I know this is the third thread I'm posting in (less than) three days, but commuting is important to me. It has been important to me for about 3 years now I think.
A little intel on how it started out...
About three and a half years ago I came across this forum, and had some serious time put into the commuting section. After gathering enough information, I decided to take the plunge, so I jumped in. I initially did a round trip to work for two times a week, riding on a 1986 Raleigh Marathon. I loved the bike to bits, and it worked great, but it just wasn't fast enough. So after about half a year of riding the old, steel bike to work I came across an affordable Tiagra equipped Giant OCR. It was a lot newer than the Raleigh, and I liked it from the moment I looked at it. I didn't even take a test ride on it, I was sold. The bike was sold.
We were sold.
I then lived 25km away from the office, which was pretty doable. I started riding during spring and liked it so much that I rode a bit more than I did on the Raleigh. In the end I was riding 4 days a week, and used one day a week to bring my laundry in and out of the office, using public transport to get home and to the office. It was a great time.
Then all of a sudden I got offered a promotion. I wanted to move along the food chain of the company, so I couldn't say no. It involved a company car, but I was placed at a client of our company, which is nearly 50km away from home. That's twice the distance I used to ride each day.
A few days ago I decided my life quality has been depreciating. After some thinking, and rethinking, and re-rethinking, I decided I should ride to work more often. I want to do this again for at least twice a week.
Last thread I posted was my route to work. I was so thrilled that I couldn't
not share it with you guys. It's 45km of asfalt, no cobblestones at all. Most of the route goes through some of the nicest surroundings of the urban area I live and work in. During my first ride into the office I was stunned by the amazing scenery, which I didn't even realize we had until I took the ride. I missed that for about 6, maybe even 7 months now.
The thread before last thread, I posted on how to bring my gear to work. I totally forgot how to commute by bike, which made me lots less creative in transporting my clothes and such to work. I mounted an old rear rack and some old panniers on my Giant, and it didn't even look that bad. Even though I kind of like the looks of it, I'm taking it off tomorrow, and put it on top of a shelf for when I
do need it, now is just not that time. I want to travel as light and fast as possible, so I'm leaving as much as possible home.
Tomorrow I will ride the car to work. Even though I love my VW Golf Variant, it's just too environmentally unfriendly to ride it each day. It's fast, which I love, but it's just not very clean.
Tomorrow I will leave a large bag of clothes, towels, deodorant and other stuff at work, so I won't have to take that with me on the bike. I'll leave it under my desk at the 10th floor. So when I come in I need to go to the 10th floor first, then back down to the 1st floor to take a shower. Initially I was worried about the responses of people disliking my smell. I didn't really think about their liking my courage and dedication to ride the bike to work. Thankfully I'm in therapy right now for my low self esteem
Anyway, I am starting again, and I think I will be posting in the 2011 mileage thread as well. Let's see who I can still beat there
Watch out guys, I'm back on the road!
(Seriously... This thread isn't really about anything except for me having lost it for a while, and getting "Back on the Brooks"
)