Cheshire

Today I start biking to classes (college). Wish me luck!
(i'm a little nervous about it.)

xB_Nutt

Good luck! Let us know how it goes. Hope you bought a good lock...

littleal

In no time you'll be wanting to skip classes and just go for a nice long ride.
Cheers and welcome to the club...

sunv

you get to classes alot faster biking. sometimes ur so confident it makes you late because you leave so late thinking you can get there on time. funny but when im already late, i believe that can ride so fast that i can actually reverse time and get to class on time. weird i know but it always pops into my head when in pedalling to a class late. "maybe if i go faster, time will start going backwards."

ride where there's no pedestrians. it may take longer but u dont gotta worry about cutting pedestrians off. and if you do ride on walkways, ride in middle. i notice pedestrians always move away to sides when ur in the middle going thru rather than going on the sides trying to get around them.

jyossarian

Welcome to the Happy Healthy Commuting MotherF*ckers (HHCMF) club! Hot coed ladies will be thrilled and driven to lust at the sight of your muscular legs so be careful and wear a helmet or you may be injured when they tackle you to give you their tel. no.

ryanparrish

Nobody told me about that? I wish I had the ladies maybe I ride to fast so they can't see me I am like a Japanese bullet train on two wheels ( In reality it more is like a rusty freighter )

Flimflam

Congrats and welcome, you'll learn to love, live and breath biking soon enough - Don't give in - it's tempting to begin with, but just keep going at it - you'll get your fitness and stuff up in no time, making the ride a breeze and leave you thirsting for more!

Safety-up though, Helmet is a good start! (I came off my ride last Wednesday and now have a wrist cast preventing me riding - it sucks lots to be out of action for even a week luckily a really bad bruise, no break - clinic checkup tomorrow will hopefully clear me)

joejack951

On the topic of safety, since you say you are nervous about riding, do you have any details to share about the roads you'll be taking to get to your classes? How much road riding experience do you have?

rule

Sending good commuting karma your way Cheshire. Let us know how it goes.

AndrewP

How far do you have to ride, and are all your classes in the same building?

Cheshire

Well, I made it there and home alive!
The commute is 35 miles one-way for a total of 70 round-trip, assuming I leave from the house. I think I overdid it today...2 hours after getting off the bike and my legs have just now stopped being in pain. Next time I'm going to get over my pride and take the bus across town on the return trip.

I'm east of Asheville commuting west. For those of you familiar with the area, I'm doing Hwy 70 to Swannanoa River Rd, turning onto Amboy Rd, picking up State St to Haywood, then Patton-Smokey Park Hwy-19/23 all the way out to Haywood Community College. Patton Ave-Smokey Park Hwy is the part that makes me nervous: 4 lanes + turn lane of (speeding on) high-speed, nasty roads, and no shoulder.

I've been biking a while now, but never over 45 miles at a shot. Hehe...until today.

*edit* Forgot times: 2 hours 40 minutes there, 3 hours on the nose back home. Yi.
-Not counting pre-driver's license, been riding on-road for the past four years now...wow, that long already?
-I have (and use!) a decent helmet. I rode without one up until this past winter; threw my chain and bounced 20 ft down the road, luckily without more than bashed-up knees. Made me realize how lucky I had been not to land head-first.
-Yeah, I have a good lock. It survives downtown Asheville, anyway. At school I can bring my bike into the building, so no worries. Gotta love art departments.
-Incidentally, I found out recently my road frame (a Surly crosscheck) is 2 cm too small for me: a 58 where I should be riding a 60. I have a hardtail mtn bike that fits (21")...would slicks and locking out the fork be horrifically slower, and/or (more importantly) not the best of ideas on that long a commute?
*end edit*

recursive

70 miles for your first try is pretty beastly.