bike commuting – Living the Dream

Posted on October 30, 2019October 30, 2019 by Katie

Chilly but Beautiful

Dad and I met up for an extended ride home this evening. By “extended,” I actually mean we added 25 miles to a 20-mile commute. Perfect… and my toes even defrosted in the shower. We didn’t set any land speed records, but I find it difficult to keep up a fast pace when it’s pitch dark and the temperature hovers around freezing. We still had a nice time.

We rode south through Bellevue to Factoria, over Northup Way into Issaquah, and then around the south end of Lake Sammamish. A straight shot north took us directly home. Continue Reading >>

Posted on February 22, 2019February 22, 2019 by Katie

Light in a Dark Place

Sometimes God gives us opportunities above and beyond our everyday choices, chances to shine as a bright light in a dark place. Yesterday I took one of those opportunities, and I’m still reeling from it.

Thursday, February 21, we pushed out our first release of 2019 at work. With President’s Day on Monday and all the snow the previous weeks, I didn’t feel as comfortable as usual. Every working day that week I put in 10-hour days and still felt less well prepared than I like. But that evening I left work at about 6:25 PM relieved and ready to enjoy a slow, dry, “warm” bike commute home before really nasty weather pummeled us again. Continue Reading >>

Posted on December 18, 2018December 18, 2018 by Katie

Cold, Dark, and Rainy

At last the weather has entered the classic Washington pattern of short, dim days, heavy cloud cover, and copious rain. Not that I prefer these conditions, but as a Washington native, it doesn’t feel like winter until the rain starts.

Well, yesterday the rain certainly started… And didn’t stop. By the time I got home, nary a square inch of me remained dry. That’s no big deal, but it was also quite windy, which I don’t care for.

Because of the wind, and the difficulty of seeing in dark, rainy conditions, I opted to take the Burke-Gilman Trail home from Seattle, rather than going across the 520 bridge and up through Kirkland. Especially lately, I’ve felt really nervous about riding down Market Street. At every intersection, cars turn right across the bike lane, and they never stop or seem to notice me. It’s very anxiety-inducing.

Plus, riding in the dark with car headlights blazing into my eyes, with raindrops refracting their light, it’s nearly impossible to see what’s ahead of me. I have super-powerful lights, but they don’t help when my vision is obscured.

So I took the Burke.

In the summer I don’t care for the Burke: too many other people, too flat, too boring, and a couple miles longer.

But in these conditions, there aren’t many other people, and flat and boring mean predictable, which is exactly what I want. Plus, with no cars, it not only feels safer, but it’s much easier to see.

When I got home, I realized something else: going across 520, I have 14 stoplights from the time I leave the UW to the time I get home. But riding on the Burke, I have only two stoplights.

Here’s a typical across-the-520-bridge commute:

Here’s the on-the-Burke around the north end route:

As a result, when I checked my times at the end, I had the odd experience of having a longer moving time (1:22 for 21.4 miles, versus 1:16 for 19.5 miles… Don’t judge me! It’s December, it’s dark, wet, windy, and nasty. You try riding faster.) but a shorter overall time (1:23 versus 1:29). I spent almost 15 minutes stopped when I went through Kirkland, compared with only one minute stopped going on the Burke.

So that’s interesting. My take-away: I may mix up my commutes more, especially on those dark, wet days when riding in traffic is extra-dangerous.

Posted on May 25, 2018May 26, 2018 by Katie

Diary of a Commute Bike

This morning started like all normal mornings. The garage door opening let in sunlight — sunlight isn’t the normal part. I mean the garage door opening.

Then my partner, who’s the engine, and I did a short trip to a bus stop. It only takes a couple minutes, but we always have to stop two or three times. I don’t like having to stop so much, and sometimes the engine seems a tad anxious, too–usually when we leave a little later. But we usually make it to the bus stop before the bus.

We spend a lot of time standing around here. I don’t know why. I’m perfectly capable of doing the whole ride to work, but my engine insists on riding the bus.

I don’t care for riding the bus so much. Bikes are made to have both wheels firmly on the ground, thank you very much.

But once we go across the two bridges and get to the busy noisy place, we get off the bus and my engine and I get rolling again for another short trip with many stops.

There’s a few things I don’t understand about the busy noisy place.

First, we have to stop all the time – six or seven times, maybe more, in less than 10 minutes of travel time. We would get there much faster if the engine wouldn’t stop me so often.

Second, sometimes I noticed we get our own special road just for partnerships like us.

I see lots of us zooming around. The other day we went on one special road for a very short way–about 0.3 miles, the computer told me–short, but super fancy. Later I heard the engine mention that road cost $3.8 million.

What I want to know is: Why’d someone spend all that money for that? My engine and I like our special roads, but just marking it with paint is good enough for us. We didn’t care for the fancy raised up section and the way it feels like we’re on the sidewalk with the intersections with driveways. Sidewalks aren’t for us! Why are they making pretend sidewalks and calling them bike roads?

Anyway, we got to the dark place where I hang out with my friends while the engine does other stuff for a long time.

As usual, I spent the day there hanging out and shooting the breeze with the other bikes there. I’m meeting lots of unfamiliar bikes who say they only go out when it’s sunny. I say, what’s the point of that? I have fenders, and the engine seems to work okay in the wet, although maybe not as optimally as when it’s sunny. I don’t know why that should matter, but apparently it does.

Eventually, the engine came back and we rode back to the garage home, where we started. I don’t understand why the engine does this most days — not every day, but mostly five days out of seven. Why??

Sometimes she seems to like seeing what’s out there, like on this ride…

… But other times she hardly looks around at all. What’s the point of that?

Anyway, I’ve noticed there are places — always at the same spots — where the engine pedals slower but breathes a lot louder. She did it again on the way back this time, even though I’m sure I heard her say she was going to not breathe heavy while riding for a while.

I’m not sure why we have to slow down so much on those sections, or why she seems to be panting at times, but after those times, I often get to go fast.

I love going fast! It’s my favorite thing!

Except sometimes the engine slows us down for no reason I can see. And sometimes she doesn’t help at all — I have to do all the work. How fair is that?! When it’s up to me, I always make sure we roll along plenty fast.

On the way back, we have an awful lot of times we have to stop. I don’t like that. I want to go faster. We especially already stop at some of those places almost every time.

Maybe the engine likes the view?

Anyways, lately I’ve noticed all this fluffy white snow floating around, except it doesn’t melt and it’s much warmer than regular snow. But just like regular snow, it piles up on the sides of sidewalks and the road.

At first I was nervous going over it. Snow is slippery. But this stuff wasn’t slippery at all — just super fluffy. I noticed the engine went with her mouth closed when there was the most fluff, but that seems ridiculous. I bet it tastes like sugar. Yum! If I had a mouth, I’d totally try tasting some.

So then we finished our ride home. I know the route pretty well, except sometimes the engine takes us different ways. Sometimes we just do loops with very slow parts and very fast parts; other times we just go on different roads and I’m not sure why.

Other times we meet up with the engine and bike partnership called “Dad,” and we ride along together. We used to meet up with another partnership called “Michael” quite often, but they moved to Australia and we never see them anyone. I’m sad about that. I miss my friend. I think Australia must be another big noisy place far from here.

When we got home this one day, there were two other engines out playing. My engine spends a lot of time with them. I think they must be extra-special to her.

So that’s what my life is like. Maybe another time I’ll write about the days we don’t commute, and instead go on long rides. But right now I’m out of time. The bus is about to let us off in the big noisy place and we got to roll!

I hope we go fast.

Posted on December 19, 2017 by Katie

I’m Dreaming of a Dry Christmas

Some of these things are not like the others… Yet this is Christmas in Washington!

Posted on February 27, 2017February 27, 2017 by Katie

Snow Fun

It was snowing this morning when I left to catch an early bus at 6:29. The roads were clear but the heavy flurries of flakes made it difficult to see. The bus drove through a mess of snow on the freeway, followed by some very cold rain when we got downtown. (Similar, if sightly warmer, weather is forecasted for the foreseeable future. Not a great sign for happy commuting.)

When I got my bike off the bus, the side facing out was caked with slush. This is what it looked like after I rode it down to the parking garage and a bunch of slush fell off.

On top of this, I am spending the whole day today and tomorrow in training, which means arriving at 7:30 am, and then I need to stay late to actually get some work done afterwards.

For some added fun, Benji has also come down with a nasty cold. He coughed so much he vomited yesterday afternoon, but slept OK overnight with massive help from the humidifier. Naturally, this happens right when I’m gone extra-long days.

I’ll be honest: I wish this week was done.

Evening update: I rode my bike home. The first couple miles, I rode through an inch of melty slush that fell right before I left. The traffic through downtown was literally stopped pretty much everywhere, and I saw many forlorn people waiting for buses that were probably laughably far off their schedules. As I left the parking garage, I heard the cop whose job it is to help cars turn out into traffic ask the driver next to me, “Where you going?” [inaudible response – maybe Bellevue?] “Well, good luck!” –I later learned that freeways were intermittently shut down much of the day.

I had a very slow commute, despite trying to maintain a decent pace, and I’m not sure why. It wasn’t the road conditions — after I crossed Mercer St. on Dexter, the slush miraculously vanished, leaving wet roads and increasingly chilly temperatures. But by some miracle I didn’t even get precipitated on at all — no wintry mix, no mixed rain/sleet, no freezing rain, not even any regular old rain. It all paused for a couple hours while I rode home.

I know I should be grateful (on many levels! By catching an hour earlier bus, I missed the bad morning traffic; by riding home, I missed the evening commute snarl), but I finished just feeling depressed that it was my slowest commute in several weeks. My LEGS felt like I was going 20 mph but somehow my speedometer kept saying closer to 15 mph. Sigh.

Also, Benji spiked a fever during the day, which means he has to miss school tomorrow, and tomorrow is the day his class is going to visit the vet clinic. Darn it! I am grateful, however, that my mom is able to take Benji for a second day in a row and for a third day this week. Benji’s doctor approved a small dose of cold medicine to help with the coughing, which has gotten really bad and is keeping him from sleeping.

WHY, universe, WHY??????

Posted on September 28, 2010September 28, 2010 by Katie · 1 Comment

Choosing a Commuter Bike

Day’s Verse:
I spread out my hands to you;
my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.
Psalm 143:6

So you’re interested in commuting by bike. Often one of the first questions people have when they start thinking about using a bike as a means of transportation is “What kind of bike should I use?” I’m going to provide a little bit of bike purchasing advice that’s based on my experience, but you don’t actually need a special bike for commuting. All you need is a bike in good working order, a helmet, and a way to carry your stuff.

However, lots of people buy commute-specific bikes, for good reason, so I’m going to throw my $0.02 in. I emphasize planning and thinking before going out and buying a bike because most people buy a first commuter bike and then later wish they’d bought something else. My discussion below is aimed at to helping you home in on features you want so you can buy the right bike the first time.

Choose Features

Define your list of needs.
When you decide to go by bike, first think about a XXX factors:

What is your budget? You can spend anywhere from $100 to $10,000 on a commuting bike. Expect to spend between $750 and $1500 for a good commuting bike from a reputable bike shop.
How often do you want to ride? Think about what your long-term bicycling goal is. Do you want to ride 5 days a week year round, whenever the weather permits, or just every occasionally?
How many miles will you ride? You’ll probably want a different bike to ride 10 miles each way than if you ride 2 miles each way. If your normal commute is long, consider a multimodal commute where you drive or take the bus partway, park, and ride the rest of the way.
Do you want to use this bike for other things? If you want to take this on long club rides, on gravel trails, for towing a trailer, or for other specific uses, make sure you find a bike that supports those activities.
How hilly is your commute? A 50-lb Dutch-style bike is great in flat New York City, but on the hills of San Fransisco, you’d probably prefer something a bit lighter-weight. Single-speeds and fixed gear bikes are popular right now, but aren’t so practical for most everyday bicyclists.
Do you want to carry stuff on your bike? Many bike commuters use a rack and panniers (saddle bags), but a backpack or messenger bag also serve many commuters well. If you want to go the rack-and-pannier method, budget extra for those items. Some bikes do come equipped with those, but many don’t.
Do you want to ride in the dark? Some commuter bikes come equipped with dynamo-powered front and rear lights already. Most bikes can support lights, but budget for a good, bright front light ($100 to $150 is about typical) and a couple of blinking rear lights ($30 to $40 each).

Refine your list of needs.
Once you’ve thought about that, ride your current bike (if you have one) on your commute for at least a month. Keep a list of the things you like and don’t like about it. This, like the planning above, will help you start getting a better sense of what you actually want out of your commuter bike.

What Kind of Bike?

With your refined list of needs in hand, you can start thinking about what kind of bike would serve your needs. I’m not going to recommend specific bikes because there are so many excellent “urban” or commute-specific bike models out there these days and every commuter’s needs are different. However, check out bikes from Trek (and associated brand Gary Fisher), Specialized, Jamis, Surly, Giant, and any of the other major brands.

Features to Consider
Features to look for that make a bike good for commuting can include:

Fender mounts

Rack mounts

Dynamo-hub powered front- and rear-lights, if you want to avoid the hassle of batteries — either way, plan on buying lights and using them day and night

Sturdy frame

Comfortable geometry for you — this can mean anything from a road bike with drop handlebars to a fully upright cruiser-style bike

Gearing suitable for your terrain

Reasonable weight — many Dutch city bikes and cruisers tend to weigh in at over 40 lbs, which becomes a lot of weight to haul around if you’re riding any distance or up any hills

Easy-to-use shifters — you can always learn new shifters, but odds are you’ll develop a preference as you try different things, and it’s worth having shifting you like since you do it often

Place for a bell — much nicer than having to holler “on yer left!” constantly

Smooth, fairly skinny tires Continue Reading >>