So now that I am in my second week of commuting, I am finding out the things that I need. 

Bike Rack.  Though that seems pretty simple, it never ends up that way.  I borrowed a nice bike rack from my friend, Leif, but it doesn’t really work out for me.  It is a receiver hitch style back rack and I have a 2" receiver, so you would think it would work out nicely.  I have a Jeep with oversized tires and the bike rack doesn’t extend out enough to clear the spare tire.  I have been making it work by removing my spare tire when I need to use the bike rack, but that is hardly a long term solution.  So I have been in search of bike rack that will work with a Jeep with oversized tires.  After exhausting all the hits on Google including Thule and other mainstream bike rack manufacturers, I decided to go to my favorite Jeep site:  Quadratec. I found one there that will definitely work for me.  It is made by Allen and claims to have clearance for oversized spare tires.  Still not completely satisfied, I continued my search.  What I really would like is a bike rack that will attach to my spare tire directly instead of a receiver mounted rack.  After asking around at different bike shops and combing the Internet, I found a bike shop that claims that they can get what I need.  The Atlanta Cycling Vinings store claims that they just sold a bike rack exactly like I am looking for to someone with a Jeep with oversized tires.  Apparently Saris makes exactly what I  am looking for.  They are a bit pricey and require an additional mounting plate an additional $50 dollars, but with this solution, I can just keep the bike rack on the Jeep full time.  Because of the increased price point, I will be waiting until Christmas to own this beauty.

Cycling Clothes.  I already own a pair of padded bike shorts and a bike jersey, but cold mornings are not far off and I will need some winter upgrades. I found  this WindStopper soft shell jacket for cold days.  It has removable sleeves for the days when it is cold in the morning, but warm in the afternoons. I found these winter friendly Chamois that are on sale.  They have something called Twist Gel Chamois that stay warm, but dry.  I guess I need some wind resistance for my feet as well.  Adidas makes some bike shoe covers that can cover this.  Can’t leave out the fingers.  Gore has a nice WindStopper gloves that I am considering.  I guess I need to stop being naughty for a bit and start being nice to get these things in my stocking this year.

Panniers.  A more immediate need is panniers.  I currently have a trunk for my bike.  It is just big enough for me to carry my rolled up clothes, my shoes, and  my biking essentials (spare tubes, ULock, etc.).  I do not have any room to expand my packing list.  I have found the perfect set of panniers to solve this problem.  Delta makes a waterproof pannier that not only maximizes the cargo space, but has an optional Back Pad Harness to convert to a back pack.  Unlike the other panniers I have looked at, these are sold separately, so don’t let the low price fool you.  Even buying them separately, they still are relatively low priced.  This may be my first purchase on the list.  I need to start taking my laptop to work again.

Multi-Toolkit.  There are many varieties of multi-toolkits on the market ranging  from five tools to the upper twenties.  Topeak makes one called the Alien DX 27 that seems to have everything that one could want.

Cycling 101 Class.  With all these items on the list, I guess it would be prudent to take a class to figure out how to use it all.  I found that R.E.I. offers several classes around cycling and bike maintenance.  They are all free and, from what I hear, quality instruction.  I have signed up for my first one that I will be attending in early November.  Look forward to a review on it.

And there you have it.

Joe.

I am lying here in the guest bedroom of my parent’s home.  My son, Daniel, is asleep next to me, snoring that snore when a child’s sinuses are slightly congested, but not fully clogged.  He isn’t wearing his new Batman pajamas, but his old camouflage ones.  He tends to choose his military referenced clothing when we come here.  I guess being so near Fort Benning reminds him that I was in the Army.

Savannah,  my teenage daughter, is no doubt, exploring Facebook or MySpace.  The chat mechanisms that those sites offer, seem to be more appealing to kids than standard Instant Messaging clients.  One advantage I think the social network site chat windows over regular IMs is that regular IM clients are usually running in the background “in case” someone tries to message you.  On Facebook, for example, you only show online if you are logged into Facebook.  It is a safe assumption, that since you are logged into a social networking site, you are open to socializing, thus receptive to an unannounced message.  It is far more common for someone to be working on the computer and receive a IM message at an inopportune time.

Well, off to sleep.

 

Joe.

I started out my morning commute really strong…I was averaging over 17mph in my first 8 miles when I discovered my back tire was completely flat.

“No problem,” I thought to myself, thinking that I was fully prepared to deal with a measly flat tire.  So I pulled out my handy-dandy CO2 cartridge dispenser and attempted to apply it to the tire…nothing.

After a few minutes of struggling with it, I decided that either the device was faulty or I didn’t know what I was doing.  I found that the latter was more accurate.  I picked up my bike, threw it on my shoulder and started walking to where I had passed some cyclists by their cars.  Before I got there, a guy stopped off and helped me out.

Now I was on my way…for 10 feet.  It seems that my flat was caused by a hole in my inner tube.  No problem, all I have to do is remove the tire and replace the tube with my spare.  I never realized how important a 37¢ tool is really worth.  For those of you, like me, who don’t know what a tire tool is, it is a tiny sliver of plastic that is essential for removing a bike tire from its rim.  You really need three of these things, though you can get away with only having two.  I am sure there are other tools on the market that can get the job done, but it is hard to beat a 3 for a dollar deal!

I don’t own three tire tools, I don’t even own one.  I tried using an Allen Wrench to pry tire free, but succeeded in only scratching up my rim a bit.

After giving up and calling my friend, Brian, to pick me up on his way to work, another friendly cyclist, who was driving by in his car, stopped to help me.  (Man, I must’ve looked pitiful sitting there).  He had bike wrenches and much experience.  He showed me how to change the tire and soon after, I was back on the road.

There wasn’t a huge amount of excitement or disappointment, but it sure was a learning experience for me.  I signed up for a class to learn this stuff at REI.

Lesson learned.

And there you have it.

You may want to start with Share the Road..Part 1 if you haven’t read it already.

So I decided to commute and I purchased a new bike to do so. 

Day One… Getting used to the new bike.  I woke early Saturday morning and went grocery shopping.  After I got home, it was still only 6am.  Since everyone in my family was still in bed, and I had a shiny new bicycle in the garage, I figured I would go for a spin.

Now I intended this to be a very short ride up the Silver Comet Trail and back.  I didn’t leave a note as to my whereabouts, after all, I would only be gone a few minutes.

I jumped on the trail and started riding.  The first thing I noticed was it was dark.  I already knew it was not yet daylight, but there was illumination from the moon that made my short journey to the trail reasonably lit.  Riding on the actual foliage covered trail, however, made the ride nearly devoid of light.  The only thing that I could see was the yellow dashed line that divided the narrow path into two lanes.  To avoid inadvertently running off into the woods, I stayed smack-dabbed in the middle, right on the yellow line.  I almost wrecked from startlement when an unseen person, walking the opposite direction, bid me a good morning from the darkness.

This didn’t stop me, though in retrospect it probably should have.  I continued on past the point where I initially planned on diverting from the trail and making my way back home.  The ride was so smooth and enjoyable that I didn’t want it to end quite yet.

Further up the road, I passed the Silver Comet Depot where I had purchased my bike the day before and I didn’t stop there.  I didn’t stop even when the Silver Comet Trail ended.  I traveled down South Atlanta Road for about a mile.  Finally, with morning’s daylight upon me, I decided to turn around and make my journey home. 

When I arrived, after have ridden over 20 miles and being gone for almost an hour and a half, my now awake wife informed me that my absence scared my son.  Apparently, when waking to find out that I was not home, my 5 year old, figured that I must have been abducted by some men who were lowered on a rope from a helicopter and entered the house through the roof by which they extracted me from my slumber.  Though it was a likely conclusion, my wife assured him that I was probably out riding my new bike.

End of Part 2

So I got a wild hair and decided that it would be a good idea for me to commute to work on a bike.  This posed a couple of topics for thought.  One, my bike is a mountain bike (Giant Iguana) that I bought in 1988.  Two, work is about 15 miles from home.

In my effort to “Keep up with the Jone’s” of the world, I based some of my rationizing on the rise of prices and demand for gasoline.  Instead of buying an expensive Hybrid (thus making the ROI a bit unreasonable), a motorcycle (something I really considered), or a scooter for few thousand dollars, I decided that a bicycle commute would not only reduce the amount of gas that I would have to purchase for my gluttonous Jeep Wrangler, but would help me get in shape!

I also decided that my mountain bike would not be well suited for such a recurring trip.  I decided to purchase a road bike.  I decided to visit Arno, owner and operator of the Silver Comet Depot bike shop near my house.  I had purchased a bike for both my son and my wife in the past from Arno and was happy with the experience.

After a bit of research and a “backordered” disappointment from Specialized, I settled on a Bianchi Via Nirone 7

End of Part 1.