Bike Commuting #

Benefits #

Exercise. Moving your body is good for you, especially when regularly done. If you have to go to work every day, it makes sense to couple that mandatory travel with exercise to make the exercise “mandatory” itself!
Inexpensive. Especially if you buy cheap bikes, bike commuting might be the least expensive way to travel around a city short of walking.
On your own terms. For me, it’s important to be on my own schedule and not have to worry about public transportation schedules and parking time limits. Biking is not the only way to accomplish this, but it does a good job at it.

Downsides #

Requires living in an area where everyday needs (work, grocery, etc.) are close by. Living in these areas is usually more expensive. This is not really a con if you want to live in these areas for other reasons.
If you do not have a car, then it can be logistically harder to participate in certain activities, which will probably end up with you simply not doing them consistently.

Listening while Biking #

I highly recommend listening to audiobooks or podcasts when biking to both be entertained and maybe learn some stuff or get inspired while you’re at it.

I used to do this by putting some large studio-style over-ear headphones over my helmet so that the speakers would not sit on my ears, but rather a couple inches away from them. This worked pretty well, although it did look kinda silly.

Since then I’ve switch to using “bone-conduction” headphones like these (I can’t find my originally purchased ones). In my experience, these just act like tiny speakers that are close to your ears, but not in them - I don’t get much “bone-conduction” effect from my pair.

However you listen when biking, I highly recommend making sure you can still hear what’s going on around you for safety.

Buying a Bike #

I personally recommend buying a cheap, used bike for commuting. There are several reasons for this:

Maintaining an expensive bike’s high performance can itself be expensive and time consuming, especially if you ride it a lot, which you would be doing if you are commuting. A cheaper bike with worse performance will require less maintenance to keep it at its current performance level, and you can even just let it fall into disrepair and get another cheap bike when it becomes unusable. This makes the assumption that performance for commuting is not that important (it isn’t for me).
It’s easier to buy multiple bikes if they are cheap, which has several benefits:
- You can try out different styles of bike and/or bikes with different features over a longer time window.
- If one bike has a problem that might take a couple days to resolve (e.g. if you are waiting for a part delivery), you still have a bike to use.
Bike theft is a real problem, and having a used bike (1) makes your bike a less attractive target for thieves and (2) makes any theft that does occur less painful. AFAIK no lock perfectly secures your bike, and few/no locks secure individual bike components.

In a big city like Seattle, there are a lot of people selling bikes, so they are usually pretty easy to find. I use craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for this.

Modifications #

Milk Crate #

The best way I’ve found to transport stuff on a bike is a back rack + milk crate combo:

Milk Crate

This securely holds things that are just placed in it (like a backpack). Previously I used straps to secure bags to the bike rack itself, but this is much easier. This is also much more pleasant than actually wearing a backpack when biking, especially if you don’t want to sweat too much.

Rainy Weather #

One of the worst parts of bike commuting is getting wet on the way in to work and not being able to dry off. For me, most of my cloths dry pretty quickly in the generally light Seattle rain, but my shoes and socks do not. This is partially because of their relative thickness and also because they are usually exposed to the most water. Even when it is not actively raining, biking on wet ground can toss up a good amount of water on- or into my shoes.

I’ve found the best solution to this problem by far is wearing some kind of waterproof shoe covers like these.

Maintenance #

Most bike maintenance is not that hard to learn, and you will save lots of time and money in the long run if you learn some basics. Here I list the most common problems that can be easily addressed DIY. Check out YouTube for good tutorials if I haven’t linked any myself.

Most repairs require some specialized tools, which are pretty cheap on Amazon (usually less expensive than having the repair done professionally once).

A good site for learning more is https://www.sheldonbrown.com.

Flat Tires #

I like to keep a couple tubes (like this one) around for an easy change. I also use patch kits for small punctures.

You’ll also need tire levers to remove your tire.

When changing a tube, keep in mind that your tube was damaged by something. This could be:

Something that punctured your tire. Run your hands along the inside of your tire near the puncture to make sure that nothing sharp is still embedded in your tire!
Your tire itself has a hole in it.
Your tube folded as it inflated, or was otherwise pinched.

You don’t want to change your tube only to have your new tube break for the same reason!

Skipping Gears #

Sometimes when you bike you may notice skipping when pedaling, especially when pedaling hard. This is usually quite jarring and in bad cases can make your bike fairly unridable. This issue can be caused by several different problems:

1. Misaligned Shifters #

Your gear shifters may put the chain in between two of the cogs that it wraps around. To fix this, usually shifters can be shifted around by tighting or loosening a screw on them.

2. A Stretched Chain #

Over time, bike chains stretch. An overly stretched chain can lead to skipping, as the distance between the links no longer properly matches the distances between the teeth on the cog. See https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/when-to-replace-a-chain-on-a-bicycle for a good overview of this problem.

TIP: When replacing the chain, sometimes using a chain tool to drive the cylindrical bit through the two links to close the loop will result in a “stiff” link. Basically the two links of the chain on either side of the bit you just drove through will not rotate freely along the bit like the other links. One common reason this happens is because the pressure from driving the bit will press the outer link firming against the inner one. To fix this, simply put some metal pliers or the like into the gap between the two outer link’s sides and twist to push the sides further apart!

3. Worn Cogs #

Just like chains can wear out, so can the cogs they wrap around. This happens more slowly, and I’ve heard can be slowed even further by regularly replacing your chain (presumably stretched chains wear out cogs faster). When a cog is worn, skipping occurs for the same reason as when a chain is worn - there is a misfit between the chain and the cog. Cogs can also break teeth, making this even worse!

Note when replacing cogs that there are two types, freewheels and cassettes. It is crucial to know which one you have before attempting a replacement! Check out these sites for more details:

I’ve made the mistake before of trying to replace the wrong type of cog, and it’s not fun.

Stuck Seatpost #

I had a very persistent problem for a while of my seatpost being stuck in a specific position on one of my bikes. I think the root cause was corrosion fusing the post to the frame, but am not completely sure. I tried very hard for a long time to fix this, as the seat was slightly too high and I suspect this was causing me pain in my left knee. Eventually, a coworker lent me a pipe wrench and I bought some penetrating lube. These two in tandem easily loosened my seatpost!

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Categories: Lifestyle Optimizations