little queen

so, the cycling... Nearly 6 months in, and it's become such a daily part of my life I can't remember why I never tried it before. Although knowing me it's not that surprising that it took a move to a city that lives by the car to get me pedaling. 1,200+ miles into it, I can probably count on one hand the number of fellow commuters I've seen (hobos on busted bikes and Tuesday-night cycling clubs don't count), but there's some sort of reassuring gratification to being the odd one out. Odd as in how 99.9% of your coworkers will view you as they ask you for the hundredth time if you cycled in today. Then again I've got a friend who reacts with horror when I tell her I'll walk to her place, which takes all of 10 minutes, just to give you an idea on the typical thought process about commuting by your own physical volition.

Safety-wise it's been fine, drivers seem to be over-cautious to the point where if they get to a crossroad before I do they often still wait to see what I'll do. I'm guessing many of them might have never seen a cyclist before, so they don't know how to react, like when you come across wildlife on a hike. I've had a couple of accidents, none serious, which according to what I've read online is par for the course. One of them was a stupid fall all on my lonesome, while in the other (just two days prior) I got hit by a car at low speed. The driver was doing a U-turn without looking, so she never saw me coming up from behind, and her lack of us of signal lights didn't help. Got off the ground after it happened (bike took most of the hit, in fact the back wheel had to be changed) and instinctively yelled "what the F*$K are you doing?!" at the driver, and immediately realized I was shouting at a car of middle-aged people, including a lady driver who must've been 65. Felt kind of bad about that on the hobbling ride home, and even more so when I found out the next day that the lady in question was a nun. I never did get the money back for my wheel since I got too busy to follow-up with her insurance company, but hopefully got some karma points out of it. Especially since she lied about having her signal lights on. Are nuns allowed to do that? The main lesson I learned from my two crashes was that it's always better to stick to routine, since both of them happened on a road I don't usually frequent. And my coworkers gained many joking opportunities out of it ("any rabbis on the road today?"), so really it's a win-win.

I still get the occasional honk, and mild close-calls, but overall it's been much safer than I thought it would be. And the benefits have been so plentiful that the drawbacks seem very minor. Now if only I could prevent those stupid River Oaks joggers from running on the road...
On the weekends I frequently see people going for strolls on their bikes, and it always seems like a very relaxed and enjoyable activity, but for me biking is purely utilitarian now. I do it every weekday (or at least 90-95% of the days by my estimate), and by Friday I feel fine just putting the bike away until Monday morning. I've mostly stopped running, which I loved to do, but in exchange I've gained a workout that literally blends into my day's routine. I wouldn't mind to see a few more fellow cyclists out there in the morning/evening traffic, but if a risk-adverse person like me takes to it so eagerly, I figure it's bound to catch on in Houston sooner rather than later.

this post brought to you by the letter A

in honor of a series of biking firsts today (1st commuter seen, 1st time being honked at, 1st close-call because of an over-eager driver), I thought I'd list a few observations made so far on my commuting adventures:

- the roads of Houston are horrendous. Anyone who's driven on them knows this, but on a bike, that horrendousness goes to a whole new level. In particular there is a stretch between Taft and Montrose that I would politely define as the anti-cat's pajamas.

- drivers here are much better behaved than I thought. I do avoid many interactions and thus potential for conflict by being out there before 6:30am, but even when coming home from work when the streets are busier I haven't had too many problems so far.

- in the morning hours, many River Oaks runners prefer to jog in the opposite direction to traffic, on the street. That would be dangerous enough, more so when you consider that many of them do not wear lights or distinctive clothing. I have yet managed to establish the "thinking" behind this behavior, but I might just ask the next few individual who I see doing this for pointers.

- while cycling, one should try to adhere to the same rules governing motor vehicles. That is something you stick to the first two days of biking, before the ninja in you tries to take over. So far I've gathered from my short experience that it is better to completely stop at a red traffic light when cars are involved, and stay in a regular lane as opposed to the cycling shoulder (when there is one). Another good tip is to get going when the light turns from orange to red, as long as the cars from intersecting streets are stopped or in the process of completely stopping.

- the negative aspects of cycling are few, especially if you're lucky enough to have a fairly danger-free route, but the rewards are ever-so bountiful, and tend to reveal themselves more with passing time. Getting to work awake, feeling energized and ready to tackle the day is a feeling I had not often experienced in my working life. Now, it's pretty much a daily occurence.

But as new-agey as I might sound about the journey of bike commuting so far, I have to admit to one very negative event that almost counters everything listed above: that older guy with his fuddy-duddy bike (and panniers!) who overtook me this morning downtown. I'm gonna get some extra sleep tonight buddy, just you try to do the same thing tomorrow should we meet again...

you don't get to 500 million miles without making a few flats

2 weeks in, the bike commuting is going swell as can be. The logistics were a little trying at first, but now that I've transferred about half of my worldly possessions to the office, there's less need for daily preparation and packing. Which is always good when you're trying to leave for work within 5 minutes of waking up at 6am. Roads are in as bad a state as I expected them to be, but that's where the thicker tires of my Honky Tonk come into play.
The whole experience has been extremely satisfying so far, with the best part probably being how much I look forward to the commute now, as opposed to the semi-annoyance I felt toward a chore I had little control over. Now I understand why bike commuters sound so much like Brazilian tele-evangelists when you get them started on the subject of their daily trips. Although seeing as how I haven't seen a single such individual other than myself so far, seems like I have a whole lot of proselytizing to do in this fair city of Houston, TX.

hurry hurry

Plans be damned, I have started commuting by bike as of this morning. Let's give this a few days before I process my impressions, although they have been (very) positive so far...

too far gone

at around 5pm today, my bike commuting project has officially made its way from chimera to almost certain reality, as I have ordered a Kona road bike from the fantastic folks at West End Bicycles. It will take 10 days or so to get here, so for now I will still be part of the motorized masses, but the transition is now tantalizingly close. Scouting of potential commuting routes has started, hopefully the mostly awful hurricane season weather we've been having recently will disappear by then. Well it probably won't, but after 3 years in London I'm not gonna start worrying about a few raindrops. And if there's one thing I've acquired from running during that time, it might not be excessive mental fortitude, but it's definitely a trove of all-weather gear.

balance?

second day of bikexperementing, second ridiculous fall. At least it happened near the end of my ride, not halfway-through like yesterday, although the fact that I fell less than 100 yards from my building entrance can't be good for my street cred. Not to worry though, the bike is fine, my leg got the brunt of it. Other than that the ride was great, just a chance to explore some neighborhood streets that my runs haven't taken me through. Definitely still excited about the commuting project right now, although it will probably involve non-clipless pedals...