A Downside to Commuting (or is it an upside?)
 

I typically commute once a week on Fridays when it is jeans and t-shirt day. So today, this intern comes up to me and asks if I can give him a ride to go pick up his car after work. Of course I told him "No." He thought I was being ornery until I told him I'd ridden my bike. Then we tried to imagine ways to put both of us on my bike like him riding on the rear rack, or getting a rope and a skateboard, but we decided against those. So depending on how you look at it, I did bad or good.

That's pretty funny. I say the same thing to people. (I ride the train in) When they invite me out to lunch, I say: "Sure, if you're driving or if it is walking distance."

The downside for me is that it is jolly hard to bring in treats when it is my turn.

Well, depending on where it was, and how you feel about it, you could have loaned him the bike to go get the car, and have him bring the bike back in the trunk?

I'll drive if it's my turn, if I have to. I've never had to, yet. Bagels do fine in my messenger bag.

My goal is so that none of my coworkers know that I commute by bike, unless I've disclosed it. I generally do, because it's so fun and I want to share the love. But I don't ever want to have it be the excuse for something. Giving someone a ride gets a pass, though. I'm fine not being able to do that.

But I'm comfortable with the idea that I may at some point have to get an expensive taxi ride somewhere on short notice. Hasn't happened yet either, but I'll drop the money if I have to. I figure I save enough biking anyway.

that's a downside of not working in a good mixed-use area. when it's my turn to bring in the office treats, i simply bike to work a little earlier than usual, ditch the bike at the office, then walk 2 blocks over to a very nice local bakery and pick up whatever looks yummy that morning and walk back to the office.

I brought in a giant cake for everyone at work earlier this week. Thanks, xtracycle!

The upside is that I don't have to do errands for the company in my personal car and gas which they don't always reimburse........wooohooo

The downside is that I can no longer jump on a great deal on Craiglist when I see a bike for sale. I have yet figure out how to get the bike home afterward.

Yeah, not being able to make a quick trip for a craiglist purchase has cost me some good buys but probably saved me a lot of money.

This is where the Xtracycle would be handy: I've seen people's build-ups for 2nd bike carriers. Usually a fork mount bracket bolted to the rear of the snapdeck so you can trail the 2nd bike, and stash the front tire in the sideloader. Although, I've also seen a full rail carrier outfit for a wideloader, which looked like a re-mount of a Thule roof rack setup.

There is no downside for me other than the extra 20 minutes it takes me to get home at night after sprinting to work and being on my feet most of the day.

I've done the skateboard thing with a coworker before. It was just for a few blocks though. Honestly.. we didn't 'need' to do it, just thought it'd be fun.

I wouldn't worry about it. My previous jobs I was riding a motorcycle to work and everyone was OK with me not participating in the 'drive to lunch' rotation. if anyone ever asked for a ride, i'd say "that's my wife's seat, you'll have to ask her" ;)

Negative--loaning out a bike, especially to the office intern, seems like a bad idea. But, I suppose it'd be fine if the bike was a real beater.

Not having to give coworkers rides? Definitely an upside.

A friend lost his paddle once, and I had to tow him in his kayak back to the dock. That's why we use paddle leashes. The skateboard thing would have been interesting to see, too, but probably harder. Anyway, not having to give up your personal time ( which is limited for everyone ) is a huge plus. Your bike has done well for you.

On a similar note, one upside to getting clipless pedals and "special" bike shoes is that other people can't borrow my bike. :D Years ago, the owner of a bike shop saw me let a friend take my bike for a quick spin in Golden Gate Park. The guy came over to yell at me: "You spent all this money on a nice bike, and you maintain it better than most people. Why are you letting someone else who doesn't care about it like you do ride it?"

I usually just kick in some $$ when we have potlucks. I have not been a fanatical cook for a long time, if I still was I'd try harder.

I saw a bike standing on a kickstand on the sidewalk about a month ago, with a sign hanging from the frame: "FREE POLO BIKE." I wanted it so bad...! The thing is, my little brother just recently moved to Seattle, and he's spending two hours a day commuting a few miles by bus. He doesn't enjoy bikes at all, but would seriously benefit from one. Unfortunately I was on mine at the time, and it would have been a pain to get it home. I thought about just walking both of them home ( about three miles ), but in the end, I decided karma would smile on me if I left it for someone who would really want it.

That's what I thought would happen to me also but in the end, the money I saved was spend on a new bike instead of the one I wanted from CL :p

That would be a neat idea, but unfortunately here in the Bay Area, I may have to cross to the other side of the bay to get those bargains which mean taking the train and getting a second bike on the train would be interesting. However there were time where I was so tempted to do it just because the "the price were right". I got lucky with one deal where a college student wanted a 2009 Hardrock for $175 and it was only like 6 month old and used maybe several times. Lucky it was not I that wanted that bike but my coworker and he wanted me to go buy it first becausse he had another appointment. I laugh at him about how I was gonna remove the wheels and strapped the frame over my back and attach the rims to each side of my rack. Needless to say, he went with me to pick up "his" bike.

Ironic how the folks that has no transportation but need it most will have the toughtest time getting that bike, while the folks who can get it easily are those who drives and probably don't care for it, and us commuter who see the value in it cannot take it.

Had one experience when I got a bit of flack over something similar. I had gone kayaking on the bay and was heading home on BART with my bike towing a trailer with the kayak. It was late in the evening so the train was pretty empty and there wasn't any problem getting on. But when we got to the Colliseum station it was right when an Oakland A's game had finished and there was a mob rushing onto the train. I got a few dirty looks from folks looking at the amount of room I was taking up with my bike and trailer.

No need for an XtraCycle for that. I've used the fork-mount attached to the regular rear rack on my road bike to attach a second bike. The front wheel gets bungied alongside the main triangle of the towed bike's frame.

As for giving someone a ride - just spend a little time in downtown Amsterdam or similar European cities and you'll see lots of people hitching a ride by sitting on the rear rack of a friend's bike. It's pretty routine there, but frowned upon in the US (and technically illegal although I'm not sure how much enforcement there'd be).

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The downside for me is that it is jolly hard to bring in treats when it is my turn.[/QUOTE]

I don't know about that. I can fit a dozen donuts, banana bread, or a kringle in my pannier, pies don't travel well though.

you could have loaned him your bike - he could have then carried it back in his car. but it makes more sense for someone else to just give him a lift _ hahaha

If you ever see a red Marin with a pink box strapped to the top of the rack goin' down the expressway, that's me. :D

I haven't tried transporting a pie yet. Hmm.

solution..????


http://blog.spout.com/wp-content/upl...amite-bike.jpg




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This all seems like a foreign concept. In NYC, nobody would ever expect a ride anywhere.

That's akin to loaning out underwear!:eek: