So we’ve talked a bit about how to get started bike commuting and what to look for in a commuter bike.  I thought I’d do a post about some of the commutes I’ve had, the bikes I’ve used and what I’d do differently now.

Riding to Grade School

I used to ride a BMX bike to grade school.  Nothing fancy just a cheap single speed BMX bike.  Actually let’s be honest it wasn’t even really a BMX bike it was a heavy cheap copy of a BMX bike.  Whatever my parents could afford and would get me to school.  After school and on weekends it was my transportation to the corner store or to visit a friend.  I’d carry everything I needed in my backpack and didn’t have any bike specific gear.  I don’t recall even having a helmet.

What would I change?  You know I don’t think I’d change anything.  At that age I didn’t take care of my stuff and I didn’t need anything super special to get me around my neighbourhood. I had fun and I don’t recall having too many bike problems.

Riding to High School

I out grew BMX bikes and eventually got myself a 10 speed bike.  By my current standards a pretty crude, heavy beast that shifted and braked poorly.  I roamed all over town with it.  Using it for many of the same kinds of missions as my old BMX bike, but going further afield and riding faster.  I still carried all my stuff in a backpack.

What would I change?  Well the one thing I didn’t love was getting a lot of flat tires on that bike.  It had thin racing style tires of poor quality.  I would have been way happier with a drop bar touring bike.  I would have been more comfy sitting a bit more upright and riding on wider less flat prone tires.  Too bad I had never even heard of bike touring at that point!

Winter Commuting at University Kingston, Ontario

When I got to university I bought myself a motorcycle which I loved and rode all spring, summer and fall.  I had a mountain bike, but didn’t use it for transportation when my motorcycle was on the road.  However, come winter in Kingston we got a ton of snow and the motorcycle would get stored.  I lived on campus, but my GF lived in town.  So I found myself riding to and from her place almost every day.  I was a poor student [with a motorcycle loan!!!] so I couldn’t afford any special commuter gear.  I did have a weak headlight and a dim tailight, but otherwise I rode a stock rigid mountain bike.  Still carrying everything in my backpack.

What would I change?  A lot!!!:

• I’d have used some studded knobbies for better traction
• I’d have added fenders to keep me cleaner and minimize my bike maintenance
• I’d have added a rear rack and panniers so I could carry more stuff and get the weight off my back
• I would have added bright lights front and back to make sure drivers could see me
• I would have worn better winter clothing so I would have been more comfortable

Year Round Commuting Kingston, Ontario

When I was done school my first real job was in Kingston.  I used my bike to commute to work all year round about 10kms each way.  I was still using the same mountain bike from university.  By this time I had added a rear rack with panniers and a set of improved lights.  I also owned some decent bike specific clothing.  My bike was pretty worn out, but I kept it running and didn’t have any breakdowns that screwed up my commute.

What would I change? A few things:

• some slick tires in the summer and studded knobbies in the winter would have made the riding more efficient and safer
• fenders would have been useful in the winter particularly
• it would have been great if I had maintained my bike a bit better so it would have been more fun to ride

Calgary Bike Path Commute

Living in downtown Calgary I would ride my new hardtail mountain bike about 12kms each way along the Elbow River bike paths to the Glenmore Reservoir area where we had an office at the time.  I rode all year when there wasn’t snow on the ground.  I gave up during the winter.  My mountain bike was stock other than having slick 1.1″ tires on it, a bell. and clip on fenders.  I carried my gear in a backpack and owned quite a lot of bike specific clothing.

What would I change?  Not too much.

• the combo of high pressure slick tires and a front suspension fork was really nice.  The bike was very fast and when things got rough the suspension went to work.
• disc brakes on this bike were nice and needed minimal maintenance
• my commute was always during daylight hours so I didn’t need lights
• the saddle wasn’t super comfortable so swapping in a Brooks would have been nice allowing me to ditch the padded bike shorts
• by this point I owned a lot of bike clothes so I was quite comfortable no matter what the weather was like
• if I had a rear and panniers on this bike I could have carried more stuff and stopped to run errands on my way home from work

Calgary to Okotoks Commute

Our company HQ moved to an acreage outside of Okotoks about 25kms from the southern Calgary city limits.  That meant a 100km round trip commute if I biked both ways or a 50km commute if I used the C-train to get me from downtown to the edge of town. I used the Cannondale road bike shown in the photo at the top of this post for several years of this commute.  I had clip on fenders for it and carried my gear in a backpack. I added lights in the spring and fall when it was dark during my commute.  I also used lots of bike specific clothing including several reflective items. During the winter I stopped bike commuting as Hwy #2’s shoulder wasn’t plowed.  Since you can’t take a bike on the C-Train during rush hour I had a bike locker at the southern most station where I kept this bike quite a lot - especially in the spring/fall.  I would do the full 100km commute in the summer when the weather was the best.

What would I change?  Hmmm…

• remember during my second post in this series I said if you loved a bike go for it even if it wasn’t the best solution?  Well that applies to commuting on a road race bike.  It was never the ideal bike with a crouched over racing position, racing gearing and 23mm race tires.  But, I LOVED it and that’s the most important part!
• from a practical perspective I would have probably been better off using a cross bike or a touring bike for this commute.  It would have been possible to mount full fenders and use racks/panniers to carry my stuff.  It would have made for a more comfortable commute.
• another good option would have been to use a folding touring bike that I could have ridden straight from my apartment, folded, taken on the train and then ridden the rest of the way to Okotoks.
• whatever I bike I was using I would improve the saddle.  The stock racing saddle was never super comfortable.  A leather Brooks saddle would have helped a lot.
• I had decent lights on this bike in spring/fall, but if I was doing it over I would have upgraded them for something really bright and used two rear blinkies to make sure I was visible.

Calgary Downtown Commute

My current commute is a short 2km blast from my GF’s place to my home office in the belt line.  In the spring and fall I ride a folding touring bike mostly just because it has a dynohub light that never needs charging, it can carry 4 panniers to haul my stuff and it has fenders for rainy days.  In the summer I ride whichever bike turns me on at the moment as comfort or practicality aren’t so important for a really short commute.  In the winter I ride my Surly Pugsley when it’s snowy and the folding touring bike if it’s dry out.  Almost all my bikes now have fenders and racks that take panniers.  I own some high end dynohub and battery lights for riding in the dark and I wear lots of reflective gear.  All my bikes are now setup with comfortable leather saddles and ergonomic grips.

What would I change?  Only one thing:

• I have great bikes, great gear and I love to ride them so the only thing I would change is move my office so that my commute was 10kms each way!  2kms is too short!…=-)  I think a 30 min commute is ideal.  Long enough to enjoy the ride, but not so long that it eats up your day when you have other things to do.

You don’t need perfection to enjoy your commute

None of my commutes were perfect. At first I didn’t have great equipment as I was a kid or a poor student.  Eventually I had more money for bikes and gear, but I still didn’t have an ideal setup until recently.  Now that I have bikes that are really optimized for commuting I don’t have the perfect commute route - it’s too short!  But, one thing all my years of bike commuting have in common is that no matter what I was riding, what my route looked like or what the weather was - I was smiling and stoked to be riding.  Another thing that hasn’t changed is that I work riding my bike into my day as much as possible.  I live where riding is easy and even when my office is in the next town over I find a way to commute.

So my advice is not to wait for the perfect opportunity to ride your bike to work.  Get on your bike and figure out a way to make it work now.  You won’t ever regret it.

Up next…

Next post we’ll look at some specific bikes you can buy today and what sort of commutes they are good for.

Passion

Before I give any practical tips on picking a good bike for commuting I’ll tell you that if you are really passionate about a certain type of bike and you can make it work for your commute go for it.  I think it’s way better to be riding a bike that really gets you stoked than the ideal commuter bike that you don’t like.  The hardest part of commuting is getting dressed and out the door. If you are excited to ride your bike that will definitely help your motivation!

What makes a good commuting bike?

Comfort:

You need to be comfortable on the bike for the length of your commute.  If your commute is short this isn’t a huge problem, but if you are riding 25km-50kms being comfortable is a make or break issue.

The most important aspect of being comfortable on a bike is how the frame fits you.  This means the distance between the saddle, pedals and handle bars.  You can adjust these points of contact on a frame, but only to a certain degree before you need to get a bigger or smaller frame.  This is a complex topic and unless you are an experienced cyclist who knows what works for them it’s best to bring your existing bike into a bike shop, and get a professional to help fit it to you or buy a new bike at a bike shop.  They fit thousands of people to bikes every year so they can see what works and what needs to be adjusted. If you are buying a used bike be careful you are not buying a bike that’s too small or too big.

Once you are on the right size frame and it has been adjusted properly the next elements of comfort are your contact points with the bike [saddle, pedals and handle bars].  There is no one size fits all solution here.  The best thing to do is to ride your bike to work and see how you feel then address the areas that you are unhappy about.  If you are lucky all the stock parts will work for you.  To give you some example of what works for me I tend to ride leather Brooks saddles on most of my bikes because I can be comfortable for a long ride and not wear any bike shorts.  I use BMX pedals and 5.10 bike shoes a lot because I like the big flat platforms on these kind of pedals and I like being able to jump off the bike and walk around normally in comfortable shoes.  For handle bars – if I am using mountain bike style bars I’ll put on some Ergon Grips because they spread out the pressure of the bars and keep my hands happy.

Depending on how rough your commute is you may or may not benefit from suspension.  The obvious kind of suspension is what is used in a mountain bike – a suspension fork and a rear triangle with a shock.  These definitely work, but for most commutes would be overkill.  You can also get more simple forms of suspension from larger tires.  If you are riding along on 2” wide tires inflated to a moderate pressure you’ll avoid a lot of the jarring and bumps that you’d feel on a narrow 1” tire.  Since both tires have to support the same weight the 1” tire has to be pumped up much harder and gives a harsher ride.  You can also use a suspension seatpost under your saddle to take away some of the harshness from the road.  I have commuted on a mountain bike with a suspension fork and narrow high pressure tires and have also commuted on bikes without suspension, but used wider softer tires – both work really well.

Reliability:

If you are depending on your bike to get you to work you can’t afford to deal with lots of breakdowns or you’ll give up pretty quick.  The biggest issue for most people is flat tires.  You can buy tires that are almost impossible to get flats with.  Unfortunately they are heavy and slower than other tires.  You can buy tires that are superfast, but they tend to get more flats.  If your commute involves riding through a lot of broken glass, thorns, metals debris you probably need those nearly flat-proof tires since they’ll be way faster than fixing a flat every ride.  For most people a tire that is flat resistant, but still reasonably fast is the best choice.  Personally if I’m dealing with more than 1 flat every two weeks on my commute I need a more flat resistant tire.  Besides tires you can also use tire liners or special sealant in your tubes to stop leaks.  If you are getting lots of tiny pin hole flats the sealant will work really well for you.

The other aspect of reliability is having to work on your bike a lot to keep it running properly. Some bikes seem to keep loads of attention and others roll along without much effort.  The big factor between these two is the quality of the parts on the bike.  The reason you can buy a mountain bike for $150 at a discount super store is that every bit of that bike was made with a focus on saving money – not working well.  You’ll lose whatever money you saved on a bike like that when you have to constantly adjust parts and replace them frequently.  The good news is you don’t need the super fancy top of the line mountain bike or road bike parts to have an easy to maintain commuter bike.  I find the lower end parts from Shimano and SRAM work great for commuting.  These are the parts you’ll find on the less expensive bikes at a proper bike shop.

Buying a bike with parts that can be adjusted and maintained easily is great, but you still have to adjust and maintain them for the bike to work properly.  If you don’t enjoy tinkering no worries just bring the bike to your local bike shop and have them work on the bike for you.  Bike shops don’t charge much and they can get repairs/adjustments done fast so you are back on your bike in no time.  If you like tinkering it’s a great idea to work on your own bike.  Get a bike maintenance book or consult a good online bike maintenance site for help.  You’ll need a few basic tools as well, but you can buy them as needed so you don’t have to break the bank in one shot.

Another way to make a bike reliable is to make it super simple.  If your commute is fairly flat a single speed bike might work great.  Since shifting is usually the part of your bike that needs the most attention getting rid of all, but one gear really makes a bike bulletproof.  Add in some tough tires and you likely won’t have to think much about your bike or do much maintenance.

Cargo:

Most of us have to carry something to work.  It might just be lunch or you might need to carry tools, a computer, spare clothes as well as lunch.  If your cargo is light and compact a backpack may be the ticket in which case your bike doesn’t need anything special like a rack.  However, the more weight you need to carry, the bulkier your cargo and the longer your commute the more you need to think about how you’ll carry things.

Virtually any bike can have a rear rack attached and most can also have a front rack attached.  You can get bags called panniers that will fit on your racks and will hold a lot of cargo.  The trouble is just because a bike can accept a rack doesn’t mean it will ride well with a lot of weight on it.  If you want to commute on a road-racing bike you better be able to carry everything you need in a backpack as the frame is not made for a rack even if you could get one installed.  Most front suspension mountain bikes will happily take a rear rack and panniers.  If carrying a lot of gear every commute is necessary a touring bike might be the answer as they are designed to carry gear on racks in front and back.

For really big/heavy loads you’ll need a cargo bike or at least a bike trailer.

Weather:

If you only commute on your bike in the summer when it’s dry you don’t need any special considerations for weather.  However, if you ride all year a bike that can handle rain, snow and ice is important.

The most basic item on a bike ridden in bad weather is fenders.  They will keep all the road grime and grit off you, but they also keep your bike’s drivetrain much cleaner meaning less maintenance.  A lot of bikes can have fenders installed on them, but not all of them.  There needs to be enough room between the tire and the frame for the fender to fit inside.  Road-racing bikes generally can’t accept fenders, many full suspension mountain bikes are hard to install fenders on as well.  If your bike has no suspension and decent clearance between the tire and the frame mounting fenders shouldn’t be a huge problem.

Disc brakes are less affected by rain/snow/ice than rim brakes and can be useful if you are going to ride through the winter in particular.

Studded tires are the answer for icy winter commutes.  No rubber tire will give you good grip on ice.  You need metal studs!  If you need to get through soft loose snow more than ice super fat tires like on a Pugsley are the way to go.

I mentioned above under reliability that a single speed bike was really easy to maintain.  If you do lots of wet weather or winter commuting a single speed can really make a lot of sense since you have so much less to get dirty, frozen and corroded.  Another way to get the benefit of a single speed’s simplicity, but enjoy the hill climbing ability of gears is to use an internal geared hub.  These hubs seal all the gear changing components inside the hub so all that is exposed to the elements is a single cog just like a single speed bike.  Any frame can have an internal geared hub installed, but they work best on frames designed for them.

Lighting/Safety:

Being seen on the road is very important - two ways to do this are to use lights and reflectors. All bikes can be equipped with good lights.  Putting reflectors on your bike is a good thing, but since you are so much bigger than your bike it really pays to wear reflective gear on your body.

Another good safety item is a bell/horn.  If you commute on the Calgary bike path system a bell is mandatory and it’s a great way to let joggers or dog walkers know you are coming.  If you mostly ride on the road with cars you can get air horns that are as loud as a car horn to get a motorist’s attention when necessary.

Next Post

In my next post I’ll go over some typical bikes used for commuting and discuss why they are a good choice and what types of commutes they’d be appropriate for.  I’ll also be discussing the bikes I’ve used for commuting in the past, what I liked about them and what I’d change if I could do things over again.

I’ve been a bike commuter most of my life.  From the days when I rode my bike to school as a kid to my 100km round trip commute to the next town.  No matter what bike I was riding or how long the commute was riding my bike to start and end my school/work day has always been one of the highlights of my day.  My current commute is a short 2km jaunt across Mission from my GF’s place to my home office.  Probably one of my shortest commutes ever, but it still puts a big smile on my face every time I hope onto my bike.

If you don’t bike commute at the moment give it some thought.  It’s good for your mind, body and soul - not to mention your pocket book and the environment.   I’ll be posting a series of articles about bike commuting over the next few weeks to help you get started and point you at some useful bike commuting resources online.

My first suggestion is to ride whatever bike you currently have or can borrow.  Don’t worry too much about how it’s setup or having the right gear to commute with.  All of that is important, but not as important as actually getting out there and riding a bike.  The only things that really matter at this point are that the bike fits you okay [ie. don't try and ride your kid's bike or your spouses if you are 2' taller!] and that it’s in reasonable shape [ie. the brakes work and there is air in the tires] . If you are going to buy a new bike to commute on that’s a great idea - however, if you do a few commutes on an older bike you’ll have a much better idea what you like and don’t like as well as what is needed for your particular commute.

At first just cherry pick the days you commute. Ride on sunny warm days where you don’t have a ton of stuff to carry and you are not stressed about some uber important meeting.  Talk to a bike geek friend or someone at work who bike commutes for a route suggestion.  Stick to bike paths and quiet roads as much as possible.  If you have to ride along a busy road like McLeod Tr for a while it’s okay to use the sidewalk.  Eventually you are going to figure out the most enjoyable/efficient way to get to work, but to start with you just want something straightforward and safe.

Give yourself lots of extra time the first couple commutes so you aren’t worried about being late.  If you can try out your commute route on a weekend so you can work out any kinks in the plan without having to get to work on time.

Use these first few commutes to figure out what sort of bike you need/want and what biking gear you’ll need [racks, panniers, fenders, etc...]  Have a look at what other people bike commuting along the same route are using.  Feel free to ask them questions.  Most people are happy to share their knowledge.

Your first commutes are going to be the hardest and take the longest so don’t stress too much about the details at first and just know it’s only going to get easier and more fun.  Even on cold wet days I have found the hardest part is getting out the door.  Once I’m riding I start enjoying my commute right away and as long as you dress appropriately bad weather isn’t a big deal.

If you aren’t very active when you start commuting it may seem like a lot of work, but it will become easier as you gain fitness.  You’ll get stronger much faster than you think so don’t get discouraged.  If riding all the way to work and back is too much to handle at first you could ride one way and take transit/get a lift with a colleague back home.  Then the next day you could do the same to work and ride your bike home.  You could also drive part way to work and ride the rest of the way.  As you get stronger you can drive less and bike more.  Once you are riding all the way you can bike one day a week and add days as you feel stronger.  There is nothing wrong with taking rest days or skipping a day of bike commuting if you need a break.  Like any physical activity it’s better to start slow and build up over time.

Once you’ve got 4 or 5 commuting days under your belt it’s time to sort out your bike, gear and your route.  I’ll post a separate article about each topic in the next week or two.

Sorry for the lack of posts recently.  I’ve been on the road in BC the last few weeks out of internet service. My last stop was the Shambhala Music Festival near Nelson BC. I’ve been going on and off since Y2K and had lots of great times roaming from stage to stage on the huge event site.  A couple times I thought of bringing a bike, but I was worried about it getting stolen and wasn’t sure how much I’d use it.  My Surly Pugsely was already in my truck from a kiteboarding trip to Lake Nitinat on Vancouver Island.  So I thought what the heck lets take it to Shambhala.

What a great decision!  I used it a ton.  We spent each day at the beach and with racks and panniers it was easy to haul drinks, towels, chairs, snacks, etc.. from our camp on the bike instead of carrying it all ourselves.  It also made getting more supplies from camp a fast and fun job - rather than walking for 30 mins+ each way.

If you attend any large festivals you know that finding washrooms that are clean and without lineups is huge.  The washrooms near our camp and in the main event site were always crowded and not so clean.  Having a bike it was no problem to ride out to the edge of the event site and find porta-potties that had barely been used and no waiting in line.

Bike security wasn’t a problem either.  During the day I either had my Pugsley with me or locked to my truck with an uber beefy chain.  At night I would ride to my favourite stage and since it was pitch black around the edges I’d just lock my bike up to a tree or some scaffolding with a cable lock.  From about 6′ away you couldn’t even see my bike any more.  I generally walked between stages as my friends didn’t have bikes and used the Pugsley when I wanted to head back and forth between our camp on those ever critical beer runs!

The only real downside to talking the Pugsley to this event was people stopping me every 30 seconds to ask me questions about it.  I must have talked to 500+ people!  My friends would laugh when they walked behind me because they passed so many folks going the other way who were talking about a bike with fat tires!