[Dirt]

@consularrider 3393 wrote:

Peter, since I already commute 100% by bike, and it’s over two miles one way, how do I add much value to the true underacheivers on the Blue team for the 2MC? I’m only able to add two more errand trips per week! :rolleyes:

I love the Blue Team. If you look at their stats, they did REALLY well considering how many fewer people they had riding for them. Underdog? yes. Underacheivers? Maybe not.

[Dirt]

@CCrew 3397 wrote:

Oh, and Dirt… the 60 miles from Ohiopyle to Big Savage is this annoying, constant 1-1.5% uphill grade the whole fricking way….Far from all downhill!

I love/hate that section.

@CMtrekker: Costa Rica will be fun. I have friends that live in the La Fortuna/Arenal area and the mountain biking there is pretty dang good. Road riding is pretty risky most places in Costa Rica. I’m taking the mountain bike this year. I’ll explore the possibilities of riding a road bike there while I’m tooling around on this trip.

[Dirt]

I do have some consolation. I’ll be riding in Colorado, the Sierra Nevadas, Costa Rica, France and New Jersey this year.

Sorry. I had to say that.

I might try and wedge in a 3-day sprint from Pittsburgh to DC over a long weekend this summer. We’ll see. It’s all downhill, right???

[Dirt]

Okay…. I just got the Monthly report from Pedros for the Plus3 Network Pedro’s Commuting challenge. As a result of the stuff people have done with that challenge, Pedro’s has donated over $326,000 to their charities.

That program just jumped to the top of my list of favorites.

The only thing better than letting my legs generate money for charity is my affinity for charity beer drinking. Luckily I am able to do both.

Pete

[Dirt]

@PRINTERROR: I can’t do the simple math like that. Since I seem to spend 5-figures on bike stuff every year these days I don’t tend to save much money. I like to draw attention to the tens of thousands of pounds of CO2 that I’m not emitting.

@Liz and anyone else who is doing 2MC: The real points come from doing challenges. I didn’t give much thought to doing challenges the first half of last summer. The last half I was diligent about them. With roughly the same mileage and number of trips, I generated more than 4 times the number of points for my team. The team thing kinda makes it fun. Gold team got beat by a narrow margin last year. We’re gonna take care of those so-and-so Red team wimps this year. (I mean that in the nicest way.)

[Dirt]

Hey Chris. Great idea. I’ve been trying to fit this into my summers for the last 3 years. I haven’t been able to yet. This year doesn’t look good either. We’ll see.

Best wishes,

Pete

[Dirt]

@JimF22003 3375 wrote:

I did my first commute of the year today. I’m so ashamed…

Extremely cool. No need to frown. Some of us have the ability and (dare I say) drive to ride all year and every day. I totally admit that this is completely over the top for someone whose lifestyle doesn’t revolve around cycling.

My goal in riding and being very vocal about it is to show people that they *CAN* leave their cars at home. It is fun, healthy and promotes real productivity. It is definitely NOT intended to demotivate.

Seriously… look at the Clif 2 Mile Challenge link I just posted. That is an awesome program that helps make it easy to leave the car at home. It motivates and shows you how easy it can be. Last year that program documented over 16,000 car trips that were avoided as a part of the program. This year it is going to be more.

Start with something you can do and build into it! That’s what I did.

Rock on!

[Dirt]

This is my second favorite: http://2milechallenge.com/ Starts May 12 and runs through the end of October. I use their carbon calculator to document my carbon emissions savings for my 10,000 pounds of CO2 saved for the year.

I just started this one: http://www.plus3network.com/ I do the Pedro’s Global challenge. It takes a bit more effort to enter stuff in, but I love pretty much everything about Pedro’s, so I don’t mind a few extra clicks. If you ride with a GPS it is super easy. I don’t normally use the GPS Monday through Friday.

The 4th one I’m doing is internal to the company I work for. Employees get raffle entries each day they carpool, take public transport or ride their bike to work. Every month there is a drawing for fabulous prizes. I’ve won twice in the last year and it is actually a pretty cool program. It is administered through RideSpring.com.

[Dirt]

@PrintError 3368 wrote:

WABA’s Bike to Work Day is the third anniversary of my commuting streak. Looks like I’ll be doing it on a brand new bike too!

Nice! Looking forward to seeing it.

[Dirt]

As a few of you who have ridden with me can attest, I tend to yell “We’re all gonna die!” when crossing Lynn Street in Rosslyn. It seems more true there than most places in the DC area. I think I scared a few people during this morning’s commute. It was particularly appropriate though. I love and respect all mankind… even those drinking coffee, smoking, talking on the phone and running red lights at the same time.

[Dirt]

I’m on bike to work decade #4.

[Dirt]

Best advice I can give is to learn all the words to the song “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” and sing them REALLY loud and out of tune. Come to think of it, getting the words really wrong is even better. Best yet is to replace 30% of the words with “La la la”.

Make sure you’ve got your fingers on the brakes and that you’re ready to change directions quickly and you’re perfectly prepared for dealing with tourist season.

Cool thing is when you encounter Aussie tourists, they’ll join in on the chorus.

[Dirt]

@CCrew 3353 wrote:

I haven’t seen a single bad suggestion here.

I can fix that.

Dip your entire bicycle in honey and roll it in flake coconut. It won’t ride any better… probably ride much worse. It will be sweet and sticky though. That’s something.

Happy Monday.

Pete

[Dirt]

Cool! There seem to be a lot of commuter challenges going on each year. I am doing 4 right now.

[Dirt]

I’ve randomly met more internet acquaintances in the last month than in any month in history. I’m meeting 2 or 3 per week.

Thanks.

Pete

[Author]

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