Loren - one ahead on the time stream

approx. how far do you ride each day (roundtrip)?

5 miles, or up to 10 when I have to do errands before work (once or twice a week).

do you wear a helmet?

Right after waking up. Oh, on a bike? Yep, every time then too.



how many days have you ridden to work since july 1st?

6 of 13 days, darn the swinging shift-no time to sleep. New fork and rain cost a couple days, too.

if you ride 30 times, what will you spend the $100 on?

Panniers and one PowerBar.

things you like best about riding to work:

Being off the main streets and seeing the town and community.... Having the time to look around. Also, exercise, getting out of the self-enclosing environment of a car... plus, the commute takes only 3-5 minutes longer by bike for me, while saving about 10 gallons of gas every week (that's like a thousand bucks, har har...). Last but not least, the fact that other people are doing it now too is really heartening, even if in some ways it seems like a bit of the "too little, too late" syndrome. It's way safer to ride this summer than it has been any of the last decade in Lincoln, though. I'd attribute that to the number of cyclists upping exposure for safety issues.


worst part of commuting by bike:

The sudden, drenching sweat at the end of the ride as one steps into the coma-inducing a/c. Oh, and the fact biking kicks one ahead on the time stream, causing a few minutes lag time while the rest of the world syncs up.


any good commuting stories, co-workers thoughts or changes you've made since you started riding:

Riding really makes me question why I bother hauling around stuff which I don't need. My car is full of items that I think I "may" end up needing. So I'm getting by with less incidental junk-one book to read, camera, and sometimes my laptop. Oh, and lots of grocery bags, as an extra layer of protection during those rainy days.

Hmm. What else... Padded bike shorts make all the difference-under regular clothes, you can change out of them at work.

Most little cheap bike headlights are worthless for illuminating the road surface for visual purposes, but they do make riders great targets for part timers and DUI drivers on Saturdays nights. Re: rearview mirror.

Also, I finally got sick of wasting energy bouncing around on my (ultra-cheap) suspension fork, no braze-ons for rack/fender, etc. So, I tore it off and replaced it with an aftermarket CroMo rigid fork. The rigid fork is like 3 lbs lighter and doesn't have the unpredictable rebound of the glorified door-closer, so the bike is much more agile and safe for my riding style-it no longer skips over small terrain changes on turns, which keeps more skin on me, and I enjoy that. Since I mostly stay on road surfaces with this bike, this solution has worked nicely. When winter comes and I fill up the front panniers with old dictionaries I'll be the most stable bike on the road.