Eggplant Jeff

Ever since March I've been bike commuting. Today for the first time, I saw another bike! Parked in the stairwell (where I was told I couldn't park, but who cares it's not that convenient anyway). A light-looking Fuji hybrid (mostly road bike, rather than my hybrid which is mostly mountain bike). But it's got a rack, lights, random clamped on doo-dads, looks like it gets ridden a lot.

I know there are a few guys who ride recreationally, I wonder if one of them decided to try commuting...

Yay! Today, one more commuter, tomorrow, the whole office!

... Except I'm just dying of curiousity to figure out WHO it is ...

Walkafire

WTG Eggplant!

I am working on 6 weeks straight of commuting to work... I haven't started either of my vehicles (except to move a trailer 1/4 mile).

I lived in Manassas @ 29 years ago... moved to Colorado and never looked back ha ha ha. Went to High School in Culpeper.

Ride Safe

CBBaron

Yea!!
My office of 40 employees has one other nearly everyday year round bike commuter and a couple of others that have on rare occasions ridden a bike to work. I'm trying to work on my neighbor who happens to work with me. He's not a cyclist currently but has a suitable hybrid and the company would be nice if only ocassionally. The hard part about advocacy is not appearing like a nut case. Noone believes that cycling is enjoyable unless the weather is sunny and 70 degree and your riding on paths without cars. I'll take a rainy 50 degree day riding over driving any day. (Though the 70 and sunny day is even better)
Craig

soda

Glad to hear that it's spreading around your office.

On a sidenote, putting your bike in the stairwell is a fire code violation. Kinda hard to evacuate the building in case of a fire alarm if there's a bike in the way. That bike won't be there for long.

dynaryder

Good on yer. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one at work that commutes year round. Seen a couple more locks on the bike shelters once the weather turned nice,but none when it was <20deg or snow was on the ground.

The Fuji sounds like my Absolute,or one of the other Forzas:
https://fujibikes.com/2005/road.asp

Eggplant Jeff

It's not a fire hazard. The stairwell has an area behind the stairs that is actually blocked off with a railing. This person lifted it over the railing to store it back there. The objection to me storing my bike there was how "unprofessional" it would look.

soda

gotcha... the only reason I said that was because I had the same thing happen to me. It's still cool that you've inspired someone else to commute. I wish I could do that here.

oboeguy

I think it's "unprofessional" to have stinky, dirty cars parked in front. But that's just me.

So where do you put your bike?

I like how you think... today one more, tomorrow, everyone!

Eggplant Jeff

I lock mine outside to a no parking sign. I'm not worried about theft, this is a tech/industrial area, mine is literally the ONLY bike at any of the buildings around here. Definitely not prime hunting ground for professional thieves. I lock it (with a much-derided cable lock) just to foil the opportunistic thief (the "Hey here's a bike I'm gonna ride off" type).

I was mostly just hoping to keep it inside out of the weather, but what the heck... I bought a saddle cover, and it's an aluminum frame. I'm over it . The sooner this one rots away the sooner I buy a new one .

Still haven't figured out whose bike it was, but oddly enough it was there last night when I left late, there this morning when I got in early, and gone when I went out for lunch. I think it was left overnight... although why the person would take it home at noon is a puzzler.

Marylandnewbie

Congrats Eggplant on winning converts or at least bringing them out of the closet. I've been commuting since the beginning of March as well and I have not made any converts, but I have seen more riders as the weather improved. There are already several riders in my building. Including the roadie whose largest gear on his cassette is about 8 teeth. I have never seen smaller gears on a cassette.

Isn't it interesting how we hesitate to ask people about bike use? Kind of in the same way we hesitate to ask people about drug use or if they had sex last night. If we saw a flashy new sportscar in the parking lot we wouldn't hesitate to ask around for the owner. I guess its just part of the second class nature of bike commuting.

jamesdenver

isn't that fun. a girl at my work got word a rode to work. i didn't know her and she came to my office to visit. turns out she lives a few blocks from me so i gave her the dirt on my route, times, intersections, short cuts, etc

she's done it a few times and enjoys it!