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Assess yourself for 2014

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Old 01-02-15 | 01:37 PM
  #51  
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Two dismal months, commuting-wise: June (knee injury) 212kms and Dec (wife surgery) 97kms.
Still managed 4570kms commuting, so I'm happy with that--my goal was 4500kms.

Running...on the other hand. 311kms vs 2013's 662kms.
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Old 01-02-15 | 03:01 PM
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haha when I started really getting into cycling in 2013 my running dropped to zero.
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Old 01-04-15 | 05:16 PM
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I don't have a computer on my city bike or bakfiets so no idea how far I rode or average speed. Don't really care. I rode my bicycle for most trips unless the distance was too great for the time available or I needed to carry more than my bicycles can handle. Only real hiccup in 2014 was a bit last winter when the paths weren't plowed properly and ended up frozen foot and tire prints after people had walked and ridden through the slush that froze that night and didn't thaw for a bit. Sadly the city refuses to salt the paths.
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Old 01-05-15 | 08:09 AM
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From: England / CPH

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I did OK.

I needed to drive (or use a taxi) many more days than I even had to previously. Most of this was due to moving to the country and/or picking up clients/guests from the airport or railway station.

72.4% of all commutes by bikes is OK for the year.

of the 27.6% of non-bike commutes:

13.8% of the total were by car (taxi) ... 50% on non-bike
8.1% were by bus ... 29.3% of the non-bike
5.7% were by rail ... 20.7% of the non-bike

I think the ratio of bike/non-bike will be similar for 2015.
I think that the rail/bus will increase versus car for 2015.

177.5 days of work is too many. I'd like to see that number around 140-150 for 2015.
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Old 01-05-15 | 01:16 PM
  #55  
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I did well as far as cycling is concerned.

Total of 5500 miles of cycling. Didn't once drive to work, possibly because it's not an option (I don't have a car anyway). Managed to ride a century every month, also a 300k ride and a week long bike tour.

In other matters... well, not so great. I still haven't finished my book. And I should have sold a bunch of bikes and cleaned up my office. I'll try to do that in 2015.
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Old 01-05-15 | 02:35 PM
  #56  
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2014 was a write-off for me, which I knew going in. I'm working from home on average 4 days/week, so that killed my commuting mileage compared to previous years, and increased family commitments and work travel made it difficult to get recreational miles in. I didn't bother to track my miles for 2014.

One distinct highlight from 2014 was that I did my first little bicycle tour - a very short (~340 km over 3 days) tour from Brussels to Amsterdam, which I was able to tack onto a work trip. It was a lot of fun, and I'd sure like to do more of that.

I'm not setting any firm goals for 2015, but I'd like to get back into randonneuring if possible with a few 200's. Otherwise, I'll cycle-commute as much as possible on the days I go into the office, and once spring arrives, I'll go back to going for a morning ride before starting work on the days I work from home.
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Old 01-05-15 | 03:07 PM
  #57  
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Bikes: Ridley Noah fast, Colnago CLX,Giant Propel Advanced, Pinnerello Gogma 65.1, Specialized S-works Venge, CAADX,Cervelo S3

I regret why i din't start commuting early in 2014. Total miles for 2014 was 6,300 with about 3k from commuting. I din't like sharing road with cars so i would drive 6 miles and commute 15 but i discovered a different safe route and now it's a total of 21 miles one way!
Today's commute was 30 deg cold but this year i'll commute 4 days a week for a total of 160/week unless thunderstorms.
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Old 01-06-15 | 08:30 AM
  #58  
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From: Mooresville, NC (Charlotte suburb)

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2014 was a good commuting year for me. In mid February I moved and started a new job. I have been commuting by bike for many years, but only decided to start tracking - and coming to this forum - once I started my new commute. My previous 6 mile commute didn't seem like a big deal. The move and new job meant a 12+ mile one way commute. I found this forum by Googling for bike commute distances in order to see if doing the new commute was reasonable or just too far. By reading and doing I soon learned that the distance was not so bad at all.

My wife and I have the one car between us - a minivan primarily used for getting kids to activities and errands. I go to work and she home schools the kids, therefore, she gets the car. She will take me to or pick me up from work if needed or if she is already in the area, but I primarily ride my bike.

Riding 5 days a week is enough for me. I am also a runner and weekends are good for longer runs, so very little non-commuting bike miles. I had no specific goals for riding or running.

2014 mileage
Bike commuting: 4480
Bike othering: 113
Running: 1508

2015 should be more than 5000 bike commuting miles since I will include January and all of February. Six more weeks will add at least 600 more miles.
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Old 01-06-15 | 11:21 AM
  #59  
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2014 was a good commuting year for me. It's convenient that I moved house late Dec 2012, so that my life as a bike commuter began on the first workday of 2013 -- thus 2014 was my 2nd year (and 2nd full year) as a bike commuter.

One difference between 2013 and 2014 is I started leaving my car at work in the parking deck rather than at home. This allowed me to pick up kids at school if something came up in the middle of the day; so when I didn't bike commute, it meant leaving the bike at work overnight, driving home in the evening, and driving to work in the morning. That lifestyle worked out very well, I will continue it for the next few years until my oldest gets his driver's license.

I didn't track myself in 2013, but in 2014 I started tracking at bikejournal.com in the Commuter Cycling Century Challenge. I didn't count car days, but I do know that I cycled for 192.5 commutes (.5 is one-way), had 35 car-free weeks, and 3 car-free months (and two months that were car-free except I drove home on the last evening of one month and drove back in following first morning of the next month). My goal was to make it to 200 days, but I didn't quite get there. But I am proud that of all the days I drove, none of them were due to weather or general laziness (having the car live at work definitely prevented that). I did feel I was extraordinarily lucky with weather though, SoCal doesn't get much rain, but I would guesstimate that the 10-12 rainy days I remember seemed to almost all fall on either weekends, or off-Fridays, or other times that I drove to ferry kids around. I only rode wet twice all year.

I drove my car for only 861 miles in 2014, and I added 2616 to my cyclocomputer's odometer, which omits a small number of miles, maybe 100, in recreational trail rides where I didn't move the computer to bike B, my hardtail. My commute is 11mi round-trip, and I very rarely take alternate routes, so we'll say 2117.5 of that 2616 is commuting.

Looking forward to a good 2015! I don't think I'll be able to make 200 days, but I hope to keep a similar record of 0 cop-outs!
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Old 01-06-15 | 04:32 PM
  #60  
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I only rode about 1,500 miles, but I was self-employed for most of the year. During those months, I did some errands on bike. As such, I'm pretty happy. I haven't set goals, but I find I'm gradually increasing my bike miles, and that makes me very happy. I started a new job on December 2 and have ridden in one day each week. I plan to increase that. I rode yesterday, and it was damned cold, and I survived. That prepares me for more cold-weather riding.
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Old 01-06-15 | 10:43 PM
  #61  
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I was unemployed for the first 11 months. However, I did ride to a city 30 miles away to give a talk and rode home, and I also gave a class in the next town over and did a bus and bike commute. Now I have a part-time job and bus and bike to and from it. It's a hilly route and I'm slowly getting used to it.
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Old 01-30-15 | 04:49 PM
  #62  
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I did not bike commute at all in 2013 or 2014. I bought a house too close to the office for bike riding to be fun (4 very nasty congested blocks), and my start time at work was moved earlier to the worst part of rush hour. I'm not a morning person and have many early morning pet chores to finish so I can't just leave earlier. I've been waiting for them to hire another early shift person so I can return to a normal post rush hour start time and get back on the bike, but they can't get any qualified applicants.

My girlfriend (who gets to sleep in and start work at a civilized time) just bought a bike to ride to work, and we're going for a ride in the national park so I pumped up my commuter's tires for the first time in 2 years. I hope my brakes aren't too bad after all this time, because I don't have any new pads in my toolbox that I can install. Maybe I can get back into commuting one day a week until I move back to a normal start time.

I've even completely forgotten the PSI I preferred for my 700x25 commuting tires!!!
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Old 02-01-15 | 12:35 PM
  #63  
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Originally Posted by bkrownd
My girlfriend (who gets to sleep in and start work at a civilized time) just bought a bike to ride to work, and we're going for a ride in the national park so I pumped up my commuter's tires for the first time in 2 years.
We rode the length of Hilina Pali Road, with the return climb in the rain. The bike wasn't out of tune after its long dormancy, and I don't feel like I'm out of tune either. It's a good start.

I was also pleased to see that I still have 6 brand new Continental Grand Prix 4-Seasons tires from a great 2006 deal in my bike parts drawer. I'm down to my last Kool Stop pads, though.

For my own reference, 2598 miles on the odometer at the start of 2015.
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Last edited by bkrownd; 02-01-15 at 01:40 PM.
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Old 02-01-15 | 04:35 PM
  #64  
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2014 was a good year for biking. As of this winter, I'm finally equipped to have "no excuses" year round.

Car use goes up and down. It's mainly predicated on my kids activities, such as sports meets, music lessons, etc.
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Old 02-01-15 | 06:56 PM
  #65  
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Originally Posted by yankeefan
Getting back on topic, I only just learned how to ride this past summer and started commuting in the fall so I can't really do much of an assessment. My fitness did improve and I developed some really sculpted quads and calves, and within the first 5-6 weeks I managed to shave 4-5 mins off my commute (24 miles RT, 4 days a week) through improved cardiovascular fitness. The biggest improvement came after I started refueling using electrolyte water instead of regular water (shaved off a whopping 8-10mins!). Unfortunately all my gains got overshadowed by some fat I accumulated during a brief spell off the bike due to an injury. I was averaging close to 100 miles a week before my injury and now I'm doing a lot of cardio in the gym to get rid of the christmas pounds and get back to putting miles on my bike. Hoping 2015 will be as good as my pre-injury 2014.
I missed this part the first time around -- congratulations on learning to ride and starting to commute this past year! That's a huge step, much bigger than the incremental gains many of us hope to make year after year.
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