PatrickGSR94

Yes! Finally after over a year of talking about it here on BF and elsewhere, I'm going to give it a shot next Friday on National Bike To Work Day.

I think what I will do is take extra clothes and my bike in the car on Thursday, then ride home that evening, then ride back in on Friday morning and take my bike and stuff home in the car. Round trip will be right around 30 miles, and it will probably take me every bit of 75-80 minutes each way, if not more, due to so many hills. I think the round trip is something like 1500 feet of climbing.

Current forecast for next Thursday/Friday says cloudy, high of 79 both days, and only 10% chance of rain. Should be nice!

GeneO 

Good for you! I hope it is a good experience and sticks. Sounds like great weather.

I am glad I finally just did it a few years back. I do a RT of 30 miles but got no hills

the sci guy 

excellent.
i sent out an email at work to see if anyone wanted to join me on my commute to work next week, or just on friday.
zero responses.
and a few people who said "what email."

i hate people.

AusTexMurf

Have fun. Be safe.
Let us know how it goes for you.
And keep it up.

gerv 

You betcha! Sounds like an adventure.

Big Lebowski

15 miles one way? Start right at daybreak on your Z85 and you'll be there in 60 min.

PatrickGSR94

lol no, not possible at this stage. I did 40 miles up in Memphis with only ~600 feet of climbing on the entire ride and that took me 3 hours or 12.9 MPH average. Commuting one way to work is over 700 feet of climbing and 15 miles. There's no way I can do it in less than 75 minutes at my current fitness level.

But yes I am planning on taking the Felt, and leaving the house at 6:30 AM. Thursday afternoon I will try to leave around 4 so I'll get home around my usual time.

modernjess

Good for you!

But I gotta ask, why wait until official "bike to work day" next friday. Why not do it tomorrow? Sounds like you are ready. Any day can be bike to work day!

AusTexMurf

Exactly. However, a lot of people break the ice and start commuting (actually to work on this day).
I volunteer at a station in my neighborhood each year at 6:30am and have my oldest son go with me. We help serve the commuters coffee/fruit/tacos then I ride him to school for drop off.
Many folks first commuting day is Bike to Work day, here.

cplager

Let him wait 'til Friday. The commute sounds long enough that it won't be an every day thing. But it does sound short enough that it could be a once (or twice, or more ) a week thing.

Let us know how it goes.

tarwheel 

Be careful, it's addicting. I started bike commuting 6 years ago for Bike to Work Day. Initially I planned to ride on dress-down Fridays, but it soon expanded to 2,3, 4+ days/week. I'm now commuting about 4 days/week and over 5,000 miles/year.

tsl

Yep. Didn't take long for me before every day became bike-to-work day.

The last workday when I didn't bike commute was July 17.

2006.

PatrickGSR94

haha well, it's been pouring rain last night and today, and I have no proper rain gear, so...

Due to my wife's schedule the only days I would be able to commute on would be Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, unless I could somehow leave early enough to get home by 5 PM on the dot on M/W but that's not really feasible.

I think what has held me back for so long has been the hilly route, and also the fact that all those hills are 2-lane roads with no shoulder - and I mean ALL of them, 100% of roads between my home and my office, except for the interstate which bikes can't go on anyway (wouldn't want to either). I ride 40+ miles around Memphis proper with no problems whatsoever, but most of those roads are 4 lanes or have ample room for cars passing, and not as hilly. But slowly and surely my confidence has been building and I believe I can take on this 30-mile RT commute, despite me being slow.

Plus I want to do it on Bike To Work Day just to say I did it. Plus it gives me a good concrete date as a starting point, to help me prepare and all that.

Hopefully one day I will have a nice commuter-style bike with disc brakes, fenders, racks and all that stuff, but for now I'll use my road bike. If I like doing it I may try it on the hybridized MTB, which would be easier on the hills anyway.

PatrickGSR94

So this past Saturday I did 30 miles for the Tour de Cure, all on 2-lane rural roads, with quite a bit of hills. Some of the roads were so bad that you could just about call them gravel, even though they were chip & seal. Had one nice monster descent where I hit 34 mph. Despite the 2-lane roads and the traffic, I felt fine during the whole ride.

But anyway, that ride has reinforced my confidence that I can definitely manage a 30-mile round trip commute, especially if I split it up between days. I plan on taking my stuff Thursday in the car, riding home that evening, riding back Friday morning, then bringing my stuff home in the car.

cplager

Sounds like you've got a good plan. You want to build up to it so you're happy doing it.

SeanBlader

I think your estimate is fair for a first few tries. I do 14 miles home with half the climbing and today was 56 minutes. I think you'll do better in the AM, since you'll be fresher than at the end of a stressful day at work. Although if it's downhill in the evening, you might do that one a little faster. It will be interesting to hear.

PatrickGSR94

Well I was actually thinking of trying a couple different routes, one route heading home and a different one the next morning heading in. The route heading in will be a bit longer, but the hills aren't quite as large. We'll see what happens.

AusTexMurf

What routes are you thinking about ? Are you riding in on germantown road ? I remember that holmes rd and lamar were both a bit shady for cycling at rush, for different reasons.....In what area of memphis do you work ?

Have fun.....

capejohn

I'm sure you will find that it's nothing more than a bike ride. Enjoy it.

gyozadude

I'll actually be hosting a free bike clinic at work the afternoon on Friday, NBTWD, May 17th. My usual cohort in crime will be bailing out early to head into San Jose to catch the race for the Amgen Tour of California. But I have only two tune-ups scheduled so hopefully, folks who ride in won't be sticking around too long and will just head home early. We hope folks like riding in so much, they'll do it more often, and they know the folks on campus that have bike tools in our offices should they need something fixed.

PatrickGSR94

PM'd

arsprod 

Congrats! Capejohn is right - it's just a bike ride and my counsel is take it easy. Riding for transportation is not like a training ride and (for me) not time to break records. Slow and steady, enjoy the scenery, laugh at the cars stuck in traffic, think of the money you're saving.

PatrickGSR94

Well, there is no traffic to be stuck in the way I go haha. Indeed, the bike commute takes (me) nearly 4 times as long as it does by car, and that's if I'm pushing it.

PatrickGSR94

Well, I decided to get it going today!! I packed some extra clothes and a few toiletries this morning, hauled my bike in on the car, and then just got home by bike about an hour ago. Total moving time was 67 minutes to go 14.8 miles. 619 feet of climbing, as compared to a 44 mile ride in Memphis recently that only had 650 feet of climbing. It was a little hard at times, but I made it! Traffic wasn't too bad, didn't really have any sorts of close calls. No honks. I did have one dude in a disabled dump truck going the other way that hollered for me to get off the road. Ironically his dump truck was being towed by a chain or something by another truck, and both of them were moving slowly and holding up 5 or 6 cars behind them LOL.

A few observations:
- omg the debris! I was wearing my Oakley A-wire sunglasses which don't have as much coverage as my clear safety glasses, and all kinds of junk kept blowing into my eyes. Watering and itching like crazy for most of the ride. Definitely need to pick up some dark-lens wraparound glasses pretty soon.
- stupid chain dropped off the small ring AGAIN when downshifting. I've had it to the LBS twice now for adjustment, and it's behaved itself for at least the past 100 miles. But just today it did it again. Crappers.
- Must get a 2nd deodorant to keep one at home and another one at work

Strava ride: https://app.strava.com/activities/54223528

Couple Instagram pics:

The 9.5 mile mark where I stopped to try to get the junk out of my eyes.


End of the line! At home with no car in the garage heh.


All in all a pretty good experience. Probably won't be able to do it more than twice a week, and may only do it once a week. We'll see how it goes from here on out. Tomorrow morning it's back on the road at 6:30 AM!

AusTexMurf

Awesome. Good to hear it went well for you. Nice route, btw, as commuter cycling is quite a bit unusual in that area. See you were able to cut through some neighborhoods, even a cemetery ?

Adjust the lower limit, just a bit, on front derailleur w/ phillips screwdriver. Little changes and look for small movement in lower limit. Move it out, away from frame a little, with drivetrain in smallest ring, is simplest. Stand makes it that much easier.....