Commuting - Halfway through my first commute

Been thinking about it for a long time - but never had the chance. Without rack and bags, the only sensible thing is to ride home one day, and back the next. I put an extra change of clothes in the car this morning along wth the bike with the idea that if I left in time, I'd ride with the Thursday night group ride, if not, I'd ride home. Ended up riding home, and will be out early in the AM to beat the traffic.

I'll only ever be a part-time (and likely fair-weather) commuter, but it's nice to finally get started.

Stats from this evening: 19.4 miles, 1:12 riding time (including about a 5 min detour to check out the sucky band at the local outdoor amphitheatre) - and surprisingly, no traffic problems at all. It helps that I left work around 6:30 - having missed the heaviest traffic by a large margin. I'll try to be on the road by around 6:15 tomorrow to attempt to beat the worst of it (and allow shower time after arrival) in the morning.

Bonus: I normally carry a ThinkPad back and forth, all I carried home tonite was me and my wallet and keys. So, I got the evening off!

I did something like that for a while. Biked in on Monday and back on Friday with two sets of clothes in big panniers. The rest of the week I used one small pannier for lunch. My group had a storage room with tall lockers for our field clothing so I could change in privacy. Got so hooked I went busless for 4 years unless it was below zero or had mnore than 6 inches of fresh snow on the roads.

And back in this morning in about 55 mins shows it can be done. Again, very little in the way of traffic bothers, owing mainly to the hour - I got out at about 6:30 and was there by 7:30. Showered at the rec center and was at my desk earlier than usual.

I figure I have about a 15 minute window now between it not being real light much before 6:15, and the traffic really starting to build if I'm still out there after 7:30. Shorter days may well put a stop to this....

I drive my car to work one day a week...usually Sunday night when the traffic is non-existent and I can fly up the freeway. I bring my clothes for the entire week, a towel, some frozen lunches, some fruit and other snacks. I also pick up my clothes from the prior week for washing. Seems kind of strange to drive to and from work on a non-work day but the lack of traffic and the 5 day bike commute makes me berry, berry happy.

Meh... I can't leave 'snacks' at work.... we have a bunch of lousy, no-good, greedy, cheap bastages... If you leave anything remotely interesting, it'll be gone by the next day.

They swipe chips, popcorn, jerky, cookies, candy, hell... half the time I'm shocked that my lunch is still in MY fridge when I take my lunch break.

:mad:

Meh... I can't leave 'snacks' at work.... we have a bunch of lousy, no-good, greedy, cheap bastages... If you leave anything remotely interesting, it'll be gone by the next day.

They swipe chips, popcorn, jerky, cookies, candy, hell... half the time I'm shocked that my lunch is still in MY fridge when I take my lunch break.

:mad:

I have had one of my frozen lunches stolen from the freezer. It sucked. We also have some jerks that steal food....usually out of the fridge. If it's pre-packaged (like yogurt, or frozen entres) they are prime targets. I have started putting big obnoxious yellow labels on my frozen food with my name on it. I'd like to see the person with big enough huevos to steal it then...it hasn't happened yet. One other safe bet is to pack food into personal containers. For instance..I put 5 little tupperwares with applesauce in the fridge....no one will touch that....EVER...because their not totally sure what's in that tupperware. Lastly I store my snacks in my office in a closed cabinet. They would have to be pretty brazen, and stupid, to go into my office to jack my food. If you don't have this set up try non-descript containers like Shed Spread etc. to throw snacks in. I usually pack nuts and pretzels.

I also think about putting something very appealing in the fridge and hiding a small video monitor to catch the thieving ba$tards around our office...stealing the food of others is messed up.

Meh... I can't leave 'snacks' at work.... we have a bunch of lousy, no-good, greedy, cheap bastages... If you leave anything remotely interesting, it'll be gone by the next day.

They swipe chips, popcorn, jerky, cookies, candy, hell... half the time I'm shocked that my lunch is still in MY fridge when I take my lunch break.

:mad:
A little ex-lax in a chocolate item can solve that problem real fast.

I figure I have about a 15 minute window now between it not being real light much before 6:15, and the traffic really starting to build if I'm still out there after 7:30. Shorter days may well put a stop to this....

Nothing that a good halogen or HID light won't cure - it's kind of fun riding with good lights in the dark. I think we may even be more visible.

Very good lights can make night riding a lot of fun. I was mistaken for a security guard at Disneyland once.

Re the food, I would be tempted to put some old medicine bottle lables (dates removed) on my food containers and tell the sods at work that the meds were mixed in with the food.

And back in this morning in about 55 mins shows it can be done. Again, very little in the way of traffic bothers, owing mainly to the hour - I got out at about 6:30 and was there by 7:30. Showered at the rec center and was at my desk earlier than usual.

I figure I have about a 15 minute window now between it not being real light much before 6:15, and the traffic really starting to build if I'm still out there after 7:30. Shorter days may well put a stop to this....
The morning ride definitely makes my work day more manageable. I now dread driving to work.

Also, my ride times are consistent regardless of the traffic. And I stop at every stop sign/traffic signal.