Hope it's not in poor taste to resurrect old threads here. This seems like a good topic, and it should get more traffic. New commuter stories are great. Though I haven't looked absolutely *everywhere* in the forums yet, so I could be missing the obvious if there are other ones around.

My first commute story: years ago, I'm driving a beater car. Haven't been on a bike at all for a couple of years. My insurance goes up to something ludicrous like $1200/year, which I as a low-wage drone can NOT afford. And my car needs major repairs. I only live 3 miles from work, and that job though low-wage is a great place to work and very friendly for alt transportation (showers, locker rooms, bike parking). And other places I usually need to go are all within 10 miles, with bus options for most of 'em. So I decide to buy a bike and sell my car. I end up with a $500 mid-range MTB (it was the '90s, ahh, cheap good bikes). And my body goes from zero to riding 6 to 20 miles/day with no time for transition. That hurt. But in a good way. You know what I mean. I got into the groove, had fun on downhills, made eventual peace with climbs, learned neat shortcuts and forest trails, learned that my body was stronger than I thought, became more tuned in to the evils of car culture... all that good stuff that makes me glad to get on a bike and ride.

So my first commute was the second ride I ever took on my brand new MTB. A rain ride that first week (in which I almost got hit and ended up kissing the pavement) didn't deter me, though the scar is still there. I kept it up for a couple years, until I moved away. (I still don't own a car, by the way, though I could sure use one now that I'm in the great sprawling nasty that is Minneapolis. But that's another story. Sprawl sucks!) I really came to enjoy commuting. It's so great to show up for work jazzed from exercise and the great outdoors. A few awful commuting days a year ain't so bad in the big picture, and I'll be very happy when I have a job that's commuter-friendly again. Yeah!


eleven