Bike Commuting Tips

A sidewall failure of my Sweetskins MTB tire today reminded me of a temporary fix I once read about and actually used once. When you tear the casing of a tire, you can be seriously disabled. You’ve probably blown your tube and replacing the tube won’t fix the tear. A temporary solution you can use is to place some sort of paper currency, preferably a small value bill, between the tube and the location of the tear in the tire. You can then pump up the tire and the bill will keep the tube from protruding from the tire hopefully long enough for you to arrive at your final destination. If you’re like most people, you probably carry a cell phone and can call the wifey or a beer-drinking buddy to come and get you, but why involve an undesirable vehicle when you don’t have to. Besides, it would be more fun to impress your buddies with your ingenuity and adventurousness by fixing the tire with the dollar trick (hopefully with your buddy’s dollar).

I admit I did not use this trick today. Conditions were very wet and cold and getting another flat on affected tire was not unlikely. When I got the flat, I was only about a half mile from work so I cyclocrossed it the rest of the way. It’s good to know that I can still run that far. Then, I caught a ride home with a buddy who lives a few blocks away. I missed an opportunity to re-confirm my dollar trick. Even I am prone to weakness sometimes.

I don’t believe in calling the wifey to come and pick me up in our undesirable vehicle when I have a mechanical on the commute.  While most of the stuff I carry is rarely used, I don’t leave home without them.  Here they are:

1)       Park Tool multi-purpose tool  – all the hex wrenches, tire levers, chain tool, etc.

2)      Spare tube – you never know when you might have a puncture in an un-reparable location.  Plus, I don’t like repairing tubes on the road as I am too impatient and I usually bungle the job.

3)      Permanent patch kit

4)      Temporary patch kit – it bailed me out last week when I bungled two permanent patches.  I don’t like these kits (See my review of Slime Skabs) but they can be handy sometimes.

5)      MTB pump – because I ride MTB tires to work

6)      Cell phone – it’s nice to have as backup in case you do have a mechanical that is not possibly repaired on the road.  I’ve only had to use my phone once but despite being home my wife didn’t answer her telephone and thus was no help at all.  A friend saw me walking my bike and pulled over.  Reason I called:  Had a flat, changed it, started pumping only to realize my pump was broken.  Since I ride Presta valves, the gas station pump was no help either.

7)      Spoke wrench

8)   Aluminum tire lever – I don’t like to take the Park Tool apart and I always seem to break plastic levers, like the park tool levers.  I only carry one because I’ve lost (or my kids have lost) all of my others and I never need more than one anyway.

Update: I stopped today on a rather poor stretch of road in a poor neighborhood. I have been riding past a group of young school children for some time now and I had decided the other day that I should stop and give them a few words of encouragement. I shook all of their hands and tried my best to pump them up for school. Many of them had dirty faces and thread-bare clothing but were bright eyed like most children. One of the adult gentlemen who watch them until the bus comes said something to the effect of: “They (the children) always say you don’t stop because you don’t have time for them.” I’ll make myself available to them when I see them next. At least someone should have time for them.

Original Blog:

Instead of riding my bike to the gym at work at lunch, about a half mile away, I walk. It seems silly to ride over when it takes so little time to walk it. Many of my co-workers who also use the gym have never walked there. They get in their undesirable vehicle and drive the 2 minutes to get there. That seems doubly silly. On a beautiful Memphis day in January, I even saw one of my very fit co-workers, she’s ran marathons, driving to the gym. Shame, shame.

I don’t work in a very nice part of Memphis. Until a couple of years ago, the people at the building a few blocks away watched the prostitutes work the area in front of our main campus. I don’t worry about the area I work in. I’ve lived in worse areas. I am surprised at how useful I have been in the area just by walking.

When I first started walking, I had a lot of people stop me (they in their undesirable vehicles) to ask for directions. Since I didn’t live in the area and didn’t go to many places around it I wasn’t very helpful. However, since I was stopped so often I started to memorize the locations of places which people had enquired about. Now, when people stop to ask me directions, I promptly give them the most direct route.

Most of the people ask me how to get to the local temporary employment agency or one of the nearby career colleges. I am glad I can help and hope that I’ve facilitated their prospect of finding a job or getting a better education. Everyone has thanked me for my help.

Could I have done this if I drove to the gym? No. Good thing I make myself available to help others.

Let me be clear. I find commuting via bike superior for a multitude of reasons. There’s health, economics, environmental, political, …etc. That said, I still drive my car regularly.

I have a couple different routes to work. The shortest is about 16 miles each way. I will only do this route on my mountain bike since it involves a little off-road action. On my road bike, the shortest ’safe’ route is ~20 miles each way.

So…why do I live so far from work? Simple, when I bought my house 9 years ago, it was not a concern. Since that time, my priorities have changed.

Most days, I don’t mind having such a long commute. It gives me plenty of time to get the heart rate up and the blood moving. Besides, it is almost a matter of pride when people say “you commute how far!?!?”.

The downside is that riding is not always practical.

Here’s a good example. The other day, my wife (Cortney) needed to take the baby (Clara) to the doctor for shots. Since she knew she would have her hands full with the baby, so she wanted me to watch Ella (our 4 yo) while she went. The appointment was at 10am on a Wednesday. If I were to ride my bike to work, I would not be able to make it to work until noon at the earliest. Not exactly ideal.

Sometimes, the weather *keeps* me from riding. I can handle cold. I can handle rain. I can handle wind. Put them all together for 40 miles…not so much. Fortunately, living in Texas, I don’t have to worry about weather too much. Wind is regular, rain is occasional, and cold is unusual.

I guess you could call me a ‘casual’ commuter. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion.

Here’s my typical schedule:
Monday: Normal commute via road bike. (~40 miles total)
Tuesday: Normal commute via mountain bike. I usually hit up some local trails on the way home. (~50-60 miles total)
Wednesday: Car day. I take in a fresh set of clothes for the next week and bring home the dirties. I also stop at the grocery store on the way in and get some food to keep at work. Additionally, Wednesday night is my wife’s ‘night out’. I try to be home as early as possible so that she can get some relax time.
Thursday: Normal commute via mountain bike. I usually hit up some local trails on the way home. (~50-60 miles total)
Friday: Normal commute via road bike. (~40 miles total)

Rinse, Lather, Repeat.

This schedule amounts to 180-200 miles/week. That is some good exercise. Additionally, that is about 120 miles that I do not spend in my car. (Note: 120 != 180-200 because of additional miles for mountain biking & safe routes.)

This is what I plan, but rarely does it actually happen. This week is a prime example. The weather was crappy on Tuesday. Wednesday, I had a late meeting a work so Cortney couldn’t have her free night. We traded and I rode to/from work on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. I really try to make sure I ride at least 3 days a week.

Why do I bring this up? Just to point out that you don’t have to fully commit for it to make a difference in your life. Start out simple.

Here’s how you do it.
1. Start off by driving your proposed route(s). Figure out what is the safest way to get to/from your work place.
2. On a Saturday/Sunday/non-workday, get on your bike and ride your route.
3. At the beginning of the week, check the weather and pick a day for your inaugural ride.
4. The day before your ride, take a set of clothes to work along with any toiletries that you will need.
5. Ride to work.
6. Pat yourself on the back.

If all goes well, try to increase your frequency.

Two years ago, I was the only person in my office that ever commuted. In the past year, I’ve helped 4 other people (in a 30 person office) make their first commute. 3 of them still do it on a regular basis.

If you continue to ride, you will soon find your mid-section smaller and your wallet thicker (well…unless you really get into it and start getting fancy bike stuff…) all while reducing pollution and dependency on foreign oil. Even if you don’t go for all that hippie environmental stuff, riding home after a hard day at work is a great stress reliever.

Duhhhhhhh, right? Not really. You would be amazed at how easy it is to drop your head (and eyes) toward the ground on a ride. Dropping your head can be caused by several factors. First, it takes effort to hold your head up and it just feels good to relax your neck. Second, the most natural response you have on a bike when you are tired is to drop your head. Observe professional riders on a breakaway towards the end of a race. There not just dropping their heads for better wind resistance. They’re beat. Third, sometimes it’s just fun to look down and watch your muscular legs churning the pedals.
How do you avoid dropping your head? Try these:
• Become aware of your riding position and whether you are keeping your head upright.
• Practice. Mountain biking is a good way to practice maintaining a good head position because there are always upcoming obstacles.
• When bike commuting don’t kill yourself trying to make it from point A to B five minutes faster than last time. Part of bike commuting is interacting with your environment and lowering your environmental impact. Ride at a mild or moderate pace and enjoy the scenery. Speed will come with better fitness. However, even the fit can wear themselves out. I have a friend who was bike commuting on a time trial bike in the UK. He was working hard and dropped his head resulting in a rear end collision with a disabled vehicle. The crash pushed the aerobars up through his mouth, breaking his jaw and knocking most of his teeth out. It’s very easy to hit a parked car just ask anyone who has ridden in a city a lot.
• Buy a helmet-mounted mirror. I don’t use one (I rely on hearing) but this can alert you to traffic behind you without having to turn your head. I have also seen the handlebar mounted versions but these require you to look down – exactly what you don’t want to do. I don’t highly recommend any rear view mirror because I don’t think they’re that useful. Most of the time you can hear rear-approaching traffic. I’ve also read that most bike-undesirable vehicle crashes do not result from the rider being hit from the rear. I use the check way ahead of you, quick glance back method for assessing rear-approaching traffic.
• Don’t look ten feet ahead of you. Look 100 to 150 feet ahead of you. I typically can spot a trouble area on the road well before I get there. Rarely do I need to slam on the brakes to stop. This method is used by fixy riders who know they can’t stop quickly. I think it’s a good practice even if you can.
Hope that helps.