My Bike Commuting Evolution: The Birth of a Bike Commuting Fanatic

People start commuting by bike for many different reasons. When I first started, the idea was to get more time on my bike. I had a Specialized Hardrock, and a Titus full-suspension mountain bike. I occasionally rode the Titus on the weekends while the hardrock sat around collecting dust. I wanted to ride more, but loading the bike up on my jeep and driving somewhere to ride was hard to fit into my schedule, so I decided to start using the Hardrock for commuting.

My planning for this new idea consisted of setting aside one of my rock climbing packs for use as a cycling pack, and researching possible routes to work. Routing to work was a bit complicated, because of my job. I work for a small home improvement company, so the jobsite I need to get to changes a lot. At first, the idea was to commute using my bike only when I would be working in a certain area where we did most of our work. With my "planning" done. I started giving it a try.
 
At first, it was a little scary. At the time I was living on the Southside of Indianapolis, and commuting to Broad Ripple, where most of my work was. The average commute was 15 miles one way and took around an hour and a half. The mileage, and time weren't that big of a deal, I was saving about seven dollars a day in gas, was only adding about 30 minutes each way to my commute times, and was less stressed at the end of my commute since I didn't have to deal with as many idiot drivers as I did when driving to and from work. The scary part was the first half of the commute, from my house to Fountain Square.

Those first few miles were through the south side of the city, which is still, to me, the worst part of town to ride in. Most of the honking idiots, and dangerous drivers I was dealing with were in this first few miles before I hit the new bike lanes in Fountain Square. After that is was a relatively peaceful ride on bike lanes, residential streets, and the Monon to Broad Ripple.

Shelby Street Bike Lanes in Fountain Square

Since I first started riding in the city, the bike lanes have been extended further south, but the drivers in that part of the city haven't gotten any better, and it's still, in my opinion, the worst area of the city to ride. After a couple of close calls with idiot redneck drivers, I decided to hybridize my commute. I would drive from my house to Fountain Square, park in a parking lot which was used for just such a purpose, then ride from Fountain Square to Broad Ripple and back, then drive from there, home.

During this early period, the equipment I was using started to get upgrading. The first thing I did was to get different tires for my bike. Knobby tires work great on dirt, but are horribly inefficient on pavement, so I bought some more street-friendly tires for my Hardrock and noticed an immediate improvement in speed and exertion. I also bought a rear rack and some cheap panniers which made carrying the tools, clothes, lunch, and other things I needed at work, and on the ride to and from, much easier. I started settling into my new hybrid-commute and was loving it. Then two things happened which pushed me further away from using my jeep for commutes and errands.

The first event was neither good, nor my choice. My Jeep started falling apart. A series of breakdowns, and needed repairs necessitated my having to rely on my bike more and more. I started using my bike for the full commute again, as well as for runs to the grocery, and even to the auto parts store for the parts I needed to fix my Jeep. Luckily, I had already started commuting by bike, so my being forced into doing it more wasn't as bad as it would have been were I not somewhat prepared. I still hated the south side parts of my rides, but was getting used to them. Then I got the opportunity to eliminate the southern parts all together.

The main reason I had stayed on the Southside of the city was to keep my children in a better school system, but they were both getting out of school, and a job/living opportunity was handed to me which allowed me to move to Broad Ripple. This cut out the hazardous south side part of my commute and put me in a more bicycle friendly area, so my use of a bike as transportation increased exponentially. I was still using my Jeep for some things, but was using my bike for more and more daily errands and commutes.

As my experience with city riding grew, I decided to invest in a bike which was better suited for riding in the streets while carrying things, which led me to start looking into urban and touring bikes. While preparing for this huge equipment upgrade, life threw me another big surprise. My life of smoking, stress, and a not so great diet, culminated in a massive heart attack, which came very close to killing me. While recovering from this, I reevaluated a lot of things, including what I wanted in a bike. Since I couldn't exactly aim for speed, and adrenaline fueled trail rides, I began looking more and more into bicycle touring. This new found interest quickly became an obsession and led me to bikes and equipment much better suited for leading a car-fee life. I bought Bertha, and began acquiring a variety of equipment to make commutes easier, and touring possible. Over the next couple of years, I tried a lot of different combinations of bike and equipment, and was starting to settle on a final setup.

My final push into a car-free life came in the same form as my initial start. I had been slowly getting farther and farther away from relying on my Jeep, and then the Jeep became completely unreliable. A major breakdown a few months ago, forced me to use my bike as the primary form of transportation. At first I viewed this new arrangement as temporary, but quickly came to see it as preferable, and have decided to see if I can completely ditch gas powered transportation, and rely solely on my bike. Which is where I am at this time, and is the reason for this blog.

I'm planning to do a series of posts under the category of 'Commuting Evolution.' The topics I want to cover include, the evolution of the commuting bike, the evolution of cargo carrying, and evolution of recreational riding. If other topics come up I'll throw them in as I think about them. As I mentioned in this blog's first post, my hope is that my writing about my experiments and dead ends will serve as a way for others to avoid some of the pitfalls and expenses that I have experienced, and make their transition to a fully or partially car-free life easier.

Until next time, keep your bike rubber side down and enjoy the ride.