Commuting rituals?
Originally Posted by
crazyravr
Wake up.
Check the weather. Thats my ritual.
Originally Posted by
Archwhorides
The clothing/packing ritual around here is too complicated to feel like a ritual, it's a triumph if I can roll my pannier top once on any given day. …
Checking the weather and dressing are the essentials of my pre-commute, especially for inclement / winter weather:
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
As a cycle commuter with convenient Commuter Rail alternative,
I check Weather.com forecasts starting five days prior.
On the day of a ride, if it looks questionable I check current Doppler to decide, and depending on the conditions if I ride in the rain I use my beater road bike.
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
…Just this year (2009) inspired by BF I have accepted riding in the rain. I used to consider it a game: if I rode and it rained, or I didn't ride and it didn't rain, I lost; if I rode with no rain or didn't ride and it rained, I won.
Now I win or lose depending if I ride with the appropriate bike: beater in the rain, road bike when dry.
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
The way I organize my winter dress is by levels (link), 1 to 6. (I got that scale from whitewater rafting, where difficulty of a river is rated from 1 to 6, and it works for me). The levels do not mean layers, but the combination of gear for temperature intervals, in increments of about 10 degrees F…
The level makes the job of selecting clothing very easy for that decision to be made on the morning of a commute, without going outside. Sometimes I may bring along a piece of apparel from a higher level just in case.
The scheme is particularly useful at the change of seasons to remind me of what works. Also, I choose by ambient temperature and usually ignore the reported wind chill temp, because there always is a wind chill on the moving bike.
I’ve shown this scheme to a few acquaintances at work, and when they ask
“How (cold) was the ride?,” I can reply, for example
“Level 3,” as happened just this morning.
The finishing touches are precisely timed: to go to the bathroom, and then add the final layer(s) so I won’t be too warm before I descend the stairs from our second floor condo.
Finding a bathroom en route on my 14 mile one-way commute and accessing through a few layers is a hassle, especially because of
cold weather diuresis:
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
I was gratified to read about this phenomenon a few years ago, called
“cold diuresis.” A nice explanation is provided in
Outside Magazine:
Originally Posted by Outside Magazine
What you’re experiencing is called cold diuresis, a phenomenon that occurs for reasons that are not entirely clear. One theory that remains popular—though it has been contested—explains how it works like this:
When your temperature starts to drop, your body will attempt to reduce heat loss by constricting blood vessels and reducing blood flow to the surface of the skin.
When that happens, your blood pressure will rise, because the same volume of blood is flowing through less space in your body. In response, your kidneys will pull out excess fluid to reduce your blood pressure, making you have to pee.
“A full bladder is a place for additional heat loss, so urinating will help conserve heat,” writes Rick Curtis, the director of Princeton University’s Outdoor Action Program…
Here in Massachusetts, there are stories (? urban legends) about scofflaws diuresing in public being tagged as Level I sex offenders. So one has to be careful….
One of the funniest posts I have read on Bike Forums was this description of a commuting ritual:
Originally Posted by
trekker pete
I mentioned this topic the other day in my thread about getting motivated in the morning. There have been more than a few days where I have my gear on, ready to taxi out the door and all of a sudden.....damn it.
By the time I'm done, the launch window has past. Commute aborted. Where are those damn car keys.
The worst case is when you just know the bomb bays are full, but you just can't the doors to open. So you have to sit around the hangar and wait.
