Usually, my commute takes me about 15 minutes each way. It’s only 3.6 miles, but there a bunch of red lights and stop signs. Today, it took around 50 minutes each way. A little over triple the usual. Why? Because I didn’t take my car. After putting on the new seat on my bike this morning, I decided to take the plunge. For someone whose sum biking experience was essentially the 20 minutes I spent riding around the parking lot yesterday, I feel like I did okay.

There were a couple of almost-wobble-into-traffic incidents, a couple of almost-fall-over incidents, and a somewhat frightening 4-way-stop-with-turn-lanes incident. I didn’t bike the whole way. I probably walked 1/3 to 1/2 of the distance where the bike lanes were non-existent, but that ratio will probably shift more towards the bike front as I gain more confidence. I’m still pretty wobbly, but it’s kind of like kayaking or driving. If you focus too much on what’s right in front of you, you’re going to wobble a lot more. If you focus a hundred feet in front of you, it’s a lot easier to go straight.

The bike I got off craigslist is a road bike, and it’s got some kind of abrasive grip tape wrapped all around the handel-bars. Leaning on that for as long as I did, my hands are by far the sorest thing on me. Followed closely by my poor ass. Third would be the feet–the new shoes are great for biking, but not made for walking. On my right calf, I’ve got a nasty scrape from where I rammed the left pedal into the back of my leg while walking the bike through some construction. And, to top it off, is the general fatigue from biking 7.2 miles when I haven’t exercised in a couple of months.

All in all, I’d call the bike-to-work experiment a rousing success!