I started commuting by bike and Caltrain from Palo Alto to Santa Clara and now to North San Jose since I moved here from Venezuela. I've done it on and off but mostly on a regular basis since the second half of 2009. While I try to do it every day, in practice it turns out to be 3 - 4 weekdays and then I get in some riding on the weekends as well.
When I worked in a cube, I was able to find empty cubes nearby where I could leave my bike. I've had an office for the past 4 - 5 years so now my bike is a staple in my office and my co-workers notice when it's not there. We are allowed jeans at work, but early when I got my office I used a file cabinet to leave clean clothes in my office so I wouldn't have to carry them with me. I have to say that I'm yet to commute in regular clothing as I've always found it uncomfortable when sweaty. Now that I'm losing weight that might start changing for errand rides, but not likely for commute rides. Since we moved to North San Jose (near the airport) two things changed; our new offices don't have blinds so I cannot change clothes inside my office even with the door closed, but the new facility has a very nice shower/locker room and I've taken possesion of several lockers (few people use it) to store my shoes, pants, underwear and shirts so I always have fresh clothes to put on. In the mornings I just wait a bit to cool off while I start checking e-mails and eat my breakfast (usually boiled eggs I bring from home) and then just simply change into my work clothes as I'm already dry. I shower at home in the mornings so I'm clean and have also discovered (Rivendell benefit) that wool doesn't smell so that is not a problem at all. If I have no time to cool-off and/or possibly in the summer, then I take a cool refreshing shower at work and feel completely reborn after the ride. My current commute is 15 minutes (2.3 miles) from my house to the Caltrain Station in downtown Palo Alto; train ride to downtown San Jose and then 30 minutes (5.5 miles) along the Guadalupe Trail to my company location. I then do the reverse in the evening, sometimes taking a train that will drop me off in Menlo Park instead so it's 21 minutes (4 miles) for some added riding. Occasionally I ride the whole distance to work which is around 15.5 miles and takes me around 90 minutes. My goal is to increase the number of mornings when I do this as essentially it takes the same overall time to do the Caltrain commute until I do this every morning and take the train back in the evenings when the headwinds are pretty strong. One day... I'll be riding both ways on the same day on a regular basis... Unfortunately only 3 or 4 people out of aproximately 400 commute by bicycle in my company. René -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
