Fall and Winter Commuter Challenge!

Wrong hemisphere :(

I thought about starting something like this in May for our cooler months but it seemed a bit pointless..:( :rolleyes:

Keep riding in the dark, it's not that bad!

I had my first really chilly commute of the season, low 40s. I hit the layers right, but might have been a little more comfy in full finger gloves. But I won't need them this afternoon.

Week 2- I did one day for 27.05 miles. Carpooled with DH today so we can do some shopping after his doctor's appointment.

While I don't work today I'm probably going to go over to see a lecture on "performance enhancing drugs in sports" (I work at a hospital - interesting people/lectures are a fringe benefit :rolleyes:), so I'll be adding an extra day. It's not raining right now, but it has that look of utter downpour.... I guess I better get used to it.

On a nice note - we had a bicycle commuter focus group yesterday at work. They really are committed to making cycling to work as desirable as possible.

Today was my first commute of the week (I had to travel to a funeral earlier in the week). It was chilly, and I almost didn't go, but I'm glad I did. Only 7 miles, but that's 7 miles more than yesterday! I saw my across-the-street neighbor at the post office (she had driven). She said I was so good to ride my bike; I think she was kindof embarrassed that she drove, although I certainly don't judge her for not riding a bike. I actually had mail, so it was successful commute!

Well, if kfergos is allowed in, can I come too? I don't even drive on the weekends - I drive when I rent a car (or if the Subaru dealer lends us one for our bike rides for sag, like last Sunday :) )
I just got a ***really*** bright little flashlight, a Fenix something or other from www.batteryjunction.com . I realized that it is a nice little defense device. It's blinding. Cruising in the dark dark last night I realized it's also pretty good for requesting oncoming drivers to dim their brights. (We don't have too many creepzoids around here... ) It was expensive ($50) but it's as bright as my big battery-in-the-water-bottle-carrier light that broke last week was (I had it jammed between the other stuff on the handlebars and must have stretched the wrong part and broken some wires). The $50 also got me a cute holster for it ... and it's a sweet piece of machinery ... and I have sort of decided that the "I can get that for cheap from China via Walmart" is a bad idea, and getting things that are well done and will last is a better one. (It's an Xtracycle thing ;) ) WIth what I save being without a car, I can do it.

Well, the commute's over for the week, about to hit the airport for a biz trip. I made 2 for 3 rides though, and I ended September with 69% - just above the goal! Definitely need the lights in the morning now, and the temps are falling into the normal fall zone...glad to have this group to help stay excited about being on the bike on those early mornings!

And yes - the more the merrier -- car-free, car-lite, any kinda bike commuting is a happy thing in my book.

I made four out of five again...I'm happy with that!

5/5 - and with a yucky ingrown toenail. Ew. That's all I'm gonna say on that.

Did I just see Xtracycle? How's commuting on one of those? I'm thinking of converting a bike with an Xtracycle kit, but it looks involved and expensive. Is it worth it?

Assuming that I'll make it home all right, it's 9/10 for me this week. On Monday I brought my spare bike to a colleague in my department who's just visiting for two months and previously bikeless. So I came back by transit. Otherwise, I commuted by bike every day! Not a whole lot of rain yet. Fall foliage is splendid, especially looking through my yellow lenses!

4/5 days for me this week. Yay me! A new personal best. & today I rode in a skirt.

M, W, Th, F for me. I got in an extra day by attending a lecture (at my workplace) on one of my off days. Today was my first good and rainy commute.

The lecture was actually about performance enhancing drugs in sport, though not at all what I was expecting. It was by an ethicist, who is *for allowing* peds... he had some compelling arguments, but for me it comes down to the governing body of a sport can make any rule they want - without even having to justify it. What is a sport but a list of mostly arbitrary rules to play and create a score, by which a winner is derived. So no matter how good the ethicist's arguments were if the governing body of the sport says no PED's then to go against that rule is cheating and that should be the core issue, not whether or not the reasons that the drugs are banned are valid or not.

For a shorter reading, omit the passages in brackets :)

When I first saw the Xtracycle, I emailed a friend saying "I just saw something that fortunately is too expensive to tempt me." I was surfing for panniers, racks, *something* so that I wasn't so frequently saygin "I'd have taken the bike, but I had to bring _____."
Then I spent more time on the website, and also priced out the "racks and panniers and .." - especially since I *use* my bike. Quality matters.
I questioned the quality. Was this some quirky gadget that Californians with excess discretionary income got for show? Would it fall apart?
It was the history page that shifted me. These guys had been down in Central America with "bikesnotbombs" and had noticed bikes being overused... and went back and got a grant and got Stanford engineers to figure out how to elegantly, simply make a bicycle a more functional cargo machine.
Oh, and of course a chunk of the Xtracycle profits supported getting bikes down there.
I sent a few emails to Xtracycle. Laughter Medicine answered them.
I asked my bike shop guru who is ALAS AND ALACK moving to Wisconsin in a week or two... "ever heard of Xtracycle?"
"A reasonable carrying alternative," he said. And by the way, he'd be glad to make it happen to my bike. In fact, his eyes dilated... his breathing quickened...


[[[[[
[ I drove 735 miles to my sister's house for the fambly "Epiphimas" gathering. On the way I decided to go for it. I got to my sister's house 3:00 California time and called Xtracycle, Friday January 6... and got their voicemail. "You've reached Xtracycle. We decided to take a few days off at teh end of the year. If you want to reach ___, call ____. .... Laughter can be reached telepathically."
At 7:00 California time, 10:00 Baltimore time, after quaffing a few beers with the siblings (I have 5), I wanted to share that message with them. I called again... and a human answered. I hung up 'cause I was certainly not prepared to *talk* to somebody... and figured that there's was a business like the one I'm in and the phone was at somebody's house - and that, like we sometimes did, they'd forgotten to change the voicemail message :)
]]]]]

I ordered it. And I was just now inspired to peek at my blog, 'cause I had it going since 2005, so I wrote about the process. Snork... what could I know?

{{{{ My bike shop guru put it on. Therefore, it wasn't complicated. I think it takes a competent (but not excellent) mechanic to do it. (Tho' my guru is excellent.) Since it goes on lots of different kinds of bikes, you have to decide exacty how parts are going to get connected. But - once it's on there, it's on there.
I thought I commuted a lot. I thought the stuff on the website about "it will change your life" was California drivel.
I think I thought wrong.
It is so not complicated. It simply turns my bike into a practical vehicle.
The bags are like the back seat of my car, except after havin the Xtra for a year, I sold my car to my brother because in this college town I just don't need one. I've got the money in the bank, so I can get one... it's been a year and a half, and Illinois winters... and boy, do I *NOT* want a car. I'm FREE!
}}}}



I love my Xtracycle.
It rides like a bike. Carries like a truck.
And horribly nonmechanical Xious does not have to carefully load it so it doesn't fal over. I do have to make sure the silly straps don't dangle into the wheels, but I can put *anything* in there and it just stays and rides so easily... it's lke the back seat of a car. Only... what's a car?


((( I especially love watching people see it and THINK.
They think "Crap! She got that bike on PURPOSE!" Not "'til I can get a car."

Oh, and I was the third one in this town... and now there are a dozen.
And now longbikes are going mainstream - Surly, Trek, other folks are makeing them and Xtra has put the design online as "open source." I think this is amazingly gonadian of them. So you can make your own if you want :)
)))))

Geonz, thank you for the excellent run-down of the Xtracycle. You've given me quite a bit to think about. Do you remember how much it ended up costing total, with having your wrench install it and all?

I am thinking $500. (However, I sometimes have to make my wrench let me pay him for labor.) I think the Xtra has gone up a bit in price since 2006 (like all things bicycle - my bike shop guys warned us it would happen iwth the inflationary forces :( )

It has been very much worth it. The blender, now, that was a silly thing to get (but tossing my pop-tart money in the jar for it lost me about 5 pounds...) - but the bike... it really *does* change the whole definition of a bicycle.

Week two in the bag. I'm still 5 for 5. Had my first Fall rain commute this morning. Nothing like an hour ride in the rain!:p I LOVE my fenders! bikerHen

5 of 5 although I may have one of the shorter commutes.

Have had a couple of enforced no computer days as I needed to get stuff done!

Did the shopping I needed to do by bike on Saturday and cycle commuted to work and back on the Monday. No riding to running club as I was resting up for a trail race and didn't go.

If I have time I will update who is still in the challenge or has joined (hi Sue!). I did make my 1x a week but we did use the truck 2 days and this week we will be driving it multiple days while we continue to work on the landscape project that is taking over our time right now. Our monthly fuel consumption on it is still way down and has been since we got commuting bikes in April. :)

Week 2 totals

9/30 60 miles
10/3 37 miles


Week 3 plan:
10/6 - 13 miles
10/7 - 60 miles
10/8 - 0
10/9 - 0
10/10 - 12 miles

The real fun starts this week.

There is a forecast of rain for almost every day of this week, and the heavy winds are going to start tonight. Hopefully I'll make it home before the 75 km/h gusts hit Vancouver, and it will have died down tomorrow. It can be pretty crazy to see the big Douglas firs at my office window swinging in the wind. On those days I definitely avoid riding as some of those big conifers have a bad habit of shedding branches. I don't want to be hit by a tree on my way home!

And I'm going to get a new pair of tires tonight. I've been getting a flat a week - always a different cause - since I started using the current tires on my commuting bike. I'm not very interested in having to change flats in the rain, cold, and wind.

Good luck everyone for this week!

I'm going to have to change my goal for this week, since on Friday I'm getting my new bike (:D :D :D) and that involves some driving, ironically enough:

Mon - 2 rides
Tues - 2 rides
Weds - 2 rides
Thurs - 1 ride (dropping old bike parts off to put on the new bike; hard to ride home sans saddle and tires!)
Fri - 1 or 2 ride(s), depending

Minimum Total: 8 rides for the week of October 6 through 10.

I just looked at the weather for the rest of the week.

I knew there was a chance of showers today, so I have rain gear in the pannier. But tomorrow there is an 80% chance including thunderstorms! I guess I better pack extra shoes and socks to keep dry.

Made it through week three. Althought I did have to have my husband pick me up on his way home from work yesterday. I was a little careless with my rotary cutter and cut a deep slice in my index finger. It's right where I grab the brakes on my road bike. So I'm on my mountain bike for a few days. :rolleyes:

Morning commutes are getting a little cooler. I've had two rides in the mid twenties this week. Brrrr to start but once I get moving nice and crisp! bikerHen

Brrr indeed.. and its getting darker too.

M + W 12 miles to and from work, F 22 miles to and from the animal shelter.

I bought myself some Tire Sparx (led's that fit onto your valve stems) for added side visibility.

Cooler and darker, but I love wearing the wool, and I enjoy riding in the dark (provided I have good lights, which I do).

100% for me this week. I even had more kilometers than usual because I did a few detours on the way to and from work.

Happy me. I love this.

It got chillier here but mainly still just jacket weather... I wore gloves some days but it wasn't really necessary.

Next week still nice!

Buzzed by a driver two days... same guy (WKG 44). Not so close that I can say "you did that on purpose" - but there's a whole left lane, dude, goin' the same way on this one way street - so I'm gonna have my camera at the ready next time, just to send a message (and be sure not to get sloppy with lane position).

Week 3 actuals... it's getting darker out there!

Week 3:
10/6 - 13 miles
10/7 - 60 miles
10/8 - 0
10/9 - 0
10/10 - 0 miles
10/11 (today) 30 miles - had to work an event.
Total week 3 miles: 103


Week 4 - tomorrow (it doesn't count, cuz it's not commuting) I'll ride 25 with the Mister cuz he got his new old Colnago (another one) and wants to test ride. It's a beauty. Maybe I can get some snappies.

Mon. 10/13 - 60 (buses running reduced schedule for holiday)
Tues. 10/14 - 20
Wed. 0
Thur. 0
Fri. 30 or 60, depending on how I feel...

I did 3/5 days.

Last night I bought a handlebar basket. It's detachable. It will make it easier to buy milk by the gallon!

It's been gorgeous weather for the most part, and I've been enjoying using all my bright lights in the dark. As I expected, I did 9/10 commutes to work:

Mon - 2
Tues - 2
Weds - 2
Thurs - 1
Fri - 2 (the way home was on the new bike!)

Then on Saturday the new bike and I did a couple quasi-commuting trips together that I don't know if they count or not:

- 13 miles round trip to the grocery store for croissants (mmmmm)
- 12 miles round trip to the ice cream place for root beer floats (mmmmmmmmm)

So I either did 9 or 11 commutes this week, depending on how you count.

Total miles: 155

Where are all our challenge commuters?

Riding in this morning, I had some brake pad (center pull) rubbing going on the front wheel. More an irritation than anything else. I stopped to buy some luncheon yogurt and reached down and tried a quick adjustment but that didn't cure it. Blech.

Is it too late for me to join this challenge? I was dithering on the lights issue, but I bit the bullet and got headlights, then installed fenders this weekend so I'm all set to go for year-round cycling. My goal is only one day per week--my husband's work schedule and my after-work schedule is such that doing more days isn't a realistic goal at the moment.

Sarah

We're easy. :D It's never too late. I think you can include any utility cycling too!

Well, came home from the biz trip with a cold, so 0/0 last week, and decided to give myself one more recovery day today without the frigid air blast in the still-weak lungs. I'm gonna dig out the warmer gloves and facemask tonight since we've dipped into the below-freezing mornings! Happy to have this challenge group to help me get back into it - I'm already prepping in my brain for what I'll need to hit my goal the next couple of weeks.

+1 on the "not too late to join" sentiment!

5 of 5 for the 3rd week and I am trying to add some miles before school and a little during my plan because my commute is not to long. Fun stuff.

I got to ride in the long way to day :-) Short way is 6.7 miles, but going out the South end of town I can make it 18.

'twas Canadian Thanksgiving today and I actually did not go outside at all today.

I shall be commuting on all other days this week.

I have been carpooling. Today it was pouring this morning and I am sorry but 2" of rain in an hour is not riding weather. I am not sure I can keep up the challenge, I am finding with the long commute it is really fatiguing to try. :(

I'm back finally. Should have been back on Sunday, but due to unforeseen circumstances I was back on tuesday night. I didn't get home then until 9pm so didn't ccyle today. I don't think i'll get to this week, becasuse of other complications.

So it's back to cycling on monday. I think I need some encouragement. I haven't cycled for 2 plus weeks, I've been in a considerably warmer climate for the past 2 weeks and now am back to drizzle and dark nights( including dimness in the morning already). I need need need to keep going, otherwise i'm scared that i'll have fizzled out completely by the time i get my LHT. Help pleeeese!!!!!

You can do it, you can do it

YES YOU CAN! YES YOU CAN!

Get on the bike! Get on the bike!

Get yourself some reflective waterproof pants like the ones I scored (and I got them for 7.95 - two pairs came to under 20 bucks including shipping!!!) ... damp still feels GOOD!