Ride home for Tuesday, 25 July
Nice sunny ride home, although the wind picked up towards the end. Muppet of the day was the pedestrian who was walking down the sidewalk, and without looking turned 90 degrees and started walking across the road. He looked like he was in his 50's, I don't know how he managed to survive so long...
Distance logged: 14.966km
Time: 41:11
Average speed: 21.8km/hr
Max speed: 56.9 km/hr
Temperature: 24C, intermittently breezy
Cumulative distance: 4249.225km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.46
Monthly distance: 627.831km
Monthly cost per km: $0.44
Distance logged: 14.966km
Time: 41:11
Average speed: 21.8km/hr
Max speed: 56.9 km/hr
Temperature: 24C, intermittently breezy
Cumulative distance: 4249.225km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.46
Monthly distance: 627.831km
Monthly cost per km: $0.44
posted by steve at 7/25/2006 09:17:00 pm
2 Comments:
Steve,
I enjoy your daily posts, very informative and sometimes cynical!
I started commuting by bike last september and, I have done so everyday since then.
In your opinion what type of bike is best for commuting?
(I currently use a mountain bike but it is very heavy and slow.)
The best bike for commuting is a matter of personal preference, and also on what season it is (and whereabouts you are). I'm guessing you have a full suspension mountain bike with knobby 26" 2.0 (ish) tyres on; the quickest and cheapest way to get faster would be to get some skinny slick tyres. I use the Tioga City Slick 1.25 tyres on my mountain bike from spring through to fall. In the winter I put Schwalbe Snow Stud tyres on, since I live in a suburban area and ride a trail that's usually 2" thick ice, along with hitting intermittent black ice. If you live in a heavily salted urban area you can get away with just using knobby tyres.
If you want something a bit more roadworthy (as opposed to off-road) and you don't want to go with a full-blown road bike, I'd recommend looking at a hybrid bike. I have a Giant Cypress that I've turned into a commuting/touring bike; put on bar-ends, replaced the grips with cork tape, front and rear racks for panniers and put on a Brooks B67 saddle. It's extremely comfortable to ride, and I've done a lot of all-day rides on it in the past.
I've also got a steel Nishiki road bike from the 80's that I rescued and built up. It's the one that I'm riding the most at the moment as it's extremely fast in comparison to my other bikes. It's noticeably heavier than modern bikes, but it's my size (being nearly 6 foot 5 I have difficulty finding stuff to fit me) and gives a noticably smoother ride than aluminium.
I'd recommend looking for bike shops in your area that sell second hand bike shops and take some of them out for a spin. Once you've found a style of bike that you think will work for you, buy it and ride it for a year or two. When you know for sure it's what you want, you can either trade it in for a newer model, or keep riding it till it falls apart. I'd recommend getting a cheap beater bike for winter riding - again, a visit to a second hand bike shop should yield something suitably cheap and stripped down.
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