Transitioning To Commuting More

[rodneycc]

For me the road bike for the summer/warm weather commute and the 29er for winter/wet weather commute. The rest as above.

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[worzel]

I take my clothes in once a week on the train

I need to get organised a bit better like that as I seem to be carry a lot of weight on my back for 32km each way. At the moment I have to carry trousers, shirt, jocks and socks as I am number 50 in line for a locker (I have spare work shoes at my desk and re-wear my trainers to my desk so at least that helps). I guess I could leave stuff at my desk and travel 23 floors via 2 lifts to collect my gear then go all the way back to hang up bike gear in the drying room and shower or use one of the local showers near my floor but that means leaving smelly gear all over my cubicle.

Probably more urgent and solvable is my lunch (special diet which I cannot get in the city) which is both large and heavy. Given I try and cycle two days per week I could bring two lunches the day before I ride and leave one in the fridge. But firstly I would need to be organised, secondly I'd need to commit to which days to ride and set my alarm rather than seeing which days I wake early.

For the record, I carry a largish saddle pack with tube, levers, mutlitool, square of sandpaper (for thorns) and lock. Plus two lights and and a bottle of water. Plus a second bottle for the ride home. Phone and works pass/smartrider/$50 on my back. Oh, and a spare tyre round my waste.

[barefoot]

A slightly different tack to the equipment and gear advice you're getting, but the best way to make yourself commute more is to make it the default way to get to work, and make it inconvenient to do anything else.

Put your car keys (assuming your non-ride days are driving commutes) on a different keyring, and get out of the habit of taking it with you.
Leave your work shoes at work, and commute in bike shoes. So then if you don't ride you'll have to find some different shoes to wear to work (or you could leave ALL your work clothes at work and change when you get there... whether you ride in your bike kit or drive in trackies and a t-shirt, you still have to get dressed at work).
Get in the habit of carrying whatever you take to work (security fob, lunchbox, paperwork, whatever) in a pannier. Aside from being nicer to ride with, they're awkward to carry any other way. Hard to run for a bus with a pannier stretching your arm and banging off your leg.

If you arrange your affairs so that your ride-to-work kit is always ready to go but your drive- (or train- or whatever-) to work kit takes some effort to put together in the morning, you'll probably find yourself taking the easy option every day, and just riding out of habit. Ride to work because you're too lazy and disorganised to do any different.

tim

[dynamictiger]

Follow up question. Nearly a seperate thread, we'll see.

I am looking at panniers now and more or less settled on http://www.torpedo7.com.au/products/TPB ... dry-bag-dx

Which I really like the look of, and price.

However I was thinking I might also get a quick release messenger style bag. My thinking was I could have the larger pannier on the bike full time and the mesenger style bag either on the rack or on my shoulder for lunches, paperwork and similar. However I have also seen comment about imbalance and so on? Getting confused...

[MattyK]

That pannier has a quick release, so it can be removed rapidly.

I use one pannier 99% of the time and don't notice any balance issues