I change jobs next monday, and at this new one I will be able to commute on my bike. I have a few questions, like what do you carry to your office when you commute on bike? I will be in an office environment, there is a kitchen but no showers. I will have to dress business casual and I have a locker, so dressing will be no problem. I think I will drive the big gas guzzling V8 truck to work on mondays, fill my locker with a week's worth of duds, and ride the rest of the week. What about sprucing up? I hate to be at work all day smelling like a scuzzy mtn biker, oh wait, actually I don't really mind but my co-workers might

TIA and sorry, this doesn't mean I'll be parking the gas guzzlers permanently, this just means I will have more gas money for the weekends

Mike,
New additions to the commuting gang are always welcome. Head over to the Commuting forum and do some searching and browsing. Your questions have been addressed several times, and there is some good advice already there. Sounds like you have a pretty good setup. A quick rinse in the men's room, followed by a little deodorant, and no one will even know the difference. Hope you enjoy commuting as much as the rest of us do.
Regards,
Raymond

Thanks rainman, I guess I should be more observant I didn't even know we had a commuting forum here

What you carry and how you do it depends greatly on the length of your commute.

For example My commute is a mile and a half so during the winter i just layer under my work clothes.In the summer, however I carry a towel and washcloth as well as my work clothes in a larger zip lock baggie. When I get to work, I rinse/wipe clean, and apply deroderant and a light body spray in the mens room then change. noone notices the difference as far as odor goes. Make sure to completly change though. socks and undies get sweaty and at best uncomfortable at worst stinky . other than that make sure your ride is equipped and up to the miles. It really is fun to see the look on faces when u come in out of sub zero tempatures or a torrential downpour comments like did you ride this am are fun to answer.

I carry my clothes to work in my panniers every day. If you fold them carefully and don't pack anything heavy on top of them, they generally won't get creased. As far as no showers goes, some deodorant that you can apply once you get to work can get rid of the stench. And a little water with a comb can fix the 'helmet hair' problem very effectively.

The most important thing with commuting is to make sure you get there on time. I recommend taking a ride of your new commute on the weekend before you actually start so you can get an idea of how long you need to allow each day.

Moderators- feel free to move this to the commuter section if you want, I see now that there is a good commuter section here. My mistake.

nemo- actually my commute will be on a mountain bike. I live next to a lake, and my new office will be across the lake and about 2 miles by water. By single track/ trail road/ paved road it is about 4 miles (that is if I don't take a detour and ride down some river trails on the way ). By normal driving it is 17 miles. Right now I'm trying to figure out how I can go a day or two by bike, and a day or two by kayak. Sweet!

Welcome Mike. Hope you can work it all out. Spent some time in the Ozarks myself, lots of fun places to ride. My commute is total riding the streets, although on the way home I try to get in some trails and incorporate more miles. MTB can be fun to ride to work if you can get away from the knobbies and get a semi-slick street/trail tyre.

Sounds like my dream commute!

One thing I will never worry about, "helmet hair"! I'm looking at doing 14 miles one way and trying out commuting. I have riden the route on my road bike several times this past summer and fall, with no problems.

welcome to the "real world "of cycling , Mikeok i hope you know the more you bike commute the further left your outlook becomes, it has to for you to survive see & breath pollution fresh from the source ! it can become extreme sport at times . but seriously youl enjoy it

Just keep with the bike commuting come rain or shine for two weeks - it will take you that amount of time to work out the best route. Too many people try it once or twice and then give up. Keep with it for 2 weeks and you won't then give up

The opposite is true for me, especially with all the extra time I have to think, but that's a different thread.

Anyways, MikeOK, welcome to the commuting world! I used to commute 5 miles when I was back in school. I never had time for showers or anything (sleep is very important as a college student) so I took my route just to the point of working up a sweat. On the ride home, I would push myself.

To avoid sweat, invest in a pannier rack and some panniers. Keep the luggage off your back. Its easier to ride this way, and what sweat you do produce will evaporate before it accumulates.

As for clothing, its very easy to pack (with a bit of practice) everything so that you don't have wrinkles in your clothing. My method is to fold the shirt almost all the way. (so its about the width of your pants when folded in half width-wise (one pant leg)). Lay the shirt on the bed. Lay the pants on top of the shirt with the waistband in line with the top of the shirt. Bundle the socks and underwear into a cylinder, and place them at the cuff of the pants. Then start rolling up the pants, grabbing the shirt on the way (smoothing out wrinkles along the way) until you have a nice cylinder of clothing. Put it in a ziploc bag (2 gallon) and remove the air. You're set. No wrinkes when you get to work. The underwear/socks will keep the clothes from pinching on itself, which is what causes wrinkles.

Shoes can either be left at work, or packed in one of the pannier bags. It will be hard to wrinkle the clothes even with pressure when 'folded' this way.

Nowadays I have been doing a 30-mile round-trip commute. Showers are a necessity, and fortunately, I do have to worry about helmet hair. Just remember to hang you bike clothes so they dry out during the day. The couple times I have forgotten, and left them in my pannier bags after a shower make for a miserable ride home.

Pack everything in ziploc bags. (or at least keep them handy) Weather can sneak up on you, and panniers leak.

As you enjoy it more, you will probably start adding additional miles to the ride just to have more fun. I just added some good hills on my ride home.

I just wish I had a way to get to work by water. Lord knows I'd sail it.

Enjoy the commute!!

A flat 4 mile off-road commute is just perfect. You dont have to race the distance. Ride at a more leisurely pace (10-12mph) and you wont get sweaty. Use that last 500m or so as a cooldown, and freewheel along, so you are not working, but the air is still cooling you. If it is a hot day, you can use your waterbottle to wet your jersey for sweat-free cooling. This time of year, tempereature regulation is a lot easier.
If you have a shower before you leave, you wont be smelly. If the trail is muddy, then some fenders will keep you and your cycling clothes from getting covered in mud. Keep a towel and sponge at work, and you can clean yourself off in the toilet.

If you leave shoes and trousers at work, it is pretty easy to take a shirt and underwear everyday. You can get crease-free shirts, and roll them up. You could use a backpack, but a pannier bag on a rack lets your back breathe more. There really is no need to take a truck on a 17 mile journey just to deliver a few shirts.

You may want to leave some bike spares at your office. Carry a spare innertube, but leave another one at work, with spare cables. Get yourself a good lighting system, so you can ride the trail in the dark.

Hi Mike, Welcome to the world of commuting, once you get going, keep it up, it's a great home to work transition and you won't believe what you will see out there. Every day and every ride is a new adventure in life. Panniers are the easiest way to carry what you need, I'm always accused of carrying too mach, I live in new england where the weather is always changing, I carry panniers and a trunk bag. I put the bike equipment in the trunk and the clothing and gear in the panniers because they can be folded, lunch goes in the pannier. Here is my gear list, I built up a commuter bike from an old mountain bike, the frame is cromo, the drive train is shimano XT with V-brakes, from march through november I use a smooth tread tire on the front and back, during the winter months I use Nokian mount and ground studded tires. My lighting is taken care of with a nightrider classic front and rear, I also have a cateye blinking light on the back as a back up which I run all the time, I carry a spare, small cateye headlight in the trunk that is battery powered in case the nightrider fails. I carry a mini pump, 5 tubes, spare chain pins, 2 spokes of each size that are used on my front and rear wheels, multi-tool, chain lube, a spare set of brake pads, rubber gloves to keep my hands clean during repairs,, 2 rags, I carry 1 filled water bottle on the frame. For clothing I carry a spare jersey, safety green vest, light wind jacket, 1 pair each half finger, long finger and warm gloves, a skull cap, spare pair of socks, a face cover in the winter and a rain suit and folded work clothes and lunch. My cargo changes with the season, in summer I carry less and sometimes ride my road or touing bike if the weather is nice. My commute is rather long, 18.5 miles each way with some long steep hills in both directions, The thing to keep in mind, is dependability, the bike and youg gear has to be dependable, When you ride a bike to work, you have to get there and get there on time. You will find that bike mainenance is one of the most important factors of your commuting success, If you spend too much time on the side of the road, you could end up jobless. My advice to you is, buy quality gear, take care of your bike, give yourself enough time, ride easy in the morning and harder at night, enjoy the adventure, bike commuting is a very rewarding and fun thing to do. Good luck and don't be afraid to ask us questions, most of us have been at it for a while. Oh and one more thing, wait till you see the shape you'll be in, in about a year.

Mike, enjoy the commute. I'm envious that you can kayak commute to and from work-- I'd love to be able to do that, but I don't work or live near the James River, our local water-- if I did, I'd be riding the class four into work daily (not sure how I'd get back, however-- the lake sounds like a much more reasonable commute, though not as fun. But you can practice your roll).
I generally just cram my work clothes into a backpack and head on out the door. Most of my work outside of the house is either at a local University or an Arts Center, and I have no trouble changing. I also don't need to wear particularly neat clothes, however. I'll either carry or leave a bit of talc powder-- I find it absorbs most of the sweat from the ride.
An issue at many jobs is bike parking. It's best if you can store the bike inside in a safe place, as opposed to locking it up. If your office doesn't have proper facilities, see if there's a supply closet or shipping/recieving room you can use, and clear it with your boss. Usually there's some out-of-the-way place to safely store a bike. I've been fortunate in that at most all of my jobs, my bike commuting has been accepted (if wondered at) and my employers have been okay with me storing my bike in a secure place inside.

If the distance is only 4 miles, just wear your work clothing, plus any overcoat, raincoat, etc. that weather may require. Unless you ride hard, you will not work up any more of a sweat than you would walking a mile or so.

I normally commute wearing a suit and tie. On hot days, I fold and carry the jacket and ride in my shirtsleeves. Alternatively, I leave my jacket at the office.

On the way home, you can hammer if you want to.

The kayak commute sounds great! When I was at the University of Washington, there were several kayak commuters, and I really envied them.

Paul

This is so true ... I have started riding a lot after work like an extra hour or more just to get more miles... its fun to watch them pile up one the cyclocomputer.

The "start adding more miles" is so true. We had some major road construction a while back and I had to take a detour that added 4 miles to my commute. I liked it so much that I've taken it many times since then and even added a few other variations to it... fun!!!

Another ditto to adding detours to the commute. You'll be looking for all sorts of interesting routes to work.

I didn't see anybody mentioning this (although I may have missed it) but I keep a box of Cool Contact sheets in my desk. They're made by Old Spice and do a good job of cleaning up if you're not too sweaty. Baby wipes would probably work well too but you may not like the fragrance.

As for helmet hair, I figure that I'm going to be bike commuting long after I have to worry about that, so I'm going to enjoy it while I got it!

Enjoy the ride. It'll be the best part of your workday.

Thanks for all the good replies. I am going to drive my Jeep to work the first week, but then it's commuting on the mtn bike every day, weather permitting. Forgive the earlier gas guzzler spouting that I did, I was being a bit of a smart-a$$. You guys have been way more accommodating than I expected

Hey, we like other bike commuters. More of them the better. Probably, after you ride awhile, you'll find the best answers to all your questions-- and quite likely several of your solutions will not even be mentioned in this thread. Then you can come back here and pontificate with the rest of us.
Still very envious about the kayak commute.

Mike,

As you seem to have a large vehicle, you could ease your way into commuting by driving to work one day and cycling back home.

Regards,

Baby steps, MikeOK, baby steps, soon you won't drive to work at all (unless sick or REALLY bad weather) I can just see it now.....You come into the advocacy section spouting off about sucking somebody's tailpipe and how it was so horrible..... heh, baby steps.

BTW welcome to the commuter clan!

me too! my 20k commute has grown to 60k, but its good to know if i feel unwell or the weathers realy rough, i can shortern it ! i typicaly go the direct route to work, then do the xtra on the way home, im always tring new routes, ive slipped up a few times when ive got lost or the roads degenerated into a loose gravel road (700*23 tyres) but its all good fun especialy when i can sneak away from work early, thats realy satisfying