So, I finally decided to try riding to work. I'm currently working over at Cisco in Milpitas, and I live in the Hayward hills, so about 24 miles. Normally, I'll take the cage down Mission, then take 680 over to Landess, pass Great Mall, then go to work. It takes me about 45 minutes normally.

Riding the bike, I don't have the balls yet to ride on the freeway during rush hour, so I took all city roads. I road down mission, right on driscoll, right on dixon landing, left on mccarthy... Took me 50 minutes. So, 5 minutes longer than driving, and less comfortable, but better mileage

I figure in the carpool lane it would take me about 30 minutes on the freeway, but this was a good learning experience....

Things I learned...

* I work muscles I don't normally work (sore)
* My gloves don't provide much warmth. Will have to get warmer ones for winter.
* Lane splitting is FUN when cars are stopped. I must have passed over 100 cars. It's nice when there's a long line of 30+ cars to the red light and I can go straight up to the front. And if the light turned green, I'd just merge back in as traffic matched my 10mph speed.
* I should always split in the left most lane. I split on the right side at Mission/Niles and a car coming from the right turning onto my direction almost hit me. I had to move over into the middle lane to be ok.
* I don't think I'd do it again. City roads are tiring and just to save gas, it's not really worth it. I'll only commute if I can hit the highway next time.

Just wanted to share

I have found that I encounter more hazards in city than freeway driving. I commute about 40 miles a day, and most of the idiots come into play when I hit the dowtown Seattle area. But move at your own comfortable pace. And yes, gear is important when it comes to commuting. Don't want to be too hot or too cold to where it impacts your ability to focus.

I am a San Jose native btw, used to work off N 1st and Tasman...your notes made me homesick

Yeah I started commuting back in June when I got assigned to a new unit an hour away, 57 miles. My truck gets 16mpg at best and the bike gets 58. So it was an easy decision. My trafic isn't nearly as bad as yours i'm sure, but the freeway is the easiest part. Just chill in the middle lane if you want to and let everyone do there thing. Gas is the easy answer for why to ride the bike, but I also just like riding the bike more, and being part of that special crowed of bike commuters. Gear is for sure the most important part. Just picked up a new jacket and gloves for the winter and bib-pants are on order. Oh and headphones mounted in the helmet make my hour drive shorter for sure.

Yeah, the bay area is never really hot enough to just use summer gloves, so I'd totally suggest getting some of those with the thermaline (i cant remember the exact name, but you know what I mean.  It's those winter glove ones) but the only sad part is those gloves tend to lack the knuckle protectors that the sporty gloves have.....   I commute in SF and I experience idiots every single day.  Just have to slow down and give yourself some space to get out of those sticky situations.

Quote from: StevenDavisPhoto on September 15, 2010, 10:54:16 AM
So, I finally decided to try riding to work. I'm currently working over at Cisco in Milpitas, and I live in the Hayward hills, so about 24 miles. Normally, I'll take the cage down Mission, then take 680 over to Landess, pass Great Mall, then go to work. It takes me about 45 minutes normally.

Hey, What do you do at Cisco?
Any openings for a CCNP?

Quote from: rickster21 on September 15, 2010, 01:36:47 PM

Quote from: StevenDavisPhoto on September 15, 2010, 10:54:16 AM
So, I finally decided to try riding to work. I'm currently working over at Cisco in Milpitas, and I live in the Hayward hills, so about 24 miles. Normally, I'll take the cage down Mission, then take 680 over to Landess, pass Great Mall, then go to work. It takes me about 45 minutes normally.

Hey, What do you do at Cisco?
Any openings for a CCNP?

Second this for me , I need a job lol. I never drive my car anymore, but I think Colorado Springs traffic is probably not nearly as bad as there.

I started commuting every day here in Chicago two months ago.  It's only 5 miles each way, but I hop on the highway and it's pretty easy. Takes 20-30 minutes in traffic.  Wearing the proper gear has definitely made a difference.  I also recently got a tank bag, for the days I don't need to take my work laptop around, I just use that, it's very convenient.  My laptop doesn't fit in the tank bag, so for those days, I have a computer back that wear.  It seems to make a huge difference, especially on longer rides, using moto luggage vs a backpack/shoulder bag.  

There's also easy free parking all over (for bikes at least), and I save myself a 15 minute walk to the subway, and $4.50.  Not looking forward to taking the subway once winter hits though

I don't lane split, unless it's in local traffic and there's the convenient bicycle lane to skip to the front of the line and all the cars are stopped.

Damn thirty mins to go five miles... I couldn't imagine. In thirty mins around here. I can go at least thirty miles.

Quote from: rickster21 on September 15, 2010, 01:36:47 PM
Hey, What do you do at Cisco?
Any openings for a CCNP?

sorry, im a contractor from another company. user interface developer (web designer)

Quote from: StevenDavisPhoto on September 15, 2010, 10:54:16 AM
So, I finally decided to try riding to work. I'm currently working over at Cisco in Milpitas, and I live in the Hayward hills, so about 24 miles. Normally, I'll take the cage down Mission, then take 680 over to Landess, pass Great Mall, then go to work. It takes me about 45 minutes normally.

Riding the bike, I don't have the balls yet to ride on the freeway during rush hour, so I took all city roads. I road down mission, right on driscoll, right on dixon landing, left on mccarthy... Took me 50 minutes. So, 5 minutes longer than driving, and less comfortable, but better mileage

I figure in the carpool lane it would take me about 30 minutes on the freeway, but this was a good learning experience....

Things I learned...

* I work muscles I don't normally work (sore)
* My gloves don't provide much warmth. Will have to get warmer ones for winter.
* Lane splitting is FUN when cars are stopped. I must have passed over 100 cars. It's nice when there's a long line of 30+ cars to the red light and I can go straight up to the front. And if the light turned green, I'd just merge back in as traffic matched my 10mph speed.
* I should always split in the left most lane. I split on the right side at Mission/Niles and a car coming from the right turning onto my direction almost hit me. I had to move over into the middle lane to be ok.
* I don't think I'd do it again. City roads are tiring and just to save gas, it's not really worth it. I'll only commute if I can hit the highway next time.

Just wanted to share

The muscles you aren't working will get used to it.  Trust me, the first two or three times I commuted SF to Monterey County I was sore as hell, but now I only notice the boredom of the slab...

I wear Cortech Scarab R.R. gloves year-round.  If it's really cold out I throw in my HD glove liners, but that's about it.  I have a pair of heated glove liners, but they are total overkill 99.9% of the time.

Lane sharing kicks ass, even on the freeway.  Practice, and be careful and reasonable no matter how good you think you are, and you'll save tons of time, both freeway and surface-street.

And duh, too fast on the "post" button...

The GS is a kickass lane-sharer.  My ride is a Ninja 650, but in August I picked up Mrs. Bad Example's GS in SF.  Ran into six miles of gridlock on 101, was a tad leery of sharing on a moto I'd just picked up, but did it anyway.

The GS is nimble as hell, made the sharing a dream!

Quote from: GI_JO_NATHAN on September 15, 2010, 12:23:59 PM
Just chill in the middle lane if you want to and let everyone do there thing.

+1

On the 2 lane highway, I'll generally sit in the fast lane just keeping up with traffic. BUT, if there is a loony around, tailgating, chopping and changing lanes, I'll move over to the slow lane and let em go. I've found they tend to travel in packs - maybe they catch each other or the behavior is addictive. So I leave 'em to their own risky business and cruise along.

On the four/five lane, I'll hop into the slow lane and let everyone go. I've found, even if I want to make up time the slow lane is the place cause everyone stays out of it. But on the bike with three/four lanes of people in a hurry, I'll sit back and enjoy the ride. Time lost... maybe a couple of minutes. For example, if I sit on 50 and everyone else is weaving in an out at 65, after 15 minutes they are not even 4 minutes ahead. But usually, the speed difference might be around 5 or 6. So I'll be sitting on 62 and they'll be doing like 68. After an hour they are 6 ahead of me. How long does it take to do 6 clicks? See... negligible time saving.

Michael

Man, i feel kinda bad for you guys. I have a 5 minute ride to work and only 3 lights to go thru. Even if i take the scenic route and go completely around my town it only takes 15 minutes. There's a lot of times i wish i lived further away......

Lights? What are these 'lights' you speak of?

Quote from: the mole on September 16, 2010, 01:30:19 AM
Lights? What are these 'lights' you speak of?

Might be the Min Min Lights or some other Earth Light or Ghost light. 

My 22 click commute can be done without going through a traffic light/signal. Even before work moved the other month and my commute was 26 clicks it could be done with no traffic lights/signals.

Man, if I lived 5 minutes away from work I'd take the long scenic route all the time just so I could enjoy more time on the bike. 

Michael

Quote from: mister on September 16, 2010, 02:52:11 AM
Man, if I lived 5 minutes away from work I'd take the long scenic route all the time just so I could enjoy more time on the bike. 

Frankly, if I lived this close to work, I'd commute on a bicycle or simply walked - and enjoyed the leisurly weekend rides.  I really enjoy riding, but not in a rush hour traffic.  Maybe if I didn't have to commute in/out of central London every day, I'd have a different opinion.

Quote from: mister on September 15, 2010, 11:59:28 PM
So I'll be sitting on 62 and they'll be doing like 68. After an hour they are 6 ahead of me. How long does it take to do 6 clicks? See... negligible time saving.

for me it's not about the time saving, it's about the feeling of speed. sure that'll also get u killed, but that's how i feel in a car at least. i know if i drive faster i'm not saving much time, but i love the feeling of passing other cars

I wish I lived somewhere that I could split lanes. When I'm stuck in traffic I just have to sit there and stare at the long hole through traffic that I can't ride down. I'm a bicycle commuter by nature, so I don't even give stopped traffic and red lights a second thought, so it makes riding a motorcycle feel a lot longer to me.

Quote from: shchuka on September 16, 2010, 04:15:14 AM

Frankly, if I lived this close to work, I'd commute on a bicycle or simply walked - and enjoyed the leisurly weekend rides.

I'm only 1.7 miles from work, so it's a 10 minute bike ride. It would take me the same amount of time to park in the parking lot down the street and walk back to work, so there's no time saving with driving, plus then I'd have to worry about the motorcycle sitting out in a parking lot in a trashy neighborhood all day. I could ride the bus, but that would take me almost half an hour. I used to commute by motorcycle every day, and it was nice but you definitely have to make sure you're taking nice rides or it will get old fast. I would not want to do it if I was just on the freeway and in traffic all the time. You've gotta take nice back roads, and sneak into town a back way so you can actually enjoy the ride. Doing the standard mind numbing freeway commute on your motorcycle isn't going to do anything but make you dislike riding a motorcycle.

As of now motorcycles have gotten reserved for weekend and evening free rides. I still get in the same amount of miles because instead of 15 minutes here, 20 minutes there, I'll go out for 3-4 hours at a time, so there's no change in how much riding I do, it's just a matter of going out and REALLY enjoying the ride, instead of associating it with work.

I live in Houston TX and commute almost every day.   52 mile round trip, 80% high way.  Highway speed made nervous at first.    The more you ride the better it gets.  *Most* drivers here are fairly courteous.  You do have th watch for the (expletive deleted) types though.

Keep the shiny side up,

Chuck

Yeah. Look out for...

- Volvo drivers
- Female Asians
- Paki/Indian/Sikh cab drivers
- Guys who drive with one arm hanging out the window

Michael