My Morning Commute

[EasyRider]

Could be. The downtube was a bit oversized, so maybe it was an aluminum frame. Rider had a subpop patch on his backpack.

[KLizotte]

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[bobco85]

Today I had my first morning commute of the month, and it was great!

Last week, I was mostly sidelined due to a cold, but I still made sure to do my daily non-sleaze rides (personal goal is to have 0 sleaze rides). This weekend, I got a sinus headache that didn’t go away until Sunday afternoon, so I was feeling quite good this morning to be able to get back to my normal routine.

My upper back muscles are sore and tight because of all the sneezing and coughing I did over the past week (I’ve got more knots than a Boy Scout Jamboree), but I’m at least glad to only be sniffly now. I dropped about 20 places in Freezing Saddles due to my cold, so I’ve got a lot of ground to cover. Game on!

[Zack]

First commute ride after three weeks, as I teleworked during inauguration week and was in a class for two weeks. I was impressed by how many other commuters were out.

In fact, I looked at the bike count data for Alexandria and on weekdays, there were about twice as many riders. This trend continued at some of the busiest bike counters. I thought this was attributable to the nice weather but at least in Alexandria, there are about the same number of weekend riders which I theorize are more weather influenced.

Bottom line, nice to have so much company!

[secstate]

@Zack 154394 wrote:

I was impressed by how many other commuters were out.

Wish I was among you!

I have a houseguest so commuted in by Metro with him today. It was my first non-bike commute since November. Oops. It was a sad reminder of why I finally gave up on Metro. We left my apartment in downtown Silver Spring at 8:10 and he was still late for his 9:30 meeting in Foggy Bottom. On the plus side, that’s slightly more than twice as fast as walking.

[lordofthemark]

Ah, the great thing about commuting by bike.

I was approaching the the intersection of South Capitol and Eye Street. The southeast corner has a big new residential building going up. This morning there was a really really long truck maneuvering to get into the site. It had blocked the south side sidewalk, the south side (EB) bike lane, the EB general travel lane, and the WB general travel lane. EB cars were backing up into South Cap. So when the light turned green, after crossing far enough to be out of the way of cars turning left from Eye to South Cap, I scooted across the WB general travel lane (where there was no traffic, because it was all blocked) and the WB bike lane (carefully) and bailed to the sidewalk (I never ever take that sidewalk, BTW) as soon as I was past the truck, I saw the WB traffic held up by a construction worker with a stop sign, so I left the sidewalk (fortunately a curb cut right there), crossed the entire street to the EB bike lane (making sure the construction worker saw me and thought my move was okay, as well as checking that the WB traffic was not moving, and no one in the WB bike lane), and resumed my usual route.

[Steve O]

Really great morning today. What with the sunshine and no wind, lovely weather.
Made an unusual (for me) appearance at Monday Morning Pancake Club today where I got to see Dirt & Kayakcyndi for the first time in months. (And FFG for the first time in hours – )
Rode a short distance afterward with dkel before he headed off.
As I exited the Custis, I spotted a green FS hang tag on a bike in Rosslyn. It was being ridden by Adam from Team 1. We were at the same red light, so we had an opportunity to introduce ourselves before we parted to get to our respective offices.
You can’t have a terrific commute like this in your car, that’s for sure.

[Steve O]

@lordofthemark 154401 wrote:

Ah, the great thing about commuting by bike.

I was approaching the the intersection of South Capitol and Eye Street. The southeast corner has a big new residential building going up. This morning there was a really really long truck maneuvering to get into the site. It had blocked the south side sidewalk, the south side (EB) bike lane, the EB general travel lane, and the WB general travel lane. EB cars were backing up into South Cap. So when the light turned green, after crossing far enough to be out of the way of cars turning left from Eye to South Cap, I scooted across the WB general travel lane (where there was no traffic, because it was all blocked) and the WB bike lane (carefully) and bailed to the sidewalk (I never ever take that sidewalk, BTW) as soon as I was past the truck, I saw the WB traffic held up by a construction worker with a stop sign, so I left the sidewalk (fortunately a curb cut right there), crossed the entire street to the EB bike lane (making sure the construction worker saw me and thought my move was okay, as well as checking that the WB traffic was not moving, and no one in the WB bike lane), and resumed my usual route.

Don’t you hate it when construction and crashes and other traffic cloggers extend your commute by 45 seconds. Then you’re late for work. Arrgh!

[Phatboing]

It snowed multiple inches! In Seattle! It was so pretty.

(I was underprepared, having let my purple snowmonster sit around unmaintained for so long)

I need to draft my justification for obtaining a fatbike now.

[bobco85]

@Phatboing 154414 wrote:

It snowed multiple inches! In Seattle! It was so pretty.

(I was underprepared, having let my purple snowmonster sit around unmaintained for so long)

I need to draft my justification for obtaining a fatbike now.

And you thought snow in Seattle was weird? How about the UAE:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/06/middleeast/uae-rare-snow-jebel-jais/

Craziness!

[KLizotte]

Yes, and it is 61 degrees(!) right now on 2/6/17 at 5:00 pm and is expected to hit 69 tomorrow!!! I’m totally down with sending the rest of the world our cold and snow.

[KWL]

@Phatboing 154414 wrote:

It snowed multiple inches! In Seattle! It was so pretty.

(I was underprepared, having let my purple snowmonster sit around unmaintained for so long)

I need to draft my justification for obtaining a fatbike now.

The word “snowed” in your first sentence is all the justification you need.

[Steve O]

@Sunyata 154463 wrote:

I rode to work in shorts this morning!

Sandals for me!
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[Phatboing]

I had to take the bus, because it went below freezing overnight, and if you thought Seattleites didn’t know how to drive in snow … well, see them on ice.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@Phatboing 154479 wrote:

I had to take the bus, because it went below freezing overnight, and if you thought Seattleites didn’t know how to drive in snow … well, see them on ice.

Fact check: true.

[Author]

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