ax0n

I freaking HATE having to wear warm clothes in the morning and cool clothes in the evening. It was 50 when I went to work, and 83 when I came home. To make matters worse, I left my soggy shoes at work yesterday so they could dry a little while longer, so I had to lug them home with all these clothes as well. Factor in my lunch bag, and I look like I was prepared for a self-supported tour of epic proportions.

The bike was still surprisingly nimble and peppy. I had a nice sprint approaching 40 MPH on my way home (followed by copious amounts of gasping for air and drinking of fluids while coasting)

I could assemble a list of all the crap I was carrying today, but I won't bore you. Suffice to say I could have trimmed down a little bit on my way to work, and I could have left the shoes for another day and a lighter trip home, but when you've got the room...

CommuterRun

That's all winter long for me. It's a very rare day that I can wear cool weather clothes home in the afternoon without roasting.

Nice looking set-up.

ax0n

Thanks. I love it

Fortunately in a few months it will stay below 40 for the entire work day, then I can just use layers. Not much better than carrying a bunch of long pants, hoodies and the like, but it's definitely less stuff to haul around.

MrCjolsen

C'mon. Let's see the list.

ax0n

Aww jeez.

Right Pannier:
Laptop bag{
MacBook
Power Cord
Ear Buds
Cell Phone
Wallet
Access Badge & Secure ID}
A tennis shoe
Wadded-up reflective vest

Left Pannier:
Valet Bag{
Deodorant
Washcloth
Hand Towel
Baby wipes (rarely used)
Comb}
Hoodie
Cargo Pants
Cable Lock
Apartment/Bike Lock Keys
Underwear
Socks
Sweater
Dress Pants
Other tennis shoe

Lunch Bag on the rack:
Container for coffee grounds (I take fresh ones in every few days)
Did have PB Sandwiches, some veggies, and root beer on the morning trip

Seat Wedge:
4x CO2 + inflater gun + Schrader Adapter just in case
Patches
Spare tube
Park MTB3 tool
2x tiny LED Lights (Red and White for roadside repairs or backup lighting)

Eeh. And maybe some stuff I'm forgetting. I know there's always a few small bungees and at least one plastic shopping bag at the bottom of my panniers.

I have to carry the clean-up supplies with me because the locking bathroom in my building is on the way to my office and it would be pointless to go to my office, then all around hell and back to change, then back to my office again.

ken cummings

I've had a couple of places that let me have a locker or two at work. Monday, I'd haul in a couple of changes of clothes and Friday bring them home. I had duplicate sets of much of the other stuff at home and at work. Two dream jobs had excellent, subsidized lunch rooms so no food transport.

ax0n

No lockers. No showers. Nothing here. One big locking unisex bathroom that I've found so far in an 8-story building. I only have enough room in my desk for a spare "everything" (socks, belt, pants, underwear, and shirt) and I leave my dress shoes at work.

I've made do with what limited resources they give me. I'm pretty adaptable, but it really sucks with a 50-80 degree temperature swing every day this time of year.

ken cummings

Hmmm. Any chance there is a nearby gym or other facility that will let you change and store stuff? The "Y" worked for me in Oklahoma City.

cyccommute 

I have all my toiletries in a bag in my desk. If you leave your shoes there, put the stuff in your shoes (for what you carry that should just about fill them). Additionally, why do you carry tennis shoes? Leave them with your dress shoes if you need them every day. The hoodie is bulky, why carry it? If it's for on the bike, carry two lighter layers...they work better and take up less space. Same with the wadded up reflective vest. If it's wadded up in the bag, it's just taking up space. Get at jacket with reflective piping or festoon yourself with blinkies. Leave the wash cloth and towel at work. Hang them up to dry in a closet, back of a door, stairwell, etc. Take them home at the end of the week or two.

Two pairs of pants? Sweater? Coffee container (put some ground coffee in the freezer...if you have one...a half pound will stay pretty fresh in an air tight container for a couple of weeks)? Simplify! Leave stuff at work that you need often and don't huck it home every day.

Portis

I am in Kansas too, and all I can say is.....why do you need all that crap? I have been riding most mornings before sun up and the only thing i have added to my summer attire is a pair of arm warmers. It's got to be in the mid to low 40's before i go to leg warmers. Even then, i don't see all the need for extra room. Warmers take very little room.

ax0n

where I clean up and change is pretty far from my actual office. Wearing my bike shoes to the office isn't bad, but I don't feel like trudging through my whole floor all sweaty, just go grab some stuff, then trudge back all the way to the other side through 3 access-controlled doors, change, then come back through the whole mess again. Does not compute.

The tennis shoes require an elaborate backstory. I just took the bus (no bike) to work on friday, and wore some new shoes to work, then changed into my dress shoes. I car-pooled to an off-site meeting and then car-pooled home still wearing my dress shoes.

Monday, I rode my mountain bike (platforms, so wearing old tennis shoes) through the rain and brought my dress shoes back to work. The tennis shoes were completely soaked and still wet Monday night, so I rode my mountain bike home wearing the new shoes that I wore on Friday and accidentally left in my office. I left my soggy tennis shoes under my desk to dry.

Yesterday, I used the road bike and clipless shoes, so I just tucked the old tennies into the panniers. Tennis shoes are a one-time deal. Had I just changed out of my dress shoes and left them at work on Friday, I wouldn't have been in that kind of a pickle.

As for the coffee, I'm a coffee snob. I grind my coffee fresh every few days, and a freezer throws off the flavor of freshly-roasted coffee.

I could justify everything else I carried, but I'd rather not. Yesterday was just a freak heavy-laden day, and I don't usually carry nearly that much crap with me. I do end up carrying home a few extra layers when the weather's like this, though.

ax0n

1) See the post above this one. I don't usually carry all this stuff, but various circumstances made yesterday a lot more loaded than usual.

2) I'm a wimp and choose warm clothes higher up on the thermometer than you.

Tude 

Yup, all work shoes, toiletries and spare set of gym clothes are at work. All I carry every day is office clothing and lunch. However in this rapid change of season --- I do have my rain gear (wind/rain proof lightweight jacket, pants and booties) rolled up - but that doesn't take much room

climbhoser

Coffee in the freezer is a big no-no. Typically the cold will cause condensation on the inside of ANY container, which then spoils the grounds. That is unless you have a subzero freezer that stays unopened until you remove the grounds (which I have for my game meat).

It's better to have a vacuum sealed container that is filled with fresh grounds every day or two and another with your beans. I don't do coffee anymore (took up too much of my life in an unhealthy way), but I used to have a stack of varieties of bean and ground vacuum containers. It's the only way to roll.

sorry for the thread drift. I'm lucky, I get a locker and a shower at work!

ax0n

^^ For the win ^^ that's how I roll. Complete with a french press at my desk (and another small one that fits in my bottle cage if I want to get that hardcore)

MichaelW

There are some people who need their computer between home and work but if you are just carting it around, can you not get 2 comuters and carry the data on a thumb-drive? I use my thumb drive at home, work and the library and it is my primary working disk.

bdinger

I am SO with you, except I'm limited to a backpack. So I've been trying to "make do" as much as possible with varying levels of success . I think I'm almost ready to either start storing clothes at work, or get a rack an panniers. Three sets of clothes a day is.. so fun

ax0n

I can't afford to leave a second macbook at work, and I need it (and the connectivity it provides) in both places, not just the data.

cyccommute 

Not what my coffee shop says. And in Denver, water condensation of any kind is nearly impossible

ax0n

Try asking a roaster, not a barista. It's the difference between seeking automotive advice from a haggard, salty mechanic and a jiffy-lube zombie.

CommuterRun

I'd put one of these by my desk before I'd haul that much stuff back and forth.

climbhoser

I'm in Denver, too, and you would be amazed at the amount of condensation you get in the freezer/fridge...even in Denver. They're like little vapor boxes!

Ever been camping in the montanas and awoke to find the inside of your tent lined with moisture? Even in Buena Vista, even in Gunnison, even in Moab. The temperature will draw all the moisture out of the air, and you have to realize that the foodstuffs in the fridge and freezer cause much more moisture in the air than hovering above a spot of dirt on the eastern plains.

What coffee shop do you go to? Might have to reconsider where you take your brew

cyccommute 

I've never noticed condensation in any of the boxes or jars I keep my coffee in...not in the 20 years I've been drinking coffee in Denver. I even did the same in Vermont and never noticed any condensation there. But I always use containers that seal very tightly, are relatively small and they are only open for a few seconds a day (I only have a single cup of coffee a day). The volume of air inside the container is never more than around 500 ml. In a well sealed container, that amount of air can't hold enough moisture to do much condensing...even if the air is at a much higher relative humidity than what we typically see. Freezing it keeps it a lot fresher than leaving ground or roasted beans at room temperature for more than a few days. Left out at room temperature, the oils in the coffee from the roasting will quickly start to decompose and the coffee will become rancid very quickly. Even vacuum packed, the oils will react with each other and become rancid. That's one of the reasons that Folgers tastes sooooooooo bad. Plus it's just bad beans

Science nerd alert!

As for camping, the reason that your tent is lined with moisture (it's less of a problem with double walled tents) is not because the temperature is drawing moisture out if the air. It's because you have a rather large mammal in the enclosure breathing out air that is saturated with moisture at 98 F and it's hitting an air mass that won't hold the same amount of water. The water forms a fog and, since it is warmer than the surrounding air, it rises to the walls of the tent here it can readily condense on the surface. A few hours of processing 4 to 6 L of air at 10 to 20 times per minute results in breathing out 24,000 liters of air containing about 4 kg of water...a bit over a gallon. Lucky for us all that it doesn't all condense

The other stuff that condenses moisture in your fridge? The water comes out of the stuff you have in there. Meats, veggies, liquids you might freeze? All of them have a significant amount of water in them to begin with (coffee, on the other hand does not). At typical freezer temperatures, water can sublimate...pass from the solid phase to the gas phase without having to go to the trouble of being liquid. If it's in a tight container for a while, that gas will condense inside the container and build up the ice crystals you see in freezer boxes. The stuff it came out of will desiccate and look bad, i.e. suffer freezer burn.

Since you live in Denver, another place where you've seen sublimation on a massive scale is when we have a Chinook event after a snow storm. As the wind sweeps across the snow, some of it will melt from the warm winds but most of it will pass from solid to gas without having to go through the liquid phase. If you've ever noticed how the ground can be relatively dry around snow patches when the wind is blowing, you are witnessing sublimation.

Science nerd alert off

You see, I kind of a coffee snob too. But I have a degree in science. So I know more then you do*

*With apologies to Dr. Science And to you, Climbhoser, I'm showing off but my points are valid. Many places on the net say the storing coffee in the freezer is okay as long as you keep it air tight.

drjava

Just a fanny pack with my lunch here. Then again, my commute is pretty short and the weather here is usually pretty decent.

ax0n

If Garmin would just hire me, I wouldn't have this problem. World HQ is a quick ride away from here, AND they have good bike facilities.

Anyhow, today was ridden with a much lighter load.