I just finished building up a road/commuter bike and today was my first try at commuting. The ride was a little over 5 miles. I live outside about 25 miles of town, so I drove to the outskirts of town and parked and biked from there. I got started a little after 7:00 AM and the ride took just under 30 minutes to get to work.

I'm not used to riding in traffic but it was light today and at that hour things went pretty well. One section of the ride I was on the sidewalk and came to a light where a lot of cars make right-hand turns. My route took me straight. I think I should have pressed the crosswalk button as we didn't automatically get a walk signal. My point is I should have kept to the road and just stayed in the right lane and let the cars planning on making the right turn get over into the turn lane.

Oh well, the afternoon ride started about 5:30 PM and I took a different route back to my truck. The road heading away from campus was narrower, only two lanes, and no bike lane. Cars were backed up from the light and I followed other bikers on the sidewalk. I got onto a large east-west road that was somewhat hilly, I kept to the sidewalk as there was not a bike lane. Reading over the rules of the road and looking through this forum, I probably should have bit the bullet and kept to the right lane. It took about 35 minutes to get back to the truck and the ride home. Doh! I should have packed some Gatorade.

I'm not used to glancing over my shoulder and I found the backpack I had was a little too heavy to swing around to look to the rear. I'll probably get a clip on mirror for my helmet. Also, I'm not comfortable moving over into traffic to get to the left-hand turn lane.

I'm in north central Florida and the weather was beautiful today! I hope to commute this way at least once or twice a week.