The joys of "suburban" commuting?

As I’ve likely mentioned before my new commute is pretty great. So far I’ve done it twice on the fixed gear and once on the Cannondale so I’m getting the full effect of the ride. I really love doing it on the fixed gear as that is some of the longer fixed gear riding I’ve done.

Before the move most of my fixed riding was to and from locations in the city with my commute only being 3 ½ miles, barely enough to break a real sweat. Now I can really get into the flow on the bike and get a rhythm going in the pedals. That said I’m really hoping to be able to fix up the old Schwinn Traveler I picked up off a friend into a reliable commuter. Fixed everyday with my overly tight legs just won’t continue to fly. For the time being though the rear wheel is beyond repair and a search is being carried out for a used replacement.

I also LOVE the first parts of the commute. Once I get down across 193 I jump onto the bike trails for probably about 5 or 6 miles where everything is quite and peaceful and no cars come flying by, frustrated by the cyclist going under/near the speed LIMIT. This morning I saw a handful of other cyclists and said hello or gave a wave to each of them. Some were commuters while some were just riding; all the same to me though, as long as they’re on a bike.

One guy that I’ve seen twice now is a really large guy riding an old mountain bike probably from target or something. He kind of swerves back and forth and you can tell he is really working hard on the bike but all the same I was really happy to see him this morning for the second time in three days of riding. He’s very courteous and moves well to the right when I announce on your left and just fact that he’s out there giving it a try is awesome. I hope he sees some really positive results from his bike commuting time and continues it for a long time.