Please welcome back guest contributor Don Pillsbury.
Don?t I need to be a ?Jock? to ride my bike to work?
When co-workers see me riding my bike to work, they often assume I?ve always been some sort of athletic super hero. And while riding does occasionally simulate the sensation of ?flying,? I?m no Superman. I?ve never participated in any organized sport (well, except for the office volleyball league) and I don?t follow any professional teams. People familiar with my younger years are always surprised to hear about my cycling adventures.
As I meet other bike commuters, that pattern seems oddly common. A co-worker, who commutes 12 miles throughout the year, in all sorts of weather, said she hated gym class in school ? she was always the last one selected for any activity. This same person became indignant when asked about her commute being exercise. To her, it was about saving money. A friend, who also commutes 12 miles year round, doesn?t mention his cycling during a routine annual exam with his physician and is then shocked when the doctor suggests the need for exercise ? despite his trim physique.
For the bike commuters I meet, cycling isn?t exercise it?s just a means of getting to their destination.
One other trait I?ve noticed: the complete lack of remorse about eating whatever they want.
What is your background? If you commute with your bike, some or a lot, please let me know whether you consider yourself athletic or not. I can be reached at: [email protected].
Thanks Don! If you’d like to write a guest post, pls email [email protected].
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Please welcome WW resident Jake Herway, who’s launching an exciting new addition to the area’s cycling tourist industry, NJ Bike Tours. He’s also helping The Farm Roll scenic bike tour, coming up Sunday, June 22, proceeds to benefit our friends at the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed.? Here’s his story:
“Now a resident of West Windsor, I grew up riding through the picturesque landscapes of Europe, savoring the rich history, unique architecture, and European patisserie’s and cuisine. New Jersey was the last, dead last, place I expected to rival that experience. I was wrong.
NJ bike tours started when I discovered a hidden gem in the back roads of a state I assumed was nothing but?concrete, electric wires, and grime. Hidden to millions who visit, live in, or avoid New Jersey is a?rich history, beautiful farm country, stunning?views, and fresh, delicious food that create an energizing?cycling adventure. My goal with NJ bike tours is to share the beauty, fun, and discovery of a hidden Garden State, only a few pedal strokes off the beaten path.”
Here it is?wait for it?.wait for it???CONSISTENCY!!
Yep, that?s it. That?s my big piece of advice for folks who want to commute by bike. Just like any other lifestyle change, it?s the act of doing it over and over, until it becomes routine, that makes it part of your life.
Now, it?s not that easy. ?Sticking with it? is all rainbows and unicorns. What it really means is getting into the routine the night before, or even the week before, by packing clothes, packing lunches, mid-morning snacks (I always get hungry by 10 am when I commute), baby wipes, figuring out the timing, the logistics of parking, when you?re going to apply make up (if that?s necessary), bicycle maintenance, and what to do with all the extra cash you?ll be saving by not buying gas. Whew! It doesn?t sound so easy after all. If you?re content with just learning this concept and can figure out the details, you can be done reading now and go for a bike ride. If you need some more tips, read on.
My ride is just long enough that I prefer to ride in bike clothes rather than my work clothes. So, Sunday night I try to make sure I have enough bike clothes clean for the week. I also make sure I have a day or two of work clothes. The weekend is also when I do any touch up maintenance: pump up the tires, lube the chain, make any minor adjustments, etc. Lights get charged and fresh batteries as needed.
Each night I pack my bike bag (one rear pannier, or a bag that mounts to a rear rack on my bike) with the next day?s work clothes, hair goop, a towel, my headphones, reading material for the train. Much of this stuff just stays in the bag. I also bring in my thermos and water bottle from my bike, and make the coffee so it starts automatically in the morning.
In the morning, I shower, pack my pannier the rest of the way with my lunch, put on my bike clothes, fill my thermos and water bottle, turn on the lights, and head out. Once I reach the train station, I put my bike in its locker, go into the station and change into my work clothes, and get on the train. I take my stuff with me to the office so I can hang my clothes to dry. Also, I change back into my bike clothes in the train bathroom on the way home so I can get right on the bike and get home.
So this is kind of a lot of work, but I?ve been doing this long enough now that it is more of a nuisance to change out of the routine than to stick with it. The rare days that I have to drive to work really throw me off now, both in terms of the routine and also in my mindset. Driving is such a headache!
I should definitely add that my routine is supported by my amazing wife Abbi, who helps me out in a variety of ways, such as putting away leftovers in single serve containers to make it easy to toss them in, doing laundry, and being generally supportive! Thanks Hunny!!
There are a million tips for bike commuters, especially for newbies. I highly recommend spending some time on the blog, bikecommuters.com There is lots of good stuff there, from equipment reviews to riding tips for bad weather.
Go pack your stuff and start to make riding to work part of your daily, weekly, and monthly routine. It is an amazing lifestyle choice!!
Thanks Brian – if you’d like to share your bike commuting stories, please email [email protected].
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Please welcome Jenny Goodman as this week’s guest commuter, and contact [email protected] to share your experiences.
OK, after the long, long, winter, it?s going to be 60 degrees and no rain, I picked up my son?s friend and dropped them both off at school, the 606 bus leaves at 8:12, so I have 15 minutes to get my bike shorts, t-shirt, bike shoes, helmet and gloves and get over to the bus stop. You see I am somewhat of a wimp. I don?t ride when it?s cold (and this morning it?s 35 degrees), in the rain, or in the snow.
I made it. The bike goes on the front of the NJ Transit bus in a really cool, super-easy-to-maneuver bike rack. While I have a few panic attacks as we go over some wicked potholes, hoping my bike won?t get thrown off the rack and smashed by the bus, my stop comes up with everything still intact. My work is about a ? mile from the stop, so I bike over looking like a dork with my jeans tucked into my white socks.
My bike is a steel 1980 Reynolds 531 double-butted Puch that has Campanolo pedals with toe straps with over 10,000 miles on it. (Though truth be told, I don?t even tighten up the toe straps, nor have cleats anymore.) Talk about retro. The fork was also 531 but was crushed when I flipped over the hood of a car pulling out of the Hightstown McDonalds in 1993. We got it fixed and painted by Andreas Cuevas (that might mean something to somebody out there). And it has beautiful lugs.
Work is finally over and I set out on my first ride of the season, April 1. I have a great commute from Ewing to Princeton on the Princeton Pike, which has a great shoulder almost the whole way. Not too long and not too short, about 11 miles one way. The only bad part is fighting for position on the bridge over Stony Brook. Pretty hairy. Yeah, I know, there is a separate bike lane you can ride on, but between the frost heaves and the mud and gravel at the bottom of a turn coming off the bridge, I?d rather take my chances. The first ride home of the season is so pleasant. First I pass Halo Farms with its plastic herd of dairy cows. No joke, you should go see them. Through the parking lot of the Trenton?s Farmer?s Market, dodging a thousand pieces of glass, past the ?Win, Place, and Smoke? shop, then on to the open road.
I thought I would feel worse than this for the first ride of the season. A previous blogger (and neighbor of mine) says NJ is like Holland, nice and flat. Well, that?s true I guess, but not on your first ride of the season, especially up the hill into Princeton past the Battlefield Park. Coming into town is my favorite part of bike commuting – being passed by some cars in a hurry and then proceeding to pass them back while they wait in traffic at a stop sign or light. And now that Nassau Street has sharrows, I feel so legit giving myself enough room so I don?t get slammed by a car door opening up. I make it home in one piece (again). And tomorrow looks like it will be nice for another ride home.
Jenny Goodman has been bike commuting off and on (on nice days) for about 25 years. She is entitled to be a wimp, having ridden with her husband across North America, from Alaska to Montana, from Portugal to Switzerland, Maine to New Brunswick, and from NJ to Canada twice in the wind, snow, sleet, rain, blazing sun, and bugs (including a swarm of huge grasshoppers in Saskatchewan).
Monthly meetings are held at 7 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month via Zoom. We will eventually resume meeting in the West Windsor Municipal Building. Email us at [email protected] if you would like the Zoom code.
Find us at the West Windsor Farmers Market (Vaughn Drive parking lot) from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. every other Saturday from May through Halloween.
