Bike To Work Week: Ride to your place of worship

On Bridging The Gap's Bike To Work Week calendar of events, today is the last official day. I wasn't able to make the wrap-up party, but I did get to ride to church. Usually, my church meets in the practice auditorium of Olathe East high school. That's about a 3.5 mile ride. Every year, over summer, there are times when there's remodeling or construction going on around the school district. When that happens, we can't meet in the auditorium.

Last year, we met in park shelters at Heritage Park and Cedar Lake Park. This year, however, my church has some property that we're developing into a community center. We decided to raise a tent on the property and hold service outdoors under the tent. The weather was awesome! It was a bit on the windy side, but overall, it was a good time. The property is about 7 miles from home, so I had no problems riding there. I left early enough that I could turn it into a leisurely stroll once I got away from traffic.

If you look at the photo, you can kind of see my bike leaning against a support post. I got there really early. Our praise team was warming up and practicing, and a few people were setting up refreshments and praying. I just sat down and meditated for a while. It was a nice change of pace, as usually I have to set up and run sound, video and/or lights. None of that out here under the tent!

Bike to Work Week - Day 5 Wrap-Up

I got persuaded into riding back into Olathe with Chris this afternoon. I left at about 3:30. We swung by the Trek store on the way back into town so he could pick up a spare inner tube. It was a long, slow ride, and Chris is definitely faster than I am, at least in my current weakened state.

It was cool having another cyclist in sight, and a little discussion is always welcome. I just wish I had a little more hammer juice in the shriveled pillars of mangled meat that used to be my legs. I was pushing as hard as I could, and just couldn't get any momentum behind me, even on the slightest of inclines or going against the faintest of headwinds.

It was a fun and enjoyable ride, all the same. I feel like yesterday's homeward commute-by-bus has been avenged.

Again, if anyone wants to join me for a really easy-going spin on Indian Creek Trail tomorrow morning, show up at the Quivira Park entrance before 9:00. I'll be there. Don't expect a fast ride. I'll be unwinding.

Is this selfish?

I started commuting by bike back in September. In November, they installed this bike rack. I was commuting by bike twice a week, then thrice as time allowed, then 4 days per week, and now I pretty much use my bike daily. Today's the last day of bike to work week, yet in all the months I've parked on this rack, I've never, ever seen another bicycle locked up to it.

Today, I decided I'd park it like this from now on. I think it's a little selfish, but it's a little more stable and secure as well. Am I a bastard? Does this make me evil?

Day 5: WOW! Commuters!

I rode the 3-mile hammerfest to the bus this morning. A nice, smooth ride, with some hard pushing, my old familiar hill climbs, and a newfound road confidence. It was even colder than it was yesterday morning, but I used the same level of warmth. 3 miles of hammering keeps you pretty warm compared to 20+ miles of intentionally-paced riding.

When I got to the bus, there was already a white Specialized Allez Sport strapped in. I've seen it once before, but it's been a few weeks. When I got on the bus, I started talking to the rider. It turns out it's Chris, an EarthRiders member who's been consistently high on the KC Commuter challenge points ranking, and who I'd been talking with on a regional bike commuter mailing list. It was nice to put a face to the name. It's also the guy who I thought was a mile ahead of me yesterday, but that wasn't him.

As I sit here at Starbucks, I've seen 4 or 5 other cyclists riding by. There are 3 bikes locked up outside (one of them is mine) and I've seen a few strapped down to the bike racks on buses. There are a LOT of bike commuters out today! Look...another bike on a bus just as I typed that last sentence!

While I'm here giving a play-by-play of reality while it's unfolding, I just saw a guy staring at my bike as he walked by... almost like he was checking out a nice looking woman. That's kind of a weird look to be giving a bike. He was a heavy-set business-type guy, probably not going to steal my bike. Maybe his bike lust will get the better of him; he looks like he could use a little bit of bike riding. Okay, now I'm the pot calling the kettle black. My bike does look really good though. ;)

I'll probably run into Chris on Monday. There's a new bike commuter that wants to get from Shawnee to Downtown. Chris and I both ride the same way once we get to Shawnee, so we're both going to guide the cyclist downtown. Kind of like an impromptu BIKE ESCORT. It should be fun, and helping a new bike commuter to gain confidence and understanding of the route is a worthy cause.

Look! Another bike on a bus!

Bike To Work Weak - Day 4 wrap-up

Thanks, Warren. I couldn't resist.

I wussied out and took the bus to JCCC this evening. I had some stuff to do once I got back into Johnson county, so I'll still get some miles. You know how some people thought I was taking Bike To Work Week a little too literally? Well, it's Bike *TO WORK* Week. Not Bike To Home Week or Bike From Work Week. LOL! While I'm at it, I'll participate in "Bike is the ticket to ride" event tomorrow. In other words, I'm tapped. Seriously.

Let's do a recap of my week so far. I've had about 12 hours of sleep and put about 150 miles on my bike since Monday. Put mildly, my current lifestyle is not conducive to this kind of commuting yet. Part of this is family related. I have to wake up at 5:00 to make it out by 5:30, which is basically the latest I can leave. To get enough sleep, I'd really need to be in bed by 10, maybe 10:30.

As it stands right now, my wife gets home around 10:30, and that's the only time I see her. She's asleep when I leave in the morning. If I was asleep when she got home, that would really, really suck. I wouldn't want to simply NOT see her, ever.

There are a few positives to this, though:

First off, I can do the full round trip on occasion, I just can't do it on a daily basis. I've proven to myself that I have what it takes to ride the whole trip. This is a huge mental breakthrough.

Next off, my wife has been accepted for another position in her department that will result in hours that will help me get some more sleep. It sounds like she might even get converted to full time.

Finally, we're moving a few miles closer to both of our jobs at the end of June. I'm not sure what the new route would look like for a full bicycle-only commute, but I'll hash out those details in the coming weeks. This would probably result in about a 15-20 minute difference in my commute time, meaning that I might be able to get to my office in an hour or less once we move.

I've already said that I'm calling this Bike To Work Week a success. This week has been a great growth experience. I've had a several great rides to and from work, a fun group ride with my dad and some friends, and met a few fellow commuters -- even if only to exchange a wave of the hand. Leading up to this week, I had the honor of showing up to a few city council meetings to show my support for cycling. I'll take away a slightly more passionate zeal for cycling from these events.

Riding to the bus in the morning is usually a pretty rushed ride, and I know tomorrow probably won't be any different. It'll be a major change of pace from what I've been doing in the morning lately. I'm usually slow and steady, conserving my energy to get me all the way downtown. I won't have that luxury tomorrow, and I'm going to be doing it on sore legs to boot. Saturday, I'm hosting a slow ride on Indian Creek Trail. I'm going to need a longish recovery ride that's low-stress, low-speed and high on fun factor. If you want to join me in stretching out the legs, and winding down from the Bike To Work Week festivities, let me know, or heck, just show up. Details are in the announcement at the top of my blog.

Bike To Work Week Day Four: Round Three

No photos this morning, just riding. Relentless, constant riding.

I left at 5:00 sharp, and I knew it would be a bit slower than usual. My legs didn't recover from last night, and they were not quite as responsive as they were yesterday morning. I wasn't that slow, but I was slower.

It was a bit colder this morning than yesterday, but I learned my lesson. I wore long thermals under my bike shorts (and over the liner) to keep my knees warm, and a hoodie to keep my core warm. Full-finger gloves kept my hands comfortable.

My front derailleur was still off a bit, but now I was dropping the chain off the hammer ring instead. I took a bit of a different route, catching 67th street to Turkey Creek Trail. When the trail crossed Merriam Lane, I hopped off the bike to do some derailleur tuning and some stretches. After I got it dialed in, I had no more problems.

As I approached Antioch and Merriam Lane, I saw another commuter again. It wasn't Caroline this time. I tried, yet again, to reel the cyclist in, but I ended up running dead even this time, never gaining ground. I lost visual contact where Southwest Boulevard does a chicane through some residential stuff. A few minutes later, I passed Jeff again, on the unmistakable green fixie.

Up the boulevard, into the heart of KCMO, and in for some quick carbs. It's not over yet, but I'm calling this year's bike to work week a success. My goal was to make it at least one day round trip via bike. Monday was about the same number of miles as a round trip, but it wasn't. Yesterday was a full round trip and then some. I plan on finishing today with another round trip, and tomorrow, we'll just have to see how I feel.

Day 3 wrap-up: Bike officers, red bull, and loads of fun

Today, I set off on my journey at about 4:30PM. It's AMAZING the difference a half-hour in departure time makes. Instead of doing the usual cyclist thing of finding little back alley shortcuts, I sat there, in traffic, biding my time like everyone else. It kinda sucked. But it's okay.

I experimented a bit on the way home, and I felt pretty strong the whole way. I kept well-hydrated and maintained good speed and road position. I really felt like everything was coming together. Having this much seat time today (almost 4 hours worth, if you count times I wasn't moving) I really started to feel at one with my steed. I no longer feel like I'm controlling it. I feel like it's going where I want to go. It sounds cheesy, but it's the only way I can describe it. I just got in from putting 27 more miles on my bike, and I'm not really all that worn out. It was a great ride.

Photo: I stopped to talk with Ed (left) and Doug (right) at JCCC. This week, there are several graduation ceremonies happening at the college, for various schools and college degree programs. Doug and Ed patrol on bike. As I worked for JCCC for almost 9 years and my wife currently works in their department, I know both of these guys pretty well. We sat around, talked about bikes, commuting, and all that jazz.
Then the Red Bull street team showed up, offering us free Red Bull. So I continued chatting it up with the officers while I polished off my carbonated, caffeinated nectar from the gods above.

Then it was off to the bike shop to figure out why I kept dropping my chain off the granny ring. I think they fixed the problem (I could have but if they will do it for free...)

Anyhow. I'm home, relaxing, and planning on another day of wonderful riding.

B2WW Day 3: Chilly!

Photo: Starbucks might be known around the nation for their coffee, but they also make some pretty good kickstands :)

So yeah, it was 50 degrees when I left this morning. 50. That doesn't sound bad at all, does it? That sounds like a good time to throw on my MTB shorts and maybe a long sleeve t-shirt for my trip to the bus. I wore a long t-shirt (grey) and a white t-shirt over that for a little extra warmth and visibility, and my lime reflective vest over that.

Note to self, 20+ miles is a bit of a haul when you're cold! I should have worn my windbreaker and my full-finger gloves. My legs weren't too bad in shorts, surprisingly.


Anyhow, it was a pleasant ride. I left a bit later than I did on Monday, to get down town closer to 6:45 than to 6:20. As I approached the intersection of Merriam Lane and Johnson Drive, I saw something ahead. Blinking lights and a bright yellow jacket... Another commuter? The bike was pretty far ahead but seemed to have a single pannier on the drive side.

I picked up the pace a bit to reel in the cyclist, if for nothing more than to exchange greetings and salutations, and caught up around Antioch. As it turns out, it was an older woman named Karen who's been commuting by bike for longer than I've been alive. She lives in JoCo somewhere and works at the IRS. I guess there are a few other bicycle commuters that use the same route as well, including her husband on occasion. It was kind of cool to actually run into someone... ANYONE else that commutes by bike. Monday, with the exception of exchanging a wave with Jeff who was going the other direction, I was the only cyclist in sight. Caroline and I parted ways around Boulevard Brewery, and I continued onward.

Initial reaction to the panniers? AWESOME! Having the weight balanced and lower-slung than being strapped down to my rack is great. The bike's handling feels a bit sluggish compared to when the weight is on my back, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. Even with all the extra weight, the Trek 1200's handling isn't any worse than my unencumbered Diamondback Outlook hybrid.

Anyhow, I'm going to try to warm up for a bit before riding the last few blocks to the office. Tonight's ride should be more pleasant, in the low 70's. I'll get out of town a little later than I wanted to, since I have a performance review with my boss today starting at 4:00, which is when I usually try to hit the road.

Saddlebags

Photo: My bike locked up with the kegs at Buffalo Wild Wings.

If you can't tell, I got reflective panniers! I got a check in for some consulting work I did, and I quickly went and blew some of it on a set of panniers. They're not the most expensive or the cheapest, but they appeared to be a good bang-for-the-buck, and I don't have any heel-strike problems with them like some of the bigger touring bags or grocery panniers I looked at.

Despite not driving to work, I still had plenty to keep me busy. As you can tell, I went to Buffalo Wild Wings. Some of my friends meet up there on Tuesdays for wing night. It's not much further than the bus stop, so I hammered on it and made pretty good time. Then, it was off to see my buddy's new house. I went to the pharmacy, then finally to the grocery store. These are all things that I had to do, or that I would normally do. Last year around this time, I would have just driven around everywhere, even though it was just about 10 miles even. All of this in-town driving with lots of turning the car on and off, driving a mile here, 3 miles there, and so on, would have probably burned a gallon of gas. Instead, I got to burn off some chicken wings and beer that were tasty and delicious, without feeling too guilty about eating and drinking all of it.


...There's no way I burned off all those wings, though...

Oh yeah, panniers can only mean one thing, I have to do another round trip via bike. I might as well make it tomorrow. And maybe Thursday too. :)

Zealous, not stupid.

I still have a cough. Yesterday didn't seem to make it any worse, but it didn't make it any better, either. I woke up in time to leave at 5:00 again, but a quick check of the radar revealed a storm brewing not too far off... close enough to sneak up on me while en route to the office. Averaging 16 MPH going northeast, I could never win a race against a storm moving due east at 35 MPH.

I decided to lay back down a bit and see what it looked like when I woke up. When I woke up, there was a deluge coming from the sky. I know my limits. I drove to the bus stop. There would be nothing to gain from riding my bike in this stuff. Once again, my C/D Ratio falls below 3.0, but tomorrow's ride should bring it back up.

Bike To Work Week - Day 1 wrap-up

These kids made me jealous. While I was pushing pedals through a headwind full of dry, almost-90-degree heat, these twerps were cooling off in Turkey Creek. I felt like riding right into the stream, but better judgment took over. The cool water looked so refreshing!

Then there's the group ride, and oh what a group ride it was! We were off to a kind of slow start. My dad joined us, and Tim O was there, as well as a bunch of other new faces. We departed a little later than usual, but Mark Thomas had to herd the cats cyclists, so that was part of it. This group ride got a lot of attention, as it was a sanctioned event for Bridging the Gap's Bike To Work Week. I think it was a stunning success!

Riders watch and listen as Mark Thomas gives some helpful hints on finding your way around suburbia, navigating neighborhoods, and finding new ways to get to your destinations via cycling. The focus of our ride this evening was to show people some popular shopping center destinations. To demonstrate, Mark used a messenger bag during our whole ride to simulate running errands on a bicycle. A Chrome brand messenger bag like the one shown will be given away at next week's Monday night ride. All you have to do to enter the drawing is sign up and write a post on Choose2Bike.com.

We took a detour to Old Town Shawnee, a park with some original downtown Shawnee buildings. Volunteers from Bridging The Gap and City of Shawnee, Kansas put together some give-away schwag such as reflective ankle straps, ice cream bars, trail maps, and whatnot. Those without kickstands or a buddy to lean bikes together with just laid their bikes out in the grass. It looked like a battlefield of exhausted bicycles. Probably not too far off. Hahah. Deb Ridgeway was there to answer questions and thank people for participating, then she met us again at the Trek Store...

Where products, tickets, and dining gift certificates are given away while we celebrate with some wonderful homebrew Brown Ale, brewed by one of the Trek Store technicians. I won a multi-tool and my dad won a Trek DiscoTech blinkie.

I didn't finish riding all the way home. I socialized with my dad and we rode together in his car back to my place. This was his first organized group ride, and I'm pretty sure it won't be the last.

Here's a short video clip I took of some riders flying by:

Sweet success... for the first half!

Photo: Cheesy temperature photo-op by the Commerce Bank at Neiman and Shawnee Mission Parkway. The time was about 5:40, and I was little more than half way to work...

But NOW, I'm kickin' it at Starbucks. I got here in about 1H22M which is pretty darn quick compared to the amount of time the trip takes on my hybrid going the other direction. The morning air was balmy but comfortable. I was right last night though, It never did get below 70.

The ride in was without incident, almost to the point of being a little boring for some of the way. What few motorists I encountered gave me plenty of room. As I rode up Baltimore from Southwest Boulevard, a gentleman mistook me for a bicycle cop. Must have been the lime reflective vest and das blinkenlichten on the back of my bike. He asked me for directions, as all the construction downtown had rendered his printed dot-com driving directions useless. I obliged.

I don't think I could have asked for a nicer morning to put 20+ miles on a bicycle. Tuesday or Wednesday (depending on who you listen to) is supposed to bring storms with it. I'm definitely not riding the whole way in inclement weather. If storms crop up, I will proudly and happily ride to the bus stop.

Anyhow, I'm off to the salt mine. The next time I hope on my bike, I'll be facing temps nearing 90 degrees. I'm not sure if you can see it in the photo or not, but with those kinds of temperatures, I figured it would be wise to carry a little more water. I put a second water bottle cage on the Trek last night. It will probably come off after Bike To Work Week because I took it off my Outlook, and if I plan on doing any more long distance riding, I'll likely suck it up and buy a Camelbak.

Gearing up!

I'm ready to rock!

After messing with my bike all weekend (and not riding it afterwards) I knew I'd need to shake out some bugs. My brakes were in dire need of tightening up, and my rear derailleur has been getting a little, tiny bit sloppy. Considering I barely have 100 miles on the bike, I'm chalking it up to cable relaxation and settling into the cable housing a bit.

It took about 10 minutes of tinkering to get the brakes and RD dialed in the way I like them. Then, it was off to the grocery store to give it a proper test, and get some nourishment for the long ride tomorrow morning.

I'm abandoning the backpack for now. I'm strapping stuff down to the rack for this week of long riding. The sun's been down for about an hour now and it's still really warm and humid. It's my guess it won't drop much below 70 tonight. The last thing I need is a sweaty backpack. I can't wait to get a proper set of panniers on this thing.

Anyhow, I'll try to sneak some pics tomorrow. I should be leaving at about 5:00AM. I don't plan on averaging 10 MPH all the way there, but I'd rather get into town a half hour ahead of schedule than a half hour late. For every minute after 7:00AM, my presence on surface roads will become less and less welcome.