doin' it with someone else
 

all this week (well tue-fri) my girlfirend has been riding with me.

it his her first time commuting to work and so far it has worked out really nice!

we both live together and work pretty much at the same place (well she works across the street) so it is really easy for us to ride together; and so far i think i am gaining another strong pro-bike anti-bus convert!

even though this week has been hot, we have been taking it easy; AND despite the fact that the initial plan was just to start riding together tue/thu till she built up to riding more; my girl, the rockstar, has been ready to ride every morning so far!

it has been really nice to have someone to ride with and talk to. the best part is i can see the excitment and feel the passion growing in her for this commute we now share!

the only downside (i thought) would be that it is much slower. in realtity it's only been an extra 5-10 minutes tagged on to the 45 minute commute in the morning.... no problem!

i also find that riding nice and easy with her is great training for my real passion of riding off road... i tackled a fast ride with a monster climb last night (after commuting of course) and felt better than i have in a while! all that riding slower makes your muscles ready to rip!!!!!

so so far it's all good! i thought it would be harder, and getting used to traffic and the general unpleasantries of the rushing commuter cars would rattle her more. it hasn't, she's tough, and i am extremely proud of the quick transformation she has made into a REAL commuter.

i guess i learned doin it alone is only so much fun, know what i mean??? ;)

anyone else out there have any luck converting the heathens? bringing the light to the masses??? :eek:

MY wife and I would commute together before we had kids, as we used to work at the same company. We sometimes would take our tandem rather than single bikes.

My better-half and I ride to work every once and a while, but I have such a tough time not leaving her behind. I guess that is a bad sign. :)

She just rides so slow it really does get to me. But it is nice to chat during the ride and it does win me some good old brownie points for when I've managed to screw something up, which is quite frequently. Thank the Lord for brownie points!

your girl got a fast bike??? i got my lady a nice little commuter roadie so she has no excuse not to go as fast as those legs can carry her.

i strangely find i am really liking the slower pace (though i gotta say my girlfirend pushes pretty hard for a newbie). by myself it was always a race.... me against no one in particular (cept when a smug lookin roadie passed me ;) ).

now i have time to stretch, look around, smell the flowers (well more like the exhaust).... i not only ride but think about how to do it safely (riding for two now) and just genuinely dig the calm of riding without ever really straining.

i ride mtb's on weekends, and usually my friends dragged me around the trails because i had ridden myself to death all week. well this weekends gonna be different! it seems the slow riding is actually better training (which is whay i started this silly fun in the first plcace)!!!

plus as you say the brownie points are MAGNIFICENT! no more worry about HAVING to make time to ride with the lady on weekends (we still will, just now it won't be so important), we rode all week!

oh, and one last thing that i think hasbeen key to the commutes success; i didn't push my girlfriend into commuting. i just kept doing it and one day she said "can i ride with you?" i think since she made the commitment herself it is a much happier one than if i would have pushed her into it before she felt she was ready.... :D

Just this morning I was changing clothes in the office locker room when some guy struck up the usual conversation, nice day for biking, how far do you go, how long does it take, etc. I (surprising myself) rattled of my stats, 6.3 miles, 35-40 minutes, and that, averaged out over a calendar year, I save $23 a month in gas and insurance premiums. As he left the room he commented, "I'll have to talk to you about that."

I had a guy from our shop approach me today to tell me about how he went for a bike ride with his kids and that it was humiliatingly difficult. I offered a few encouraging excuses, like maybe the bike was too small or maybe it needed a tune-up.

Still, he seemed excited about the idea and said that he would like to get a new bike or at least some smooth road tires. I offered my help if needed. I won't hold my breath but at least people are starting to realize that it's not insane to ride a bike past the age of twelve.

It seems to me that we make better time if I stay behind the slower rider. On stretches where it is safe to ride two abreast I let the slow person stay a few feet up. From behind you can coach them on the route, verbalize what you do - "Here I pick up the pace to make the next light..." etc. If you are commuting regularly with your friend who is slower, you can try it both ways and report back to us on which way results in a shorter commute time. One day stay in front , one day stay behind. Mix it up randomly so your friend doesn't know you're experimenting.