The new biking season

[pegkerr]

I told the HR people to cancel my parking contract starting May 1, so I guess I'm committing to starting biking again. I realize I haven't done nearly enough to get ready. I'd hoped to be able to buy new wheels for my bike, but I'm dead broke (maybe when the tax refund arrives). I have to see if there is air in the tires at least! And I have to clean a lot of all that crap that Rob's been piling into the garage out so that I can actually reach my bike in the morning without having to pull my car in and out of the garage.

I feel uneasy about starting. Rob is working now and so won't be able to rescue me if I get a flat. But the price of gas is absolutely killing me, I need the workout, and I know I'll enjoy it once I start again.

I also admit, I am going to deeply regret the extra half hour early I'll have to wake up each morning to show up on time to work. I'm short enough on sleep as it is.

Yeah, yeah, johnridley, I know, I'm a wuss, and my concerns and ditherings are no doubt a mere bagatelle to you.

At least I'm getting back up on the bike.

Comments

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

I'm going to start biking to work, also -- at least, I'm hoping to. My husband needs to look my bike over; I haven't even had it out of the basement in the eight years we've been in this house and hadn't ridden it for years before that, so it should be interesting. But even for my tiny commute, the gas prices are too much.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I hadn't biked for at least fifteen years when I started last year. Look back over my entries tagged bicycle commuting and you'll see the questions I had about getting started (and johnridley's very helpful answers).

[msavi.livejournal.com]

May I just say how much I admire and envy you your biking endeavours? And speaking as a life-long insomniac, I know exactly how you feel about the extra half-hour. It maybe be only thirty minutes, but every one is precious. I'm currently trying to force myself to go to bed before 12:30am every night, and it's an uphill battle.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Any ride is better than not riding. Having something like no parking spot is certainly an incentive! Does that save you money? I know some people on bikeforums say it's not so much the gas; some of them are saving thousands of dollars a year by not parking. I've never worked anywhere that I needed to pay for parking.

I'm never concerned; I'm not smart enough to worry. It's just a paradigm shift; you just start treating cycling to work as normal, and driving a car as weird.

I'm possibly a bit far out on that limb now though; I've put off a car trip to a tool store for almost 2 months now because it's a 50 mile round trip, and I just can't bear the thought of going that far just to go to one place. I think this weekend I might take the kids to the natural science museum in Ann Arbor; the tool store is only a few miles past that.

Anyway, good for you, and let me know if you need any advice or you're looking to buy something; I've found that I've spent more money on things that DON'T work for me than things that do, and that knowledge of what doesn't work is pretty useful.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

The monthly parking pass is $115. Parking per day is $6. I usually buy the monthly parking pass.

I am going to continue putting some money in my pre-tax transportation account, enough to buy one light rail ride a day (if the transition is too tough, I can take the bike on the train in the morning, or if I have to rush home to get someone to a karate class right away after work) and one day pass for parking a week, because we have had a LOT of doctor's appointments lately for one of our children.

As I get more acclimated (and my sleep schedule hopefully adjusts) I'll eliminate more of the light rides and cut back on my pre-tax transportation fund. Then I'll save more money.

Then, too, there's the gas I'll be saving.

Thanks for being willing to offer advice. I'll yell when I need help. At least I have last year's experience under my belt, so I know it all can be done.

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

I'd have to get up at about 6 or 6:30 to make it to work on time by bike . . . I am also a wuss.

(Also, I sweat like a horse. I'd have to shower after getting to work. Luckily, I could do that [I work at a college with a gym], but I'd have to add the extra time on, so even earlier. Eww.)

Anyway, I really respect your dedication! Good luck!

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

What, you're not at work already by 6AM? Riding in the dark is bliss!
Actually it's very nice being able to work whatever hours I like. In the winter I quite like getting up at 4AM to bike to work by 5, and leaving around 1PM. It really is a lot more fun (not to mention safer) to ride at night.

[jbru.livejournal.com]

I'm also hoping to start biking to work about May 1. That means getting my bike in for a tune up sometime soon!

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

I rode my bike to work today for the first time in years, inspired in part by your stories from last year. More precisely, I rode it halfway to work and then something went sproing and I had a flat tire.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear! What did you do?

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Didn't fall off. Swore. Didn't cry. Walked the bike to the first secure-looking bike rack I could see at the edge of campus and left it there for the day, because I didn't have time to walk home with it and then back to work. (I live 1.3 km - just under a mile - from the job that's about to disappear.) Tonight I walked it home, tried to pump it up, tried to find the leak, and decided that maybe I'd take it to a bike store tomorrow and leave it for a tune-up too.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry your first day out turned out to be such a bummer. I hope that you have lots of good with riding in the days to come to outweigh the bad.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

And you too! I look forward to reading about it!

When I visited Minneapolis last spring, I felt like I was visiting some literary setting when I rode the train and saw those bike-hanging hooks you had described. Then I went to the big mall that Pamela Dean had written about her characters Christmas-shopping in, and the feeling intensified.

[wild-patience.livejournal.com]

Good for you! I got my bike out this past weekend. I hadn't ridden it since the end of last summer so the tires needed considerable pumping up.

I don't know about riding it to work. It's 5 miles, which is feasible, but the traffic is insane. I do at least plan weekend trips to the library or yarn shop on it.