How Was Your Commute Today?

[malkin]

This morning I rode about a third of the way up the hill to work, when I started wondering if I had shut the garage door.

There's no one around to call, so I rode home to check and then rode all the way to work. Nice that this happened on a day when it wouldn't matter what time I roll in.

[redrhodie]

This morning I rode about a third of the way up the hill to work, when I started wondering if I had shut the garage door.

There's no one around to call, so I rode home to check and then rode all the way to work. Nice that this happened on a day when it wouldn't matter what time I roll in.

Was it open?

[Bike Chick]

This morning I rode about a third of the way up the hill to work, when I started wondering if I had shut the garage door.

There's no one around to call, so I rode home to check and then rode all the way to work. Nice that this happened on a day when it wouldn't matter what time I roll in.

What redrhodie said. Was it open?

[blackhillsbiker]

With all the motorcycles on the road (Sturgis Bike Week), I was glad to be on the bike path. I had to drive yesterday and I hated it! No offense to the motorcyclists on the forum, but I can't see the attraction. They're so loud!

Glad to be on my stealthy little commuter,
Deb

[soprano]

I'm also curious to know if the garage door was open!

I haven't been feeling well this week and it is very hot, so I took the bus on Monday and Tuesday. Today I'm feeling better and had a short day anyway, which meant not needing to ride home at 5 PM in the very hottest part of the day. It was so nice to get back on the bike.

They are doing some construction on an intersection that I go through, near the UT campus. Every day it is a little bit different. I think that they purposefully are blocking off paths that the many, many cyclists take to get around the cars - the construction has the cars down to one narrow lane each way, and sometimes the drivers become impatient waiting behind us, so we all try and go around. I need to find a detour and leave earlier I understand that they don't want to be watching for bikes near the construction, but somehow I doubt that the long line of drivers that got stuck behind me this morning going up the hill at 6 mph saw it that way.

[redrhodie]

Today's commute was great. Perfect tailwind for much of the way in. Then, I looked down and noticed something stuck to my front tire. I tried to wipe it off while I was riding, and it wouldn't come off. I stopped and discovered it was a thumb tack. I started to pull it out, and it started hissing, so I pushed it back in. To my surprise, it stopped hissing and didn't go flat. I continued to ride on it, to try to make it to work where there's a floor pump, so I wouldn't need to use up my CO2 cartridge (I'm a cheapo ). Well, I made it about 4 more miles, then all at once, it went flat. I was still 4 miles from work, so I ended up using my beloved CO2 .

On the evening ride, I stopped at the lbs to replace the cartridge. Back on my bike a few miles later, I passed an accident at an intersection that I probably would have been at, had I not stopped at the shop. Then, after I got to my car, another really bad accident on the bridge I drive over. When I think about "what could have been" if I had been a few minutes earlier....

Had I not flatted this morning, I may have been involved in either of those. Just goes to show, you never know when something that seems bad is actually good.

[Tri Girl]

YAY!! Finally back to commuting after the summer off (I teach). Feels good to be back on the bike, but I sure forgot how much traffic is out at 4 pm.
Glad to be back at it!!

[Groundhog]

I moved to a new office in April and at first I could see no way to commute by bike. My old commute was by bus from suburb to downtown Seattle, and prior to becoming a cyclist I drove 2-4 miles to one or another of the park-n-ride lots and took the bus to work. Starting in 2008 I used my bike to get to the park-n-ride a few days a week, and with my short ride (downhill on the way to work) I never got sweaty so I didn't need a shower. Although the rides were so short they didn't really help my fitness, I really enjoyed it and it's better than sitting on my fat a$$ driving.

My new job is in another suburb of Seattle and is 17 miles away...way too far for this rider who is lucky if she averages 11mph on the flat. Add that to no shower or changing facilities in my building or close by.

Last month I met a fellow rider in the elevator one morning and he said that he rides the bus to work and rides the bike home 20 miles. So I started researching using google bike directions and noticed that the interurban trail goes along the freeway at one point, the same portion of the freeway that the express bus takes. And, lo and behold the express stops along the trail!

So today I took my second bus/bike commute. I had my son drive me to an express stop, and then put the bike on the bus. I rode the few blocks to the office in dress pants and changed into my jacket when I arrived (I have to wear suits and/or dressy corporate clothes at work, full makeup and accessories).

On the way home, I changed into shorts and a t-shirt and rode to the bus stop. This time I got off next to the trail and rode nine miles, almost all the way home. I live on top of a big hill that I am trying to learn to love, but I didn't try it today.

This weekend I am trying a new route to the bus in the morning and I am hopeful that it will work. It's about six miles and is mostly downhill, so I will probably be ok with a "baby-wipes bath."

I'm not sure I'll be able to do it in the pouring rain and dark, but I don't mind a little cold, so I'll try it between now and when the weather gets bad.

I still wish for a short, local commute (and applied for a job today that is just that) but am so happy to be out on the trails.

Happy trails everyone!

[lph]

Back to bike commuting and loving it

Passed two accidents this morning - one on the usually quiet bike path, saw a police motorcycle, an ambulance and a womans bike leaned up against a lamppost. Bike looked fine and no bits and pieces around, so I'm guessing she just took a bang to the head or something and phoned herself.

One more amusing closer to work. There's a tricky roundabout smack in the middle of "Tour de Finance", where a zillion aggressive cyclists looking for shortcuts meet cars heading for the marina and trucks heading out from the warehouse area. One car with a befuddled young driver stepping out, his front license plate on the ground, one guilty-looking middle-aged woman without helmet standing over her bike wishing she were somewhere else, one mtb on the ground and one male 30ish mtb-owner, incandescent with rage, jumping up and down like a lemming and pouring wrath over the poor woman.

Norways biggest mtb event, Birken, is this weekend and people are going slightly insane. I just ascertained that no-one was hurt and quietly went away