My shop is now 100% bike-commuting!

I own a small business, only 8 km from my home, but since I live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, it feels uphill in both directions :o. Well, about two months ago one of me employees started biking to work. That, and reading this forum got me thinking I should just do it, so I bit the bullet and started biking to work last week.

Now, my other employee, who lives closest of all, has decided he too will bike to work. I've bought front and rear lights for the three of us, and now we're a 100% bike-commuting enterprise!

It is scary at times, because we close at midnight, so the ride home is a bit late, though we all bike through relatively safe areas.

I have to say, though, that I did get us the biggest, most visible rear lights I could find. And I know the cars see me from quite a while away, 'cause last night, stopped at a traffic light the taxi driver next to me told me he'd seen me from afar, and thanked me for being so visible at night.

Today, going all of 12kph spinning granny gears up a big hill I was shouted encouragement from three middle age guys going downhill in nice carbon roadies. That made my day!

As you might imagine, we're all sore, but surprised at how much faster and nicer our commute is.

Thanks for the inspiration!!

MuddyTrails

I love it! Congrats! So cool that you all are commuting on bike. Many blessing for tail winds!!

That midnight ride home, with good lights, is a lot safer and probably nicer than a 5:30 pm ride home. Much less traffic!

Hi Muddy! It's cool that you're all riding. Very generous to keep your staff and yourself safe with lights. Have you each figured out exactly how long your rides to/from work are? It would be interesting if you all added it up each week to see how far you have cumulatively ridden. Then you could figure out how many gallons of gas you've saved (I like to geek out on stuff like that). keep us posted and have fun.

Reading your story put a smile on my face :) Thank you, and congratulations!

Muddy Trails, where in Andalucia do you live? We did a tour there last year, with the absolutely best cycling touring company around. It's a very small company, called Cycling Country, owned by a couple named Jeff and Maggie. They led our ride and we visited their hometown on the tour, met their daughter, saw their office, in Alhama.
We did not go into the Sierras, though :). The climbing we did was bad enough! Two category 3 climbs and one 10 mile category 2.