Folding Bikes - First Commute (and resulting rolling trick)

I have a god-awful commute each week from Champaign, IL to the Chicago suburbs. Every Tuesday morning I drive up and then I return on Thursday night. This week I decided to test out commuting by train.

I have a Giant Halfway that I bought last year. At first I bought it so I could have something to ride while I was up in Chicago, but this week it's been an integral part of my commute.


Tuesday...
6:10am - Amtrak - To Chicago - arrive 9:00am
10:40am - Metra - To Lombard - arrive 11:20am (there is a 1:40 layover between trains... suck!)
Bike to office - arrive 11:40am (I'm out of shape, it's only a 2.5 mile ride)
Reverse Wednesday commute for trip to my apartment.

Wednesday...
Bike to Brown Line - arrive 6:15 (very short ride... less than a mile)
6:15am - Brown Line - To Chicago - arrive 7:12am
7:40am - Metra - To Lombard - arrive 8:20am
Bike to office - arrive 11:20am
Reverse above for retun to apartment

Thursday...
Same as Wednesday for going to office
Reverse Tuesday commute for going home

Lessons Learned:
Carrying a 26+ pound folder and a heavy backpack around even for short distances isn't fun. I tried the leaving the seat post up method and angling it so it rolls on the front wheel. That was better, but it still required a lot of balancing and it began to wear my arm out. Eventually I found the perfect way to roll the bike while it was mostly folded. Leave the handlebars up. Put the seat down. Fold the bike in half, but leave the handlebars alone. This allowed me to use the handlebars as a handle, and it had the extra benefit of not depressing the break so both wheels could roll. The end result is that I can roll the bike very easily. No extra balancing required.

One other thing. The Giant Halfway doesn't come with a mechanism to keep the wheels together while folded. I use a bungie cord to do this for me. Works great... especially with the above noted rolling trick.

I also learned that I am very much out of shape. This should be an interesting summer with this commute.

--sam

Congrats on the Commute, and the Planet thanks you...


R-20's : One of the planets best friends...

Lessons Learned:
Carrying a 26+ pound folder and a heavy backpack around even for short distances isn't fun. I tried the leaving the seat post up method and angling it so it rolls on the front wheel. That was better, but it still required a lot of balancing and it began to wear my arm out. Eventually I found the perfect way to roll the bike while it was mostly folded. Leave the handlebars up. Put the seat down. Fold the bike in half, but leave the handlebars alone. This allowed me to use the handlebars as a handle, and it had the extra benefit of not depressing the break so both wheels could roll. The end result is that I can roll the bike very easily. No extra balancing required.

Yeah, I find that this style of fold-in-half frame rolls much better than people like to admit. My biggest complaint with the way it rolls is that the chainwheel leads the charge like an angry rhinoceros. Second biggest complaint is that you have to rotate the bike 90 degrees to put it down (it won't stand up in the rolling position).

Hmmm... I think I understand what you mean, but it's a very minor annoyance for me.

--sam

The bike and the backpack will soon be well within your capabilities. A man should easily be able to deal with those things. One of the problems of modern life is that our bodies become disused and derelict. We forget that we all have a caveman body capable of many physical feats. The only reason we can't deal with them is that we have neglected our physical well being by regarding physical work as some kind of horrible abomination and avoiding it.

This isn't any kind of a rebuke, just a statement of facts. Keep on with your efforts and ride around in the evenings for entertainment and soon you'll be that caveman you should have been all along. Also do some upper body work, press ups, pull ups and such like. If you haven't access to equipment, press ups don't need any and youcould do a series of arm curls by grasping your bike and repeatedly lifting it, fists upward and lowering it down again. You'd need to do quite a lot of curls using the bike as a weight, since it isn't that heavy.

Totally agree, EvilV. It's just a matter of getting used to it. The weight isn't that heavy... my arms just aren't used to it yet. It'll take some time, but eventually it'll be easy.

--sam