It Gets Easier

Well...I rode in to work for the second time this year today! That's twice in three weeks. Considering how little I bike commuted in 2012, this is very promising.

It helped that I left after 7 am today whereas the last time I tried to get the jump around 6:30 am (more sun!). Also the weather in general was just warmer, too. I doubled up my socks, including some new wool socks I bought, but my poor little toes were still cold. Ah well, such is life. After dusting the cobwebs off last time, my day of riding went much easier. Sad to say, but my legs were pretty sore after the previous commute, and I needed a few days to recover. As I write this a few hours after getting home, I'm feeling pretty good.

Another amazing sunset

In case you're new to my blog and haven't read about the origin of the name Bike21, take a peek at the About page. I recently saw this article that tells a similar story to how I started bike commuting:

The 21 Day Challenge

 

Bike To Work Day is coming

Bike to Work Day is this Friday May 18 in San Diego (and elsewhere). I am planning to break a long layoff from my bike commute. I will try to hit up a couple of the pit rest stops on my way in. Remember to say thanks to the volunteers! Hope you get out there, whether you ride daily, or if it's your first ride ever, or first of the year (like me).

Mini Bike Commute

I had to bring our van in for service on Wednesday. As I've taken to doing in the past year when I get a car serviced, I bring my bike along and ride in to work. The auto shop is very close to my office. It is roughly 1.5 miles and only takes 6-7 minutes. I've been to the dealership nearby in the past and used the free shuttle. One time it took almost an hour for me to get dropped off, between waiting for the driver and having other customers get dropped off first. The short bicycle ride is definitely more convenient for me. Anyway, it was good to ride in to work again. I'll be back at the shop on Friday to get something else fixed, so I know I will get to ride my bike another time this week!

The photo of the day is a leftover from my twilight ride on Monday. No filters/post-processing on this image!

That ride reminded me that I still need to pick up a new rear blinky that will attach to one of my seat stays. I was a little under-lit with only that tiny Knog rear light (you can just make it out in the photo). I'm leaning towards the PDW Radbot over the ubiquitous SuperFlash from PlanetBike (or the new SuperFlash Turbo).

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I should learn not to foreshadow future posts, because then I end up not getting around to writing them, but...I'll have a couple more recommended blogs for Friday's post.

Oh, yeah, I have a blog

Almost forgot again that I have a blog. I had drafted a post back in May, but I never finished it, so it won't see the light of day. Basically it was a reminder that May was National Bike Month, including Bike to Work Day. I hope you celebrated appropriately.

I bike commuted on Bike to Work Day. There were more people out on their bikes that morning, which is always a treat. I followed this guy for awhile and then we traded the lead a couple times before I turned off at my office.

It was my first commute on new Schwalbe (rhymes with Alba) Marathon tires I got for the San Diego Century ride, which was the very next day. It turned out to be my fastest commute to work, but I'm not sure it was the superior rolling resistance of the tires or the adrenalin of playing "I'm not really trying to race you, but I sorta am" with the fellow pictured above. I didn't even stop at any of the sponsored pit stops this year. I was running a few minutes behind and I just wanted to get to work.

In a wise decision not to tire myself out for the 66 mile ride the next day, I arranged to get a ride home with my in-laws. I want to devote an entire post to the San Diego Century ride, so I'll save that for another day (hopefully soon).

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I don't want to quit just yet, though...

I do want to mention that I took a test ride of a Globe Live 2. Globe, for those unaware, is a spinoff brand of Specialized that "specializes" (see what I did there?) in urban bikes. It's like the Scion to Toyota except Specialized bikes are not as boring as Toyota cars are and the Globe bikes did not originate as funky cars sold in the Japanese market. Anyway, you get my drift.

photo credit: Globe Bikes

The Live (I think it's pronounced like "give" - short i, not "hive" - long i) is a nice town bike with a sturdy integrated front cargo basket/rack.

The "2" is the mid-level trim and comes equipped with a Shimano Nexus 8-speed internal gear hub instead of a traditional derailleur gear mechanism. Shifting is provided by a twist-grip shifter. This is a nice drivetrain, especially for new cyclists. Simple, wide gear range, and you can even shift at a stop. It was with this ease-of-use in mind that I was looking at this bike. It has a nice upright position and cool extras, too, like color-matched fenders, a bell and a double-leg kickstand. I thought it would make a nice bike for my wife. So far, she's not really interested, but that has nothing to do with this specific bike.

The mixte frame is sweet looking, too. That's the one I wanted. For her.

photo credit: Flickr/shebicycles

Back in the Saddle

It’s been awhile since my last post (whoa, first since October and first of 2011!). Much of that has to do with me not making my bike commute on a regular basis pretty much since September. I definitely had no rides after the fall time change. I have a few bike commutes under my belt in 2011, but it's been a slow start.

As I think I have mentioned before, I haven’t been keen on riding home in the pitch dark on the parts of my commute with high-speed car traffic (basically the start of my ride home from work). I have lights but they’re more of the be-seen-in-the-dark variety than the see-in-the-dark variety. The days have been getting longer again, though, and already the spring time change is upon us. Hmmm...This makes it darker in the evening again for a little while, right??  

I don’t remember having many issues with available light last year at this time. Though last year at this time I was doing the partial bike commute to the park & ride 6 miles from work. These days I’m only doing the 15 mile door-to-door commute, so obviously I’m out on the road longer. It is dark by the time I reach home.

In addition to the darkness issue, I have also just been having a hard time again getting ready to leave early enough to ride in. I did get into a pretty good routine for most of 2010, so I’m looking forward to getting back into those good habits again for 2011.

Back in it, sorta

Email exchange with my wife today went something like this:

Her: Lunch?

Me: I biked in, so you'd have to pick me up

Her: Nevermind...time constraints. PS - Let me know if I need to pick you up [meaning after work]

Of course I declined...

So as you might have guessed, I resumed my bike commute today. Last time I rode to work was August 27, and I explained what happened in my last post. I briefly thought about reverting to my old drive half/bike half commute for today. I decided against that partly because I thought I could deal with the 30 mile round trip, and partly just because I'm lazy and loading the bike into the car was something I didn't want to deal with. So that was that.

It felt great to be out there riding again. The morning was cool & foggy. The fog was probably not ideal as far as visibility goes (cars seeing me, that is), but I was thankful it wasn't hot. I made a conscious effort not to push myself and I'd even managed to leave with enough extra time so I could take a slower pace and not worry about being late to work.

I only packed a few apple slices to snack on once I got to work and a turkey sandwich for lunch. My legs started to feel tired as the day wore on and by the afternoon I was getting really hungry for a snack. I kept hydrated hoping that would quell some of the hunger. I was looking forward to the ride home, though.

Anyway, 5:00 pm hit and I was on my way. I was expecting it to be clear, sunny & warm for the ride home but the clouds were making their way in. As usual Kearny Villa Rd had a headwind ready for me as I headed north, but otherwise the conditions were like the morning so I couldn't really complain.

I hit the first climb and I could tell I'd lost some strength after not riding for awhile. I wouldn't say it was a painful climb but I was going painfully slow, geared down (unfortunately) as low as I could go. I thought about stopping at the shopping center atop the hill (there's a Starbucks there after all) but kept at it. The next part of the hill wasn't bad, but again I just kept it slow & steady. A right turn to crest up to the peak of the road traversing the north side of Black Mountain and I was nearly home free. I only had about 2 miles to go. From there it is a longish downhill, but unfortunately one more climb to reach home. As I crawled up the crest my quads were starting to burn, then cramp a little. I thought again about the email, the chance for a ride home. I thought about the last hill and possibly hurting myself again. I thought of not being able to ride for another month.

I pulled over and called home. I'll be back again soon enough.

Mr. Bus Driver, move that bus!

Darn buses kept getting in my way on the bike commute home. At one point I managed to catch the confluence of, I think, 3 buses on part of my route. They insisted on taking turns getting in front of me and letting passengers off.

Of course when a bus pulls over it completely blocks the bike lane. The evening rush hour traffic was heavy enough that it precluded me from even thinking about taking the lane to pass the bus on the left. It didn't seem worth the risk.

So I slowed down and waited. I guess there are worse things that could happen.

Just when I thought

Just when I thought I was getting stronger on hills, a guy passes me on the last climb on my way home like I was standing still. I know it's all relative. He was on a nice titanium Moots bike and here's me on my 25 lb steel cross-muter with a backpack to boot. Oh well. I was happy to ride past a long backup of cars that had spilled over to the side streets because of heavy traffic on the freeway this morning. That's what I get for gloating.

Bike Commutes #16 to 21, in review

The last Bike Commute I really blogged about was #15, I think. Bike Commute #16 was pretty routine, at least I can't remember a thing about it now. I managed to jam Bike Commutes # 17 - 20 all in one week.

During spring break, the elementary school was closed. My mom came down to watch the kids for the week, so we didn't have to take any days off of work. I drove in to work on Monday that week, like usual. Tuesday we decided I would leave a car for my mom & the kids to use and I would carpool with my wife part way and then she would drop me off and I would bike to work. This would be a longer bike commute than normal, but I was up for the challenge.

 

Bike 21: Official!

This is sort of anti-climatic, but on April 14, 2010 I finally reached Bike Commute #21! Hooray!

At the outset of my venture into bike commuting, my goal was to ride to work 21 times. The reasoning being that it generally takes doing something for 21 days to really make it a habit. I'm stretching a bit since I knew I wouldn't be able to bike commute every work day for 21 days in a row. Still, 21 bike commutes seemed like a worthy goal. I started off in July 2009, and it was a rough start. I averaged one bike commute per month through the end of the year. Though my wife initially suggested that I could get a new bike upon reaching my goal, she let me get a new bike early on my birthday in December. You can see pics of my Masi Speciale CX here.

The new bike proved to be a jump starter, though, and as of today, I am averaging one bike commute per week for 2010. Another small motivator has been the friendly competition I've dubbed the Bike Commute Mileage Challenge that a co-worker started between us (or rather between fictional representations of ourselves, lest it get too personal, perhaps?). Initially I was hesitant to get into any kind of contest, friendly or not, since I was struggling to get started and my co-worker had been frequently riding his bike to work for awhile. Funny what a new bike and a new baby will do. Now the tables have turned. For me the new bike has been an effective stimulus for riding more, and getting the Wednesday commute routine down was also key. On the flip side, the joys and realities of fatherhood (and arranging day care) have slowed down my compadre substantially.

I've got close to 290 miles on my Masi now. That's great, but in terms of offsetting my automobile use, that 's not quite equivalent to a full tank of gas in my 2003 Saab 9-5 wagon, which averages about 22 mpg. That's a little disappointing to look at it that way, but it's better than if I was not bike commuting at all, right? You have to start somewhere.

So, what's next? If I stick to the once per week bike commute, I should be able to rack up at least 500 miles total for the year. Maybe my next goal will be to ride twice a week. I want to test the waters on some longer distance riding, but I also want to do a lot more utility cycling. I want to ride with my kids and get them excited about riding bikes. I need to get them off training wheels!

Part of my Twitter bio says: "(aspiring) part-time bike commuter." I think I'll take off the "aspiring" part now! I'm a full-fledged part-time bike commuter. Look out!

(Oh, by the way, today was Bike Commute #22. A post summarizing Bike Commutes #16-21 should be coming soon.)

Bike 21 Commuting Habit tips, 1st edition

Now that I've got bike commute #21 in sight (you know, to make my bike commute habit "official"), I thought I would just share a few thoughts on my bike commuting experience so far. None of these are earth-shattering revelations, but I think are worth repeating here for anyone just getting into bike commuting.

1) Be prepared to ride. It seems like this goes without saying, but if you don't ride everyday, this is pretty critical. Every other tip is basically a corollary from this basic axiom. Early on I would try to pick my bike commute days at the spur of the moment while getting ready in the morning. Instant recipe for failure. There was always something I was missing or needed to do that slowed me down and caused me to abandon the ride.

2) Coordinate with your family. Well, that is if you have a family or someone else that depends on you to be home at a certain time. There were several days I wanted to ride but for one reason or another I needed to be home at a certain time or to pick up the kids from school. Plan ahead of time to avoid these conflicts. Set a recurring appointment in your Outlook/Google/iCal calendar and share/invite your wife, significant other, mom, parole officer, etc. so they remember you will be riding that day.

3) Pick the day(s) you know you have the lowest chance of a conflict and stick to it. There are always exceptions, of course. I figured out Wednesday was the best day for me to ride, so I plan on riding every Wednesday. Monday mornings being what they are, Mondays were out immediately. Tuesdays & Thursdays my kids have activities after school so those days were out. Fridays I usually like to get home as soon as possible, but this is my backup day if I miss my Wednesday ride.

4) Leave a change of clothes, toiletries, etc. at work. I had read this tip before on another cycling web site, but it took me awhile to come around. When I started seriously trying to bike commute I bought a rack for my bike and a set of panniers. I would load up the panniers with my change of clothes, a change of shoes, a towel, and the sundries I needed to shower at work. The stupid thing about that is I have sets of work polo shirts and pants provided to me for my job and a pair of work boots already at work. I don't normally wear them, though. Now I've been leaving a pair of jeans, some underwear and socks, and some basic white tees in my cubicle to change into when I ride to work. Then I will also wear one of the polo shirts and my boots. The work pants are really horrible; they are pleated and too baggy. I just can't bring myself to wear them. Anyway, if you don't have room to keep things at your job or don't have showers, then I guess you can stick with panniers or a backpack to hold your gear and then try to clean up with wipes or just the bathroom sink and a towel.

5) Check your bike the night before. Again, this is more critical if you only ride once or twice a week like I do. Air up your tires. Make sure you didn't remove anything from your bike that you might need, like say lights or tools from your saddle bag. Make sure your saddle is still attached to your bike. I saw a guy biking to work with no saddle one day. That couldn't have been fun.

Some optional tips:

• Have a helmet to wear. I think there is a saying: "Opinions about helmet use are like a**holes...everybody knows one and he doesn't wear a helmet." No..."A**holes are like helmets, everybody has stuck their head in one." No..."Helmets are like opinions, you either have one or you don't, a**hole." No, that's not it, either. Oh, nevermind. My recommendation: wear a helmet.
• Carry a spare tube. Also, make sure it is the right size for your tire. I think I have three spare tubes for my 26" mountain bike. I don't have any spare 700c tubes for my other bike. that. I. use. to. bike. commute. Hmmm...

Well, that's it for now. Look out for more bike commuting tips in the future. Maybe.

Ouch, my pride hurts!

Oh, why is it that stupid stuff keeps happening to me? Or is it that I keep happening into stupid stuff?

I've had my share of spills since I started cycling. There's the inevitable trail crashes while mountain biking, and the falling at intersections while learning to ride clipless pedals...c'mon, I'm not the only one, right?

Well, Friday morning I had a fall during my bike commute. Yes, a fall. I didn't crash into anything. I just...fell down. I was not seriously injured, thank goodness. But I feel really stupid about the whole thing. So embarrassed that I am writing about it for the whole internets to read. Luckily, only a few people read this blog.

That's more like it

Thankfully the rain from last night had moved on by early morning, so the sky was dry and the roads were, too. I shuttled the kids off to school and scrambled to get my gear together.

I started off slow, befitting of the colder weather, and tried to ease into the ride. First bike I spotted was going the opposite way. I glanced over not sure if the guy saw me. Sure enough, he looked up and gave me a wave. I waved back. See now? That was nice. I immediately felt like this was going to be a good ride.

Half-way point and I could see someone in the distance ahead of me. I could tell I was going to catch them...in time. I could see this rider was in plain clothes, jeans and a coat, and he was wrestling with keeping his messenger bag in place on his back. As I approached, a few feet away now, I cupped one hand toward my mouth and yelled out, "On your left!" I then extended a "Good morning!" as I passed next to the other rider. He provided an appropriate response - I can't remember exactly what he said. After what happened last week, I told myself I should take no satisfaction in passing up that guy.

And it was good that I didn't because just a bit later, someone alerted me to their presence behind me. They also greeted me as they passed, so I couldn't be mad at that. And wouldn't you know, I think it was the same guy that I had first spotted earlier in my ride. He had turned around and passed me on the way back! He was riding a nice Cervélo bike that probably costs three or four times my bike, so I really shouldn't feel too bad.

On the way home, I passed the same gentleman that I saw last week. I greeted him again and went on with my ride. Overall, I'm happy with the commute today because of the brief interactions I shared.

I'll probably stop ranting about whether people say hi to me or not.

Pass-Fail (Bike Commute #9, Part 2)

About 2 miles into my ride home last Wednesday I spotted another bicycle up ahead. I locked in with the mission of passing said bike. It was a guy just cruising along; he was making no effort to be in any hurry. From what I could tell this man was riding his bike out of necessity, not any particular passion for bikes or desire to reduce his carbon footprint. He probably didn't have a car. Of course, I'm purely speculating based on appearances. At any rate, I made sure not to pass too close, and there was plenty of room to do so. As I rode by I shouted a pleasantry and the man quickly responded in kind.

Now, I fully realized this man was in no rush, but I was so filled with elation that I finally was able to pass somebody. So many times have I been passed on my cycling travels and not once until this moment had I overtaken another bicycle. Settling into a comfortable cadence, I began to compose a blog post in my head, already recounting the achievement. Not a moment later, the cycling gods woke me from my daydream in the visage of another cyclist mashing away and leaving me in the dust, my small victory now but a fleeting memory.

I tried to make an attempt to chase but reached the red light at the intersection with my assailant nowhere to be seen. I soon began to see the irony of the situation (Isn't it ironic? Maybe not in the literary sense, but at least in the Alanis Morissette-sense) and find the humor in it. Clearly, it wasn't funny enough, yet.

I waited for the green light patiently. It was at least a minute or three that I stood there. As the signal changed I slowly remounted to cross the intersection. As I did so, another cyclist, who apparently was standing right behind me, sprinted to overtake me. So not cool!

Next was a short downhill section. I could see it was an older gentleman who had just dropped me. He coasted down the hill. I closed a bit, but didn't want to ride him, after all, this was not really a race (right!). Another red light appeared ahead. I braked a bit hoping to time the light change. The man was already standing at the light as I cruised to a stop and propped myself up against the curb. "Where the hell are your manners?!" I blurted out. No not really. That's what I should have said. I stood there for a moment, slightly at his flank, looking at the man. He failed to turn and acknowledge my presence. I said hello. He turned, responded (somewhat reluctantly I felt), and returned to his forward gaze.

I don't know what it is. I am not normally one to greet and strike up conversation with random strangers. I guess I am just looking for a little camaraderie from my fellow cyclists. It's not like there are that many of us out there in San Diego. Maybe I'm being delusional about this??

Almost Doored, Almost Ignored (Commute #9, Part 1)

I came across a lot of bike commuters this Wednesday.

I left home in my car on the first half of my multi-modal bike commute. In a 2 to 3 mile stretch toward the freeway, I saw 3 people cycling uphill on Rancho Bernardo Road headed toward 4S Ranch, presumably destined for the offices nearby. I was quite encouraged to witness this as I was soon to be on my own bike.

I was perturbed to find that the park & ride lot was completely full. Fortunately I knew that there is an overflow park & ride lot roughly a quarter mile away, so I drove over posthaste and grabbed the closest open spot. The first parking lot is right on the corner of Black Mountain Road.  I usually wait for the pedestrian crosswalk signal (red arrow below) and then once I'm across the street I get into the bike lane and head down the road. Since I started off further back I had room to ride up to the front of the left turn lane queue of cars and waited for the traffic signal (blue arrow below).

Then I had a semi-almost close call with a car door just as I was getting going. Since this is near Miramar College, there's a lot of people parking along the street. I've been anticipating a car door flinging open toward me since I began riding here, so I ride the left side of the bike lane, but it still startled me.

Approaching the next intersection I could already see another cyclist waiting at the red light. I pulled up against the curb and offered a "How's it going?" He had earbuds in and didn't hear me or see me, yet. Crap. Should've waited until he noticed me. I fidgeted a bit and then he finally noticed me and shot a greeting. I reciprocated, waved, but felt a little dumb. He probably thinks he said hello first and now I look like the unfriendly jerk. The light turned green and the guy does a full-on sprint to get away. Geez, I guess he's in a hurry. I scrambled to give chase in an attempt to fine tune my slowness gauge (you know, how slow I am compared to all the cyclists I encounter), but he's created quite a gap, crosses another signaled intersection and I catch the red light. Oh, well.

I don't recall much else from the rest of the ride in to work. I made it in pretty good time: 25:22 "door to door", about 22:30 cycle time. The return ride after work I will recount in my next post: Bike Commute #9, Part 2.

What's a few raindrops?

As anyone is San Diego and Southern California knows by now, we are in the midst of a series of storms set to bring some much needed rain to the region for the rest of the week. The implication of this for me is another excuse to forego my weekly bike commute. Since I just posted the other day about trying to nix the excuses, I am somewhat compelled to ride rain or shine.

Folks from the bike and rain-friendly cities of Portland and Seattle seem to find little obstacle in a little precipitation. There are people in even colder climates bike commuting in the snow. Bike Crave has some pretty decent insight as to why it is some people aren't afraid to ride when the going gets wet. It's because they're used to it.

You know the song: "It never rains in Southern California..." People here can't even drive cars when it rains. You don't even get wet doing that. You surely can't expect anyone to bicycle in the rain. Yet, there are people who do it. Many even enjoy it.

Not too long ago, San Diego's first Tweed Ride occurred under somewhat rainy conditions. Supposedly this was the first of the seemingly ubiquitous Tweed Rides to actually occur in the rain. Not London. Not Portland.

Come tomorrow morning, I'll see if I'm up for it. I don't even have a rain jacket to wear. No fenders on the bike. No excuses, right?

Get on the Bike

It's been over a week since I last rode my bike. I have been trying to designate Wednesdays to be my official "bike commute" day. I needed to stay home this past Wednessday so I missed my opportunity. Riding once a week sounds like a realistic goal, but there always seems to be something that comes up, legitimate or not.  I had ridden two weeks in a row (I think a first for me), until this week, that is.

I'd been thinking that maybe I should change the tag line of my blog from "Developing a bike commute habit" to "The diary of an aspiring bike commuter" or "21 and more excuses not to ride" or "The sometimes bike commuter" or "How to blog about bike commuting without really riding." Please suggest others in comments if you've got any good ones I can use.

It can be tough finding time to ride when you're trying to balance family and work and whatever else. I've been thinking I should bring my bike in on days I don't ride to work and take some lunch rides. We'll see if that ever happens... Even if I can't ride to work, I think I just need to find a way to get out on the bike a little more and log some miles.

So, having said that I snuck out for a quick ride as the sun was setting this Saturday afternoon. I've been wanting to tackle this hill nearby my house. It is probably not much of a climb for most cyclists, but I figured it would be a bit of a litmus test to gauge my current riding fitness. The main climb is about 1.7 miles and about 330 feet in elevation. That's a 3.6% overall grade - like I said, probably nothing to a lot of people. I don't really know.

I've seen plenty of people climb this road. Several of those people, by appearances, were in much worse physical shape than I. I figured that I could probably make it up OK on my mountain bike with the luxury of spinning the granny gear on the front triple crank (of course I never tried), but since I got my new bike I've been a bit worried about my gear range on the low end. I've got a 50-11 combo on the high end and a 34-28 combo on the low end, which my co-worker kindly pointed out is a wider range on both ends than what his more traditional cyclocross 48/36 double crankset gives him.

As Miley Cyrus says, "It's all about the climb." (Hey, I've got a young daughter who incessantly watches the Disney Channel.) It turns out the climb was not so bad after all. It is broken into two sections with a nice flat in the middle that afforded me the chance to catch my breath. I was still straining a bit at the crest, but I was doing everything to stay out of that bottom combo, for nothing more than the illusion that I've got some minor semblance of strength in my legs.

Here's the route plotted with elevation. The ride took me about 38 minutes and covered over 8.6 miles. I hit about 34 mph on the way down the hill. I also made a few poor choices in the way I handled the bike on the road in relation to cars on the way home. (Incidentally, I'm currently listening to the audio version of Tom Vanderbilt's Traffic.) I'll be more careful in the future.

First Bike Commute of 2010

January 6 I made my first bike commute of the New Year. I learned a couple things on this ride. Foremost is that I am not as fast as I thought on the new bike. Apparently this new cycling computer my brother & sister-in-law gave me for Christmas is smarter than me. Or I'm just a dumbass. The cycling computer will stop running the elapsed time when the bike is stopped for more than a few seconds. Makes sense. I didn't realize this when I used the computer's elapsed time to compare to my previous bike commutes timed with my wristwatch. Obviously the watch's stopwatch feature won't stop counting until I tell it to, so it is counting all the time I'm stopped waiting at stoplights.

I hadn't worn my watch on the first bike commute with the Masi. Since I remembered to wear my watch this time around, I figured I would run both clocks as a check. My elapsed time on the cycling computer was 23:15. My watch had me at 27:30. (I'm slightly rounding off the cycle computer time since it does still run as I'm walking the bike into the office since the front wheel continues to roll.) I still think this is a minute or so faster than I usually was on the mountain bike, so I'm still happy, just not as stoked as I was before. Aw, wait, a quick check back into my archives reveals I clocked in at 24 minutes for Bike Commute #4. I think I made all the lights that day, so little stopping. Hrrmm. At least the good news is that from now on I will know how much actual cycling time I am taking, and not counting the extended stops.

Another reminder of how slow I (still) am occurred on the ride home from work. As I'm struggling on the upside of a small valley section, an older guy on a skinny-tired bike blows right past me (I'm running the stock 700x35c 'cross tires - wide by most road bike standards). I do have one excuse: I was wearing a messenger bag, somewhat full of clothes, and it kept shifting on me during the ride home (on the way to work, it was fine). Still, I'm sure it was a pathetic sight, me sucking wind in nearly my lowest gear, and it's not even that steep a grade. Maybe I should have gotten a bike with a triple crank! I tried to blurt out "hey!" to the guy as he passed me, but he didn't give me so much as a sideways glance or nod. Why can't some people just say "hi" instead of being rude assholes?

Last Bike Commute of 2009

So I managed one last bike commute for 2009 using my brand new road bike this past Tuesday. This makes Bike Commute #6, cementing my one commute per month average since trying to get into a bike commute habit.


Thankfully we're on the other side of the winter solstice now, so the days are only getting longer from here out. Even though I've got head and tail lights, I wasn't too keen on riding in the dark evenings since the switch back to standard time. This last ride in the evening there was still enough lingering sunlight to see without lights, though I think still dark enough that lights were necessary to be seen.

I was quite surprised to make my ride into work at about 23 minutes flat! I think 28 minutes was my best time to date on my mountain bike. I usually was clocking in between 29 - 32 minutes, if my recollection serves me correctly. I finished the ride back in the evening at just about 25 minutes flat. This is great. If I can get into some decent riding shape, how much more time can I shave off? Dare I try to ride all the way from home again?

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I'm hoping for more frequent riding in 2010, and to possibly do some longer distance riding outside my bike commute. I'll probably try to venture out for some solo rides and slowly test my boundaries for both climbing and distance. I'd like to do some formal and informal group rides, and maybe even a charity event ride. I'd like to go watch a cyclocross race, and if I'm really crazy into it, maybe get my own butt into a race. It's a little while until cyclocross season starts back up, so I have time to think about this. Feel free to try to talk me into or out of this idea.

To everyone that has read this silly little blog, even if this is the first post you've read, thanks for reading. I hope to improve not only my riding, but my writing in the year to come. To everyone who has taken the time to comment here, thanks for your kind words of advice and support. Honest thanks again to my wife for encouraging me to start bike commuting in the first place, and for letting me get a new bike in advance of my self-imposed 21 ride goal because she believed it might encourage me to ride more and really get in the habit.

Happy New Year everyone!

A New Bike for My Commute, Part 2

In Part 1 I talked about the type of bike I think I want to get for a commuter. In general I'm thinking about a drop-bar road bike. Probably a touring or cyclocross frame. Probably steel.


I have researched extensively about the Surly Cross-Check and Long Haul Trucker. I'll assume everyone knows about these bikes. There's nothing I could really add as I've never ridden one. Consensus seems to be these are great bikes for commuting and both come in around $1100 for a complete bike. I would lean toward the Cross-Check between the two; in fact, for awhile I was convinced this was the bike I wanted to get. There are some other bikes that have caught my interest more recently, though.


A funny anecdote I will share is about when I went to a San Diego-area bike shop (let's just say it's on Adams Avenue) and was talking to one of the shop guys about a getting a more road-oriented bike to supplant my mountain bike for commuting to work. I asked about the LHT, which they had on display. The guy helping me told me frankly that the LHT was "too much bike" to just use for commuting. I do understand the LHT was designed for loaded touring, so there is truth to that statement [Incidentally, over at Commute By Bike, the voting did end up with the LHT as the bike of choice for their "Perfect Commuter Bike"]. The thing was that I felt that he kept talking me off $1000 bikes (I asked about the Bianchi Valle, which they didn't have, and he also reluctantly pointed out a Raleigh Clubman, which they did have) and steered me toward a ~$600 Specialized/Globe Vienna. Maybe he felt he was doing me a favor recommending the cheaper bike based on the impression I was giving him. I took it for a test ride anyway. It was decent, a nice bike actually, but it wasn't the bike for me.


Now that I think about it, I went to the other bike shop on Adams Ave. on a different occassion (where I bought the touring tires I'm currently riding) and had a somewhat similar experience. There I actually did throw a leg over a Cross-Check (or was it an LHT?) and began probing the shop dude about his opinion on steel road bikes. He also ended up pointing me to an aluminum-framed, flat-bar hybrid. As I've stated,this is just not the type of bike I am after.

Since I'm now talking bike shops...I made a trip down to Velo Cult one time, as well. Really cool shop (not that the other two shops weren't cool). I explained what I was looking for there and was shown a couple different bikes. Guess what? This was the first shop where they didn't try to sell me on an aluminum hybrid! Well, the fact that they only sell steel bikes may have something to do with it, but, whatever. Score one for Velo Cult! I also asked about Xtracycles. They actually have an Xtracycle built up at the shop, which they'll apparently loan out for extended test riding. It's the only shop that I've ever visited where I've seen an Xtracycle. I've always been afraid to ask "regular" bike shops about Xtracycles for fear they'd have absolutely no clue what I was talking about.



Next post: less bike shop anecdotes, more bikes...