Commuting - Back in (on) the saddle again

A few years ago I moved to NJ. Before moving, my bike commute into midtown manhattan was 13 miles, mostly flat and 80% car free. Perfect. After I moved, I didn't even know how to get into the city without using restricted highways. So I stopped commuting, ended up cutting back on weekend riding, and eventually gained 40 lbs.

This past spring I ramped up the weekend riding, doing some charity and club rides, and ended up making a couple trips into Manahattan and beyond. After weeks of studying maps, trying different routes, begging for secure parking (got a motorcycle spot for $10/day), I decided to give the commute a shot this morning.

It went great! The ride in came out to 23.7 miles and took a little over 2 hours. Given the hills, the heavy traffic, the heavy rider :), and the cheap hybrid, I'm pretty damn happy with that. I hope to start doing it once a week. For my taste, it's too many miles with some of them rather unpleasant to make this a daily ride. Now to figure out how to get home. . . .

Now to figure out how to get home. . . .

I was going to ask you about that! ;)

Congratulations! You'll have to join us in the Very Long Commute thread!

...got a motorcycle spot for $10/day...
Jesus, If you're riding a "cheap hybrid" you'd be better off having it get stolen once a month, it'd be cheaper than paying $300/month for parking.

Zowie -- congrats on making the commute and being willing to work that hard to figure out a way to make it work. Like others I hope your parking rate is a typo, since that does seem like a lot of money for no real amenities.

Good luck on the trip home and I hope that goes as well for you.

Jesus, If you're riding a "cheap hybrid" you'd be better off having it get stolen once a month, it'd be cheaper than paying $300/month for parking.

It's a lower end bike shop model, but not a junker that would have a chance of surviving for as long as a month parked on the street around here. For as far as I have to go, I don't want to ride something that is beat enough to have a chance at surviving locked outside.

Not a typo. But look, it costs me about $10 roundtrip to take the bus or train, and $25-40 to drive, so I'm not really out of pocket by paying the $10 to get the pleasure and excercise of riding. If I were to actually ride this daily I could get a big monthly discount. But I will be continuing to search for cheaper options.


Thanks to all for the kind words.

Sounds like the right choice.
Have fun. Stay safe.