Thanks to this forum I am now commuting to work (part-time). Last year I posted about commuting to a building with no showers. Thanks to the many responses I decided to do it. Since I have an office, when I lock the door, towel off and use some baby wipes and deodorant. I then rinse my hair (it's cut very short) in a restroom sink and dry with a towel. My colleagues do not seem to avoid me so I think the system works.
While I am a new commuter I am not new to cycling. I started riding seriously in the late '70s but I am just getting back on the bike after a few years. I have two commuter rigs to choose from.
The first bike pictured below is my RedLine 925 fixed gear. I am currently riding a pretty low gear of 42x17. I really like riding the fixed gear bike but the problem is that my daily commute is about 10 miles each way and involves a long gradual descent into a river valley and a short steep climb out. The two things that are hard on a fixed gear bike are going up hill and going down. For me going down is worse
My other commuter is a 1991 Bridgestone RB-1. A couple of years ago I did a major overhaul of the bike, I added an Ultegra triple crank with TA Alize rings swapped out the derailleurs and brakes and had the frame powdercoated. This year I had lowrider braze-ons added so I could use front panniers to commute. If you look really closely, you can see that I have a 24x24 bailout gear, certain proof that I am now an old man.
