With the spring racing season upon us, there is a lot of talk about the pros– what it means to be pro, how to look pro, and so on. There are two things that distinguish the professional cyclist. The first is talent, which is a mysterious thing and best left for another discussion. The second thing is that the pros ride every day. This is so simple that we forget its importance. We also forget that it is ours for the taking.
To be a commuter is also to ride every day. To do something every day is to experience it from all sides. Rules are broken, rides are fast, rides are slow, the bike is filthy– and we keeping riding. We ride to get somewhere, and then we ride to get back. We ride without a computer, without matching kit, without a training goal. We ride because it is simply a way to get from A to B. There is no glorious finish line and no support team, yet we share something with the cycling elite: every morning, we wake up, look outside, shrug at the weather, and get on the bike. The gesture is small but when accumulated over years it becomes sublime.
For those who are toying with the idea of commuting, some simple advice: go all in and do it for a full two weeks. At first, it will seem complicated and annoying. The logistics of your work clothes and your bike gear outweigh the enjoyment of the ride. You will think about how much simpler your weekend training rides are without all this stuff to cart around. You will find reasons not to ride – just for today, you will tell yourself. Doing it everyday, however, will breed efficiency, and after two weeks your routine (and the amount of gear) will become streamlined. With a set of habits in place (my wallet goes here, I leave me shoes under my desk, etc), things will seem easier. With enough time, the details of your commute will fade to the background and you will enjoy the ride itself.
Then your bike will not just be your tool to get from A to B, it will be your freedom…just like the weekends, except every day.
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
sweet one Jim, thanks
my commuter is a sweet little lady, clad in bianchi celeste', steel, 49t up front, 8 spd rear 21-12. open pro hoops, cheap tyres, but tough.
i have only ridden her til yesterday, pulled out the pinarello for the race, and did ok...made the breakaway and finished w/the headgroup. we knocked out 60k in 1hr 20min and change, not bad for only having commuter miles...ahem...k's.
just ordered my castelli leggero rain jacket for rain.
won't fill up the landcruiser all month
its a fair trade
I beg to differ. I think your neighbour Western Australia is the driest state. I haven't seen rain for so long I can't remember how to spell it.
Anyway, makes it easier to do the daily commute. To all those (and this has been said before) that say it isn't long enough, my ride to work takes between 20 minutes and 2 hrs. I do training rides on the way to work (no not the CWC type either, but proper HR specific training) and I also do short rides. The worst rides that I do are the Train Rides when either the bike is out of action, or I have to carry something in to work that won't fit in the backpack.
So take a different route to/from work and you will build up those KM's.
Holy shit, Jim is alive!
Nice article mate, and strikes a chord with me as I've been a slacker in the commute stakes of late.
The "it's too close to commute" argument doesn't really hold ground, as it's easier to ride than drive that sort of distance. Just wear your civvies. When I lived further away from work I'd kit up, but now it's just the work clothes ( which is the LBS suit of shorts and t-shirt).
I did a week of commuting for my mate Kah's study of commuters last winter, where I wore a helmet cam and recorded my to and fro each day. You can check it out here...
@Marcus
you joke but we've got a real issue in the UK in the big cities with commuters and cyclists, it ultimately breaks down to good/bad road users. it's got bad enough that cyclists have started arming themselves with headcams in order to record abuse to cyclists, we've got a man hunt going on after this incident.
Sometimes it just comes down to somebody on a foldup bike who doesn't know how to ride it, and there are some ejits out there who ride appallingly and most of the time it's inconsiderate drivers who deem your life less worthy than the paint job on their car. Won't put me off though
SHEER FUCKING GENIUS. There is a strip of road downtown Seattle that I call the Commuter Dragway. All these dingfoozles sit there at this one light, in their sit-up-and-beg positions and their YJA's and wait for the ding of the green light. Then it's off to the races, and they drag race eachother down to the next light. Absolutely nothing Casually Deliberate about it.
That said, they're out on their bikes, in the rain and cold, doing something I'm not. Good on them, the wankers.
@Cyclops
I'm with everyone else here, mate - just add some K's to the route! I'm struggling with the opposite problem, but like I said, I have to get off my ass.
Lots of great comments.
I've been cyclo commuting for around nine years now and I'm at the point where getting in a car, dealing with lights and traffic, and wacko drives chugging coffee is far more of a nightmare than the idea of heading out in rain or ice or snow.
I hope I never, ever have to drive to work. I don't know if this will be possible, but I've been able to pull it off for awhile now. Fingers crossed, hope my luck continues. I can't think of a worse way, for me personally, to start the day than to jump in a car and deal with road-raging cagers.
It's been said, but for anyone considering it, just go for it! I normally have to work on my non-cyclist friends to commute, since they don't like the idea of riding in traffic. But, if you are already a roadie you have to be used to "sharing" the roads with cars. Plus, you can definitely justify a new bike - rain bike, snow bike, ice bike, cyclocross.
@ Collin - woah, year 'round in MI on bike #1? I might shed a tear putting my top machine through that. Six crashes. Glad you lived to tell about them. Going down on ice and snow is just a given if you commute all year. But, you almost become good at crashing, knowing how to protect your face and teeth and use your hips, arse and side to take the worst of it. I can mentally call up the feeling you get when you are riding along, suddenly realize you are on black ice and say a little prayer and just hope you can keep it up, or not go down so hard.
@Ron
Yeah, it was pretty heart-wrenching at times. The guys at the LBS thought I was nuts, but what should I have done, drive? Terrible idea that. The ice/snow crashes typically aren't too bad as you tend to hit and slide. I managed to survive the winter with only one bent deraileur hanger and destroying all the bearings in my rear wheel (but the replaced ones are soooo smooth, I'll take it). Now with bike #2, it's an all steel and aluminum cross bike, so I can throw proper tires on it next winter, and crash away.
Found this a couple of months ago.
So commuting by bicycle decreases employee absentee-ism, which improves worker productivity and lowers sick-day costs, thus increasing corporate profits leading to gains in the stock market thereby augmenting CEO and Wall Street bonuses and take-home pay, which leads to increased individual political contributions to business-friendly anti-regulation conservatives, who decimate worker protection legislation and defund OSHA, causing degradation of the workplace environment, declines in workplace morale, increased on-the-job accidents, and sky-rocketing absenteeism, which results in....
I think Cyclops got it right.
Brilliant - and true - post! Thanks!