mconlonx

OK, maybe the second, but the first time I flatted a couple miles from home and walked the rest of the way...

I worked up to this--rollers over the winter and then shorter loops around home. But no serious training or any kind of a schedule, both turned out to be pretty erratic. A couple weeks ago, my wife left work early and I told her I'd ride home. That's when I flatted--had a spare tube and tire levers, but no pump. Walk of shame.

Today, I wanted to get the bike back to work. Could have loaded it in the car, but the commute home didn't kill me, so I decided to ride in.

Over the winter, I built up my "perfect commuter" in anticipation of doing this. Killer rig--IRO BFGB RR with Nexus 8 hub, VO fenders, B&M lighting, rack... yowza! But was intimidated by the distance and was gradually working my way up to the milage needed to get into work. At work, I wanted something to run errands around town and do some lunchtime rides, so I found a guy selling cheap bikes down the road, scored a sweet 198? Shogun 12sp with Shimano 105 "Golden Arrow" components for the princely sum of $65.

So I have this awsome bike at home, bike shorts, etc, everything I "need" to commute. But on the day the wife left early, I had the $65 beater and regular work clothes.

And y'know what? Didn't make that much of a difference. 18 mi one way is still 18 mi and it appears that it's more about the attitude/will and legs than the equipment.

My old commute was about 7 mi, and easily doable (even if it was through downtown Boston...) so this bigger distance was intimidating. Plus, my wife hired on to the same place I work, so we were able to get rid of one of the cars and commute in together--that additional time together is pretty sweet and added another mental obstacle to the ride. Why bother riding if gas will be used on the commute anyway?

I'm a bit worn right now and the whole point was to get the bike back here, so I'm not riding it home. Life is complicated and various and sundry days, I need to pick up my son over at his mom's place, so there will be days when I'll be riding at lunch instead of commuting.

But it's great to be back on a bike for transportation to work. I liked doing it before and this AM was great. By car, the commute is about 40 min, by bike it was 1:05, and I'm sure I can get that down below an hour once I've been doing it for a while and built up my stamina.

So what do you *need* to commute into work? Not much--in this case, an old beater (but nice) of a bike. Period. Can't wait to try out my "real" commuter, but I'm glad I started in any case.

JMRobertson

I'm on my fourth day bike commuting (moving up from bus commuting) and have to agree that it's far less about the equipment and more about developing leg strength and stamina. Keep at it and it will get easier and more fun. My own commute tops out at 16 miles, but I can break it up if I want to take a bus for part of the trip.

I've not got the experience to really say, but I bet the weather and seasonal changes are going to be interesting to deal with. Fortunately, in So Cal, we really don't have weather.

texastwister

we don't need no stinking cars!BIKE COMMUTING IS IT NOT GREAT OR WHAT! when will people learn! oh yea CONGRATS!

RobCrawford

Congrats!

I am on my 9th Day of commuting to work by bike, I do it 4 times a week (Tuesdays I can't due to extra curricular activities that are too far and run too late). I started on the Thursday of Bike to work week. On the Monday of Bike To Work Week, when I got home from work, I tried to ride 15 miles (distance from Home to Work) without stopping, around my neighborhood to make sure I could actually do it. Did not want to have to call the wife to get me if I couldn't do it. After the first 2 days I was hooked, replaced my old Shwinn with a Trek Soho 1.0. Biking takes me about twice as long but with the price of gas it's worth it not to mention how good I feel "physically" much more energy, and I am getting twice as much done at work and I am not run down at all. I have gotten 2 more people at work thinking about commuting by bike.

Keep it up!!!

mconlonx

I rode the full commute yesterday, 35mi R/T. Wow, what fun. I was a bit tired for the hills at the end of the ride on the way home, but felt pretty strong for having done the commute in. The night before, my wife and I were out and did a 12 mi loop on our tandem, and I was worried that I'd be fatigued because of that. No problems. I rode my new uber-commuter in this time and I have to say that riding a bike you built up yourself is a real treat. The fact that it worked and nothing fell off was nice... The first half of the commute in is mainly low, rolling hills, followed by pretty flat terrain. The hills are good first thing in the AM, when I'm feeling strong and they're at the beginning of the ride; the hills are a bad thing in the evening when I'm tired.

The thing I notice most is smells. I'm used to the difference between being out in the open and riding in a car because I also ride motorcycles, but on a bike, you get a lot more time to smell what's going on. It's still basically late spring here in S. ME, so all kinds of things blooming with almost overpowering fragrance. And roadkill, old and new, the tannery in town, Dunkin Donuts, nursuries, etc.

Plus the way time goes by. In a car, time crawls and the commute actually seems longer than it is. Not to mention just the stress of being in car traffic. On bike, things seem a bit timeless--as long as I give myself enough time to get in, the time flies right by. On the straights, I thought that distance would be discouraging, as in: That point a few miles ahead looks pretty far away and I have to go through all that between here and there to get there. The reality is that I'm more than happy to be just cranking along and out in the world to notice whatever time it takes to cover the distance.

Made it in in about the same time as on the beater that other morning, 1:05. Going home, 1:15. Ideally, I hope to get both times under an hour, commuting on a regular basis. It was good to post that ride time in, because it matches what I did last week on the beater 12sp--this time, I was on my new IRO RR that I built up with a Nexus 8 hub, and I'm happy to say that any drag was not noticable and didn't seem to impact my ride time.

I already felt stronger on the ride in than I did on either of the other times I made the commute, so regular commuting should certainly be managable. Plan is to do it most days we don't have to pick up my son at his mom's house, so I should be able to manage a 2 or 4 days of full commuting depending on the week, maybe an extra day if I use the beater locked at work to link up a couple of half days at either end of the week.

My wife started working at the same place I do last year, which really took some of the wind out of my sails as far as doing this goes--if we're taking a car to work anyway, why not carpool in? Now, I use her as a support car and she brings my stuff in to work so I can ride unladen. We surprised ourselves with the 12 mi on the tandem, however, so it could be not too long before we're both commuting in to work.

Fun to be out on a bike. Today is raining and I planned on taking the day off from riding anyway just in case I needed to recover. I felt fine this AM, however, and will take a short 7 mi or so spin at lunchtime. Tomorrow and Friday, weather is supposed to be good, so I plan on being back out on the road at least one day, if not both. I'd planned on ramping things up gradually, like half the commute last week, one full commute this week, two next, etc., but am feeling strong enough to jump right in with as much as I can do. This state of fitness was certainly unexpected, but not unwelcome...

mconlonx

Yesterday was cold, rainy, and miserable, and I'd given myself a day off to rest anyway.

Today, I biked in again. Fantastic. By the time I get home today, I will have done 70 commuting miles this week. I am super psyched to be commuting by bike again. As much as it was doable on the beater, it's much more fun doing in on the new bike, knowing that I built it up myself. Need to get some wicking shirts and am considering a switch to clip-in pedals, but all the large issues have turned out to be non-issues.

There's only one part of the commute where I'm uncomfortable with the traffic situation, a freeway overpass with two lanes that turns into three where the turn for the highway is. I have to go straight there, so it's a matter of taking the middle lane to continue straight ahead, or hugging the right and crossing straight across the highway access road.

There's also one busy-ish road with no shoulder where the cars get a bit close, but other than these two spots, smooth sailing.