Your mind’s made up? Let’s go shopping.

You may have considered the idea of cycle commuting to work, and if you haven’t tried it before, or don’t ride a lot, the whole idea probably raises a lot of questions in your mind. I think there are lots of articles that you can read that suggest the long list of health and wealth benefits of commuting by bicycle, so I’m not going to get into that. You have your own reasons if you’re even contemplating this. But here are some key areas you’ll want to consider to get yourself ready:
- A bike. You’ll need one of those for sure.
- A helmet. The bad news, most of them look dorky and make the person wearing them look even dorkier. The good news, in many jurisdictions they’re required by law, so at least we can all look dorky together.
- Clothes and accessories. You don’t need a lot of special stuff to get started, though I wholeheartedly recommend bike gloves. You’ll know why if you ever take a spill, or that is, an “unscheduled dismount”.
- Your physical condition. I’ve seen people smoking as they ride, but come on. That just makes you look like you’re riding because you’ve had your driver’s license suspended.

BIKES
There are lots of types of bikes to choose from. Consider the terrain, and notice what other cyclists are riding. After riding over the Knight St. Bridge on my 10-speed, I decided to go with something different. Riding on the sidewalk over that bridge, I have ridden over or around:
- a ladder
- kitchen cabinets
- buckets
- work gloves
- 2×4’s (usually with nails sticking out)
- plywood
- panelling
- nails
- more nails
- assorted car parts
- lots of loose sand
And on a rainy day in Vancouver, the water collected at the southwest end of the sidewalk as you came off the bridge such that the pathway disappeared under water, and I would ride through this mess (which for some reason often had chunks of Styrofoam floating in it) with the water coming up past the bottom of the chain and bike frame. Wet feet kind of went with the territory. I decided a mountain bike with knobby tires was what I needed. These days I ride a “comfort” or hybrid bike, a Gary Fisher Capitola. The seating position on my old hardtail Specialized Rock Hopper II was causing some numbness in the fingers, and in Kelowna the riding I do is generally much flatter than Vancouver, so a more upright seating position is OK.

HELMET
I recommend getting one with a visor. It doesn’t help much, but it looks slightly cooler. Don’t buy a used one. It may have damage you can’t see, and this piece of gear could mean the difference between a happy, healthy future and you spending your life answering every question with “I’m an excellent driver”. Seriously, don’t leave home without it.

CLOTHES and ACCESSORIES
OK, first the clothes. If you’re like me and your cycle commute takes more than fifteen minutes, you will probably be much more comfortable riding your bike in riding clothes and then changing when you arrive at work. Where I worked didn’t have a shower, but I was able to leave a clothes bag there. My clothes bag included:
- two or three shirts
- two pairs of pants, one belt
- one or two pairs of socks
- underwear
- one pair of shoes
- Ziploc bag with soap and deodorant
- one towel
My riding clothes evolved and changed with the weather. Basically, layers are your friends. The toughest time to dress right was winter-to-spring and fall-to-winter, because the riding conditions in the morning can be much different than at the end of the day. Eventually my clothing arsenal included:
- padded baggy cycling shorts, worn over either plain cycling shorts or lined tights, waterproof over-pants
- slim running shoes, sport or thermal socks
- long or short-sleeved T-shirts, fleece vest, sweater, neon-green riding jacket, scarf, fleece skullcap, safety vest
- full-fingered riding gloves, as well as open finger style gloves
- goggles, plain and tinted

As for accessories, my bike evolved into a full-on commuter-mobile:
- fenders fore and aft
- panniers. I ditched the backpack because it was hard on my back and I sweated like crazy underneath it.
- lights fore and aft
- air pump
- spare inner tube (note, I used to carry a patch kit, but I got a few flats on the bridge, and the noise from the traffic was so loud you couldn’t possibly hear where the air was escaping to make a repair, so the solution was to simply rip out the tube and replace it so you could patch it later)
- 25 cents to make a phone call for help if I had a major mechanical problem
- latex gloves, for putting the chain back on without getting all greasy
- small bicycle tool kit
- bike bell (ding, ding)
- toe clips
- Kevlar liners, to fit between the inner wall of the tires and the outer walls of the tubes. These were a great investment and drastically reduced the number of flats I got riding across the bridge.
The idea was to be self-sufficient if I had a minor mechanical breakdown of some kind. I got great info off the internet about how to change a tire and replace an inner tube, and I tried it at home so I knew how to do it.

PHYSICAL CONDITION
I didn’t have much going on in that department when I started, but after a couple of seasons of riding from one to five days a week, I developed some definite muscle tone. It feels great to ride, your body will enjoy it, trust me. The other big benefit for me was that when I ride, I have to be totally in the moment. When you drive a car, sometimes we arrive at our destination and we don’t even remember parts of the journey because we were thinking about other things. Riding a bike, you’re focused on staying upright and not being killed, so there’s not much of a chance to let your mind wander. And being in the moment for a full half-hour stretch or whatever your commute takes is a real refreshing exercise for most of us.

So let me sum it up—if you think commuting by bike is really hard, I’m here to tell you it may not be as hard as you think. If you plan for it, do a little research, and take little steps and set modest goals, you can do it. No one ever accused me of being a jock before I started cycle commuting (or since), and there is definitely a sense of accomplishment when you realize you are helping yourself, your community, and the planet. If more of us can manage to ride even a few days a month, it does make a difference.