Getting Ready

Rolling out regularly on an early morning commute requires preparation, at least for me. I pack my panniers the night before at least mostly. Both panniers are waterproof and that allows me a lot of flexibility. The panniers are Novara brand from REI that I picked up a while back on closeout. They no longer offer them. They are similar to these Ortlieb panniers.


One pannier has the things I need in the gym to shower and change and the other requires the things I need in the office. I have the luxury of leaving the pannier I don't need on the bike. Security has not been an issue at work. I don't lock my bike while I am in the gym and I even leave a bag with a laptop and iPad on the bike while I shower.


The night before I fold my pants in half, fold a shirt so it is the width of the pants and roll them up with the shirt in the middle. I place that in a camping stuff sack that has my security badge and two leg bands in the bottom. Then I add socks and underwear to the top and cinch it closed. It goes in the gym pannier on top of two spare tubes and a repair bag. Most days I place some shoes to wear during the day on top of that. While this does allow me to wear fairly nice clothes if I want, I actually wear jeans, a casual shirt/sweater and sneakers most days. This bag can be completely packed at night although I usually wait to zip it closed until morning.


The office bag is only partially packed at night. Usually I am either charging the iPad or using it to read a book at bed time. So it is added to the pannier in the morning. But the laptop is shutdown, in a sleeve and in the pannier when I go to bed. I use a small zippered bag that came with a laptop backpack to hold pill bottles, glasses case, wallet, nail clippers, USB drives, etc. That is mostly packed but I often add my glasses in the morning, zip it close and drop it in the office pannier.


My cycling clothes are also laid out at night. What I wear depends on the weather of course. This morning was 41 degrees and drizzly. I wore:

• bike underwear, 
• Novara Headwind pants (currently I can only find the women's model), 
• a Layers brand (they may not exist anymore) long sleeve base layer shirt, 
• my Pearl Izumi Slice rain jacket (similar to the current Quest Barrier), 
• Sock Guy 2 Mile Challenge crew socks,  
• SmartWool hiking socks
• GoreTex hiking boots
• long finger cycling gloves 
• a close fitting fleece cap. 

Occasionally I bring a short sleeve shirt to wear riding home or an extra top layer for the morning.


Getting all ready at night helps me ride in the morning and cuts down on how long it takes. What kind of routine do other people have?

How Close Is Too Close?

No, I am not talking about giving your child room on the back of your bike:

but about laws regarding vehicles passing bicycles. 

Various states have a law defining safe passing. Many of these are vague like at a safe distance while some are more specific. The most common specific distance is 3 feet which most cyclist seem to like. There are similar laws outside the USA, but I did not research them, yet. One in Nova Scotia, Canada gives you a little more room since it is 1 meter instead of 3 feet.

How does your state handle it? Here is a map summarizing the laws regarding passing a bicycle.

Alaska, the District of Columbia and Georgia seems to have no law about safe passing. Most states (Alabama, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming) just state you must pass at a safe distance without specifying what is considered safe.

North Carolina and Virginia define safe as 2 feet while Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Tennessee, Utah, Wisconsin all define 3 feet as a safe distance. My favorite is the New Hampshire law which specifies a 3 feet minimum increasing as the speed of the car increases. Oregon defines safe distance as room for the cyclist to fall into the driver's path.

You can find a more detailed summary with links to the laws at www.safe-route.org.

Some form of a 3 foot passing law seems to be catching on. If you get a chance, I would suggest advocating for the 3 foot minimum that increases as the speed of the overtaking vehicle increases.

The 3 foot passing idea has caught on enough for 3feetplease.com to offer jerseys for states with a law and without a law. They even offer a 1 meter version for Canada.

Bicycle Commuter News For January 24, 2011

I have not posted here in quite a while, but I am going to start back to blogging here. I also have a blog on VeloReviews which often gets the same posts as here plus some little things that fit there.


I will report on news, laws, bikes, equipment, clothes, techniques and tips for bicycle commuters.


To get started, I will start with a story I first heard about on the Fred Cast.I love to ride for transportations whether it is commuting or running errands. But Susie Weber ran an errand that few people would consider. She became a legend at the local hospital when she road her bike to the hospital for her baby to be born. When Susie found she was pregnant she decided to ride her bike to all her prenatal appointments including the delivery.  The day she started having contractions the weather was good and she and her husband biked to the hospital together. This was in October and now Susie has a blog entry to help answer the questions many women have asked about staying fit during pregnancy.

Hello Old Friend

I recently completed a 6 day trip on the C&O Canal which I will post about soon. After that for various reasons, I did not ride for 5 days. That is easily the longest stretch without riding in the last year. But I rode my commute Monday and today. I was a little sluggish Monday morning but have been picking it up since then.

Looks like it might not be hot at all riding home today. Right now it is raining pretty steady. It will be a welcome change.

The Buck Stops Here

Actually this is about 2 bucks, male deer that is.

Near the end of this morning's commute on the Black Creek Greenway, I spotted 2 bucks on the trail ahead of me. I often spot wildlife (besides small birds and squirrels) on my ride including deer, but this is the first time I have seen bucks with antlers like these. They were stopped and looking at me. They did not seem to concerned. I stopped and took a picture. Even though one buck moved out of sight while I got out my iPhone, I had great hopes for this picture. But I forgot the iPhone does not do a great job in the early morning light. This blurry mess is what I got. You can at least tell it is a deer, if I tell you it is.

I should have steadied the camera better. Live and learn. Plus I might borrow the new waterproof camera, Fujifilm Z33WP,  I got my wife and try that on the bike. Really I did buy it for her even though I am the only to have used it so far. Hey it is even pink. It must be for her.

Back to the bucks, I could see them quite well and they moved down into the creek bed on the left and crossed up the bank and out of sight. I was hoping to count the points on the antlers in the photo, but it is too blurry. My future holds some better photographic technique.

Ride rating: 2 rabbit and 2 bucks

Cary Greenway Update

I exchanged email with Doug McRainey, Parks Planning Manager for the Town of Cary, about the greenway signs. He said the signs are part of our recently approved comprehensive sign plan for the Town's parks and greenways. Besides the signs I spotted on the Hinshaw Greenway, signs have been installed them at Pirate's Cove Greenway, Batchelor Branch Greenway, sections of the White oak Creek Greenway. So it looks like these will continue to roll out although it may be a year before they are all done.

Doug invited me to do two things I will take him up on as I have time. First he suggested visiting Bond Park where 3 to 5 different greenways will intersect. Bond Park will be the hub of the Cary greenway system.

The second thing Doug invited me to do is attend a Greenway Committee meeting. I will try and do that in the upcoming months and report back on what I learn.

A break in the weather

Here in NC we are finally getting a break from the heat. After about 3 weeks with above average temperatures, 10 to 15 degrees above, we are actually slightly below average. Riding in the mornings around 70 degrees and the afternoon in the mid 80s is a big improvement.

Wednesday I spotted 3 rabbits and this little guy.

That is about a 6 inch long copperhead. He was crossing the trail and froze as I passed. I stopped and turned around to get this picture which is not as clear as I would like, but you can see him. I moved on and he was unmolested by me. Live and let live. This little guy needs to eat quite a few insects, frogs and lizards before he is big enough to threaten even the baby rabbits along the trail.