How Was Your Commute Today?

I had a routine, uneventful commute. To be honest I don't remember most of it.

Just figured I'd throw that out since everyone else had trouble today! :)

Today was finally a beautiful commuting morning here in the pacific nw of Oregon! :)

Since this week is suppose to be nice I got out the road bike (Radac) - forgot how fun my 19lb race frame bike is to ride.

Rode with my son the first 2 miles to his high school, then had a short cat 6 with another commuter until we hit the little bit of rise, he ran out of steam; evaded a car that attempted to blow a stop sign on a side street, then just plain savored the sunny warm morning.

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Originally Posted by ZenBiker

My sympathies. During April and May where I live, there's almost always a west wind in the afternoon, which is a head wind for my commute. Today it was 15 mph, gusting to 25 = no problem. Some days it's 25 gusting to 40. That makes me say bad words.

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I noticed I can handle headwind better on my road bike. On my commuter, a steel single speed, I'm all kinds of cussing.

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Originally Posted by NadiaMac

So, updating my last post: I've managed to keep up some momentum with the commuting and have managed to ride to work two or three times a week each week. Mostly, I take the more direct route, which is about twelve miles, but i've ridden in over the neighboring mountain twice with a co-worker, which is pretty cool. I've ridden in a few times with a big group commuter ride- over 60 people showed up last Friday! Most of the folks go much further, over forty miles to work!

on the process side: I located the showers at work - pretty nice ones in the building next to mine, and our company provides towels and shampoo, soap etc so we are very spoiled in that regard. The other "improvements"- I picked up a chrome commuter backpack and the thing is great a big improvement for carrying clothes to work (two tiny comments, I may review it later). I also obtained a brighter headlight, though haven't used it much since it's pretty light in the mornings now.

The one thing I haven't worked out is carrying my work laptop in on the bike. The thing is a brick and I do work at home a fair bit especially on the weekends. I have some neck/back issues and am loath to carry it in my backpack, but at the same time, I like riding my road bike to work and am not into putting a rack onto it. I do have a backup bike with a rack, but it's clunky and way less fun to ride. So, at the moment, I ride in only when I don't need the laptop at home the night before. This is the major limiter.

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Hey Nadia. Work in Mountainview? Are you talking about the sf2g group?

I put a Linus adjustable rack on my commuter with a Timbukt2 Shift Pannier Messenger. Easily handles laptops and not on your back. I have back and neck issues and I swear by that set up. The rack is elegant, light and unobtrusive; quite unlike most racks. The bag is hella useful. It's sold out on the website but I got it at the San Carlos REI.

Of course you could buy a new bike that splits the difference and you could put the rack on it. ;)

I was planning on driving today because I did a hard ride yesterday, and the forecast was rain (good excuses for a rest day), but I happened to get up early (thanks Eddy) and the roads were dry. Next thing I know, I'm wearing knickers. I bet the English girls think that's funny. :D

It was crazy windy, but from the south, so all the headwinds were downhill. I love south winds. I had a sweet tailwind coming home, and it never did rain. Glad I rode. Tomorrow I'll rest.

I'm the worst bike commuter EVER! It's May (bike month) and I have yet to ride to work this month. Last week I drove all week because it was just post-marathon and my legs were fatigued. Really, I guess I was just lazy. This week I've just been admittedly LAZY! :mad: I only have 9 days of work left until summer break and I'm going to bike them all, dangit!

Today was a great commute. I live so close to work (1.75 miles) I have to get really creative to get in miles. I did 6.75 total today. 75f and 13mph winds.

Currently at 20 for the week, ahead of this point last week!

Kelleil- yes, talking about SF2G, but I only go to SSF. I'm generally a bit too slow at the moment for style 3 SF2G but I've been doing the FFFF (first Friday friendly frolic) for the last few months and it's been been highly enjoyable (and as an aside, Gary Fisher was on the ride last week).
Thanks for the heads up on a rack. I'll have to look into it

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Originally Posted by NadiaMac

Kelleil- yes, talking about SF2G, but I only go to SSF. I'm generally a bit too slow at the moment for style 3 SF2G but I've been doing the FFFF (first Friday friendly frolic) for the last few months and it's been been highly enjoyable (and as an aside, Gary Fisher was on the ride last week).
Thanks for the heads up on a rack. I'll have to look into it

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I unfortunately live in RWC and commute to SF. I have never made that ride. Also I'm not taking my road bike up to the city cuz I can't take it inside the building. But you just made my jealousy worse!

Omg crosswind!

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Originally Posted by kelleil

Omg crosswind!

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Ahhh, gotta hate those. I end up leaning into it without realizing it - then a big truck goes by and temporarily blocks the wind, and I have to swerve to correct! Or a nice big gust will come up and move me sideways on the road bike. Well, at least it's never boring. :)

Commute was fine. Meh.

I rode home today with my giant brick-like laptop in my chrome backpack (along with clothes and other miscellany), and while the pack did a great job with the load in terms of feeling balanced and comfortable, my neck was stiff this am I assume from the weight of the strap on my left shoulder/neck. Arhgggg. Need to sort this out!

Otherwise, my ride was delightful. Took a new way home which involved three blocks of > 18% climb, but otherwise much calmer traffic than my usual route. May do this in the future

Not my commute, but just got a Skype from my son. He did his first commute from his new home and he got a ticket in Cambridge for riding through a walk sign in the cross walk on a red. Serves him right! Well, he said the commute was still good.

I really enjoyed my first commute, and the two rides were so different from each other, both in route and conditions! It was 45 degrees for my ride in, and over 70 for the ride home :) Drivers were courteous for the most part and while 2 were quite close I didn't feel in danger. Riding around downtown at lunchtime was certainly well outside of my usual cycling frame of reference :eek: :cool: