Commuting - my 12 mile commute this morning

In recognition of "bike to work week", here is my 12 mile commute, from Garner to Raleigh, N.C.
Most pics taken while riding, sorry for the poor quality of some of them!

Leaving the house @ 7:15a.m. Note rear blinky light.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/jvpro/home.jpg

Buckingham Dr. in my neighborhood:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/jvpro/buckingham.jpg

First street w/ light traffic, Aversboro Rd.:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/jvpro/aversboro.jpg

Cut through a shopping center along 7th Ave.:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/jvpro/7th.jpg

Only busy road on the commute, Garner Rd. I ride this for about 3 or 4 miles.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/jvpro/garner.jpg

Turn off Garner onto Crosslink. It's nice and wide.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/jvpro/crosslink.jpg

Then Dandridge, a nice downhill run that passes under the 6 lane 440 beltline, choked with cars this time of morning:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/jvpro/dandridge.jpg

Then I hit a greenway:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/jvpro/greenway1.jpg

boardwalk section:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/jvpro/greenway2.jpg

Greenway uses a 5 barrel box culvert under rock quarry rd.:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/jvpro/greenway3.jpg

Commute continued:

Still on the greenway -
Site of my downfall last week, sharp turn on another boardwalk section, slick as ice when damp:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/jvpro/greenway4.jpg

Greenway ends in a southeast Raleigh neighborhood near my workplace. Cooper Dr.:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/jvpro/littlejohn.jpg

Arrive at work 8a.m., turning into the parking lot:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/jvpro/work1.jpg?t=1210685201

My workplace, the Century Center. Another commute in the books!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/jvpro/work2.jpg

Close up of rear blinky light, I used some cable housing through the rack bosses to hold it:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/jvpro/light.jpg

Nice pics. Looks like you have a beautiful ride. BTW, what make/model of bike is that? Looks sweet.

Oh yea - it's a 1980 Mclean/Silk Hope. Info about them here:http://www.classicrendezvous.com/USA/McLean/mclean_main.htm

Nice man! I live in raleigh and do a 10 mile to cary.

I had no idea it was bike to work week though! haha.

Stay strong and be safe!

Nice to see another Raleigh commuter. My commute is about the same distance, but I come from N. Raleigh near the landfill to Capital Blvd near the Beltline. No greenbelts or bike paths on my route, but the roads are mostly neighborhood streets and lightly traveled.

Do you carry your gear in a backpack? I tried that once but didn't like it. I now use a large seatbag (Carradice Barley), which holds a lot of gear and has a mount for a tail-light. Looks like your frame has mounts for a rear rack. Have you ever considered that?

You know, you could've saved the trouble of having to take all those pics if you just had a $350 helmetcam! :P

On a more serious note, I like the pictures; you have a really scenic route to ride through. I'm quite jealous actually. I just see pavement and junk on my commute. The most scenic it gets is the toxic Schuylkill River around here.

Nice to see another Raleigh commuter. My commute is about the same distance, but I come from N. Raleigh near the landfill to Capital Blvd near the Beltline. No greenbelts or bike paths on my route, but the roads are mostly neighborhood streets and lightly traveled.

Do you carry your gear in a backpack? I tried that once but didn't like it. I now use a large seatbag (Carradice Barley), which holds a lot of gear and has a mount for a tail-light. Looks like your frame has mounts for a rear rack. Have you ever considered that?

I don't carry that much so I use a messenger bag right now. I like to ride fast and prefer to keep the bike free of attachments and light for handleing purposes. When it gets hotter though (90+) I plan on using an old carridice barley bag attached to the seat tabs, or if I can find a nice suitable rear rack, using that.

Nice to see another Raleigh commuter. My commute is about the same distance, but I come from N. Raleigh near the landfill to Capital Blvd near the Beltline. No greenbelts or bike paths on my route, but the roads are mostly neighborhood streets and lightly traveled.

Do you carry your gear in a backpack? I tried that once but didn't like it. I now use a large seatbag (Carradice Barley), which holds a lot of gear and has a mount for a tail-light. Looks like your frame has mounts for a rear rack. Have you ever considered that?


I go light. I have a yakpak (http://www.yakpak.com/) messenger bag and throw some jeans, zune, and cellphone in there. No racks for me :D I'm basically a road biker doing commutes.

The capo is very very light, speed demon and I'm trying to stay as trim as I can.

I ride through downtown and hit western, then go to avent ferry into cary. It's nice to see Lake Johnson, but honestly the two lane roads scare me more than the 4 lanes. You never know if some guy is late to work in his SUV and doing 60 down a curvy back road.

I think I'm going to head up gormon and hit the campus to get back downtown on my ride home. And Avent Ferry is a pothole nightmare. Worst road in Raleigh.

Nice. I also love the bike. What tires are you running? How have they been for offroad or gravel use?

They are 32mm panaracer "urban max" tires. I chose them because 1) fattest tire that fits the rear stays 2) they have a modest tread suitable for pavement 3) they are fat enough to ride through umstead on the hard packed mesh gravel roads out there. 4) they were on sale for $18 per at performance. The bike was great at umstead, really fast.
I use the bike mostly for commuting so I didn't want knobby cross tires. I have a skinny tired (23mm) fixy that I commute on also, so I put fat tires on this bike to have riding options.

here's a g-map link to my route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1893024

And it's actually 9.7 miles. I was estimating the distance by time ridden, I guess the greenway sections slow me down.

http://tinyurl.com/4aq3k9

That's my return route for today to avoid avent ferry.
It's actually 11 miles.

Awesome ride, and great pix. I thought I was on the ride with you. :thumb:

... Brad