First Ride to Work

After a few false starts, I managed to ride my bike in to work today. Well, sort of. It’s kind of cheating because I only rode my bike in from the dealership, where I dropped my car off to have some work done, and the dealership is only about 3 miles from where I work, as opposed to the 7-8 miles I’d normally ride from home. But still, I rode in, well in advance of Ride Your Bike To Work Day (May 16) and National Bike Month (May).
Last night, I stopped at the bike shop on my way home to pick up some vital equipment, including lights, rain gear (which so far turned out to be unnecessary) and a rack to put my panniers on. The first rack didn’t fit on my bike, because my bike conveniently is missing the “braze-on” mount points where it’s supposed to screw on. (Also, the package for the rack was missing about 8 screws, making it really hard to install.) Fabulous. So instead I had to take it back and get a rack that mounted on the seat post. Not my favorite solution, but it at least works.
After I got all the stuff home, I put everything on the bike and was ready to go. Luckily, I had planned ahead and brought my work clothes in yesterday so that I wouldn’t have to bring them in on my bike today. I found that the panniers may be a tad small for bringing everything in, and I may need a trunk after all, or at least somewhere to put my lunch. We’ll see how everything fits on the way home first, and try a few more real commutes with them. They also were a bit tricky to get situated on the bike. There’s only one bungie cord strap holding it on, and it could definitely benefit with some added stability.
Otherwise, the ride was good. The weather cleared up a whole lot from yesterday, and my rain jacket ended up keeping me warm rather than dry. The route in from the dealer wasn’t too hairy, aside from a brief stint of no shoulder coming across the Beltway bridge. That should be interesting to tackle going up the hill on the way back, rather than the speedy descent on the way in. I’m looking forward to riding a lot more this summer, now that I’ll be better equipped!