Air

I pumped up my tires before biking to work today, WOW, what a big difference that makes - my commute was much easier. Lesson learned. I need to check my air pressure much more often.

Today I packed a lot of stuff in my pannier. I am running at lunch today so I had to pack a towel, shower stuff, running clothes, work clothes, my phone, keys, etc. My bag was heavy and full, but I didn't even notice it, that is the beauty of panniers! A backpack would have KILLED my back and made me sweat, but the bag on my rack was effortless.

The high for today should be about 80 degrees. It should be a lovely ride home. I get excited to bike home after work, it's a great stress reliever and a great way to sneak in more exercise.

 :)

OY

I've biked to work maybe 6 times so far this spring and I have seen enough craziness to last a lifetime. I have seen both cars and bicyclists do stupid things. Today was one of them.

To cars I say please slow down for us. Share the lane. There is no need to zoom your car at us, drive within inches of us, and honk your car at us. This scares us, it makes us feel unsafe and unsteady. When you act aggressively it may cause us to fall or swerve. You can kill us when you behave like that, it's not funny. You are risking our lives. We do not want to die just because we want to bike to work and save gas. If you have to wait for us, or slow down a little, it's not going to make you late, or ruin your life. Everything will be OK if you pause for us when the road gets tight.

To bicyclists I say please stop being stupid. Man, I have seen some crazy stuff. I have seen bikers riding against traffic, running stop lights, crossing the street while weaving in-between cars and buses, making illegal turns, using cell phones or ipods while biking. All dangerous stupid shit that may get you hurt. Not only that, but this reckless behaviour really hurts the perception of bicyclists. A bicyclist that acts badly pisses off drivers and then the drivers will probably be less likely to respect us and look out for our safety. We need to model safe behavior to teach drivers how we want them to interact with us.

When we bike, we are theoretically safer in the road, not sidewalks; so when we are in the road we need to act and look like cars. We need to follow all the laws as if we were in a car, which means:

• stop at stop signs
• stop at traffic lights
• use hand signals 
• put reflectors and lights on your bike
• do not jump curbs
• do not act erratically or unpredictably in the traffic lane
• do not weave inbetween cars
• do not text while biking
• do not use a cell phone while biking
• do not listen to your ipod while biking

I am also a HUGE proponent for wearing helmets. You can debate me all you want, I will not change. If you get hit by a car, or if you unexpectedly fall down and your head slams into pavement, you can ruin your brain for the rest of your life. This is not worth risking, you only have 1 brain.  If you've ever met anyone with a brain injury, trust me, you do not want that to happen to you.

My rant for the day is over. Be careful and happy peddaling.

Fender and Chain Guard

It rained last night, it was great. We even had a little thunder and lightening, it kept me awake but I didn't mind.

I biked to work today, and I quickly realized as I zipped through some puddles, that I need fenders. If I'm gonna bike more often, I gotta get this bike decked out properly. I'm going to go to the Central District Cyclery in downtown GR after work to see if they can install some lightweight plastic fenders. Do they also make lightweight chain guards? It would be nice to get that too, but I do not want to add too much weight to my Trek.

Riding after a rain storm was nice. It was nice and cool and everything was very green. It was a very nice way to start my monday. But now I need coffee.....

Bike to Work Day

What a fun commute I had today! The Greater Grand Rapids Bicycle Coalition had bike to work day rally stops at  many local businesses, and on my route to work today, I passed by 3 of them! I talked to some cool people outside of Marie Catrib's and I was cheered by the people at GRCC. I made my way to Central District Cyclery, in downtown, and had coffee with Mayor Heartwell, and chatted with many cool people. Our local Fox TV reporter was there too, interviewing the Mayor, so who knows, maybe I am in the background on tv! :) 

I encouraged many people that I work with to bike to work today, I can't wait to see how many bikers we get! Yesterday, we had 9. Today I'm hoping for 15.

After work today, there is a big rally/party for bike to work day at the bus depot, The Rapid Central Station. Founders is also very close....sounds like a great way to end my day! Happy Pedaling!

Active Commute Week

Active commute week is here, and I finally biked to work this morning. I ran in the Fifth Third River Bank Run, 25K race on Saturday, May12, and it's taken my legs a lot of time to recover. I barely finished that race, but I did it! I came back from an injury and ran 15.5 miles with 6 1/2 weeks of training!

Just finished the 3.5 miles of hills! They almost killed me

So I biked to work today and left with wet hair, and no jacket, not really thinking about the temperature outside because it looked so nice. Boy was I COLD. I was freezing. My arms were bare and cold and I really needed a jacekt. Thank GOD my commute is only 3.4 miles. Running in the cold and biking in the cold are COMPLETELY different. When you are on a bike, the wind really gets to you!

Tomorrow is National Bike to Work Day! Join in the fun! Bike to work! http://www.bikegrandrapids.org/

Proud of this medal.