First Time Commuter Thread

kristian said:

I rode my bike to fork for the first time today (or at least for the first time since I was in college). It's technically not Bike to Work day in Colorado Springs, but the fact that it is in Denver was a motivator. So was seeing An Inconvinient Truth last weekend. The commute went really well, taking about 40 minutes for the 6-7 miles, and I found out that we have some pretty nice showers at work. I am going to try to commute 2-3 days a week for the rest of the summer (although I think I need to it on something other than my Fluid with DH tubes and tires).

Anyone else lose their commuter virginity today?

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Not today, but about 2 weeks ago. I absolutely love it. It's a great way to start the day, I might wake up feeling groggy but by the time I get to work I am feeling good.

My ride takes about 1 hour, & I can do 1/2 of it on the santa fe trail. The rest isn't to bad as far as traffic goes. I also have an odd commuter bike, as my only working bike is a Giant VT2. I need to get the ol' hardtail in working condition to commute with.

Not my first time, but I did the bike commute for today regardless of the predicted T-Storms this afternoon. Passed one breakfast station, but didn't stop as I still had 3 or 4 miles to go on my route.

My ride is about 22 miles door to door, took me about 1:05 in ride time today. I noticed a lot more bikes on the roads/paths today than normal. I do like commuting to work via bike, and saves me about $6/day in gas money.

kristian said:

I rode my bike to fork for the first time today (or at least for the first time since I was in college). It's technically not Bike to Work day in Colorado Springs, but the fact that it is in Denver was a motivator. So was seeing An Inconvinient Truth last weekend. The commute went really well, taking about 40 minutes for the 6-7 miles, and I found out that we have some pretty nice showers at work. I am going to try to commute 2-3 days a week for the rest of the summer (although I think I need to it on something other than my Fluid with DH tubes and tires).

Anyone else lose their commuter virginity today?

Click to expand...

First time for me today although I only had to ride 2.5 miles. Did it on the 29er SS in about 15 minutes. It felt good and I took my time to avoid getting sweaty (no showers at work). I'm searching for a used cx rig now. The roads to the office are a little bumpy for the road bike and I could do a nice training ride on the Cherry Creek Trail after work (1 block from the office).

Jdub said:

Not my first time, but I did the bike commute for today regardless of the predicted T-Storms this afternoon. Passed one breakfast station, but didn't stop as I still had 3 or 4 miles to go on my route.

My ride is about 22 miles door to door, took me about 1:05 in ride time today. I noticed a lot more bikes on the roads/paths today than normal. I do like commuting to work via bike, and saves me about $6/day in gas money.

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Any money I save in gas I eat in food. Still a good tradeoff.

Debaser said:

Any money I save in gas I eat in food. Still a good tradeoff.

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Yeah I have that problem/temptation working on Pearl St. as well. What I've done to solve it is to bring 5 "lunches" (i.e. frozen dinner type stuff) with me to work on Monday. Then I've got food for the rest of the week, although somedays I go in search of a snack about 2pm.

And somedays I just say screw it and go eat at the Walnut. I figure I can indulge in some calories if I'm riding 45 miles that day, especially since I tend to push the pace on my commutes quite a bit.

Whoa, tons more on the trails

Loads more people on my commute (C-470 trail and some of Wadsworth). Usually just 1 or 2 others, saw at least 15 today, and that was in the 5 a.m. hour. Funny thing was that yesterday I saw nobody else at all, I think they were all resting up for the time trial into work that everyone was doing today!

No breakfast stations on my route, but my work was supposed to have one setup for us, rolled by at 6:05 and it was not set up, I guess they didn't figure people would be getting there that early. Oh well, that's why I keep bagels in the fridge at work.

I'm the only one in my building (60 people or so) that biked in, 2 others backed out yesterday. Suck it up for one day man!

I've been commuting everyday (winter included) since I moved to Boulder in October. Saves me tons of gas money and saves me mileage on my leased car. Luckily the company I work for allows me to bring my bike inside so I don't have to worry about it getting stolen.

It was really cool seeing so many people on their bikes this morning :thumbsup:

Thats great K, when I was at the hotel I would commute around 6 months out of the year, just too damn cold in the am the other 6 months. Probably got in around 75-100 miles a week and I always felt great once I got to work, convienent showers and a safe lockup spot helped a lot with the commute. The best part was riding right after work and how I felt once I got home, totally relaxed and not stressed from the work day and drive home, as well as getting some valuable ride time in which helped on the days off for the fun rides.

Yeah, commuting is the only way I'm going to get in the kind of miles I need to get into some sort of shape (other than round) again. I was really feeling yesterday's ride in my legs when I started this morning. That was a good time though. We need to hit the canyon again soon for an after work ride.

Godzilla said:

and with the strong likelihood that I'd end up a grease spot in the canyon above Morrison

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Uh yeah... nobody ever gets hurt commuting on a motorcycle and I've never seen an ugly car/bike accident where the rider ended up seriously injured or dead.

Do your friends and family a favor and be careful out there Josh.

i miss my big ring

i decided to compromise and ride to boulder from coal creek canyon (i live in golden) so that i could bypass those sections of highway 93 where the road rage folks race formula-one style trying to pass everybody before it gets to one lane.

still got 12 miles in, though now that i've converted my hardtail to a 2x9 i was spinning like a 9 year old boy hopped up on sugar smacks! :eekster:

(never thought i'd be saying this, but i need a road bike).

HAPPY BIKE TO WORK DAY

P.S.
kudos to wild oats in boulder for the free pancakes, eggs, and bacon! note to self: next year don't stop for bagels at the earlier breakfast station...

gotdirt said:

i decided to compromise and ride to boulder from coal creek canyon (i live in golden) so that i could bypass those sections of highway 93 where the road rage folks race formula-one style trying to pass everybody before it gets to one lane.

still got 12 miles in, though now that i've converted my hardtail to a 2x9 i was spinning like a 9 year old boy hopped up on sugar smacks! :eekster:

(never thought i'd by saying this, but i need a road bike).

HAPPY BIKE TO WORK DAY

P.S.
kudos to wild oats in boulder for the free pancakes, eggs, and bacon! note to self: next year don't stop for bagels at the earlier breakfast station...

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Is the construction done yet? & did you consider Indiana?

I passed not one, not two, but three stops with breakfast burritos! Yum!

gotdirt said:

kudos to wild oats in boulder for the free pancakes, eggs, and bacon! note to self: next year don't stop for bagels at the earlier breakfast station...

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Hey, my BF Dan was doing a Bike to Work thing at Wild Oats this morning....he works at Cutting Edge Sports right next door and they were doing something for them...did you meet him?

weimie said:

Hey, my BF Dan was doing a Bike to Work thing at Wild Oats this morning....he works at Cutting Edge Sports right next door and they were doing something for them...did you meet him?

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there's a 50/50 chance i did... there were two mechanics from CES out front and i spoke to one of them (he commented on my bontrager, so you could ask him if it was him).

Debaser said:

Is the construction done yet? & did you consider Indiana?

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construction is not done yet-- the torn up shoulders (or lack thereof) sucked big time, but i did appreciate the freshly paved sections...
i did consider indiana, but since i'm by NTM the trek east to get there and then back west to boulder along 72 or 128 would've added significant mileage.

nice chopper goldenboy. :thumbsup:

We turned bike to work day into bike to school day as well. Took the little guy in on his trail-a-bike with the mrs. Headed back home for a shower then the 1mile ride into the office. Side note: I appreciate the supporters/sponsers of the event but Panera bread needs to get their act together. They give you free coffee and a bagel but that cream cheese will cost you extra. Not that I eat that stuff.........

gotdirt said:

there's a 50/50 chance i did... there were two mechanics from CES out front and i spoke to one of them (he commented on my bontrager, so you could ask him if it was him).

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Yeah, I will...he was the one with blond hair and beard. He is also the proud owner of a XJ

I usually try to get in 3-4 days a week in the summer. I'm guilty of motorcycle love as well...some mornings I just feel like riding the cycle with the engine.:nono:

In the winter I usually ride every day. No motorcycle temptation and the cold is the bestest. No sweaty ass to contend with once in the office. I finally sold my old slick wearin' giant mountain bike commuter and picked up an old steel Univega SS convert. Wow, what fun that thing is! Makes my ride a blast every day.:thumbsup: