bikecommuting

I was excited to ride to work today in the sunny spring weather. Then I saw the wind forecast. No thank you, I'll pass. I ride directly into the wind on my commute home, and am completely exposed the whole way.

Edit: For people who use proper units, 43 miles/hour is 69 km/hour.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/18597997

Been considering a belt driven commuter and wanted to see what you all thought. Thanks!

Pretty good guide on commuting. I'm not sure I entirely agree on the gearing advice, but good otherwise.

Viewers were asked to collect cycling data from their cities' busiest intersection, providing a rough insight into how cycling varies across the world.

This video goes through the collected data, and some of the findings are pretty interesting IMO...

A particularly notable one is the impact of helmet laws potentially ruining commuter, utility, and casual cycling in a city.

The data was anonymized by the channel and shared for all to freely browse:

• Spreadsheet - Google Drive
• Interactive map - Google Maps

The soft pedals are an interesting idea I think, but I share the same concerns about their longevity. Some interesting books mentioned at the end too...

If you're not familiar with Shifter, this is a pretty great channel focused on urban cycling, with lots of insight and tips on to improve your commuting experience

Picture of a bus stop, where a separated bike lane runs straight through the space a bus driver is expected to pull in to

Edit: Added description

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.one/post/4012716

Specialized Como 2022 😍

Mine for a month as a part of a free ebike loan scheme im my city. The new scheme replaces our old dock-based ebike scheme which went bankrupt due to constant vandalism 😭

Loving the loaner bike so far, handling is pretty similar to my personal bike with the swept handlebar and rear pannier. The assist boosts me up hills with ease, and makes heavy shopping feel like nothing!

Wish I could own one but it's out of my price range at the moment.

Cycled to the train station this morning, and was completely taken aback by the constant queues of cars waiting at lights. It looks so exhausting to be constantly at a standstill in traffic like that...

The bike paths on the other hand were practically empty, got to the station in the same quick time it would have taken outside of rush hour

Looks like an actual road with drainage, raised sidewalk et al, but it's very narrow.

A couple years ago, no tools 😅. I was commuting between home and campus just a mile away, so if something went wrong I'd just lock the bike and come for it later.

Nowadays, just a few to do an inner tube & chain replacement, and some other small bits that might come in handy.

• 2 spanners (one adjustable)
• Backup lights & head torch
• Tyre levers & adhesive puncture patches
• Mini track-style pump
• Screwdriver for the chain enclosure
• Pliers for the rollerbrakes and internal hub gear cables

I've found the head torch to be surprisingly helpful... Had a puncture in the dark once, and without that I would have been there a while lol

A quick stop while riding home, because I thought a picture at this spot would look nice 😅

Recently picked up new polyester shorts for riding, and it's made it so much more comfortable for longer rides compared to the previous cotton shorts. Feel like it doesn't restrict my legs as much, allowing me to put some more power down going uphill.

That aside, the store assistant noticed that I altered their reusable insulated bag to slide onto a pannier rack, and thought it was interesting 😅. Will probably need to pick up an expensive cycling bag (which I originally wanted to avoid) to haul heavier shopping... not sure if it's worth risking it with this DIY one

Edit: Fixed broken image link

My work recently renovated their bike room to have nicer bike racks and a locker room so I decided to try it out! Definitely looking forward to commuting by bike even if just a few days every week.

I wouldn’t normally be hauling a cardboard box around but I had a package to ship.

When I first started out shopping by bike, I pretty much stuffed my backpack full. I had an MTB so a pannier wasn't really an option. If things ended up not fitting, my handlebars came to the rescue to hold the rest of the bags.

With my current bike however, things are a little different. The rear pannier rack enables a few more options and things to try...

Carabiner

Tried and tested, never failed me yet. Using the carabiner I can carry a pretty heavy bag on the rear pannier, without shelling out $$ for an expensive cycling bag.

The bag does stick out a bit depending on how packed it is, which is something to be aware of.

Motorcycle helmet clips

These mainly allow me to secure boxes and water bottles to the top of the pannier rack, while still being able to quickly attach and detach shopping bags from the side.

While the helmet clips themselves have been flawless, the bags themselves have been less than stellar - every single one of them have ripped so far ☹️

DIY pannier bag

I did consider getting a proper cycling rack bag... but they're a bit costly and can't really be used for much else.

After some research I made my own, using a reusable 'cooler' shopping bag from a supermarket, and a cheap pannier attachment kit. I had some short bolts, nyloc nuts and washers available to put it together.

It's so much more convenient to use than the other two methods above, but I haven't put it to the test yet with heavy shopping. The zip is a pretty nice touch to keep shopping cool and dry.

How do you guys carry your shopping, or any goods in general?

For me, a bike was the fastest way to get around campus, and practically cost me nothing as a broke student 😅

From there I ended up going on progressively longer rides for leisure, getting to know how long I can ride before running out of steam. Now I'm pretty comfortable commuting by bike - for longer distances though I tend to take public transport

What's your philosophy on a commuter? Cheap beater? Superbike? Steel? Flat bar or drop? Fixie/SS or Geared? Panniers or backpack?
Obviously, a lot of this depends on situation: length of commute, weather, safety of bike parking, etc

For me, I used to have a longer (7 km) commute with a pretty steep climb (on the way home, topped out at 20% grade for a short stretch) so I got used to drop bar, Frankenbike drive train with road shifters, 1x up front, and MTB derailleur (which was much more frankenbike when I put it together, now you can get drivetrains that are designed for this). Then I moved, sold that bike and on my new commute got a Surly Straggler for what is now a 4km commute with only a little elevation change. It's honestly way too nice for its use case, but now I'm spoiled.
What I really wanted was a Cross Check with bar-end friction shifters, but one thing led to another

There seems to be at least some enthusiasm to keeping the community open, and I guess with the increase in number of lemmy.world members, it makes some sense.

That said, I don't really have the time to mod if it gets any busier, so looking for others who would like to step in

I started this early in the recent popularity of reddit alternatives, as I didn't see any other bikecommuting communities. I don't really want (or have time) to be a mod, and it seems a more active community has popped up on lemmy.ml/c/bikecommuting

I'll give it a couple of days, but if there's not strong sentiment to keep a separate community here on lemmy.world, I'll close it down

It’s awesome to see these stations filled up around town and neighborhoods. Wishing this system and the communities who use them the best of luck!

This one is out side of Humble Sea Brewing. Right next to the rail trail is a great way to encourage safer transportation.

(crossposted on the other Bike Commuting instance - when do the merge?)

I was coming off my gravel ride today and heading to work when I saw a roadie ahead of me, and so I put my head down and tried to close the gap for a bit of an interval effort. He was really moving, so I had to really work for it, but I did get on his wheel eventually. After I'd had a chance to catch my breath, I came up next to him and said something like "hope you didn't mind me catching a wheel for a second there," which he didn't.

Then he commented on my dirty gravel bike and asked what the trail conditions are like in the area, because he'd been just on the road for a few months and hadn't hit the dirt in a while, and so I filled him in. He thanked me, we complimented each other's bikes, and then our routes split and we went our separate ways.

It was just a nice, friendly interaction of the type that you can't have on a freeway. And imagine, if bike commuting was commonplace, we could all be having those kinds of interactions all the time. Instead, we're all isolated from each other in metal boxes on wheels, and that sucks.