Commuting rituals?
 

Anyone else have any little rituals you do to keep you in the present moment?
This past year I made a decision to appreciate my commute. After you've been doing it for awhile, you tend to gloss over any cool experiences or interactions. So I made a point of stopping at an overlook of the ohio river and taking a picture. Alas, I'm a fair-weather commuter, so no cool pics of snow or rain!

wow, that's great! & a lot of work! well done!

That is cool, never seen anything like it.

I have no rituals.

Very cool, well done.

Dittoes to the above comments. Regarding familiarity on my routes,

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Originally Posted by Jim from Boston (Post 17074510)

I'm very motivated by novelty, and stymied by boredom on a bike, but I do have the motivation of commuting to work. I have found that when I drive my frequent, decades-old routes I often notice things I had not seen before. I think it’s because I can look around at more than just the road surface when driving.

So when the commute [route] is getting too familiar, I just raise my head higher and look over a wider field of view….

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I was particularly intrigued by the video. The camera placement seems very precise. Are those shots the same times of day?

Our condo here in Boston has an eastward view of an imposing, reflective building called the Prudential Center (Pru), facing the afternoon-early evening sun (see stock photo).

I have considered setting up a camera with a daily timed trigger around 4 PM to photograph that reflective side of it every day of the year through all four seasons, and I thought about a poster display of all the shots.

A slide shot such as yours would be cool. :D ,
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8d7de4b577.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...99eae57a19.jpg

147 photos from 1 year. Nice. :thumb:

I'm not sure this is what you had in mind, but I tend to remember incidents along my routes.

The pleasant incidents may be wildlife sightings, encounters with friends, people enjoying themselves at a park or front lawns, Cool lawns, beautiful landscapes. Nice people with nice dogs on this street, etc.

The less pleasant rememberences can serve to help keep me safe: Cross traffic tends to blow through that stop sign up ahead, There's a pothole around that blind corner, this is where I picked up those flats, there's a group of kids looking for trouble that congregate on that street up ahead. Mean, unleashed dogs on that block...Cars entering and exiting the highway on/off ramps do not stop for anything...etc.

Very cool video, by the way.

Nice video. My entire commute tends to be a ritual. From getting ready, choosing the exact route, following the route with all of its idiosyncrasies, and finishing up. Makes a fairly complicated routine much easier and safer. I can just enjoy the ride and have everything I need and not have to give it much thought. If I don’t follow the rituals, I either forget something or have to deal with an unexpected situations.

Wake up. Check the weather. Thats my ritual.

Usually I’ll prep the evening before (because). Then: I check the weather, grab a lunch box ... and start pedaling!

My biggest ritual is to remember to be safe and enjoy my commute.

I run through a mental checklist by talking to the cats and listing all the things I want to take with or do before I leave.

Night before equipment and clothing checklist. 5:50 am alarm. Go.

I’ve got a Hornit electric horn which I touch when I get home to let my family know I’ve arrived. For those of you who haven’t heard it, the sound is a high-pitched squeal. The other evening, when I sounded it, I got an equal response from my local mockingbird. He’s learned to Hornit.

When I approach one portion of one of my routes in the dark, I start singing. It is a local hangout for skunks, and before I started singing, I startled one and he almost got me.

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. During my ride, my daily practice is try to be kind to pedestrians and other riders, stretch my core at stop lights, and fantasize about creative ways to punish drivers.

Maybe I'll start taking pics of all the car accidents I encounter and stitch them together to make a cool youtube video too! :D

Carbeques only, please. With the occupants standing safely outside waiting for the fire department, of course. :)

I live in Atlanta but I am from Cincinnati. Cincy is a great town and very beautiful. You should definitely appreciate your city. I love Atlanta but Cincy is a gem.

Not mine

My ritual is mostly about making sure I have all the right stuff.

When I get home I park my bike in the rack, hang my helmet off the stem, put my biking keychain (mini garage door opener, front door key, and bike lock key) and work badge/lanyard in the helmet, kick off my 'cycling' shoes (currently NB trail runners), grab my polo, socks, and underwear from the day out of the kittier.

In the morning, I open the top 3 drawers of the dresser and grab whatever socks, underwear, and polo are nearest at hand (yes I get dressed in the dark), open the garage door, put them in the kittier, put the lanyard/badge on top (so it's not buried when I need to get into work) and keychain in my pocket, put on cycling socks, shoes and helmet, my quarterzip pullover if it's chilly, gloves if it's cold, merino midlayer if it's really cold, and roll out.

Jeans/shoes/towel live in the locker room at work where I can shower.


Another small thing, whenever I'm leaving work and I roll over the triangular metal bar the automatic gate rolls on, I feel for whether my tires have gotten too soft, and I should pump the next day. Usually every 3-4 weeks I'll pump my fatties up to 40. Currently I'm procrastinating dealing with an intermittent slow leak, so I'll pump the rear up to 50 every morning. Most days I can still ride home and it's not really even that soft. One day I was dead flat and had to pump before I could ride. It's weird.

What a cool facility the mockingbirds have.

Early this summer I was out around midnight and there was one up in a tree by the road, running through it's repertoire. You know the sound an ambulance makes when you're in the way and it wants to pass you? Kind of an electronic blatt? The mockingbird was doing that. Incredible.

I gave up on trying to only pack once a long time ago, it just doesn't happen that often.

I would trust dogs to double check my equipment and task lists, but not cats. If you have been confiding in cats, I would check my charge card statments and my Amazon account...just sayin'.

I just tell them the things I should take/do, and they know treats get dispensed after that so they at least act like they're listening. And it makes me look saner to talk to the cats than to talk out loud to myself.

I'm just sayin' dogs are loyal...cats will throw you under the bus...and I love my cat (I just don't trust her).

My commuting ritual involves me talking myself into it. I love my bike, and I love riding it, but early morning + mile wide lazy streak + bus pass = me talking myself into it.

Great work on that video! Maybe I'll try that. Please tell us how you placed your camera for the shots.

I don't know about rituals but I notice that I have a little fun by making as much noise as possible by rolling over crunchy things such as fallen leaves and plastic containers.

Pre-stage necessities in the same places the night before. Panniers packed the same way so I don't forget something. Location and repeated motions keep my wonderfully wandering mind on the necessities of the moment. Also uses least amount of time.

Blow a kiss to my sleeping wife as I leave....

I do smile when doing my initial, rolling, left foot mount followed by a strong right foot stroke! Gives me focus and internal fortitude for the ride and day :)

Commuting rituals? Checking the weather and dressing are the essentials of my pre-commute, especially for inclement / winter weather: 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: One of the funniest posts I have read on Bike Forums was this description of a commuting ritual: :roflmao2:

Commuting rituals...for me, it's more like a mad dash to get out of the house in one piece.

Coffee. Take dog out. Finish coffee. Take meds and turn on sink for cats (really). Check weather, choose and prepare appropriate bike. Get dressed. Pack bag: laptop, charger, lights/reflective gear for night, wallet, phone, work clothes, extra plastic bag. Keys.

Once I'm on the road, it's a bit more relaxed!

One possible benefit of multiple cats: one of ours (I call him our grumpy ol' man kitty, also the district manager) has taken on a managerial role in our household. He breaks up conflicts between the other two cats and even keeps the dog in line. I actually kinda trust him. Incidentally, he's also the one who gets noisy if the sink is not left dripping.

Life has been a mixture of hurry up and wait for me for years, and getting out of the house in the morning is no exception. Even if I prepare the night before or not, I start out early and then end up late to leave, and then realize I'm on time in the long run. I figure the extra stress helps me get more exercise by pedaling faster to make up for thinking I'm late and it all works out in the end.

A couple people wanted to know how I placed the camera. I put the corner of my phone against a certain patch of lichen on a tree branch, then tried to center up the bend in the river. There was a lot of futzing with the photos in After Effects to get them sort of lined up!