ptempel

I'd recommend to carry your work clothes in a backpack or bag on the bike (seat bag, frame bag, pannier, etc). Then you can just change from your cycling clothes to your work clothes when you arrive at work. I don't have access to a shower at work so I just wash my hair and face in the sink and use baby wipes for the rest. Leave two pairs of shoes at work so you don't have to carry them. I also leave my lock on the bike rack so I also don't have to carry it either. Also important is to hang your cycling clothes somewhere at work. I use an open coat rack on the other side of my floor that's not used much.

Yes, I commute to NYC all year round. You can set a no go point for bad weather. For me its less than 20F or roads not clear is a no go. Otherwise, its been ok for me so far. In my area, that pretty much carries me through most months except February depending on how much snowfall we get that winter. I'm sure that Chicago can get colder and more windy than NYC. So just be realistic with what you can do. If you have the proper winter cycling clothing, then you should be able to layer up and be comfy in fairly cold weather. When it gets windy, I use the "one gear lower" rule. Whatever gear I feel comfortable in at the time, I tell myself to shift down one. It will usually save you from getting too tired from the headwind and promote you to spin a bit more.

Some other things I would do are:

- Park and ride to a half way point. I park in a county park and then ride from there. This would help to break up riding 30 miles every day.
- If you feel crappy on Monday (even though you took the weekend off), then do an "easy week." Park and ride all week. Or take the train if bad weather, etc.
- Keep my backpack light. Only carry work clothes and bike tools needed. Try to leave out the shoes, laptop, tablet, unused tools, loose change, deoderant, bike lock, etc. Leave most of those items at home (or both home and work in the case of deoderant and shoes). If you use a computer, then try to get a desktop instead of a laptop at work.

CliffordK

Start now while there is a bit of a last gasp of summer left, and before daylight savings time kicks in.

But, also expect that if you already have a car/bus/etc, that it will be OK to take some time off this winter, and resume in the Spring.

If you start now, you'll start learning what works and doesn't work for you early, and you'll be better prepared for next Spring/Summer. Also, by February/March, you may be ready to get back on the bike. If you put it off, maybe June?

ShortLegCyclist

Because of this, another good way to get started is to scout the route for a safe place to park your car in the daytime.

Then start out by driving part way, and biking the rest. Say you drive ten miles, park at a Walmart or mall, unload the bike and go the last five miles to work and back.

Then as you get more comfortable, drive five miles and go ten more to work.

If you have a public transit route along the way, even easier, most Chicago buses have bike racks on front and the Metra allows bikes. I believe the CTA Ell does too, but maybe not during rush hour.

I was in Chicago for Bike the Drive in June and recall looking at those options to get down to Grant Park from the north suburbs where I have family, but the Metra didn't start running early enough for a 630 AM start from Grant Park from Glenview.

Walter S

Commute now. Just ride your bike to work. Take stock of what did not work out well and do it a little differently next time.

Steely Dan

metra: non-folding bike are prohibited on inbound rush hour trains in the morning and outbound rush hour trains in the evening.

CTA el: non-folding bikes are prohibited on ALL trains for both the morning and evening rush hours.

folding bikes are always permitted on all metra and CTA el trains at all times (provided they are bagged on metra rush hour trains).

noglider 

You're lucky you have that trail. I'm a very experienced road cyclist, and I used to think trails are useless to me, because I have good nerves in traffic. Well, I've changed my outlook a lot. I commute on the Hudson River Greenway which claims to be the most heavily used bike commuter route in the US. Parts of it are separated where there are a pedestrian portion and a bike portion, running in parallel. Parts of it are combined. There are very few intersections with motor traffic, so I ride the whole way without putting my foot down. My commute is 14 miles each way, and I ride it two days a week. The other three days, I take the subway.

We offer lots of advice on handling sweat and riding in the winter. There is even a Winter Cycling section here on bikeforums.

My approach to sweat: I basically don't care. In the summer, I wore cycling clothes which make being sweat-drenched less uncomfortable. In fact, it feels totally fine until I stop. Then when I stop, I find it uncomfortable. I change in a wiring closet. I wash my face and head and neck in the men's room sink. It makes me feel much better, and it might help to cool me down.

You can definitely make it in the winter, though you will probably not ride on the worst days this winter. As @cyccommute points out, there is a lot to work out, and it takes time. You can toughen up to inclement weather, but it takes time, because you need to know what equipment works, and you need to increase your tolerance for discomfort. By tolerance, I mean it stops feeling unpleasant.

I won't go into my entire winter clothing approach, but I'll tell you one thing that helped a lot last winter was wearing a ski helmet on the coldest days. Bike helmets are designed for maximum cooling, and this is not an asset in the winter. The ski helmet helped more than I expected it to. It made me realize that my face got so cold that it hurt badly.

Try riding now, and see how far you get. Once it hits 30º or 20º, you may decide it's too much for you, and that's OK. Resume when the temperature is higher. Next year, you can increase your tolerance.

cbike

I don't have any data to backup my opinion but I think dawn and dusk are the worst times. The low sun blinds drivers and lights have a hard time to compete with sun. At night with decent lights a bicyclist can be quite visible.

Even during the day time there are dark spots (often shade from trees on bright days) where a cyclist can disappear.

For those situations I installed Reelight blinkers on my bike. The light isn't as bright as I'd like but once installed you can forget about it. Hub generator of course would be nicer. I forced these lights upon my kids as well. So with a little luck these lights make a difference. For (potential) night riding I do recommend additional and brighter lights.

cyccommute 

The last gasp of summer was 2 weeks ago. According to the US Naval observatory Sunrise/sunset table for Chicago, the sun rises at 0544 today. If Pugs' work day starts at 0800that's just over 2 hours to get to work if Pugs left exactly at dawn. For a 15 mile ride with a shower and clean up at the end, that's pushing it. The days only get shorter from here until December 21.

Edit: Oops. I'm off by an hour. Forgot about stupid daylight savings time.

CrankyOne

Not necessarily. If you want to look like a faux racer then yes, but otherwise the normal clothes that OP already has can very likely suffice just fine. I don't wear special clothes for walking or driving somewhere nor is there a need to do so for riding a bicycle. People in the US try to make bicycling way too complicated.

jrickards

Yes, I agree with @cyccommute in that this is a difficult time of year to start but since you're new to this, you'll only want to do some rides and not commit to daily commuting for the next 52 weeks. Therefore, you can pick and choose the days you want to ride and it will be a good opportunity to test out the route, your abilities while commuting in cooler fall temperatures.

Given that you'll be taking trails, you might be able to get away with less expensive front/rear lights, especially if the trail is lit overhead.

I say, take advantage of any nice day that comes along and give it a whirl, then prepare yourself through the winter for a spring start to regular commuting by bike.

CrankyOne

Not necessarily. I know a number of people who commute this kind of distance in complete comfort and without sweating and I've done it myself. Yes, it takes longer than bicycling 5 miles but that's a different issue. Distance has little to nothing to do with breaking a sweat. Sweat is easily managed. @Stadjer gave some excellent advice.

If the ride is enjoyable and providing a bit of healthy physical activity then how much of a problem is 60, 75, or 90 minutes each way? How much time would be spent in transit each way otherwise? How much time would be spent going to a gym?

caloso

You've probably got a couple of weeks or even a month where you can just treat this as an experiment for next spring.

Steely Dan

some people clearly have no idea what it's like to be afflicted with ESS (excessive sweating syndrome).

i've never been able to ride a bicycle (at any speed), or even walk down the street on a summer day, without sweating.

hell, just sitting motionless in a chair in a 78 degree room can cause me to start sweating. it's ridiculous.

i have EXTREME tolerance (even affinity) for all things cold, but heat/warmth has always been my #1 enemy.

sweating has been my way of life for my entire life. it's really annoying, but it is what it is. and there doesn't seem to be a damn thing i can do about it.

ShortLegCyclist

Or, again, just set yourself up to do part of the route by bike. As long as there is a safe place to stash your car, this can be a win-win.

Walter S

I ride twenty miles in shorts and a jersey. It takes about 1:20. When I arrive I'm dripping with sweat. What am I doing wrong? I've tried slower speeds but I'm not wanting to double my commute time. In the dog days of summer even that would not do it.

mcours2006

A 90-minute commute is fine if you have no other commitments. When your time is at a premium, spending that much on riding to and and from work takes away from family and other important commitments.

And no, distance has nothing to do with with how hard you need to work, but if you have a time limit it is directly proportional to it.

Yeah, what @Walter S said.

ShortLegCyclist

IMHO, the only way to arrive at work without sweat is if you take it pretty easy on the ride and generally that means slower, unless you live somewhere where the ride to work is all downhill.

If you are pushing yourself to get a good workout, you are most likely going to be sweaty, cycling generates a ton of heat.

Walter S

I agree. "What am I doing wrong" was a bit sarcastic. I get tired of people saying you don't need to sweat. It's impossible not to if you're making a halfway respectable pace. That said, I don't give a flip. Sweating is good for you.

Tundra_Man 

I've tried riding slow enough to not sweat. I don't believe that speed exists. Heck, in the summer just standing outside motionless will cause me to sweat.

I don't feel that I'm an unusually profuse sweater either. Probably average.

mcours2006

This morning's temperature was around 12*C. It felt downright cold when I left the house and I never really warmed up. Forty eight minutes later I was at work and barely broke a sweat. In fact, I actually contemplated not showering. But then thought better.

So it is possible.

On the homeward ride it's a different story. I always tell myself to take it easy, but it invariably turns into a sweatfest.

CrankyOne

I ride routinely without sweating. Just about the whole of The Netherlands does so, half of them every day. A huge chunk of Danes, Germans, Swedes, Swiss, Finns, Italians, and Spanish do so. There might even be a Brit or two. I rode around Birmingham AL on Zyp bikes last week in 90f weather (low humidity) without sweating

There's a difference in getting a hard workout and riding somewhere for transportation. Most of us sweat quite a bit when riding for a workout. That need not be the case for transportation though—unless you choose to make your transportation also a workout. We don't usually make driving to work a workout nor do we often make walking to lunch a workout so there is no requirement to make riding to work a workout. If someone wants to make it a workout then that's fine but it is not a requirement.

CrankyOne

Agree. There are a number of variables that figure in for each of us and these often change day to day.

My quibble is people making assumptions that everyone who rides a bike to work must become Bicycle Driving MAMILs, ride road or mountain bikes, get a workout, wear hi-viz & gloves & lycra & helmets & cleated shoes & ..., sweat, shower when they get to work, and hang their smelly clothes in their cube or office to offend everyone around them. And we wonder why bicycle sales have been sinking every year for the past decade.

chephy

Have fun! Test ride the route first on your day off, so you know roughly how long it takes and what to expect of it.

If you have showers at work (or even at a nearby gym where you might be able to get a discounted "shower" membership), problem is solved. "Bird baths" using restroom sinks work in a pinch as well. Having panniers rather than a backpack helps; your back doesn't sweat as much.

I live in Toronto, so no stranger to winter. I used to only ride for half the year, and then one year I decided to just keep going and see when I'm forced to stop, and before I knew it, it was suddenly May and I actually didn't have to stop! I've been riding year-round ever since. It's not that bad: the roads around here are cleared pretty well, and my biggest issue is overheating! I'm constantly shedding layers!

In your case, you'll be riding on a trail, though, so find out whether the city clears it in the winter or not. If it doesn't get plowed, you only have till the first snowfall to ride, basically. If it does get cleared, just see how you feel about winter riding. It's not that different from skiing, actually, and can be quite enjoyable.

San Pedro

Got to start somewhere, though I think spring is much easier time to start and get into it. Having a bike trail right to work sound pretty nice.

Your body will start handling temperature changes much better as you keep biking. I didn't feel nearly as cold last winter as i have in years past because I was biking a longer distance and my circulation and muscles improved.

San Pedro

Depends on the riding. i wouldn't jog or play sports in jeans or dress slacks, but maybe you would.