Here's how a typical morning rolls out at my house. Rise and shine about 6 am. Move at a snails pace until coffee is brewed (mostly due to wifey getting up earlier). Allow coffee to take effect. Get cleaned up and presentable to the world. Please note this means dressing for work....riding (especially in this weather) does not require spandex unless you want it.
If wifey is riding we leave about 7:23 am for her 1.1 mile commute to school (she needs to be there at 7:30.....yep, 7 minutes for a mile....that's all the time it takes at a leisurely pace). I tag along for company and to get in a few extra miles. And ladies, she does ride in a skirt almost every day. She doesn't ride a fancy dutch bike with a skirt guard either. In fact this week she road her mountain bike with the skirts and had no problems.
I drop wifey off at school and get to cruise down a the big hill on Kings Row at 30+ miles an hour on the xtracycle (yes, I do say woohoo!).
I now have a quick 6.5 mile ride into the office (or about 20ish minutes for me on the bike). It takes me over the freeway where I find I am even happier that I am riding a bike. Otherwise I'd be stuck with these suckers trying to head to the east side of town!
Oh, yeah for the record the flow of traffic this morning on 80E was about 5 miles per hour (e.g. my commute via car would take longer than by bike)! I continued over the bridge and headed East on my "new" 4th St. commute.
If you don't like traffic this route parallels the river trail and you can have a completely soothing ride. I find that I like a little traffic to motivate me to move along. After all, my ride is exercise as well and I like a little competition. This CRV served as my pace car all the way to Sutro (about 3 miles). All it takes is a couple of stop lights and light traffic and you can keep up with the pace of the cars without breaking 25 mph. Every time we hit a stop light and I pulled up behind her, I could see her looking at me in the rear view mirror. I'm pretty sure she couldn't believe she wasn't faster than the stupid bike!
From Sutro I rejoin the bike path and have a relaxing last mile or so and then ease into the work day. All in all a great way to start the day.
I have been getting back to bike commuting this spring - it is such a nice change not to have to wear so many layers. I try to avoid riding on roads if I can, so I've been driving to wear the bike path starts, and it takes me pretty much straight downtown. And with my folding bicycle, the car-bike transition is nice and smooth.
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