Everything you never wanted to know about bike commuting. Part 1

A friend of my asked me for my secrets of bike commuting. I’m not sure there is one secret to bike commuting. Everyone’s circumstances are different. What works for one person might not be feasible for another. However, If I had to offer up a secret it would be this. Stop making excuses for why you’re not riding the bike and just start doing it. I started out small, maybe a day a week in fair weather. Now I ride year round except when road conditions make it a truly stupid idea to be out on a bike. In all that time I’ve made plenty of regrettable decisions related to commuting, but I’ve never regretted a day I spent on the bike. With that said I'll try to offer some words of wisdom from my experience. With any luck you won't have some of the failures that I've had along the way.

Type of bike: Whatever bike you own, unless it’s a tri-bike. I’m sorry, those things are not made for riding in traffic. In my 8 yrs commuting I've seen two cyclists crash. They were both on tri bikes. Don’t do it. I’m a big fan of single speeds for foul weather. They just continue to work no matter what torture you put them through. One thing I have learned, if you’re someone inclined to put their bike away wet don’t let it go unused very long. Bad things happen when a bike sits around, especially in the winter. If you’re not going to ride a bike for a while, clean it.

Carrying Your Stuff:  I read once that it’s better to weight the bike than yourself. I really don’t know. I’ve always used a backpack. I commute on several bikes so it just makes sense. In picking out a backpack you want to make sure it has plenty of room. I’ve got one with two decent sized pockets. The general idea is keep one area nice and clean for your work clothes and use the other pocket for all the other crap. In my case the smaller one contains the stuff (rain jacket, tubes, tools, pump, etc.) that’s in the bag every day. The larger pocket is for clothes and food (if I can’t fit in the smaller pocket).  There’s an external pocket that the bike lock is in, plus a pouch I can put an extra water bottle in. Spring and fall are the toughest time to fit everything in the bag. The mornings tend to be a lot cooler than the afternoons. You might be stuffing that extra morning layer in the bag on the way home so plan accordingly.

Clothing: I assume you know how to dress for various weather conditions so we won't go into that. I think the biggest thing to remember is there are two parts of your trip. Make sure you plan for the ride home just as much as the ride in. Probably the worst scenario for this is warm and raining in the morning and below freezing in the evening. Not only will you need more layers for the ride home, but at least some of what you wore in the morning (socks and gloves) will be wet. Sometimes by the time you stuff all the gear you need for the commute in the bag there isn’t a lot of room to bring in clothes to actually wear at work. So… always have some clothes at work. You can always stuff a clean pair of underwear in the bag. You can’t always fit pants and a shirt. As for clothes for work, take every advantage of empty space in the bag to bring things in or out. That’s especially true if you happen to drive in some days.  

The Route: The shortest route is not necessarily the fastest or the safest. So what if it takes to 10 extra min to avoid that crappy intersection. You’re riding your bike so it’s 10 min well spent. Maybe you avoid a bunch of lights in the process so even though it’s 2 miles longer it takes about the same amount of time.  One thing to avoid if you can is left hand turns onto busy streets where you are not at a stop light.

Riding During Commuter Hours: If you’re commuting by bike, chances are at least one leg of your commute will be when everyone else is also trying to get where they’re going. The biggest difference I’ve noticed is longer lines of cars particularly at stop lights. While it’s very rewarding to just buzz past all of them while they’re stuck in traffic you also have to be extra careful. In particular you need to look out for any gap that has been left in the line. For the most part people are too impatient and just pull up to the car in front of them and will block driveways, side roads or the entrance to some business. Given this, if someone has bothered to leave a gap there’s a better than average chance there’s a car coming through it. If you can’t see them, they can’t see you. Just slow down and make sure you’re not about to get in an accident. The other thing to really watch out for is cars turning left across the road you’re on. It’s not just the first car. It’s the guy behind him who’s just going to follow them through the intersection because they don’t see any cars coming and the first car is blocking their view of you. 

That's all for now. I've got to post this while I still have momentum to write it. If I leave it to tomorrow this isn't making it out.