Street Commuting 101

Well, even though I haven’t updated this blog, I have been commuting regularly again since my last post here back last Wednesday. Since then, I’ve missed one and a half days of riding, but also had a Saturday ride thrown in due to the overtime I’ve been having to put in at work lately. I’ve been surprised at how quickly I’ve been able to get back into the swing of things. So far to date, I haven’t stopped once on my ride to or from work. Both are tough rides, with lots of climbing, but I’ve been able to stay on the bike and I feel like I’m getting back into shape quite quickly. That being said, over the winter I only put on about 4 pounds in total. Well, since I’ve started riding, I’ve added 2 more pounds!?! I’ve been told that’s mostly muscle gain (which would mean I then lost 2 pounds of muscle over the winter?), and maybe that’s true. I will choose to believe that, and not that I’ve gone into binge eating as my hunger has suddenly drastically increased due to the exercise!
Anyways, riding on the streets is pretty boring. Not much to tell here, so I haven’t bothered with the daily blog (actually, it used to be twice daily, yikes!). But, I figure that I’ve compiled a list of tips and facts that I’ve learned, observed, or always known about street commuting by bike. Some of these are obvious, but I thought I’d throw them all in here together.

• The Juniper hill is SWEET. Going 70+ km/h down a hill is a BLAST. There’s no better way to wake up in the morning than going down the Juniper hill tucked as tight as possible and letting it rip. Coffee Schmoffee!
• The Juniper hill SUCKS. Averaging 7 km/h going up is killer. Not to mention there is no bike lane, which means I have to ride on the dirt at the side as cars scream past me. What doesn’t kill us… You know…
• Out of the 30-40 cars that are usually parked on the side of Dagleish road (a bit of a steep hill), maybe 10 of them at the most tend to have their wheels turned as we all learned to do in Driver’s Ed. Of those 10, 2 will typically be turned correctly meaning the other 8 have actually created a worse scenario than if they had just left the wheels straight. And that, my friends, is the fundamental reason why most driver’s today are so bad at driving. We all usually remember that there was a rule for a given situation, but most can’t remember what that rule actually was or what it required us to do. As such, we tend rely on our smarts, which, as we all have witnessed, is often very, very dumb.
• Assuming a motorist sees you (as a cyclist) is is a quick way to be dead.
• Seeing a jogger catching up to you on a hill is great motivation to suddenly find some extra energy to go a bit faster...
• Diesels are an abomination, and Dodge diesels are of the devil. Why they are legal I’ll never know. And it’s a given that on the steepest part of the hill, where you will be gasping for breath the most, is when you will be passed by a diesel belching it’s sinful contamination straight down into your lungs.
• I used to think the term “granny gear” was a humiliating term meaning that gear was only to be used by old ladies. I now realize the term is instead endearing. When the chips are down, when the pain is higher than you think you can bear and you have no where else to turn, who else would you expect to be there for you but good old Granny? Loving that granny gear lately…
• Daylight Savings Time has bitten me once again, and I still say it sucks. Now I get to ride to AND from work in the dark! Thanks, DST… Granted, working ‘till 7:30 doesn’t help either, so I’ll share some of that blame I suppose.
• If there are two lanes and traffic is light, ALWAYS take a full lane. It is a given that motorists will always try to share your lane with you, but if you ride down the middle of the lane they will move over. If traffic is steady, find another route. On that note, given the choice between hitting a cyclist or hitting a car, most motorists will choose the cyclist…
• On that note, don’t plan your route thinking like a car. The route taken by a car is rarely the right route for a bike. Think like bike!
• Also on another note, if your only choice is to ride a busy street and it is illegal to ride on the sidewalks (as it is here in Kamloops), but you are unable to keep a speed of at least 30 km/h, get on the sidewalk! I believe that if given the choice between a possible ticket (that would be unreasonable and most likely thrown out if challenged) and potential death, the choice is rather obvious!

I think that’s about it for now. Until next time, keep the rubber side down!