Decided to practice a route for work on my weekend and spent an hour looking through a route on Google maps, never having ridden to downtown before in San Francisco. Could've stuck to the "Wiggle" route that minimizes hills, but decided on a more direct path since I got an ebike. Went out with my monstrous chain in a front pannier fighting the weight, then my rear disc brake began squeaking the whole way. Got dark at friggin' 5'clock and missed a turn and got a little lost amidst the busy 1-way streets and didn't feel comfortable navigating them, so walked a couple blocks in a circle. Guess I'm used to wide open roads with fewer traffic. Rest of the way went smoothly but missed a turn on my way back. Tried pedaling the 60lb bike with 15lb chain up the hills with minimal throttle then nearly bonked lol. A 40 min commute turned to an hr each way.

On the upside, it was still fun and somewhat liberating to be finally riding with the rest of the bike commuters. And nobody honked or yelled like I always read about even with some cars gassing behind me attempting to pass (wasn't taking the whole lane, not confident enough for that I guess). It felt as if everyone just Wanted to mind their own business.

So any was your first time commuting?