Ride into work for Thursday, 30 March

Took a longer route in this morning as I was due to take an exam and wanted to relax a bit first. The relaxation certainly worked, as I didn't fail the exam. Unfortunately, I didn't pass it, either. The exam was at 10, I was there for 9:45, got all the paperwork done, went in, and... the client machine was unable to make a connection to the test servers in Utah. After an hour sitting reading the crappy selection of magazines (Lexpert, an Oracle magazine, and another one that made so little impression on me I can't even remember what it was called) at the testing centre, I was told that the Novell servers were having problems. I'm now waiting to see if they can get them fixed so I can go in this afternoon and take the test.

If not, I might be taking off a bit early for a ride to do some more relaxing...

Distance logged: 16.615km
Time: 40:45
Average speed: 24.5km/hr
Max speed: 55.6 km/hr
Temperature: 5C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 1810.753km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.42
Monthly distance: 661.000km
Monthly cost per km: $0.48

Ride home for Wednesday, 29 March

It was so warm I was able to ride home without my jacket on, with just a T-shirt - no earwarmers or armwarmers required!

The ride home was a bit of a pain. The traffic due to streets being closed for the Junos didn't help, nor did finding my usual route closed off. Then I had a couple of muppets. The first was going down Connaught turning left onto Edgewood; I signalled to turn left, moved into the left hand lane, then I heard a car slam on the accelerator followed a couple of seconds later by heavy braking, and the muppet leaned on her horn signalling her displeasure at the temerity I had to turn in front of her - never mind the fact that I was going no faster than the car in front (also turning left). The driver of the car in front laughed and shook his head as the muppet screamed past, so he obviously saw exactly what happened...

Muppet number two was an SUV driver as I was coming up Bayers Road to the Joseph Howe intersection. I was freewheeling up to the lights, as they were red, but apparently that wasn't fast enough, so the muppet switched into the right hand lane, floored the accelerator, passed me, then braked hard and swung back into the middle lane. After he stopped, I was mildly amazed to see him take some papers out of a briefcase and start reading them. I watched the lights change, the cars in front of him move off, and after 5 seconds or so waiting for him to stop reading his papers I gave up and ended up going around him in turn. Sheer muppetry...

Distance logged: 14.714km
Time: 42:20
Average speed: 20.9km/hr
Max speed: 49.3 km/hr
Temperature: 13C, sunny, windy
Cumulative distance: 1794.138km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.42
Monthly distance: 644.385km
Monthly cost per km: $0.50

Ride into work for Wednesday, 29 March

Definitely hitting spring with a warm ride in. I saw more cyclists than I could keep track of, including one that I could only describe as a full-blown member of the OCP club.

The bike lane on Brunswick Street was completely blocked off by trucks parked outside the Metro Centre, and one of the trucks was parked halfway into the lane next to it. I called the police station to complain about it, and I was impressed when I received a call within half an hour from a constable on scene. He was extremely apologetic, but said he couldn't do anything, as they were technically legally parked - the Nova Scotia Motor Vehicles Act states that vehicles must not be parked more than 4.5 metres into the roadway, he measured it with a tape measure and they were all (just) within 4.5 metres. I guess this means that in Nova Scotia, bike lanes are de facto parking lanes... Makes me wonder what the point of them is.

Distance logged: 12.718km
Time: 32:32
Average speed: 23.5km/hr
Max speed: 60.5 km/hr
Temperature: 2C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 1779.424km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.43
Monthly distance: 629.671km
Monthly cost per km: $0.51

Ride home for Tuesday, 28 March

A windy ride home, so I wasn't as fast as I was vaguely hoping. There were still plenty of cyclists around, though; tomorrow is forecast to have a high of 12C, so it should be interesting to see what the count is then...

Distance logged: 14.613km
Time: 43:48
Average speed: 20km/hr
Max speed: 49.7 km/hr
Temperature: 7C, sunny, windy
Cumulative distance: 1766.706km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.43
Monthly distance: 616.953km
Monthly cost per km: $0.52

Ride into work for Tuesday, 28 March

Nice sunny ride in this morning, spring is definitely on the way. Saw a lot of cyclists today - I lost count at around 30. I took off the panniers last night as I'm not carrying in enough stuff to make it worthwhile, it seems to have made quite a difference to my speed - although that could be partially due to the lack of wind today, too.

Distance logged: 12.708km
Time: 31:19
Average speed: 24.4km/hr
Max speed: 55.2 km/hr
Temperature: -2C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 1752.093km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.43
Monthly distance: 602.340km
Monthly cost per km: $0.53

Ride home for Monday, 27 March

Went into MEC at lunchtime and picked up a couple of slick tyres, and a new bell to replace the one that got eaten away by salt. My wife wants to start riding her bike to work when the weather gets nice, but she was complaining last year the vibration hurt her wrists. I suspect the semi-slick tyres were too rough, so my plan is to give her the 1.95" 26" tyres off my mountain bike, which should be able to absorb most of the bumps on the road as well as giving a smooth ride, and put the new 1.5" tyres on my mountain bike for a bit more speed.

The ride home was pretty windy, and with my bike having both panniers, the rack trunk, the frame bag, and two tyres cable tied into the rack trunk I was not exactly aerodynamic, so it took a bit of effort - although almost all the traffic gave me an extremely wide berth. Muppet of the day was a jogger who decided to jog on the road; I rang my bell at him to approach, and he swerved to the left in front of me, and when I screeched to a halt he turned around and said, "hey, there's the whole road here you could use, you know!" I noted that I was trying to go around him but he swerved around in front of me, and he responded, "but it's such a nice day, don't be angry!" Not being particularly in the mood to deal with idiots and their non-sequiturs I rode around him and continued on, ending up at the traffic lights crossing Quinpool. He jogged up (on the sidewalk, curiously enough - apparently he didn't feel up to mixing with traffic going at 50km/hr) and started on at me again, "what's your problem, man? There's plenty of room on the road for both of us!" I told him again that I was trying to go around him when he dodged to the left, and his response was again, "it's a nice day! Don't be so angry!" I gave up and stopped listening to him, although he babbled on for a while. I really don't understand joggers who feel the need to run in the road, especially when they're running in the same direction as traffic and can't see what's coming up behind them...

Distance logged: 14.636km
Time: 43:10
Average speed: 20.3km/hr
Max speed: 48.9 km/hr
Temperature: 6C, sunny, windy
Cumulative distance: 1739.385km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.44
Monthly distance: 589.632km
Monthly cost per km: $0.54

Ride into work for Monday, 27 March

Bit of a rough ride in due to (a) carting a bunch of manuals and my laptop back to the office, and (b) only getting about 4 hours' sleep due to a restless sprog. Just to make things perfect, the drinking hose on my water back worked loose, soaking everything in the bottom of my bag - including my laptop. Fortunately, half an hour in the server room next to the dehumidifier dried it out and it worked perfectly afterwards.

Distance logged: 12.708km
Time: 33:05
Average speed: 22.6km/hr
Max speed: 57.3 km/hr
Temperature: -1C, sunny, windy
Cumulative distance: 1724.749km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.41
Monthly distance: 574.996km
Monthly cost per km: $0.47

Ride for Friday, 24 March

I went to the Alley cat race that IdealBikes held; unfortunately I didn't manage to get there on time, the race was at 7:30 and I got there shortly thereafter. I picked up a cue sheet and set off. The majority of the riders headed down to the ferry terminal for their first checkpoint, I decided to head off to the south end and start there - after hearing the repeated whoops and yells I figured it would be safer. I figured without my mapreading skills, which at the best of times aren't particularly stellar, but this time really came to the fore. I believe I set some kind of record; after cycling around for about 40km (according to gmaps - my bike computer died on the way in), I finally got back to Idealbikes at around 11:45 - about 2 hours after the last contestant before me, and around 4 hours in total. For my troubles, I got a gift certificate (reading "gift certificate for English Steve for coming dead last in the alley cat race"), a DVD, a firework, and a cup of beer.

A fun evening overall, but pretty tiring...

The numbers below are approximations based on the time I was out there, so the average speed is my total average speed including the time for me sat there trying to correlate the course map with a real map of Halifax...

Distance logged: 70km
Time: 360:00
Average speed: 11.7km/hr
Temperature: 5C to -1C, clear
Cumulative distance: 1712.041km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.41
Monthly distance: 562.288km
Monthly cost per km: $0.48

Ride home for Tuesday, 21 March

Roger managed to get my bike ready for me, and I now have a custom extra wide range of gears on the back, and smaller rings on the front; since I was snapping so many spokes going uphill we figured a wider range was better, as the alternative was to start stripping weight off my bike. Since I'm toying with the idea of doing a tour this summer a wider range is not a bad thing anyway. I had the chance to put the new gears to the test on the way home; as I'm studying from home for some certs for the rest of the week I had about a foot of books, my laptop, my clothes for the week, both cellphones and chargers and miscellaneous other gubbins, plus by usually 5lbs or so of bike gear. The gears worked out pretty well, even on the steepest of hills I didn't need to stand on the pedals, although my speed was nothing to write home about. I think I may have to change the big ring, the max speed on there was around 45km/hr - although that was riding into the wind. I'll see next time I go into town what it's like riding at high speed in the big ring at 6th gear.

Distance logged: 14.069km
Time: 44:09
Average speed: 19.1km/hr
Max speed: 46.2 km/hr
Temperature: 3C, breezy, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 1642.041km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.43
Monthly distance: 492.288km
Monthly cost per km: $0.55

Ride into work for Tuesday, 21 March

Rode my hybrid bike in today; I fixed it up enough over the weekend for it to be marginally rideable, however I had no middle ring, and gears 2-5 were iffy, so I essentially had the big ring and small ring in gears 1 and 6; great for steep hills, but on anything else a bit of a chore to ride. I'd also forgotten how comfortable my Brooks saddle is to ride, that was a pleasant surprise.

I took the bike in at lunchtime to IdealBikes; new crank set, cassette, chain, tuneup and bar tape (to replace the crappy worn-out rubber grips) is going to set me back somewhere in the region of $160. Painful, but still a lot cheaper than, say, replacing the transmission on a car. Roger reckons he can get it ready for me to ride home this afternoon, too.

Distance logged: 12.712km
Time: 34:002
Average speed: 22.2km/hr
Max speed: 60.2 km/hr
Temperature: -2C, breezy, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 1627.972km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.34
Monthly distance: 478.219km
Monthly cost per km: $0.23

Ride home for Monday, 20 March

The weather got back to normal for Nova Scotia for this time of year by afternoon - around the freezing point, and windy. I saw 8 other cyclists and all of them (except the kid of about 10 who I regularly see cycling home on the sidewalk) were all riding on the road, in the right direction, without headphones, and paying attention to the traffic.

With any luck the weather should be good enough tomorrow that I can take my hybrid bike in and get the drivetrain changed over and the bike generally prepped for spring. Since I'm going to be working from home the rest of this week studying for an exam it's the only chance I'm going to get...

Distance logged: 14.117km
Time: 43:16
Average speed: 19.6km/hr
Max speed: 46.2 km/hr
Temperature: 1C, windy
Cumulative distance: 1615.260km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.34
Monthly distance: 465.507km
Monthly cost per km: $0.23

Ride into work for Monday, 20 March

So much for the alleged first day of spring, it's normally supposed to be hovering around the freezing point at this time of year...

Distance logged: 12.640km
Time: 33:54
Average speed: 22.4km/hr
Max speed: 60.5 km/hr
Temperature: -7C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 1601.143km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.34
Monthly distance: 451.390km
Monthly cost per km: $0.24

Ride home for Friday, 17 March

Downtown Halifax was filled with drunken muppets... Any sign of green was pretty much a sign of trouble. The upside of the drunken muppets staggering around was that drivers were extremely paranoid, and a lot of them seemed to have gone home early. Once I got out of the downtown core, the roads were almost completely empty up until I hit Bayers Road, where there was a traffic jam tailing back from Bayers Road and Romans Ave to Bayers Road and Joseph Howe - less than a kilometre, but for Halifax it was quite a traffic jam. Since the traffic was stopped I split the lanes and rode down between the cars and caught the green light at Joe Howe - I don't know what the traffic jam was from but there was nothing on the other side of the lights, and after I got onto Central Ave the traffic was dead again...

Distance logged: 14.105km
Time: 43:54
Average speed: 19.3km/hr
Max speed: 45 km/hr
Temperature: 0C, cloudy, breezy
Cumulative distance: 1588.503km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.34
Monthly distance: 438.750km
Monthly cost per km: $0.25

Ride into work for Friday, 17 March

A pretty uneventful ride in, but I suspect things might be a bit different on the ride home, as St Patrick's day tends to be pretty well celebrated in Halifax - and with it being on a Friday this year, is bound to start early...

Distance logged: 12.640km
Time: 34:001
Average speed: 22.2km/hr
Max speed: 60.5 km/hr
Temperature: -5C, breezy
Cumulative distance: 1574.398km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.35
Monthly distance: 424.645km
Monthly cost per km: $0.26

Ride home for Thursday, 16 March

Windy ride home, started off fairly clear and then about halfway through it started snowing, heavier and heavier. As I got onto the fire trail, it stopped, and it looked like the snow never even hit the fire trail. I was getting all sorts of odd looks from the pedestrians on the trail, it wasn't till I got home that I realised I was coated in snow across the front of my jacket and helmet...

Distance logged: 14.111km
Time: 43:39
Average speed: 19.4km/hr
Max speed: 44 km/hr
Temperature: 0C, windy, snow
Cumulative distance: 1561.758km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.35
Monthly distance: 412.005km
Monthly cost per km: $0.27

Ride into work for Thursday, 16 March

Rode in via Bedford for a Dr's appointment. Bit chilly out, but at least it didn't snow. It's looking like I might be able to do without my studded tyres, with any luck...

Distance logged: 38.619km
Time: 93:39
Average speed: 24.7km/hr
Max speed: 56.7 km/hr
Temperature: -4C to -1C, cloudy, breezy
Cumulative distance: 1547.647km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.35
Monthly distance: 397.894km
Monthly cost per km: $0.27

Ride home for Wednesday, 15 March

Windy ride home, but no snow. It ended up snowing fairly heavily for the first part of the morning, and I was worried I'd have to go pick up some knobby tyres, but it was pretty much all gone by midday, and the roads were dry by the time I headed home.

Muppet of the day was the woman who beeped repeatedly at me while I was taking the lane passing a line of parked cars. At the red light, she pulled up beside me and wound down her window, and we had the following conversation:

Me: "What were you beeping your horn at me for?"
Muppet: "You were in the middle of the road, I couldn't pass you, you should have been further to the right!"
Me: "Well, I was passing the parked cars, and I needed enough space to make sure I wouldn't get hit by a door if someone opened their door."
Muppet: "You had more than enough space! You were this far away from the cars, you had more than enough space!" - muppet moved her hands either side of the steering wheel, maybe three feet.
Me: "Riiiight. You might want to read the MVA some time".
Muppet: Some snarled response I didn't hear because I turned my head to watch the traffic light.

She continued muttering on, and was obviously irritated at me still because she revved her engine repeatedly behind me when she couldn't overtake me on the intersection because other cars had the temerity to want to wait for the road to clear before turning. She finally managed to overtake me, flooring the accelerator and beeping her horn all the while before stopping at the next red light 300 metres ahead.

Sometimes, I think some drivers get their license in a cereal packet.

Distance logged: 14.115km
Time: 44:006
Average speed: 19.2km/hr
Max speed: 45 km/hr
Temperature: 2C, windy
Cumulative distance: 1509.028km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.36
Monthly distance: 359.275km
Monthly cost per km: $0.3

Ride into work for Wednesday, 15 March

When I looked out of the window before heading down to get ready this morning, it was hailing - never a good sign. It stopped by the time I set off, but before long the snow flurries started up. I saw 6 cyclists this morning, 4 on the sidewalk, and one that started on the sidewalk and then jumped over the curb onto the road, cutting off a car.

Distance logged: 12.638km
Time: 34:009
Average speed: 22.2km/hr
Max speed: 60 km/hr
Temperature: 0C, breezy, flurries
Cumulative distance: 1494.913km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.37
Monthly distance: 345.160km
Monthly cost per km: $0.32

Ride home for Tuesday, 14 March

The weather for the ride home was much the same as this morning, except wetter and windier. Had another muppet today when I was turning onto Bayer's Road from Romans Ave (just about where last month's muppet of the month had his little temper tantrum); he appeared to be particularly annoyed at me for being in front of him as I turned, forcing him into the left-hand lane (where he was going anyway to get on the 101 highway). He beeped his horn at me, so I waved back and smiled at him, thinking vaguely that he was a co-worker or something. He waved his middle finger at me and sped off. I took some amusement at the thought of the poetic justice of him stewing over me waving and smiling at him instead of reacting angrily, which will probably hasten the arrival of the muppet's stress related heart attack by a few hours. Hopefully Darwin's posse will catch up to him sooner rather than later...

Distance logged: 14.877km
Time: 41:15
Average speed: 21.6km/hr
Max speed: 55.4 km/hr
Temperature: 8C, rainy, windy
Cumulative distance: 1482.275km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.37
Monthly distance: 332.522km
Monthly cost per km: $0.33

Ride into work for Tuesday, 14 March

Went in late this morning due to working late last night. There was a rainfall warning for today, I think I timed it just right as I didn't get anything more than drizzle, it was mostly spray. Parts of the ride were pretty foggy though, then the wind kicked in and cleared it away. It's days like this that make me hope for an early summer...

Distance logged: 12.646km
Time: 37:32
Average speed: 20.2km/hr
Max speed: 52 km/hr
Temperature: 6C, drizzle, fog, breezy
Cumulative distance: 1467.398km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.37
Monthly distance: 317.645km
Monthly cost per km: $0.34

Ride home for Monday, 13 March

Working late tonight so rode home in the dark - first time in a while! The nice weather has brought out a lot of sidewalk cyclists, I was almost knocked over twice walking over to my job these evening. Only one of the cyclists I saw had any lights, too.

Distance logged: 12.889km
Time: 36:16
Average speed: 21.3km/hr
Max speed: 50.2 km/hr
Temperature: 5C, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 1454.752km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 304.999km
Monthly cost per km: $0.36

Ride into work for Monday, 13 March

Spring definitely seems to be in the air. I saw a lot of other cyclists out today, too. March break starts this week, so traffic on the road was a lot quieter, as well. Not a bad ride in, all told!

Distance logged: 12.549km
Time: 31:57
Average speed: 23.6km/hr
Max speed: 56.2 km/hr
Temperature: 4C, sunny, breezy
Cumulative distance: 1441.863km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 292.110km
Monthly cost per km: $0.37

Ride for Sunday, 12 March

Rode down to Tantallon and back. I switched my tyres for slicks since it looks like the snow is over for the season (although, this being a province where snow in June is not unheard of, I kept the studded tyre on my spare front wheel). I'd forgotten how much rolling resistance the studded tyres have, and was pleasantly surprised when I started off by how smooth the ride was.

I started off on the BLT trail, which wasn't too bad, but after about 10km degenerated into a muddy morass. I came off as soon as I could (which wasn't for another 10km or so) and took the road the rest of the way. I took the trail to avoid the headwind, but hit straight back into it when I got back on the road. I was thinking about doing a run down to Peggy's Cove, but with the wind the way it was in Tantallon I didn't fancy taking an exposed coastal road and fighting the wind for the best part of 75km...

Distance logged: 50.785km
Time: 126:21
Average speed: 24.1km/hr
Max speed: 47.6 km/hr
Temperature: 7C-11C, sunny, windy
Cumulative distance: 1429.314km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 279.561km
Monthly cost per km: $0.39

Ride home for Friday, 10 March

Left early as the lack of sleep through the week was starting to catch up with me. I left just in time to hit a rainstorm, it was bad enough that I couldn't see anything through my glasses and had to tip them down on my nose and look over the top. At least I had a few tailwinds, though...

Distance logged: 14.967km
Time: 44:50
Average speed: 20km/hr
Max speed: 55 km/hr
Temperature: 2C, rain, wind
Cumulative distance: 1378.529km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.4
Monthly distance: 228.776km
Monthly cost per km: $0.48

Ride into work for Friday, 10 March

Pretty nasty ride in, with a fairly random mixture of stuff falling from the sky. Oddly enough, I didn't see any other cyclists on the road today...

Distance logged: 12.696km
Time: 38:17
Average speed: 19.9km/hr
Max speed: 52.1 km/hr
Temperature: -1C, snow, ice pellets, freezing rain, breezy
Cumulative distance: 1363.562km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.4
Monthly distance: 213.809km
Monthly cost per km: $0.51

Ride into work for Friday, 10 March

Pretty nasty ride in, with a fairly random mixture of stuff falling from the sky. Oddly enough, I didn't see any other cyclists on the road today...

Distance logged: 12.696km
Time: 38:17
Average speed: 19.9km/hr
Max speed: 52.1 km/hr
Temperature: -1C, snow, ice pellets, freezing rain, breezy
Cumulative distance: 1363.562km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.4
Monthly distance: 213.809km
Monthly cost per km: $0.51

Ride home for Thursday, 09 March

Things are starting to warm up and I'm not wearing so many layers home. I'm also seeing more cyclists on the road, which is good and bad; good from the point of view that the more cyclists are on the road, the more careful drivers will be, and bad from the point of view that at least some of them are going to be headphone wearing, wrong-way riding, no-signalling muppets. Definitely time to dig out the Airzound horn.

I changed the front brakes this evening, they were squealing horribly loudly. I adjusted them last night to see if it would help, but it just made it worse. Still, I got most of the winter out of them, so I can't complain. There's some funny rough patches on the surface, I have a suspicion that half an hour fiddling with sandpaper might smooth the surface out enough for them to be usable again. I didn't have the time this evening, though, so I just chucked another set on. The new brakes will squeal as well until they break in, but at least that shouldn't take too long - a couple of downhill descents at 50km/hr should do the trick.

Distance logged: 14.936km
Time: 43:40
Average speed: 20.5km/hr
Max speed: 47.6 km/hr
Temperature: 4C, cloudy
Cumulative distance: 1350.866km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.4
Monthly distance: 201.113km
Monthly cost per km: $0.54

Ride into work for Thursday, 09 March

There was a light coating of snow on the ground from flurries overnight, but nothing much on the road - it had already melted by the time I left. Surprisingly fast ride in seeing as my knee is still iffy, I think it might be the air being less dense due to the warmer temperature.

Distance logged: 12.740km
Time: 34:23
Average speed: 22.2km/hr
Max speed: 54.5 km/hr
Temperature: -4C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 1335.930km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.41
Monthly distance: 186.177km
Monthly cost per km: $0.59

Ride home for Wednesday, 08 March

My left knee is giving me gyp again, I think the lack of sleep over the past few days has aggravated it. I skipped the fire trail at the first turnoff and went up via the school as the sucking mud wasn't really helping my pedalling...

Distance logged: 14.953km
Time: 43:19
Average speed: 20.7km/hr
Max speed: 47.2 km/hr
Temperature: 3C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 1323.190km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.41
Monthly distance: 173.437km
Monthly cost per km: $0.63

Ride into work for Wednesday, 08 March

Late ride in due to being paged twice last night. Lack of sleep makes it more difficult to pedal faster, surprisingly enough.

Distance logged: 12.675km
Time: 35:27
Average speed: 21.5km/hr
Max speed: 50.3 km/hr
Temperature: 0C, light snow, breezy
Cumulative distance: 1308.237km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.42
Monthly distance: 158.484km
Monthly cost per km: $0.69

Ride home for Tuesday, 07 March

Went to MEC and picked up a new pair of cycling pants as mine are pretty much shot at - after being repaired multiple times, they're now so worn the fabric is shredding. I also picked up a new chain and some more chain links, if I'm lucky the chains I have now will last me until all the salt is washed off the roads but I'm not going to count on it.

As it was a nice morning I rode back through Point Pleasant Park. Now that the weather is starting to pick up I'm going to put my airhorn back on, I had two dogs approach me in an aggressive manner with the owners doing nothing about it.

Distance logged: 21.178km
Time: 62:49
Average speed: 20.2km/hr
Max speed: 52.9 km/hr
Temperature: 3C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 1295.562km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.42
Monthly distance: 145.809km
Monthly cost per km: $0.75

Ride into work for Tuesday, 07 March

Rode in at 2:30am today as I had an outage to do at work. For some reason there were several groups of 4-5 males of student age hanging around waiting for cabs as I went through the city. Must be nice!

Took the long way into work as I was running ahead of schedule and it was a nice morning for a ride.

Distance logged: 16.684km
Time: 46:47
Average speed: 21.4km/hr
Max speed: 55.8 km/hr
Temperature: -4C
Cumulative distance: 1274.384km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.34
Monthly distance: 124.631km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Apropos of nothing...

More to keep a note for myself (and for anyone googling) than anything involved even tangentially with bikes:

The 2.6 Linux kernel doesn't have the netdev_random patches included, so headless Linux boxes doing things like IPSec tunnels, SSH, and SMTP with TLS can run out of randomness from /dev/random (as displayed in /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail). This can be fixed by editing the driver for the network card and adding the SA_SAMPLE_RANDOM handler. For example, here's the 3c59x.c file after I added the handler:

if (request_irq(dev->irq, vp->full_bus_master_rx ?
                &boomerang_interrupt : &vortex_interrupt, SA_SHIRQ | SA_SAMPLE_RANDOM, dev->name, dev)) {
       printk(KERN_WARNING "%s: Could not reserve IRQ %d\n", dev->name, dev->irq);
       pci_disable_device(pdev);
       return -EBUSY;
}

This twinned with clrngd adds just enough entropy that the system doesn't block due to running out of entropy. If I could use the SA_RANDOM flag somewhere in the driver for the USB NIC that's on the external connection I could probably do without clrngd, too.

Ride home for Monday, 06 March

The weather seems to be on an upswing, the low this week is forecast to be -6, with daily highs of 2C. The thaw meant the fire trail on the way home was an absolute mess, making it really difficult to pedal.

Thanks to some crappy programming I'm going to be going into work for 4AM tomorrow to reboot a Win2K server. At least the roads should be pretty clear...

Distance logged: 14.218km
Time: 42:29
Average speed: 20.1km/hr
Max speed: 46.1 km/hr
Temperature: 2C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 1257.700km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.35
Monthly distance: 107.947km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride into work for Monday, 06 March

No ride over the weekend, I had too much to do on Saturday and it was too windy on Sunday. I cleaned up my bike on Sunday and tweaked the handlebar position a bit so I could stretch out further; it seems to have had an impact on my speed, I was noticeably quicker this morning.

Muppet of the day was the driver who overtook me on Brunswick Street whilst I was in the bike lane, then hauled to a stop, parking half in the bike lane, so he could pick someone up. I hauled on the brakes but couldn't go around him because there was another car coming up behind me. I was forced (forced, I tell you!) to use the percussive impact method to stop myself - specifically, by using my boot to absorb kinetic energy against the muppet's rear left light cluster.

Distance logged: 12.673km
Time: 34:30
Average speed: 22km/hr
Max speed: 60 km/hr
Temperature: -2C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 1243.482km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.35
Monthly distance: 93.729km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride home for Friday, 03 March

I'm starting to see a pattern that when it warms up over about -6 or so, it gets a bit windy. It was -4 on the way home, therefore, it was windy.

I should have taken up a career in meteorology, where by now I could be... making the coffee, probably.

Distance logged: 14.201km
Time: 45:59
Average speed: 18.5km/hr
Max speed: 47.2 km/hr
Temperature: -4C, cloudy, windy
Cumulative distance: 1230.809km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.36
Monthly distance: 81.056km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride into work for Friday, 03 March

Nice sunny ride in, and the wind seems to finally be abating. Maybe I'll get the chance to head out for a ride this weekend...

Distance logged: 12.694km
Time: 36:32
Average speed: 20.8km/hr
Max speed: 55 km/hr
Temperature: -15C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 1216.608km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.36
Monthly distance: 66.855km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride home for Thursday, 02 March

Left work early due to being tired from being paged overnight. Fast ride home, probably due to the fact that I was taking the fast route, and there was less traffic on the road.

Muppet of the day was the minivan driver who wanted to turn right whilst I was in his way, and tried to overtake me to turn right in front of me - approximately 10 metres from the turn. He hauled on his brakes when he saw he wasn't going to make it, so I hauled on mine in case he jackrabbitted in front of me, and I slowly drove along watching him. All in all, I think the muppet cost himself around 30 seconds time waiting, as opposed to the 5 seconds' time he tried to save himself.

SueJ has a great post over at Urbana-champaign bicycle commute commenting on how cycling has affected her life for the better. I definitely relate to how she feels, and the comment about the temptations of beer and pasta and chocolate are spot on...

Distance logged: 14.527km
Time: 43:25
Average speed: 20.1km/hr
Max speed: 45.7 km/hr
Temperature: -9C, sunny
Cumulative distance: 1203.914km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.36
Monthly distance: 54.161km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride into work for Thursday, 02 March

A surprisingly fast ride into work given that I'm extremely tired due to being paged twice overnight with problems from servers (in both cases, due to unscheduled ISP outages... gah!)

Distance logged: 12.713km
Time: 35:20
Average speed: 21.6km/hr
Max speed: 54.2 km/hr
Temperature: -12C, clear
Cumulative distance: 1189.387km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.37
Monthly distance: 39.634km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride home for Wednesday, 01 March

Sunny ride home, but the wind was a real bugger - it was gusting all over the place, constantly changing direction. It didn't help with the wind chill either, that was -22C as it was, with riding the bike as well I'm guessing it was approaching -30C. This was one of those days that make me look forward to a still summer's day - one of those days when I'll be wishing it was winter again and not so hot...

Distance logged: 14.214km
Time: 46:57
Average speed: 18.2km/hr
Max speed: 48.4 km/hr
Temperature: -12C, sunny, windy
Cumulative distance: 1176.674km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.37
Monthly distance: 26.921km
Monthly cost per km: $0

Ride into work for Wednesday, 01 March

Another grey ride. On the upside, the vernal equinox will occur later this month, so the weather should start to pick up.

Distance logged: 12.707km
Time: 36:23
Average speed: 21km/hr
Max speed: 55.9 km/hr
Temperature: -12C, cloudy, breezy
Cumulative distance: 1162.460km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.38
Monthly distance: 12.707km
Monthly cost per km: $0