Apr

Cycling

This weekend I dropped a pretty penny on a new bicycle. My plan is to ride it to work on pretty much a daily basis. I’ll get in shape, and also save money on gas, and also reduce those evil carbon fuel emissions. I got a Trek 7.3 FX. It’s lighter than Geneva’s Disney Princess bike.

And so, today, the first business day since the purchase, I rode it to work. Never mind that there’s a steady rain… I am going to use this bike come hell or high water! It took me 21 minutes to ride in. Depending on traffic, it’s 10-15 minutes to drive here. Not bad, if I do say so myself. That’s with me walking up part of a steep hill, and having jelly legs five minutes into the ride. I won’t list the rain as a limiting factor, because it kept me cool.

The biggest problem with the whole commuting to work thing is that I am a sweaty individual. I brought work clothes in (and deodorant!), but I still am afraid of the days when its 80 degrees and 95% humidity at 0700[1].

[1] that might be a slight exaggeration.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 0820 and is filed under Everyday Things. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 comments so far

Jason1646

That’s a great idea, Richard. Happy trails!

April 28th, 2008 at 0931

Chris

Welcome to the club Richard! I bought a Trek 7.6 FX on Sunday, July 2nd, 2005. I know the date because I rode it to work the next day and was promptly laid off.

But I stuck with it and I’m a lot like you, come hell or high water I’m riding that very expensive bike to work. I’ve got it pretty easy though, it takes me about 20 minutes to ride it to work on a slight downhill grade the whole way so I don’t have to worry about working up too much of a sweat. But when I ride it home it takes me almost 40 minutes and it’s all uphill. My ride home is the real workout.

Good luck. You should keep some sort of log. We should compete (so we keep at it).

April 28th, 2008 at 1031

richard

Ouch… getting fired is not much of a reward for saving the earth, is it?

And, yeah, my route is pretty much the same… mostly downhill coming to work. There’s a slight incline towards the front of the ride, then all downhill until right before I reach the campus, where there’s a nice big hill.
All of which means mostly uphill the other way. I’ll report back tonight or tomorrow morning with how that goes.

You know of any websites that let you track rides and such? MapMyFitness.com does running… I guess we could just use it for biking.

April 28th, 2008 at 1046

Chris

Whoops! It was actually July 2nd 2006. I bought it on a Sunday, rode to work on Monday, and was laid off at 10am. I freaked because I just dropped some coin on that bike. Also July 4 was the next day so the Unemployment Office was closed that Monday and Tuesday. And, to pour salt on the wound, my company let me go exactly 3 days before I would have been there for a year which would have made me eligible for a severance package.

April 28th, 2008 at 1148

Ron Davis

I’ve toyed with the idea of riding to work. There’s no shower option here (though it’s being discussed if/when we outgrow this office). My bike is a mountain bike, not optional for road riding, but it’d get the job done (until I broke down and bought a road bike).

April 28th, 2008 at 1641

Fritz

Chris, bummer about getting laid off the day you ride in. I guess that makes toting all of your stuff home that day a real challenge too.

Remember to keep the bike commute fun, Richard. I sweat a lot too; I’m glad for the shower I have these days, but I’ve had to do the sink bath in the past.

April 28th, 2008 at 1826

richard

The ride home was nice. It was mostly uphill, but it was a slow incline, so my 19th century technology 24 speeds made it fairly easy. It took me half an hour. I want to do it everyday, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to ride tomorrow… my legs are pretty sore.

April 28th, 2008 at 2108