Commuting - Hi, I'm Jay and I am a commuter...

I think I may have found the asylum! A Commuting forum, never thought I'd find one of those... Anyway, let me introduce myself..

I live in northern NJ and I have a yearround 9-10 mile one way commute, depending on whether I take the trails or the road (longer). Because of the dirt trails, I use my old '95 Marin Team with a old Marzocchi Bomber Z2 fork on it to bike in. I have an Old Man Mountain Red Rocks rack on it and use one Carradice Super C pannier. I have a OMM front rack and also a set of Carradice front panniers too for loaded touring but for commuting, I simply use one rear Super C. I have a set of Marwi dualbeam kamikazi lights and also a Planet Bike LED light for light duty. Been commuting by bike for about 2 years now.

I also do a lot of biking, between road cycling, mountain biking, loaded and credit card touring, and some racing.

Anyway, looking forward to hopefully sharing a little knowledge here!

Jay

'95 Marin Team

Hey Welcome! Commuting by bicycle is becoming a trend! :D

Hi Jay! Welcome to the 12-st... err commuting forum. Yes, this is where we talk about lights, bags, bikes, everything but tents.

Yup, I'm slowly converting some friends into commuters too. I've got one other commuting on occasion and I've even got another person to drive to a park I pass and then he's going to start biking 4/5 miles one way. He lives about 70 miles from work so biking is not an option but he likes to bike so I told him he could bike partway!

My friend and I bike to work year round, but we've got 4/5 fair weather guys and I'm still working on others!

Jay

Jay, I think bicycle commuters have a unique character. It takes a real individualistic person with "stick-to-it-iveness" to continue biking to work in a car-dependent society. There are so many hurdles one must overcome:

1) People don't support you. The people at work had a million ways to discourage me, like, "That's dangerous!" or "You didn't bike in today?" or "You'll catch pneumonia!" or "You're late to work because of that bike!" (nevermind that they are late due to heavy traffic, or a freeway accident.) Heck, even my wife criticized me (I guess she stopped when she saw it was useless...)
2) Roads. You know, steel plates, potholes, debris, car-centric design, lights that don't change...
3) Weather. Anyone can drive a cage to work, but when car-drivers complain about rain, I want to say, "Quit complaining, you big baby!"

Of course, the truth is that we do it because we love it.

One of my biggest thrills is when Spring comes. All the cyclists come out to play!

:D

I have been a serious mountain biker for awhile and started to commute because I just love biking. Yes, it's environmentally friendly, but mainly because I enjoy it. With the gas prices here in the NE, it's also saves a bit on gas too but mainly I do it and I'm sure the majority of folks here do it because it is fun. I wouldn't be biking in 6F weather in a snowstorm if it wasn't!

I don't have showers at work but since I bike predawn for the most part, it's cool outside and it's mostly flat so I don't really work up a sweat. On the way home...that's another story.

I think most of my coworkers have gotten used to my cycling and my hours are fairly flexible so its not a big deal if I'm late, I'll just leave later. My boss is cool about that. I do get the occasional 'You biking in today????' looks sometimes though which is OK with me, sometimes I wonder the same. :)

Jay