the old debit card having been compromised and canceled, so I'm relying on old-fashioned checkbook & cash.)
I walked home (2 miles, 40 minutes), got my checkbook and biked back. Now I have both my bike and my car. The car doesn't have the bike rack on because we took it off for last weekend's trip. (I never get around to putting it back on until experiencing an inconvenience like this.) So at some point I need to drive home and get my husband to drive me back to get my bike. Or I could walk back, I suppose.
When I ran some errands I had to decide which vehicle to use. I was annoyed with the car for disrupting my day so I used the bike!
2009 Trek 7.2FX WSD, brooks Champion Flyer S, commuter bike
I found that since I've become an LCI, I've had to struggle against accosting bad bicyclists I encounter on my daily commute! It's agonizing to watch people blaze through red lights or meander in and out of parked cars, thinking that's the way it should be done. Unfortunately there's no good way to prove that I actually know what I'm talking about -- it's hard not to sound like a bossy know-it-all when you're telling somebody what they're doing is unsafe.
I mention all this cuz I just had to restrain myself again this morning as a lady in a hideous jacket circa 1996 zipped past me and through a red light. Argh!