I snapped this on my way to work a few weeks ago. This is my Trek 1200. I think it's a '94. The road I take on my way to work goes through a golf course, so I get this lovely view of downtown SD.

Cool, is that the public course in Balboa?

Yeah. I take 30th down and cut through the course. It's always a nice ride! This is at the back of the parking lot.

]

Big guy here too ... right around 275 now, down from nearly 300 earlier this year. Currently commuting three days a week, 24 miles round trip. You'll get there if you keep at it.

Congrats. If you measure in ton miles like freight, you have most of the commuters here beat.

Cut back on the beer and brats (yes, I know that's hard, so I say back, not out) and sneak in a few more miles and 250#s isn't far off.

Thanks! I monitor everything on myfitnesspal and endomondo ... and as for sneaking in a few more miles, I'm doing just that in about a half hour, after I lift real quick at the gym

every one of my bikes does double-duty as a commuter. This one is no exception. Cross-post from C&V; my 1983 Lotus Pegasus that I built up with M.A.P. / Ahearne bars, half-step+granny gearing, a green Brooks saddle, etc. Considering a front WALD basket to add some extra carrying capacity, thought the Carradice bag can hold plenty (just not enough beer on the way home)

cobrabyte - That Lotus is just badass from top to bottom.

My usual commute is just 32 steps from my back door to the shop but I have been teaching classes at the co-op for the last month... I usually warm up with a little bike history and it is nice to be able to bring examples.



For tomorrow night's class I think I should dust off the Garlatti which is a fabulous bike in the city... those Continentals just eat up bad roads.



When the weather is as nice as it has been it is nice to run light with nothing more than my backpack.

well thank you good sir! it's a blast.

always nice to see that Pug of yours. A true classic.

Oh my god, yes! Are those tires as fun as they look?

Like you, I will commute on any of my bikes even though the Moulton sees the bulk of my city riding as it is just that good of an all rounder.

For trips where I need to lock up and leave I take my newer '76 Peugeot fixed gear (you have to have a beater / bar bike) but most times I have really good bike parking so don't worry about what I am riding from a theft standpoint.

Of late I have been riding a different bike nearly every day as they come out of winter storage... will take me a while to get through them all.

Awesome looking bike. The problem for me is that I would never ride it. I would spend all my time sitting and staring at it lol - -

They are! It's nice to take the gnarly roads I normally avoid on my commute. Changes up the scenery. "Floaty" is the word that comes to mind.

Thanks for the kind words, gents.

My wife's main commuter is a Breezer Uptown 8... I can only guess that the bike has seen close to 30,000 miles and still looks and runs like new.

We added the full chaincase as this was not a stock item in 2007 and it reduces the need for chain cleaning / oiling to a semi annual event and the chain life has been astonishing. It also got a new stem and wider bars with more backsweep and the Brooks saddle and the seatpost replaced the stock bits.

It is such a great bike and was worth every penny... they are still one of the best off the peg bikes you can buy and the new models come with a full chaincase, albeit not as nice as the one we fitted.

Parked in the warehouse.

Just picked up my new commute bike today from the shop. I have wanted to try a belt drive and have thought about having a Spot since first encountering them up in NYC years ago.

My department at Stanford had one of these as a long-term departmental rental from the Campus Bike Shop when they were a Breezer dealer (and well after). It was well-loved and bulletproof. Nobody ever made fun of the vice provost for riding a purple bike with a step-through frame.

Waiting out the thunderstorm..



Going to client after thunderstorm:



- Andy

GREAT photo. Really.

Thanks! Just glad i could share! And believe it or not.... It smelled even better than it looks!!! Lots of wildflowers & freshly cut grass etc....

My "office".

- Andy

Very nice! What kind of gearing did you get, Alfine 11?

FWIW, a little encouragement for you. I weighed 266 lbs this time last year. Started cycle commuting first Monday in June, and am now 225 lbs (without really changing anything else in the diet department). My commute is just under 14 miles each way, and about 1000' of total ascent going to work, and about 1300' coming home.

Cycle commuting is a great way to lose weight! Good luck!

a lot of fun. i changed the handlebar and the brake levers. it is now (imho) better than the original set up.

I think it's great, but I lack a frame of reference; I've only ever bike commuted here, South Lake Tahoe, CA, and Bend, OR (which is the gold standard of the three). I've been commuting here on and off (being that I've moved away and then back again) since 2001, and I can definitely say that it's better than it ever was. We have almost no bike lanes, and the city is criss-crossed by 45 mph 5-lane boulevards where the average speed is 55 mph. We have just under 300,000 people in Anch, but we're pretty spread out, so road speeds stay high outside of rush hour, and cyclists on high speed throughways are almost unheard of here. There are more cyclists every year, it seems, so motorists are getting used to seeing us.

On the upside, we have greenbelts with MUPs that cross the city several ways, and outside of those a savvy commuter can learn to link together slower speed neighborhoods, MUPs, and sidewalks to get where s/he's going with minimal motorist conflict. Sidewalk riding is legal in Anch (albeit risky, know what you're getting into) outside of downtown, and even in downtown there's zero enforcement (a common summer sight is the summer-only bike cops trying to weave through the crowds of tourist on the downtown sidewalks). Downtown is one of the areas where street riding is safe, though; low speed with lots of stops to keep motorist speed down. Between that and the high level of pedestrians, there's no reason to ride on the sidewalks downtown (unless you're a cop who doesn't know better ).

And then there's winter...

Very few of us ride all winter. Streets stay icy all winter, sidewalks become gigantic snow berms as the street plows bury them under (always after the sidewalk plows have cleared them, at taxpayer expense), the MUPs are groomed for skiing instead of plowed so they're frequently too soft to cycle on. In the past, when my commute was short, I would ski to work during winter storm cycles. Now that I've moved across town from work, I bought a fat bike to ride during storm cycles. Even if you don't ride on snow days, studded tires are a must, unless you like crashing a few times a winter.

I'm lucky in that I live at one end of an MUP that spits me out into downtown, where I work and where street cycling is easy. For several years I commuted solely on surface streets, summer and winter, all the way across the most motorized parts of town, and it was harrowing. I got to where I was going, and it was generally fun like riding a bike is fun, mixed with regular moments of extreme stress.

Long story short, I like it now better than I ever did. It used to be terrible, now it's less so, and you can mitigate that further depending on where you live and where you work.