OK, last week was the 2010 National Bike to Work Week and I started by taking my car on Monday.  What was I thinking?  OK, I intended on biking, but the night before my wife and I had a little argument that was not really settled and we both thought the issues that were brought up were not resolved when we awoke Monday morning.  That took priority.

But why didn’t I just call in and say I would be arriving late?  I think biking is still considered a secondary mode of transportation.  I would like to make biking my primary mode of transportation.  I bike to work more than I drive, so why not?  I think the only reason you should drive a car is if you absolutely cannot get there any other way.

Commute by bicycle turns to Ride-share

I feel like I have let myself down. Yesterday I noticed an odd skipping that happened occasionally while riding the Trek 770 that I occasionally use to commute. So I made a derailleur adjustment and thought I would ride it today. Just outside of town, the chain started skipping again when I changed gears to go up a hill. I stopped, made an adjustment and road on. About two mile later it started happening again. I stopped, checked for a frozen link, found none, made another derailleur adjustment and road on. Less than a mile down the road it was happening again! I just continued to ride as at this point I was more than half way to work.

Three fourths to work and my chain breaks! I hadn’t thought of checking for a break. Rats!

Luckily a cycling friend had passed moments earlier on his way to work. He commutes by car three days a week. I called him on his cell phone and he turned around, came back and picked me up. We put the bike on the top of the car and we were off ride-sharing on our way to work.

Better still, he had fixed up the bike last year for his daughter to ride, and as she is spending a semester abroad, I borrowed the bike back and was using it occasionally. He had now wanted it back for his son to ride. I had been promising to give it back for a month, as I wanted to give it a thorough cleaning first, and now it is on his car. Sounds like I got out of a cleaning job.

Windy Windy.

Made it. I must say I was quite tired this morning, but it worked out ok. The Temperature was fairly warm and the bike ride was beautiful.

On the third day of my bike to work for a week goal, two events on my morning bike ride have prompt a morning post!

Pickup Truck too close to bicyclist

First, the mirror of the same driver who has passed me far to close many times in the past few weeks came within three inches of me today.  The driver (of the two tone, I think blue, pickup truck) looks like he is taking his kid to school in Fennimore.  I suppose I am assuming it is a guy, but I have only seen the passenger who looks to be a boy about nine years old.  This morning’s near miss led to a diatribe of expletives erupting from my mouth, and me not being calm enough to read any part of the plate number.

When biking, and a driver does something stupid like that, get the plate number.  As I am color blind and frequently wear tinted sunglasses, I cannot rely on my getting the color of a vehicle correct, but if I catch even part of the plate number, the police have a much better chance of educating the person driving the vehicle.  I will try to remain calm enough to get the plate number (or at least part of it) the next time he passes me too close.  Perhaps I should use one of those small camcorders mounted on my handle bars to show how close these few drivers get, and to catch the plate numbers?  To bad my budget doesn’t allow for such things.

My boss biked to work today!

When I got to work I noticed my bosses car was not there, but his bike was! I was thrilled.  OK, yesterday his car was taken to the shop and it is not back yet, so he HAD to ride the bike.  That said, I am hopeful that he may find that biking around town and the mile to and from work, is really not such a big deal, and is actually nice. I will keep you informed on my progress at coaxing him into commuting by bike, but send encouraging thoughts.

It was windy today on my second day of my week long goal of biking to work every day this week. Biking north to Fennimore, I had a little tail wind at 7a.m. and was thinking “Oh my, what happens if the wind picks up by the time I go home?” The wind did pick up and it took me more than fifteen minutes longer to bike home today. Wow, what a wind!

OK, this week I only biked twice to work.  Biking to work has apparently not become a habit yet.  Some say it takes six weeks to form a habit.  I hope they are correct as I have been biking fairly consistently for the past five weeks.  I think I need to make an effort to bike to work every day for a week to reinforce the habit of biking to work for a week.  So, starting Monday, I will attempt to bike to work every day this coming week.  I will also try to blog about it so you can actually see if I archive my goal.