Originally Posted by AlmostGreenGuy

Wow. It’s been…….. a long time since I’ve visited the Commuting forum. I hung here for a while, but once I got comfortable with bike commuting, I kind of dropped off the forum. I’m not sure why. I’ve been steadily commuting by bike for almost 10 years now, and it’s really been a great ride.

Seeing that I was able to garner so much great info from this forum, way back then, I thought I’d pass on a little wisdom that I’ve learned over the years, in attempt to pay you all back a bit.

• Commute when it makes you feel good to do so: I know this sounds stupid, but when I first started bike commuting, I kind of felt that I had to bike commute. I biked in the freezing cold. I biked in the horrible heat. I biked in rain storms. But one day I finally realized that I didn’t enjoy bike commuting anymore, because the rides were getting so miserable. I’m happy to say that I finally learned to enjoy my commutes, and find alternative transportation when the weather is just too nasty to have fun on the ride.
• Ride the bike that you like to ride: I spent a lot of time trying to find that perfect commuter bike. I started off with steel hardtail mountain bikes. Then I moved to a lightweight aluminum hybrid. Then I got a gravel grinder. Next I rode a fixed gear and eventually changed it over to a single speed. Now I just started riding a vintage steel touring bike. Some of these bikes I enjoyed more than others. But in the end, they all got me to work and back, and all within 15 minutes of each other. None are really that much more efficient than the other, so I’ve just learned to ride whatever I feel like riding. Cuz unless you love riding the bike to work, the ride will suck no matter what.
• You don’t get extra points for commuting every day. Find an alternative way to work, for when your legs are too tired, or the load is too heavy. I now walk a mile to catch the bus on my rest days. At the ripe old age of 51, the 30-mile round trip is a bit much sometimes, so a nice walk to the bus is enough to get in my exercise for the day.
• It gets easier. I struggled the first couple of years. I was building up my leg strength. I was trying to figure out what clothes to wear. I was trying different bike routes. I was constantly planning for the next day. Looking back, it was a lot of work, both mental and physical. But I eventually got into a groove, and it got easier once I stopped struggling so much. I finally faced the reality that I need 15 minutes in the morning to get prepped, and maybe 15 minutes at night before bed, to get it all right. I made a checklist so I don’t forget anything. I bike a steep hill every day that I ride, because there’s just no way around it. I deal with a left turn at a crap intersection, because it’s there. I deal with ******* drivers. When you stop hating what can’t be changed, it becomes a lot less aggravating, and you eventually come to peace with it. Remember that the end game is to enjoy the ride.
• Take every opportunity when you don’t bike commute. On days that I take the bus, I bring a bunch of stuff into work. Extra water is left at work. Changes of work clothes go to my cubicle. Even some less perishable lunch stuff goes into a desk drawer. If it lightens my load on my bike commute, I try to get it to work on my rest days.
• Be predictable. Ride the same route every day. Ride at the same time every day. Wear similar clothes every day. As odd is it may sound, you’ll eventually become a part of other people’s lives, who see you on their car commute to work. There will be a small percentage of people who pass by, who will admire you for who you are, and grow to enjoy seeing you fight the good fight every day. And when everything goes to crap, and your rear wheel is bent like a taco, it’ll be those people who will pull over and offer you a ride. You may see them as strangers, but they see you as the person they’ve known for years, but have never had a chance to talk to. I even have people pulling over and offering me a ride, as I wait for the bus on my rainy rest days, just because they recognize my familiar orange backpack. They know exactly where I’m headed, and they love the time riding in with me and asking questions about my bike ride.
• It’s not all luck. You read about some people who have a magical bike commute. The gym is right across the street from where they work. The distance is just right. The roads have no traffic. They store their bike inside the building. And you wish you were them. But most often, those people didn’t get lucky or know a special kind of magic. Opportunities come with time. I had a janitor offer me an old gym locker out of the basement, after 3 years of bike commuting. My boss eventually let me store my bike inside, at the bottom of the rear stairwell, after years of riding in. A coworker offered me an old bike when they were cleaning out their basement, after 9 years of bike commuting, and that bike turned out to be an awesome commuter. I could go on and on and on. It didn’t all happen overnight. It took patience and time for the opportunities to arise.
• Pray that it never happens, but you may eventually have a nasty run in with a driver. It might happen someday, that you find yourself face to face with a road raging maniac. I’ve had a couple of these unfortunate incidents, at no cause of my own. My motto is to ride like hell and live to fight another day. But if I’m cornered with nowhere to go, I always keep my Park Took 3-way hex wrench within reach, usually in a back pocket. If you grip it with a fist, so one hex key sticks out between your middle and ring finger, you have a very formidable weapon. If you hit them in any of a number of vulnerable areas, they’ll go down into a wimpy little ball. You don’t even have to hit them all that hard. And if the cops want to see your weapon, you have every right to have had your little bike adjustment tool in your back pocket while you rode to work.