My first commute..
 

Decided to practice a route for work on my weekend and spent an hour looking through a route on Google maps, never having ridden to downtown before in San Francisco. Could've stuck to the "Wiggle" route that minimizes hills, but decided on a more direct path since I got an ebike. Went out with my monstrous chain in a front pannier fighting the weight, then my rear disc brake began squeaking the whole way. Got dark at friggin' 5'clock and missed a turn and got a little lost amidst the busy 1-way streets and didn't feel comfortable navigating them, so walked a couple blocks in a circle. Guess I'm used to wide open roads with fewer traffic. Rest of the way went smoothly but missed a turn on my way back. Tried pedaling the 60lb bike with 15lb chain up the hills with minimal throttle then nearly bonked lol. A 40 min commute turned to an hr each way.

On the upside, it was still fun and somewhat liberating to be finally riding with the rest of the bike commuters. And nobody honked or yelled like I always read about even with some cars gassing behind me attempting to pass (wasn't taking the whole lane, not confident enough for that I guess). It felt as if everyone just Wanted to mind their own business.

So any was your first time commuting?

No matter what, just watch out for those car doors when going downhill! :D

Smart move, testing out on the weekend. Always have bus-fare and a cell phone with you. As far as the weight and effort, it will get easier with time.

Yeah, I think I'd have a e-bike in SF too.

Sounds like you just need some lights and a better memory! :)

Congratulations on the first commute! If you have a GPS or a phone with something like MapMyRide on it, you can program your route into it. The program will give you verbal directions so you don't make wrong turns.

Yea going downhill was a little scary with the bike feeling a little unstable with the front pannier flexing the rack, and forced myself to take some of the lane to avoid getting doored. Hmm I might not have missed the street signs if I turned my headlight full blast but it was left on the lowest setting. I was thinking of using Google Maps for bike directions for preset routes but figured I won't be able to hear it while riding. Plus, I didn't want to rely too much on a GPS for cycling. The last time I used MapMyRide for a car ride it stopped recording midway which was really frustrating so I switched to a basic tracking app. Maybe I'll try it again if I can plot my own route with voice directions.

I'm glad you had fun. I can't remember my first ever commute; I've been doing it on and off ever since my undergrad university years. But it still feels like an adventure most of the time (usually a good one).

I think a paper map w/ clearly mapped cycling routes is easier to use than electronic directions -- of course, you'd have to stop each time you wanted to look at it, but I find it easier than futzing with devices. Here's a map link for you, if you haven't already seen it: http://www.sfbike.org/?maps