My New Commute

As I sit here on the Coaster writing an update about my new commute, I am happy for three things. First, I'm happy to be able to write on my commute instead of my lunch break. The second reason is a just a small word at the beginning of this post, sit. On the trolley I was supposed to stand with my bike and only occasionally was the car empty enough for me to justify sitting down. The 1.5-2 hours I spend commuting is much better if I don't have to stand the whole time I'm on the train. Finally, I'm happy that I see the same faces everyday with their bikes on their way to work or on their way home.

My commute works out like this: Ride from my residence to Old Town using surface streets. This part of the trip is not yet finalized. I'm not real happy with the route I'm taking (which happens to be the most direct route). I have a few other routes I need to try out, but they involve writing up a direction sheet, which I haven't had time to do.

Once in Old Town, I jump on the Coaster and hangout, either chatting, catching up on podcasts or coming up with some delicious word meat for you all to chew on. I get off the train in Carlsbad where the worst/best part of my commute takes place. Due to the fact that there were so many transit options between my house and my old job, I was able to slack off and only ride the easy parts. This means that I was not in shape for this last leg of my commute. My office is 4 miles from the station, three of which are false flat (see Sheldon Brown's definition of false flats to see why they are evil) and the other mile is a climb.

The trip home would sound good, what with the 4 miles of downhill cruising at the start, but there is often a pretty good onshore flow that becomes a headwind for me once on shore. This part of my ride might be my favorite however, because it is the first time I've commuted on a road that gets so backed up that I am going faster than the cars are going. There is something truly satisfying about that.

I jump on the Coaster home, where I discover that not only are you allowed to eat and drink (not allowed on trolley or buses) but you can enjoy and unwind with an alcoholic beverage. I was actually stunned at the number of people that stop at the liquor store on the way to the train station to pick up something to help them unwind. (Not to mention people headed to the baseball game getting some of their tailgate parties started).

Currently I'm taking the trolley home from the Coaster because my legs are pretty much destroyed from my morning climb and I'm often in a hurry to get home. But this can be augmented to a pretty nice tailwind of a ride along a route that I take sometimes just for fun.

As much as it kicks my a**, I love my new commute. I started bike commuting for two reasons: exercise and money. This commute costs the same as my old one as a percentage of what I would be paying for driving. The exercise is the kicker though. While I feel like I'm only barely going to make it to work, I know that in a month or two I will have gotten to the body I was looking at getting all along.

-Matt

Direct link to REI Cycling store

Super Late BTWD Wrap-up

This picture goes at the end, but I am dumb and lazy. These are the lovely people from the Sweetwater School District in Chula Vista along with a representative from Bike Warehouse. They talked me into entering their drawing. I suppose I didn't win.

This is the first stop from my trip at the San Diego Zoo. I apparently left too early for the Adams Ave. Bike Shop people. They weren't open yet. The Zoo had a pit stop open in their parking lot. this is Skink Floyd. He is a skink from Australia (I forget which type). These are the folks from the RECON Environmental sponsored pit stop. I believe they are dressed up as 4 of the threatened local species they are working to protect. Had a good time at this pit stop.
Even when they made me pose with them for a photo.
I didn't get any pictures from the Ridelink sponsored site. I did get to speak with someone from Ridelink about the new Sprinter service in north county. She told me that they have been overwhelmed with bicyclist and that they are working on figuring out how to have this brand new service work better for cyclists. That is the kind of thing I like to hear.

These great ladies work at the Hard Rock Hotel. They had a great spread and were real excited to be hosting this event. It was their first year doing it so hopefully they will do it again next year.

From there I got on the trolley and rode 4 stops into Chula Vista (since I was starting to run late to work). Went to the REI sponsored stop at the BFGoodwrench Aerospace complex. They had a mechanic out doing minor repairs and adjustments on bikes. Plus, free water bottles and tire levers. Good times.
Then I headed down to the first picture and then broke a spoke on my way to the bus (see Bike to Work Day Bummer).

All in all, I'd say the day went pretty well for the city. More sponsors it seems, now we just need more cyclists. Or I need to ride where the cyclists are riding. One of the two.

-Matt

Direct link to REI Cycling store

Trip on the Coaster

For those of you who don't know, in San Diego County we have 5 different, interconnected, transit systems. MTS bus is the main bus system, the Breeze is the north county bus system, the Trolley is the light rail that services downtown to the Mexican border and east to Santee, the Sprinter is the brand new light rail that runs east-west in north county from Escondido to Oceanside along the 78 corridor.

This leaves the Coaster. Coaster is not light rail. It is heavy rail, regular rail. I don't know what to call it. It's basically a train. It runs from downtown only making 6 other stops on it's way to Oceanside. Coaster is the most expensive form of public transportation (short of some of the DART vans or pick-up style transport) but it is perhaps the most glorious.

My Coaster ride started at the second stop in Old Town. When I boarded I made special note of where the bike parking was and headed upstairs(!) found a nice seat with a table where I could do some brainstorming.

At this point I should mention that I was on my way to an interview. So that explains the lack of bicycle and why I needed to brainstorm questions I needed answered and what I might be asked during the interview.

Out the window from Old Town you get to see Mission Bay for a bit before the train ducks into a canyon. Then you are, it seems, miles from civilization - in a canyon with no view of man-made structures. You come out of the canyon and you are at the Sorrento Valley stop. From there you continue along the bottom of the valley where you can only see the business buildings at the top of the hills (this area is where most of tech work is done in San Diego, including most of the Qualcomm campus).

From there you come out of the valley and cross a field then back to the beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean. You pass right between the beach and the west side of the Del Mar Racetrack. Nothing but beautiful views all the way up to Oceanside.

I am very hopeful to get the job I interviewed with. Aside from it getting me back into my field, the owners are really great and the environment seems to be excellent. While it may be a paycut for me (very slight and made up for once benefits kick in) and a much longer commute (in miles anyway), any loss of income is amply paid for by a daily trip on the wonderful Coaster.




Direct link to REI Cycling store

The Zen of Fixing a Flat

I was thinking today about the simplicity of changing a flat. How, at a point, it no longer requires a thought from you. Your eyes seem to speak to your hands without bothering to wake the brain up from its nap.

I had forgotten to repair a slow leak in my front tire so I knew that on the trolley ride home I would want to pump some air in to make the ride up out of downtown easier. About 25 pumps in, I cut the valve stem and that inner tube was toast. Luckily, I carry an extra tube with me when I ride. So I flipped my bike over, took off my wheel and sat in the empty seat at the back of the train.

Then I zoned out and found inner peace in the act of flat repair.

Then I wore my arm out trying to pump 60 psi of air into my tire with my crappy frame pump. Still, totally worth it.

ps: My wife got a new point and shoot camera for her birthday so I've taken the old, crummy one into my bike bag as a way to bring more photos to you, my loyal readers.

-Matt

Direct link to REI Cycling store

Wallet lost...and found!

If this is going to sound a little like a bus driver and transit person lovefest, so be it.

I need to say a great big THANK YOU! to people involved in San Diego and Chula Vista Transit.

Back story:
Yesterday I mentioned that when I tried to get on the bus yesterday I couldn't find my wallet. The driver of that bus let me ride anyway (thank you). I got home, hoping that it had never made it into my bag (and would be somewhere in my apartment), which it was not. I called the country transit info line where a very friendly and helpful Victoria gave me the numbers I would need to call to get ahold of the people who would know if my wallet had been found (thank you). I called the trolley 'emergency' line (which is number I was told to call) to ask if it had been found yet. After giving me a little bit of grief (which I deserved) for taking so long to report it the operator there said she would look into it and call me back. She actually called me twice (my phone was on vibrate) which was very helpful, although my wallet hadn't been found. She gave me the number for the transit store, which is where the general lost and found is for all of the county's trasit (thank you).
Apparently, I had dropped my wallet somewhere between the trolley and the bus that morning and some unknown person (thank you!) gave it to a bus driver to have him take it to the lost and found. Later that afternoon that bus driver and one of the supervisors (whose name I believe was Christina) looked through my wallet to try and find some way to contact me. Luckily, my sister-in-law had written me a check this weekend and that was still in my wallet with her phone number, which they called (thank you). My mother-in-law called me and gave me their number and the good news that my wallet was found (thanks!). So today I rode my bike to the Chula Vista Transit office to pick it up from where they were holding it. (Thanks to the supervisor working there this morning.)

Wonderfully, it appears that everything in my wallet is still there. We only cancelled one credit card, ironically because it is the one we use the most and wanted to have it available the soonest.

So the big news in all of this is that for the first time I rode my bike the entire distance to work! A little over 19 miles plus the big hill in the last mile (nearly 400 ft in elevation game). And it was wet too, not actually raining, but the kick up from the tires of my bike and the cars was pretty good.

Today is already looking much better than yesterday!

Matt





Direct link to REI Cycling store

My enjoyable public transportation adventure!

Last Saturday I did something I hadn't done before. I know this will come as a surprise, but it was biking to the store. Despite all my preaching about commuting by bicycle and how I dislike cars, I had never ridden to a store that was not within 2 miles of my residence. Sure, I had ridden to restaurants and attractions that were farther than that; and I ride or bus at least 4 times a week to work. But I hadn't been able to get over the last hurdle that would make not owning a car even possible, getting to and from a big box store in Mission Valley.

I didn't actually do that this weekend. What I did is prove that I could.

I happen to be into home brewing. I've been brewing for a few years. I enjoy the beer I make (actually more than most commercial beers) and I enjoy the process of making it. When my little brother turned 21 this year, I got him set up to brew as well. This included giving him my brew kettle (a very large pot) because I was going to replace mine. Needless to say, I haven't yet and if I was going to brew I was going to need to borrow 'his.' So that meant a trip up to his house.

His house is just a mile or so south of UCSD, while I live a mile or so west of SDSU. Usually it is about a 20 minute drive to his place, but like I mentioned, I'm not real big on driving right now. So I headed out to the trolley on my bike (stupidly forgetting my water bottle) and learned about public tranportation on the weekends. First, the trains and busses don't come as often and all the routes aren't running, which I expected. The trolley, which I didn't expect but do understand, runs with less cars (2-3 instead of 4). What I didn't expect was the large amount of people on the trolley. I'm talking about having to discuss with people where you are going so that while the trolley is moving you could shift people around towards the door crowded.

Anyway, got to my stop, got down to my bus and rode the bus up to his place. Sat and talked with him for a bit, met the new kittens, picked up the large pot and headed out. Things I learned there were, that I can fit the pot on my rack and that a 22 oz. beer bottle fits perfectly in my bottle cage. (He had made a beer that I hadn't tried yet and I needed to get it home.)

From there I bussed over to the home brew store to get my ingredients. Put them inside the pot and rode back over to the trolley. At this point with nine pounds of syrup in the pot the ride started to get a little rough. Fortunately, there is only about 4 blocks of riding between the store and my place (not counting trolley and bus rides).

All in all it was a great trip and I am confident that I can get to and from Costco or Target when I need to without driving.

What are your big hurdles to riding everywhere you go?






Cycling

Reflections on Pick up Some Trash Day

Yesterday I celebrated Pick up Some Trash Day by picking up trash on my bike between work and the trolley and then again later on a short walk to the store. I think it is a lot easier to do when walking (say, with your dog) than when cycling. I also noticed that even with my slow speed and several stops on my ride to the train, I didn’t get home any later than normal.

The hardest part of Pick up Some Trash Day celebrations is retraining your self to see litter. After spending years ignoring trash I would often mentally skip over the trash as I saw it. Also, I noticed that on my bike, I don’t really want to pick up trash from the sidewalks or planters and walking I’d rather not get the stuff in the streets.

All in all it was a pleasurable experience that I look forward to for next week.

However, at one point I had to stop and ask myself: Am I turning into “that guy”? You know who I mean, the guy in your neighborhood growing up. You always saw him around. He seemed to bicycle everywhere he went (often in the same old jacket). You would often see him pick up trash (or at least recycling) and put it into his handle bar basket. When I asked my wife this question, her answer was a quick ‘yes.’ But then we both wondered, “is that a bad thing?” I don’t have an answer for that one.

Apologies

Sorry about the lack of posts over the last week or so. I’ve been battling a cough that has made it even harder to get on my bike and to work, leaving me with very little energy to post. I’m starting to feel better as the congestion has started to break up, but I’m still hacking my way through my work day.

While I’m apologizing, I’m sorry to the guy who brought his bike onto the trolley with him yesterday. I had my headphones in and decided against talking to him. I should have pressed pause, smiled and asked him about his commute. Sure he was breaking the rules by being at the same end of the train as I was during rush hour, but really, he was no worse than the guy with the 4 garbage bags full of stuff that got off two stops before he got on. I’m sorry bike commute guy.