A few lessons learned during my commutes. Being as I am fairly new to commuting, as an adult anyhow, I am quickly learning a few things. Since part of my commute is done what I like to call after hours. While most of you are sound asleep I am making my journey home from work. This is during the time in which I become the “River City Psycolist” as opposed to “River City Cyclist”. Clear lens glasses for night riding are crucial especially when the cottonwoods are well dropping those little cotton things all over they sky. I have absorbed these in my eyes on a few occasions and must admit it is very uncomfortable and definitely had me swerving a bit in the road. Not only that but taking a bug to the eyes can be little painful as well.
Next purchase…will definitely be a full set of fenders. I don’t really give two squirts about getting wet its just I realized I don’t like sand and muck in my mouth and on my face every time I turn or and not perfectly centered. This will likely protect me from the leaky car fluids too.
I used to just wear sunglasses during the day, however with the heat being what it is this week I was sweating into my eyes with no real way to wipe them out. I ended up buying one of the 5 dollar department store fishing hats. My fiance said I look like a nerd and that was all the validation I needed to know I made a good purchase. I wore it today for the first time and it absorbed the sweat nicely keeping it out of my eyes as well as felt a bit like riding under a big shade tree.
Last but probably the most important in my experience is how you transport your belonging that are to be worn, consumed, used for repairs. My first week I used a backpack. Whew this didn’t last long because by the time I got to work I felt like I had hauled a railroad tie on my shoulders the whole way. It also made me sweat profusely, this is funny but a guy actually asked me if it was “raining out there” one day after I arrived. My old bike is a department store full suspension MTB so I ended up having to buy one that hooks to the seat post. On my new bike since its actually made for commuting I have all the eye holes for racks and fenders. I went with a Topeak rack and bag . I like the bag because it has fold out panniers, and a quick release so you can take in whee you are going easily. Its just nice to be able to haul stuff easily and not really notice it like I did with the backpack.
Just a few lessons learned I look forward to any responses of things any of you have learned “with your real world experience” so to speak.
