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

[bcal9879]

All you Melburn commuters need to leave home earlier - the weather was fine at 0530!
The afternoon shower was a bit surprising considering BoM gave a 20% probability of 0-3mm... but it was dry by 1400 for the ride home.
I'm lucky enough to have almost finished a wet weather alternative to my primary Samson Cycles 3-speed (with rack and panniers) - an old steel frame (replete with DT shifters and rust patches) updated with Shimano R500 wheels, wrapped with Vittoria Randonneurs, wrapped with full length fenders. Just waiting on the Shimano M520 pedals I ordered to get into the shop - hopefully before Thursday, with BoM predicting 90% chance of rain. The flats I currently have on the rain bike were a bit slippery in the wet on the way home from the footy on Saturday night.

[oxonabike]

Relegating the superseded raod bike to commuter duties is delivering some nice time benefits for the 16 Km commute - being able to average 33 and 34 kph over the past couple of days. It's had guards and a pannier carrier installed - the mud guards have been very handy these past couple of days with plenty of rain about.

[Summernight]

All you Melbourne commuters need to leave home earlier - the weather was fine at 0530!

Legs felt tired on the way home yesterday.

Thought I might be coming down with something this morning but it may have just been the cold or the chlorine from the swimming pool giving my nose and face a new chemical peel.

I had a SMIDSY on Elizabeth St turn right in front of me into Little Collins St (tram superstop causes right turning drivers to only look a short distance down the road) this morning. His focus was clearly on the peds crossing Little Collins, so much so that he completely ignored the oncoming traffic (me) and turned in front of me. Spidey senses meant no major drama, but the driver still didn't turn his head even when I was 3 metres away yelling 'Oi!'.

[TailWind]

Nice and cool for the ride back yesterday afternoon with the wind generally in my favour.
Cool this morning, paid my dues with a southerly headwind, so hopefully it's still around when I head back later.

[alexander]

Melburn: 12º, SE wind 10kms, Overcast. 7.27am Footscray to CBD

I knew if I kitted up with cold weather clothes for this morning then sure enough the weather would clear and I'd be too hot on the way home. Sure enough thats exactly whats happened. Long sleeve autumn jersey, and castelli nanflex knicks, merino socks. And now it's gong to be sunny and 20º+ on the way home, I'll be sweating up a treat!

I left a bit later too, which meant I had to motor the whole way to make sure I wasn't late. Good motivation that.

Got passed twice today, both roadies, full lycra, not wearing any backpack, and not weight impeded in any way. So I didn't get passed by anyone thats counts, really.

[bcal9879]

Melburn: 12º, SE wind 10kms, Overcast. 7.27am Footscray to CBD

cold weather clothes

14º when I left Essendon, Tullamarine-bound at 0540... only knicks and an SS jersey with a basic jogging singlet base layer, fingerless gloves. Bit chilly until the end of my street, but 13km later I was breaking into a sweat! I'm starting to do some research and purchases now for what will be my first winter commuting. First buys will probably be an icebreaker merino base tee, Craft rain booties and some arm warmers.

[CXCommuter]

Three days of possible storms listed for Perth this week- got through 2 days now without getting wet- still waiting for new mudguards after discovering that the ones I had are broken. Last day to go tomorrow, fingers crossed

[Whorl]

Well that was fun! Got a bit damp this morning in Bris, poured down for about 4km at the start of my ride before letting up. Only saw 1 other rider in the m5.

[jasonc]

Well that was fun! Got a bit damp this morning in Bris, poured down for about 4km at the start of my ride before letting up. Only saw 1 other rider in the m5.

I saw about 25 bikes for my trip. I had to stop in one of the downpours - it was unpleasant to say the least.

[Summernight]

No bike commute last night as I had a dinner engagement. The ride in this morning was nice, with considerate motorists. It was a lovely morning.

[rdp_au]

Had one of those trips last night. First, a kamikaze pedestrian on the Rhodes shared path – walking right in the middle of the path as I approached from behind. Slowed to walking pace, a polite ding on my bell, and said ‘excuse me..’ She half looked around and began to move left, so I began to move right to pass. She then had a change of heart and dived to the right, directly in front of me. Quick stop, and an even quicker unclip to avoid falling over. Then, punting along at around 30kph, passing a line of parked cars. Quiet road, no traffic, when a car suddenly pulls out of a parking spot and does a U-turn directly in front of me. Brake hard and dive left to avoid T-boning him. Make eye contact with the ‘driver’ as he passes and all that’s there is a blank, vacuous stare. And finally, approaching a roundabout with a car also approaching from my left, I could see we were going to arrive at the same time so eased off a little. Sure enough, even though I had right of way, the car sailed through without so much as a glance. And to cap it off, it rained hard just as I was negotiating the rough, narrow section of the Kissing Point Rd climb..

Not whether it was adrenaline or just luck, but I did score a couple of Strava PRs

[TailWind]

The lovely weather in Melbourne yesterday afternoon had everyone on the roads and paths, so it was a pretty busy commute. Older chap on the Darebin Creek tail had his furry friend on a retractable leash straining towards the right side of the path. I dinged the old bell from a respectful distance, and the old bloke must have got a fright, as he pulled the poor mutt towards him with quite a yank. Comic book moment...I visualized a speech bubble above the dog with an exclamation like "Urrrrghhh!!" Almost cackled out loud.
Pleasant conditions for this morning's ride into the Melbourne CBD.
Oh, has anyone noticed the new road markings on the corner of e.g. Collins and Russell? There's a hook turn holding position marked on either side of Collins, with a "bike lane" painted to the left of the hook turn position. That's one hare-brained idea if there ever was one, as firstly, you generally can't get to the lane because of cars waiting to turn left and right, the bike lane actually points towards the opposite kerb, and pedestrians use it!

[Summernight]

Oh, has anyone noticed the new road markings on the corner of e.g. Collins and Russell? There's a hook turn holding position marked on either side of Collins, with a "bike lane" painted to the left of the hook turn position. That's one hare-brained idea if there ever was one, as firstly, you generally can't get to the lane because of cars waiting to turn left and right, the bike lane actually points towards the opposite kerb, and pedestrians use it!

They did the same on the intersection of Collins and Elizabeth - they removed about 30cms of pedestrian crossing to paint the bike on the left of the right, vehicle hook turn box. Of course, peds ignore the lines and walk on the road where the bike symbol is painted and it is dangerous as a bike rider to zip in and out of moving and stationary cars - riders should be in (and claiming) the through lane if they are going straight through.

Everyone ignores the paint anyway (motorists included). I would park myself in the designated box doing my hook turn if I thought it was safe, but with the amount of cars who are going straight through that cut up half of the right turn box, when doing my hook turn I park the bike on the left of the painted box, coincidentally pretty much directly over the newly painted bike symbol.

[bigfriendlyvegan]

Here's a different type of commuting by a different type of rider, at the nuclear security summit in the Netherlands.

[bcal9879]

Awesome day to be cycling today... shame it won't last. Looking forward to my first real rain test tomorrow though.

Addendum: decided to take an easy slow day today, and was still faster than my first commute. That was about two months ago

[singlespeedscott]

Got absolutely drenched on the ride to work this morning and the BOM is indicating that it's going to happen again on my way home

[jasonc]

i did ok - rained JUST before I left work and started raining 100m from home. there was some light drizzle in between.

[trailgumby]

My mate Dave (who happens to be product manager at Cell) decided I needed some tips on how to look more "pro" while commuting.

Hint: turn the volume down - the freehub is loud.

[singlespeedscott]

i did ok - rained JUST before I left work and started raining 100m from home. there was some light drizzle in between.

I managed to avoid the worst of it with only a minor down pour half way home.

[InTheWoods]

The bit where a cane toad hopped under my front wheel and then exploded its entire guts all over my leg was not a good part of my commute home tonight.

[jasonc]

The bit where a cane toad hopped under my front wheel and then exploded its entire guts all over my leg was not a good part of my commute home tonight.

you would have had plenty of rain to wash it down your leg

[InTheWoods]

The bit where a cane toad hopped under my front wheel and then exploded its entire guts all over my leg was not a good part of my commute home tonight.

you would have had plenty of rain to wash it down your leg

Not enough And what did get washed down just went on my sock.

[piledhigher]

The bit where a cane toad hopped under my front wheel and then exploded its entire guts all over my leg was not a good part of my commute home tonight.

you would have had plenty of rain to wash it down your leg

Not enough And what did get washed down just went on my sock.

So I guess right now it is starting to go off like a frog in a sock..

[InTheWoods]

you would have had plenty of rain to wash it down your leg

Not enough And what did get washed down just went on my sock.

So I guess right now it is starting to go off like a frog in a sock..

I should report that post...

[Summernight]

The bit where a cane toad hopped under my front wheel and then exploded its entire guts all over my leg was not a good part of my commute home tonight.

Ewww...

I loved the ride in this morning, although I have to apologise to all of the Melbourne riders as I cleaned my chain yesterday lunch time and so must shoulder the blame for all this rain.

Last night's ride was a bit of a slog with the headwind, but this morning's was great. I think I had a tailwind to thank for that (and nothing to do with fresh-feeling legs).