Monday, August 31, 2009

A New Bike Commute

A week ago, I moved to a new residence, and my bike commute is now 25 miles roundtrip, vs. the previous 32 miles. It still is a convenient bike commute, located near a grocery store, bank, bike store, and the Mt. Vernon bike trail. :) One good/bad thing about the new commute is that it includes a HONKING big hill.... It's good in that it's fun to fly down at over 30 m.p.h. :) It's not as fun climbing up it at less than 5 m.p.h., but it's good training. :) :) I first climbed this hill when I went to take a look at the residence. I was riding my Cannondale hybrid, which has pretty good low gears. But tackling this hill on that bike left me breathless and I had to make two rest stops. I next rode it on my Bike Friday folding bike. It was a PIECE OF CAKE and I wasn't even out of breath. The gears on the Bike Friday are quite low, and makes almost any hill easy. So, I'm now using my Bike Friday as my commute bike. :)

Also, for the move, I rented a Zipcar pick-up truck. My brother was helping me move, and suggested getting a U-Haul. It was about 4 p.m. on a Sunday. I told him getting a Zipcar would be easier, and we could keep it as long as I needed. I called up Zipcar and spoke to the reservation agent. The lady was very nice and made the reservation and she said she didn't envy my moving event - that she had just recently done that too. So my brother and I made a couple of trips to the thrift store to drop off items not needed, and then a couple of trips to the new residence to unload everything. So, Zipcar saved the day! :)