getting ready for regular commuting

[mstone]

@lordofthemark 60049 wrote:

I can haul my other stuff in using a garbage bag on the metro.

If you do that and skip the shower, you’ll get more room!

[KLizotte]

@lordofthemark 60049 wrote:

Fitness Center preps –

I am going to want at least a towel and change of underwear and socks, I guess. And I guess to preposition work clothes (one reason to do Fridays is so I can just leave casual clothes and not have to keep a suit at work). Actually mostly its just long pants, since I wil probably bike an ordinary casual shirt, not a biking shirt/jersey. I will probably want to use the fitness center for other things than showering on the days I bike, so I probably need to hunt down a gym bag. But biking doesn’t have to wait for that – I can haul my other stuff in using a garbage bag on the metro.

It helps a lot if your fitness center allows you to keep stuff overnight in a locker; that way you don’t have to keep hauling stuff around. You’ll also want to bring soap, deodorent, comb, and possibly flipflops. I find that so long as the weather is under 75 degrees and low humidity I can get away with just baby wipes and a few toiletries in the bathroom. Unfortunately I have longish hair (I’m a girl) so that takes a while to dry out but I rarely have important meetings in the morning and co-workers are used to seeing me with helmet hair. In the winter it’s all a non-issue since my commute is only 30 minutes and the cold keeps me from sweating much. In many ways, I find commuting during the cold months easier.

Too bad you missed out on commuting this morning. It was fantastic!

[dasgeh]

@lordofthemark 60049 wrote:

The decal – I’ve checked out how some other folks have it on – some dont bother, one person has it tied with a twistie to his rear rack (my MTB doesn’t have a rear rack) one person has a little plastic thingies going around a strut (both these require holepunching the “decal”) At least one person just taped it to a strut. I am leaning toward taping it, as the easy way out – no hunting down plastic thingies, and no hole punching.

Please, please, please attach it to your frame by your wheel like an old school playing card.

Welcome to the awesome that is bike commuting. Don’t overthink it. You’ll figure out what you need as you go along. You’ll forget your towel one day and use a shirt. And you’ll love it.

[lordofthemark]

@KLizotte 60054 wrote:

It helps a lot if your fitness center allows you to keep stuff overnight in a locker; that way you don’t have to keep hauling stuff around. You’ll also want to bring soap, deodorent, comb, and possibly flipflops. I find that so long as the weather is under 75 degrees and low humidity I can get away with just baby wipes and a few toiletries in the bathroom. Unfortunately I have longish hair (I’m a girl) so that takes a while to dry out but I rarely have important meetings in the morning and co-workers are used to seeing me with helmet hair. In the winter it’s all a non-issue since my commute is only 30 minutes and the cold keeps me from sweating much. In many ways, I find commuting during the cold months easier.

Too bad you missed out on commuting this morning. It was fantastic!

Fitness center does not allow locker use overnight, but I have a locker at my cubicle I can use.

[lordofthemark]

Didn’t people used to us baseball cards for that, or am I misremembering?

[mello yello]

minus the playing card trick, you could put it in the wheel spokes like the alleycat spoke cards the messengers / hipsters have.

I just started since BTWD, and am at 3-4 times per week now. I have just begun taking in a week of clothes at a time – drove in today so that I could transport it all (missed the nice weather this morning) and a week of lunches to leave in the fridge, and a refill of my strategic peanut-butter reserve. We will see how this works. It sure is nice to not have to pack all of those things onto your bike every day.

I also have no overnight use of the lockers (there are only 6 for a 12-story building). When I was commuting before my long break, I’d been leaving the toiletries and gear down there, and they posted a notice saying that all locks would be cut (basically gave a week’s notice). I figure someone must have complained, because now, two years later there are two lockers with locks on them, and one unlocked with a security guard uniform in it.

Twice now I’ve left the gym bag down there overnight, and bring it up with me in the morning. This entails loading the bag with work clothes, dropping in in an unsecured locker after work (the entire building is secured at night, and only people who have asked building management can get into the gym), and retrieving it in the morning. This might be a little risky but allows me to avoid a round trip up and down the elevator, and avoid walking around the office in bicycling “kit”. Everything lives in my cube during the day.

[vvill]

@mello yello 60067 wrote:

I just started since BTWD, and am at 3-4 times per week now. I have just begun taking in a week of clothes at a time – drove in today so that I could transport it all (missed the nice weather this morning) and a week of lunches to leave in the fridge, and a refill of my strategic peanut-butter reserve. We will see how this works. It sure is nice to not have to pack all of those things onto your bike every day.

I do a similar thing, bringing in/out a full week’s of clothes/towels once a week (sometimes more, if I forget/run low stuff), plus peanut butter jars, and enough bagels/bread for 4 breakfastses (Friday is Coffee Club!). Occasionally Ovaltine, vitamin C, deodorant, whatever else I’m low on too. I just cram it all in my backpack, and store it in my cube’s filing cabinets at work (there’s really no other use for them – I need hard copies of very few things, and they usually end up in a recycling bin within a couple weeks anyway).

I vary my walking-around-in-kit. With part-way commutes I tend to wear something that’s more casual, but if I’m riding a longer way in and arriving early the office is fairly empty anyway so hardly anyone will see me in kit. If it’s more of a 9-5 day then I’ll usually do MTB shorts.

[mello yello]

@vvill 60071 wrote:

I vary my walking-around-in-kit. With part-way commutes I tend to wear something that’s more casual, but if I’m riding a longer way in and arriving early the office is fairly empty anyway so hardly anyone will see me in kit. If it’s more of a 9-5 day then I’ll usually do MTB shorts.

Interesting to see how everybody’s routine differs a bit – my commute is 10 miles and no good part-way options. I sweat enough to wear exercise clothes, but I only have one actual jersey – I usually just wear athletic shirts and either mtb shorts or athletic shorts over spandex bike shorts. I’m a Fred when it comes to clothing. Plus, it helps avoid some stares.

[hozn]

I used to carry everything (lunch, clothes) in a backpack every day (except shoes which I left at work), but I started leaving my car in our garage at work during the week a few years ago, so now I bring all my clothes and lunches for the week on Monday. (Work stocks breakfast foods, which is nice.) Having the car here also means I don’t need to drive if I have an off-site meeting (used to be more frequent). It feels like quite a luxury to be able to commute without carrying anything, but that really only works in the summer. In the other seasons it’s pretty tricky to be able to wear the same thing going to & coming from work without being quite uncomfortable in one of those directions. So I wear a backpack then. But even still, bringing in everything on Monday means not having to rummage around for stuff in the evening before (or morning of) my commutes, so I do that regardless of whether I bring a backpack.

I’m lucky to have showers at work. They used to let us keep stuff in the lockers overnight, but that changed this year. Not a big deal; I just keep shower stuff in my garaged car (or in my office, if I leave the car at home).

[TwoWheelsDC]

A minor tip, but I invested in a camping towel from REI. Seems kinda overpriced for what you get–it’s basically a big microfiber cloth–but it was soooooo worth it. I found that, even when I let them air out, my cotton towels always carried a shower-y scent and I couldn’t keep them in my office for that reason. The camp towel, however, is smell-free, dries quickly, and takes up much less space. Make sure you wash them with no other clothes at least once, as the color bleeds like crazy.

Also, as I’ve mentioned on this site before, keep extra underwear, socks, and undershirts in your desk. No matter how well you plan, you will forget at least one of those items at some point. It won’t save you from having to go commando from the showers to your desk, but at least you won’t have to spend all day like that.

[culimerc]

I tried using a backpack and a sling bag at a couple of points, but my back couldnt take it. So I went with a rack and some nice water proof panniers. I can carry everything I need and more, (which can be bad at times). In one pannier, I’ll carry my clothes neatly folded and my Laptop, in the other, everything else. Lunch, a thermos full of coffee, fresh fruit, lock, flat kit, all the other odds and ends. Some days I will leave my boat anchor of a laptop at work and just use one pannier. On those days I will carefully load the clothes in on top.

At work I keep a box of unscented baby wipes (we dont have a shower), a micro fiber towel, pit stick, hair gel, brush, shoes, a spare pair of socks (in case it rains), and an emergency set of clothes (which I haven’t had to use yet).

Most people have gotten used to me walking around in my kit first thing in the morning or as I’m leaving, and if not, its for them to deal with.

[OneEighth]

@TwoWheelsDC 60083 wrote:

It won’t save you from having to go commando from the showers to your desk, but at least you won’t have to spend all day like that.

Scotland forever.

[lordofthemark]

Okay, I brought in my stuff this morning. Wife didn’t like the idea of me taking it on the metro in a garbage bag, so I stuffed it into a canvas grocery bag (a Walmart bag – that’s unelite, right?)

Now it appears there will be scattered thunderstorms tomorrow. Not sure if I will ride.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@lordofthemark 60336 wrote:

Now it appears there will be scattered thunderstorms tomorrow. Not sure if I will ride.

Scattered means just that. Half the summer around here has scattered thunderstorms in the forecast.

[mello yello]

@ShawnoftheDread 60339 wrote:

Scattered means just that. Half the summer around here has scattered thunderstorms in the forecast.

One takes ones’s chances.
Isolated T-storms means you’re probably going to be dry, but you could be very very wet.
Scattered T-storms means you stay dry if you’re lucky, ride over wet pavement / spray if a cell has passed through (most likely ~ 50%?), or get wet (somewhat likely ~ 25%?).

Limited experience has been that unless it’s really letting go on you, it’s no wetter than sweating.
Today calls for Isolated in the early afternoon and Scattered during commute hours. Work clothes stay at work, cell phone goes into ziploc, if I get wet I have a shower and dryer at home.

[Author]

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