It's a Long Way To The Top If You Want To Rock n Roll

Hills. They’re all around us. It’s hard to travel anywhere around here without running into one. The ones that get me are the invisible ones…the wind. Headwinds in particular are tough. You can’t see it, but you feel it. It’s easy to deal with a regular hill. You see the incline. You know when you reach the top. With a headwind, it can go on for miles, never knowing when the end is near. I swear my commute is uphill both ways – real hills on the ride in, and the invisible hills on the ride home. If you’re riding in a car, you don’t even notice it. Ride a bike, however, and you wonder why you are pedaling so hard and only going about 10 miles an hour. The same stretch of road without the headwind allows for an easy 15 or 20 miles per hour travel. The flip side is a nice tailwind, giving you a little boost. I cannot ever seem to find those for some reason. I must be always riding in the wrong direction. It’s hard to complain, though. Winds, hills, they all just add to the adventure…and the feeling you get when you have conquered, or at least survived, them.

Not Easy To Sort of Be Car Lite

First of all, I'd like to say that I envy those who can live a truly car-free or car-lite life. As much as I enjoy bike riding and commuting by bike, I have a long way to go before I can say that I do not need to rely on a car. Over the last couple of months, I have relied on the crutch that is my car for more often than I care to admit. There have been after work commitments, weather issues, and lately, a lingering cold that have kept me off the bike most days. The thing is, when the car is there, it is all too easy to wimp out use it. I know that without easy access to the car, I would either be riding or taking public transit. Taking public transit would add about a half hour to the commute, plus I would have about a half mile walk to the bus stop. Certainly doable when there are no other options. However, when you are already financially committed to owning a vehicle, it seems to make more sense to go ahead and use it on the days when riding not a likely option. Yes, it hurts to watch the dollars tick by when filling up with gas. And yes, it is painful to sit in traffic, especially when I see another bike commuter. I'll get back into the groove soon, but it is a drag being out of it right now.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

What a lovely time of year. The evening ride home is delightful with all the holiday lights decorating the houses. What better way to enjoy them than riding a bike. It is a much better experience than seeing the lights wiz by from a car. Plus, you get the brisk air in your face! It makes arriving at home and warming up inside all the more rewarding.

Who is NOT riding today?

Who in SoCal is NOT riding today? Or, who are the brave souls that ARE?! It's pouring rain and gusty winds around here. I am today enjoying being stuck inside the office. :-)

An Almost Perfect Commute

The ride in to work this morning was nearly perfect. I had a slight tailwind with cloudy skies and cool temperature. It was just cool enough to be comfortable riding, but not sweating too much by the time I arrived at work. I guess the only thing that would have made it better was if I could have kept on riding, instead of having to end the ride at the office.

It Never Rains in SoCal

Except when it does...Monday brought us some cold, hard rain. The ride in was OK, and I found out that what is waterproof works well, what wasn't, didn't.
Here's what worked: Chrome messenger bag - waterproof inner liner. All my work clothes arrived nice and dry! Cheap rain jacket from Performance. It doesn't breathe, but the ride in was not long enough to overheat. My upper body stayed dry. Knee warmers - even though they got a little wet, still kept the knees warm.
What didn't work so well: Plain ol' cotton shorts. Should have worn cycling shorts this time, or water proof pants. Plain ol' shoes and socks. I underestimated how wet the shoes would get since I have fenders. The rain was just too much. Should wear baggies over the socks inside the shoes, or maybe even get some cheap galoshes for the short commute. Regular cycling gloves. The gloves were soaked by the time I got to work. Rear trunk. I had some spare gloves in the top compartment of my rear trunk. The rain soaked through and got those wet.
Luckily, I have an office where I can let stuff dry out. I used a small desk-top type fan to dry out the shoes. By the end of the day they were pretty much dry. I also used the fan to dry out the socks and gloves. A small fan or even a small heater with a fan set on low heat does a great job of drying out stuff.
The ride home was dry, but very gusty winds. For a moment I thought I was going to be blown off the road.
I would not want to ride in that type of weather every day, but once in a while it is fun, especially to see the looks on people's faces when they see that you rode to work in the torrential SoCal rains!