code iterat.ive.ly

Between the beginning of February and the middle of April, my mountain bike had been gathering dust in my office at work.  It was living in my office because my car has no way to attach a bike rack (no trunk, no roof rack, no hitch) and because the office is closer to the beach than my downtown loft, it seemed like a great staging area.  The only problem was that I never rode it and it never left my office for those months.  I hadn’t really done any serious riding since my massive-ish wipeout at the end of last year and I was missing those beach at sunset rides.  And eventually, as the weather transitioned from winter to spring – which is to say, went from the low 60’s to the high 60’s – I decided it was time to get back on the bike.

So I started riding on the super-convenient Ballona Creek trail which is very nearby my office and starts somewhere up in Culver City and goes out to the beach trail.  My casual ride was about 10-15 miles depending on how much time I had.  Best way to describe it was “relaxing”. After a long day of working in a chair in an office, I got to stretch my legs, get some fresh air, and enjoy that proximity to the ocean.

At some point I got the crazy idea that I could commute on the bike.  

I mapped it out on Google Maps and it claimed to be just 16 miles one-way.  The terrain looked pretty much flat.  And the first portion of the commute would take me on the familiar Ballona Creek trail.  The rest of the ride was a road route that I knew very well because I would drive it when the freeways were jammed up.  In the car, with normal traffic, the route took just under an hour.  I estimated that it would take me about two hours on the bike the first time.

So, after deciding to go for it, I drove to the office on a Saturday afternoon, strapped on the helmet and hit the road.  After the first 5 miles, at the end of the trail and the beginning of my road route, I was a bit nervous.  I’ve never done much riding on roads and everyone knows how bad LA drivers are.  But it was a Saturday and thus it was pretty calm.  About 10 miles in, my shoelace got stuck in the crank (amateur mistake) and I almost went down.  Good thing I wasn’t riding a fixie… But after extricating the errant lace and tucking it in, the rest of the trip was without incident and overall it took me about 1:45 to get home.  And it felt great.

The remainder of the weekend I didn’t have a car, so I rode to Subway for lunch and I felt very urban and cool.  

When Monday rolled around, I set the alarm for 7am instead of 8 and started off on the reverse trip.  While riding past USC, it was fun for me when for about 4 stoplights this guy on a little moped would zoom off from the green light but I would catch up to him at each subsequent red light.  I also learned that people who drive small cars *cough* Prius *cough* think their car is much smaller than it really is.  The truck people get way over out of my lane, but the dudes in little hybrids would squeeze by close enough to touch.  But for the most part it was a pretty good ride. Brutal headwinds, but pretty good nonetheless.  Good thing I don’t have to wear a suit to work.

After several days of commuting over the course of two weeks, I decided I needed a new bike that was:

1. big enough for me (I’ve grown a bit since I was 14)
2. not dual-suspension (some % of my pedal energy is lost in the spring)
3. designed for the road (thinner, more efficient tires, etc)

So after much research and many test rides, I bought a shiny new 60cm Cannondale CAAD 9 about two weeks ago.  As of today, I’ve put over 100 miles on the new bike but I haven’t yet taken it on the commute.  It handles so much differently than my heavy steel ‘97 Jamis Dakar that I wanted to make sure that I’m completely used to it before I hit the mean streets.  Also, those clipless pedals take a bit of practice…

I’m thinking that next week will be the inaugural commute of the new bike and I’m really looking forward to it.  It will be a rougher ride for sure than the MTB but it should also be a much quicker ride. I’ve gotten my average speed up to about 16mph over the course of a 15 mile ride, so I expect that the commute will take just over an hour, shaving 30 minutes off my time, due to both my improved fitness and the more efficient bike.  My goal is to commute 3 days a week, which would put me just shy of 100 miles per week of riding to and from work.  Then I’ll probably want to figure out how to do some longer rides on the weekend from time to time.

I get the feeling that this cycling thing can be addictive.