How Was Your Commute Today?

[kelleil]

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.

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.