I ride all week, to and from work. If I dont ride on the weekend, I dont sweat it.
Usually, I just get on my little Hard RocKommuter and tool around the area if I feel the need to spin.

I've been commuting for 30 years, and for most of that time, I was commuting without a helmet, handlebar bag, seat bag, extra tube, multi-tool or a tyre gauge. Most of my commutes were done with a bike, a frame pump, a tube repair kit and lights. That's really all you need. The other stuff is good, but in essence, the bike is a tool that you use to get from point A to point B. It doesn't need to be complicated.

I scorn bike clothing! If you can't bike in jeans and a T-shirt, you're turning a commute into a hobby or a sport. If you want to do that, fine. But it's not necessary.

I beg to differ. Jeans is just about the worst/most uncomfortable thing to wear when cycling any distance. I can't imagine riding in jeans when it's wet, cold, sleet, snow. In those conditions long cycling tights and a pair of shorts/knickers made of synthetic material will make your commute so much more pleasent. My commute is also part of my fitness training so in a way it is a sport to me.

Of course the point Brett is making is that you can do anything you set your mind to. If we all waited until everything is just perfect before we did anything, or until we met someone elses standards, well... I daresay we would get nowhere.
Sure the right tool for the job at hand is always best. But getting started in the best fashion you can is the key.

I don't wear lycra shorts except for the hottest days in summer but I like bike specific clothing, or at least outdoor clothing, it's just more comfortable. I normally wear MTB shorts. I tried wearing regular shorts but some are just too uncomfortable: seams in the wrong places, stiff, etc. Sometimes I wear hiking shorts or beach shorts. And jeans in heat or rain are a torture. I don't even wear jeans shorts when walking in Summer.

In cold weather I wear warm, unpadded bike tights with the MTB shorts over them.

Normal clothing designed for slow walking doesn't work very well for cycling, even if it's just a 30 minute commute.

Perhaps if my bike riding was limited only to commuting I wouldn't buy any special clothing. Since I also ride longer rides on weekends and got into touring this year I need better clothing anyway. And a lot of it can be used for hiking as well.

Grow into it. Don't think you have to totally conquer all your bike needs in one swoop.. Yes, be sure you have all your needs taken care of such as maintenance issues and being ready on the road for any mechanical problems that might arise.. But, more than likely, if you keep your bike in good shape , you'll be ok. I agree with Chip's claim. Invest in a good lighting system.. And make your bike so that you'll be seen in low light conditions such as reflectivity. Other than that, you'll learn as to what your future needs will be and update your bike as needed..
. A concern you'll have to solve from the get -go. How much stuff do you need to carry. That will be something to chew over...

Between 1984 and 1986 I cycled 10,000 miles with only three pairs of 100% cotton jeans, a few T-shirts and a coat for cold weather. I cycled in driving rain, hot, cold, and blizzards where I couldn't see 10ft in front of me. I rarely felt uncomfortable (only when I got thoroughly soaked and a change of clothes fixed that) - never had any cause to replace the jeans with spandex trousers. I think the idea that jeans are uncomfortable for cycling is a myth pushed by spandex manufacturers. Sure, if the jeans are too tight, they'll be uncomfortable, but other than that, jeans are fine for cycling.

In my experience, synthetic clothing makes me sweat. Then it feels nasty and clingy and it stinks. Cotton breathes a lot better than any plastic material I've ever worn.

I think comfort is mainly in the mind - if you're convinced a material is going to be uncomfortable, it will be.

If you have a cadence of 60 and below, normal, non-bike specific clothes are fine. If you tend to ride with a normal cadence of 80 and above, I find spandex\lycra more comfortable. I simply bought a pair of lycra leggings for $10 and wear those inside a pair of no name polyester shorts. My morning commute tends to be cooler this time of the year and the return ride home warmer. So I just wear the shorts on the way home. Neither of those are bike-specific (read: expensive) clothing. I did buy a pair of lycra\spandex arm warmers on sale for $18 at my local equipment store. These are very good for keeping the arms warm and getting more utility out of short sleeved garments yet providing the flexibility of removing them as the temperature changes.

The best thing one can do for regular commuting is to dress in layers so one can tailor their garments with the prevailing conditions. The more comfortable you are, the safer you are since you won't be as distracted especially in urban traffic.

It was supposed to snow here today and would have preferred that to the cold drizzle we are getting... back was killing me and did not feel like going anywhere but hopped on the bike anyways.

The drizzle wasn't as cold as I thought and riding in the rain can actually be an enjoyable experience... it reminds me of Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver and the people I love there who would not give this little spitting a second thought and ride anyway.

Used to hate the rain and said I would take our dry winter and extreme cold over cold and wet but that does not seem to be the case anymore.

Did some long rides this year and spent hours riding in the rain covering distances of 80-100km... it makes you appreciate the warmth you find when you get to your destination.

But not everyone shares your handicap. ;)

Stock answer, "it depends how complicated your life is."

wait... or is it, "right back atcha babe"

no, no sorry. wrong scenario.

I suspect 80 is probably on or beyond the high end of the normal range for commuters - and we are talking about commuting here. As for me, I've never timed my cadence - for me the bike is a transportation tool that I pedal as hard and as fast as feels comfortable. It's never been something I try to squeeze every last drop of efficiency out of. Heck, I've never even owned any kind of cycling computer, so I have no idea how fast I go. As long as the bike gets me where I want to go faster than running, I'm happy.

The answer to the OPs question is NO, it's not that complicated, if you have a short, fair weather-only commute on MUPs and city streets.

However, if you regularly have a long commute, in all weather, at night, during all seasons, in traffic, carrying your gear to and from work, etc., the answer is YES, it is actually fairly complicated. There are so many options as to bikes, clothing, equipment, technique, and so on.

By all means, start commuting by bike. You'll get some good advice and some bad advice here, and from fellow commuters you meet along the way, and you will learn what works for you with actual experience.

I still believe that cotton is a bad choice for any physically demanding outdoor activity in wet or snowy or icy weather conditions. In the winter of 2008 I fell through the ice when riding my bike.. it wasn' t too deep, up to about my thighs, it was -15 C , and I am very glad that I wasn't wearing jeans or any other cotton clothing, I was about 8 km from my home.
Wool, merrino wool, and synthetic clothing has been proven to work much better in extreme weather conditions. Many years ago when I was involved in teaching wilderness survival skills, we would Forbid the students to wear anything made from cotton when we took them out into the bush for an overnight trip with no camping gear in the middle of winter. Canadian winters can be very unforgiving. Proper clothing makes all the difference.

I'm not advocating wearing only cotton (remember I also included a coat for cold weather - if I recall it was made of some Nylon crap). I just think cotton is the most comfortable fabric for everyday use - and I'd much rather sweat in cotton than in lycra. And I agree, for cold weather, wool is best. My point - I like all those natural fabrics and I think the plastic ones are overrated. Okay, they're reasonably good insulators for their weight, but I hate them sooo much - cheap, sweaty plastic garbage!

Getting back to the point of the thread, I just don't see a need to complicate a commute, other than bringing the usual extra clothing you'd wear for a colder season. I've always ridden my bike in everyday clothes. I see no reason for buying specialized clothing for a simple commute. An overnight winter wilderness trip, or a 3 month SAS survival course, would naturally be a different kettle of fish. I just don't see a 30 minute commute becoming that sort of thing, unless society really suffers a catastrophic breakdown.

I agree. You CAN get as complicated as you want, but in the beginning, dont.

Riding year round in Minnesota in the 70s I found the synthetics available at that time worse than cotton. If it was cold I put a pair of wool longjohns on under the jeans. I still find synthetics uncomfortable. For comfort I need a cotton or wool blend, with a little bit of synthetic acceptable. I roade a couple of centuries this year wearing carharts, t-shirts, and red wings with no chafing or discomfort.

+1.. I love this...... Puts things back into perspective. On the other hand, I'm a gear junkie.

Um, you get what you pay for. Not all synthetics are cheap, and the quality synthetics are not sweaty or "plastic" feeling, nor do they hold odors. As for a 30 minute commute not being a problem, it was on a commute of just that length that I got caught in the rain and got hypothermia. It doesn't take long.
Some of us just can't wear wool of any kind without scratching our skin off, so the synthetics have been a wonderful invention for us.

Cotton has never had a place in Canadian winters... historically speaking. Well except for all those dead British explorers. :eek:

Y'all keeping forgetting the OP.

I GUARANTEE that recommending her to keep it simple and to just "wing it" with minimal accessories for a 13 mile ride on hairy roads in evening hours will cause her to never try bike commuting ever again. Plus, she's on a mountain bike and avowedly is a beginner to this whole cycling/commuting thing.

She'll get stuck on a busy road, feel that her life is in danger by all the traffic that can't see her, and it'll be over.

If she could drive 10 miles and bike the final 3, ok, just wing it, but that's terrible advice for the OP.

+1 on tweaking your route. I learned early on when I started to commute by bike that the shortest route is not always the best route to take. My original route included 40 mph streets without bike lanes right next to the highway and high traffic streets that I'm very familiar with when I'm in the car. Now, my route takes me through streets with bike lanes and residential streets. It did make my route a mile or two longer than the original one but the peace of mind is way worth it.

The thing I'm hearing from the OP is that she wants to commute but is being overwhelmed by the pressure to spend hundreds of dollars (money that she doesn't have) on accessories. She has her bike and she just really wants to ride it. What I fear is that although she has the tenacity to get on it and get to work, she will get frustrated and disheartened by a mountain of irrelevancies before she gets in the saddle. A 13 mile commute is hardly Captain Scott's final day of march in the Antarctic. Some here seem to want to portray it as a dangerous endurance test when all it is is a commute. Why complicate things?

Hell, if I had the advice I'm hearing here, I would never have started commuting to work in 1978, never mind taking off on a 10,000 mile journey through Europe. I would have blown my budget on hi-tech clothing before I even started!

She will get stuck on a busy road, traffic won't always see her. Should she, or we, pack it in? Most of those gadgets and clothes are just panacea, if you haven't realized that yet take some time to think about it now. What you seem to be encouraging is the attitude that commuting on a bicycle is complicated - it is not - after a point it is as complicated as you choose to make it.

Yes, but let's not forget that the OP is on a budget. Cotton is cheap and works for most temperate climate situations. A cheap nylon coat with padded polyester lining works for most cold weather riding. Sure, she may be a little chilly on some rides, or a little sweaty on others. But heck, I'm sure she's not such a delicate flower that she can't take a little weather. Why complicate things?

Cotton is cheap, and unsuitable for this purpose. We're not in the previous century anymore, synthetics are much improved these days, take a look at technical materials such as Coolmax, and similar, try wearing them for a while, and then go back to wet, heavy, stinkin' cotton. I am pretty sure you're going to ask yourself what were you thinking wearing cotton all the time. Cotton simply does not work for this, and when it gets wet it's all over - get caught in colder rain in cotton, you can get hypothermia and cold in under 15 min. It doesn't wick sweat effectively, and it doesn't breathe at all when it's wet, you might as well put a common nylon bag over instead of your clothes, wet cotton feels the same to me - hot, wet, sticky and non breathable. It doesn't dry nowhere quick as a good synthetic does. It is an unsuitable fabric for the application, it might work just barely ok on short, easy summer commutes, but not much anything else. A proper set of clothes, is in my opinion and experience having done more then 5,000 miles on bike in any weather - blizzards, snow, ice, thunderstorms, pouring rain, sun - proper set of clothes is invaluable personal gear, just like gloves, helmet, and lights as a bare minimum. And such clothes can be had for cheap today, if you shop around.

The OP is on a budget. Based on what she says, she doesn't want to be shopping around. She doesn't want to be shopping at all!

Cotton is perfectly suitable for a 13 mile commute. Heck, I've used it on century rides with no problems at all. But anyway, the OP is not doing a century ride every day, rain or shine, at 30mph. She's doing an hour's ride once a week (presumably when weather is good) at around 13mph.

Getting her on the bike is key. Getting her to waste time she could be cycling buying accessories is counterproductive.

One only needs to read this thread to see why the OP feels overwhelmed and commuting seems complicated. :lol:

Exactly.

The first cycling craze happened in the 1890s, long before spandex. This thread might lead some to believe that cycling in cotton and wool was/is so uncomfortable that doing so is tantamount to cycling while wearing some kind of torture device. If cycling in 'unsuitable' clothing is so darned uncomfortable, I guess maybe either the Victorians cycled 'au naturel', or the cycling craze of the 1890s was a mere fantasy.

No.
What is easy and spontaneous for an 8-year-old, turns into hours of analysis and deliberation for an adult.
Just do it.