How was your commute ... today, yesterday, last week ...

[Mububban]

I must have offended the cycling gods somewhere as I keep getting smited and have only managed to ride to work 6 days this year.. holidays, bad weather and a string of mechanical failures - fix one thing, break something else the next day, it's getting very annoying and frustrating, especially sitting in the car, stuck in traffic and watching enviously as the cyclists roll past..

I drove yesterday and traffic was terrible due to an accident. I'm not used to sitting still in traffic at the moment! Normally riding is 25-30 and driving is 13-20 minutes depending on red or green lights, if I'd ridden yesterday I would have made it in the same time as driving

[jules21]

the freak show that is my morning commute continues. yesterday it was the shirtless guy pedaling with his arms (or so it seemed the way he was putting his back into it) who overtook me, giving it everything. this morning it was the guy on a fat bike who passed me in the opposite direction, front wheel hoisted firmly up towards the clouds...

[bychosis]

Woke late this morning, well I woke too early first then caught a bit too much extra. My alarm was on the charger downstairs where i couldn't hear it. So having significantly less time than I planned for a good hour's ride, reduced it to 25mins. I went a different was that required some extra effort up a decent hill and then I kept the pace up for the remainder too. Despite being on road as compared with my usual bike path there was no issue from motorists which was also nice. The weather was pretty decent too. I've been too slack riding since August last year and now need to up the ante ready for Loop the Lake in March, Convict 100 in April and potentially the Port to Port in May.

[jules21]

our eyes met briefly - she, the attractive 20-something young woman waiting to cross the lights. me, the slightly overweight, balding middle aged MAMIL leaning on the light pole and waiting for the lights to go green. for a moment, I thought to myself "yep... still got it". then I realised I had a load of snot dripping down from my nose.

[RyanA]

our eyes met briefly - she, the attractive 20-something young woman waiting to cross the lights. me, the slightly overweight, balding middle aged MAMIL leaning on the light pole and waiting for the lights to go green. for a moment, I thought to myself "yep... still got it". then I realised I had a load of snot dripping down from my nose.

Did actually LOL at that one...

[bychosis]

Dreams vs reality. Great way to start the day.

Yet another late start for me - can't get motivated. Still managed an additional 15min detour today. I took a cycleway I hadn't used before. It is reasonably well signposted as it is a bit of a cycle route linking to other sections. Strangely though, it ends abruptly about 30m shy of the road and diverts onto what appears to be a service trail for the mowing crews, but doesn't extend past the access gate and I needed to go around the gate on gravel while the sealed section extends under the gate. Request sent to Council.

Did a bit of a naughty and turned left on a red light to cross over and park myself in the left lane to continue straight on the next green instead of waiting in a mixed straight/right lane for a full cycle as I just missed the green. Made up for it waiting for 'ages' at another red that didn't need to be. The joys of traffic signals.

Weather is great, still, calm but "Red sky at morning, sailors take warning".. wonder what this afternoon will bring?

[jasonc]

long and lumpy. could use a nap now

[Mububban]

Yesterday I was the windbreaker for a chap on an Oppy who got to draft for a few kms. Today I got passed my a group of 3 on racers easily doing +3 to +5kph to what I could manage on my MTB even with the e-assist. They were rolling down an incline faster than I could pedal!
I love my trusty old MTB but I regularly have (non)buyer's remorse about not upgrading to a flat bar roadie as my commuter when I got the motor upgrade

[jools]

Had the BEST commutes EVER today!

1. I was on my bike and not in a car - so that's a massive win
2. Finally invested in a rack and panniers yesterday - what a difference, so much more comfortable than riding with a loaded backpack
3. Tailwind on the way home
4. Got home without breaking anything! I can ride again next week
5. It's Friday!

Have a great weekend!

[AlexHuggs]

This morning I realised I'm a sometimes red stop sign runner. Those things just don't make sense on a bike.

Was surprised to see a roadie coming the other way on Great Eastern Hwy with no helmet. Even more surprised it was a woman. Don't have a particular problem with it as I don't agree with MHL and the highway is very quiet, but it wrecked a stereotype.

[jasonc]

Not impressed. Strong head wind for the Friday afternoon commute. Body is not happy with me. 122kms with 2300m for the day
tapatalk for Windows Phone. For when you want it done right

[PiratePete]

our eyes met briefly - she, the attractive 20-something young woman waiting to cross the lights. me, the slightly overweight, balding middle aged MAMIL leaning on the light pole and waiting for the lights to go green. for a moment, I thought to myself "yep... still got it". then I realised I had a load of snot dripping down from my nose.

Did actually LOL at that one...

Mental note, don't read some posts while sitting in a public place. Everyone looks at you when you burst out laughing. [emoji15]

[bychosis]

This morning I realised I'm a sometimes red stop sign runner. Those things just don't make sense on a bike.

You're not the only. Despite me telling myself I'm not going to be one of 'those' cyclists some time ago, this week I've found myself Idaho stopping at a few stop signs, and I also short circuited two red lights. I'm going to tell myself it is for the convenience of other motorists, but it was better for me too

Being on the Idaho stop rules.

Yesterday's home commute was slow, couldn't be bothered fighting the arvo headwind and found myself going at 18km/h for a stretch.

[Chris249]

Long time away from this thread. In that time I've had several different commute routes. The current one is only about 5km each way, but on the good side most of it is down a long straight road with lots of people to chase. It seems like good training for track racing.

I'm mixing it up with the bikes but Friday was the first time I'd taken the TT bike to work. OId as it may be, it's still a dream to ride; the speed allows you to pull into gaps in the car traffic to overtake other bikes in the bike lane quite easily, and it's just do much damn fun! In some ways it is even nicer dialled back a bit as it just seems to float along with no effort whatsoever.

The least pleasant day in some ways is Wednesday, when I ride the track bike to work so I can ride down to the track for racing in the afternoon. There couldn't be any harsher ride than that of an alloy track bike, and on the way home after the race feeling like a wet dishrag you can feel every pebble.

[__PG__]

My Sidi Diablo Goretex MTB boots arrived yesterday, just in time for this morning's wet commute.

Dry feet and no booties..what a concept.

[Lukeyboy]

My Sidi Diablo Goretex MTB boots arrived yesterday, just in time for this morning's wet commute.

[AlexHuggs]

My Sidi Diablo Goretex MTB boots arrived yesterday, just in time for this morning's wet commute.

Dry feet and no booties..what a concept.

What's a boot like to ride in?

[__PG__]

Different. Once the upper breaks in I'll be able to give you a better answer. They make the Diablo with a bit more volume so you can wear thick socks. There is definitely more room in there than my road shoes.

[tgdavies]

Coming East along Lilyfield Road this morning I passed an accident with a police car and an ambulance attending.

It looked possibly cycle related -- there were 3 or 4 bikes leaning against the fence and a person on a gurney with leg lacerations (they might or might not have been a cyclist). Hope he(?) isn't badly hurt.

[Boognoss]

Coming East along Lilyfield Road this morning I passed an accident with a police car and an ambulance attending.

It looked possibly cycle related -- there were 3 or 4 bikes leaning against the fence and a person on a gurney with leg lacerations (they might or might not have been a cyclist). Hope he(?) isn't badly hurt.

A mate of mine passed this rider-down prior to ambulance arriving - no info at all unfortunately.

[AlexHuggs]

Annoying commute today. Running 15-20 minutes late and the traffic was quite different to normal. Only moderately busier but much more rude. Was forced (forced I tell you) to flip a couple of motorists the birdie, including a P plater who had the audacity to horn me. My crime was claiming the left hand lane on a dual lane carriage way. I claimed it more after one close pass. Grrrr. Then about 1.5 kms from home tonight got a flat.

[DavidS]

The wind in Melbourne lately has been epic, I am getting very tired of bashing into it every night. Those riding North at the end of the day must have massive average speeds at the moment.

DS

[g-boaf]

Commuting without eating breakfast, bad idea...

By the time I got to work I was ready to raid the fundraising box of toblerones. Enjoying my coffee at the moment.

[jasonc]

Commuting without eating breakfast, bad idea...

I always commute before eating. otherwise i'd have to wait because it'd end up all over my bike.

humid this morning in brissy

[bychosis]

Was expecting a windy ride this morning, but it wasn't. It did however start to drizzle a bit as soon as I stepped outside. Looked to be the only rain in the area, directly above me and almost cloud free everywhere else.

Managed to pull onto the sharepath in front of a couple of roadies on the way and kept ahead of them on the fixie with some good timing passing pedestrians that they got stuck with. Also meant I kept my cadence up to stay in front, rather than the somewhat more relaxed pace I was planning on.