plodderslusk

Just do it !

spivonious

Me too. What are the excuses you come up with in the morning? Not enough time? Trim your morning routine. Too tired? Get more sleep. Raining? Get some waterproof gear. Lack of passion? Sell the bike.

deeth82

I can definitely say that I'm nowhere nearly as committed as many of the riders posting here, but I can tell the OP without any hesitation, visiting this forum on a regular basis will help get you motivated!!

I have lots of excuses not to ride, #1 being the unsafe conditions here in the southeast with regard to numbnuts car drivers...they already "don't see you" when you're wearing a hi-viz yellow safety vest +2 rear lights, but then throw rain in the mix, and now they really won't see you! So for me, rain is a huge motivational detractor, just not in the sense of "I don't want to get wet". The second biggest detractor is time...sure, my commute isn't insanely long, but traffic isn't as heavy around these parts as with larger cities, so one doesn't necessarily save a whole lot of time when choosing the bike over the car.

That being said, OP, I (like you) don't feel nearly as good at work when I don't ride (which is to say, a lot lately)...so I keep reminding myself of how good I feel on ride days! My energy level is higher, I feel much more positive and upbeat (big nod to @tsl here), and even after the ride home, I feel psyched and ready to tackle the tasks at home! Keep focusing on the good stuff, and try to minimize the bad stuff in your mind by planning around it all. My wife and I try to tackle all of our grocery shopping on the weekend, and that greatly lowers the likelihood that I'll need to stop by the store during the week...we also handle all the laundry on weekends too, and so long as you get most of your packing done the night before, the ride in should be a great time to really breathe and take in the world around you. I salute you for bike-commuting, and keep it up!

droy45

I always love to bike to work. I have to force myself off of it sometimes as when I am able to do 3 days in a row, I get really tired and my legs start to ache. I have a lot of hilly terrain and its 31 miles of that round trip so it takes its toll on me. The days I have to drive because of out of town work assignments are my rest days. I try to plan those around the worst weather days and keep the best weather for commuting if at all possible.

KGood

When I stopped paying for car insurance and started saving 2k a year forced to me to bike commute. Maybe make it more difficult for yourself to not commute by bike. Another plus is the freedom of going to the pub in the summer and not worrying about a DUI.

daihard 

I took my bike in on the bus this morning after riding in and out for 5 days in a row (excluding the weekend, when I didn't commute but rode a lot). I found myself moody all morning. A co-worker even asked if I was okay...

MMACH 5

Try and find another bicycle commuter in your area. Several years back, I found a couple of other bicycle commuters who were going roughly in the same direction I was. On days that I normally would have taken the bus, I found a way to ride, when I knew someone else was waiting for me at our meetup spot.

tsl

That may work in Ohio, but it won't in New York State.

daihard 

You two got me to look into the relevant laws in Washington State. Surprisingly, drunk riding is NOT subject to the state DUI laws.

https://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=46.61.790

the sci guy 

how about texas cause i feel like getting hammered tomorrow

KGood

Riding drunk in Texas is as illegal as it is in Ohio. Then again only if you get caught. I live in a town of only 20,000 people so cops are not big on enforcing it. Bikes crowd the sidewalks outside bars in the summer.

FBinNY 

Sell your car, lack of alternatives is a great motivator.

Mr. Hairy Legs

Or, trade the car for something you really hate to drive. My wife usually takes our small car in the morning, leaving me with the easy choice between a bike and... a mini-van.

noglider 

I discovered that the most important thing for me was keeping the important things right near the door. That means the bike, the accessories, and the bike-riding clothing. Figure out a way to store them there neatly and conveniently. When my bike was in the basement of my suburban house, it was too annoying to carry it up the stairs and out the door. When I secured it on my porch, I could just grab it and go.

Now I'm in an apartment building, and I have a place in the hall in the basement. I don't have to lock it (yay!), and it just leans against a wall. I keep my helmet and gloves on a shelf next to the bike. My jacket and hat are by the door of the apartment. I put on my jacket and hat and ride the elevator down to the basement. I put the helmet on and wheel the bike to the elevator, out the elevator, and out onto the street. It's so easy I want to cry out of gratitude.

jrickards

You might also want to post on the (currently) 2013 Commuting Mileage Thread at the end of each week. I also keep a log, I use MapMyRide.com but there are many others and if you don't have a GPS or cycling computer or follow the same route, certainly with MapMyRide, you can just log the distance or the time. You can also set goals such as 5 commutes in the next 2 weeks or 100km in the next 3 weeks. I like to challenge myself to keep myself motivated.

jrickards

I pack my lunch the night before so all I have to do is to pull it out from the fridge and put it in the lunch bag.

I layout my riding clothes the night before which also forces me to put in the laundry hamper, the riding clothes I've just ridden home in.

I layout and sometimes pack (roll) my work clothes the night before.

Like @noglider above, the more prep you do the night before, the easier it is to just hop on the bike and go.

deeth82

It's funny you mention this, because there was one year when I was in college that I lived in an apartment downtown...I rode my crappy Wally World bike everywhere: To class, to work, grocery runs...and looking back, I realize the reason I rode wasn't because of a desire to be healthy or "green", but because my car at the time was such a POS that it was embarrassing to drive around in it...bad catalytic converter made the exhaust smell like rotten eggs, hadn't had a tune-up in a few years, so it shook like a leaf when idling, A/C was broken, seats were rotting out in the back...it was, quite literally, less embarrassing to take my bike.


The irony of all this is that I saved a ton on gas, and never really took those savings to heart...for a while there, I could have just ditched the car and saved on insurance, too.

noglider 

Or just keep reminding yourself how much you hate to drive. Or how dumb driving is. There's a great quote from the cult movie Repo Man: "The more you drive, the less intelligent you are."

azgreg

In Arizona you can get a DUI on a bike as well as on a horse, motorized wheel chair, and a riding lawn mower.