Biking to Work

Che MTB
Preparing an MTB repurposed for commuting. I named the bike Che.

I used to bike to work more than a decade ago. I found it exciting and fun at the time. I considered it as a positive adventure at the start of each work day. After two or three years of fun and excitement, I stopped because there was an increase in the density in traffic combined with the erosion of discipline by a growing number of drivers and those reasons wasn’t making the ride fun anymore. We also moved to another building that did not have a shower (which is a bummer). Biking to work was getting tedious and stressful.

Commuting by bicycle is now being encouraged by government in getting to or from one’s workplace during gcq because there is a need. During the first day of gcq on June 01, there were no public buses, jeeps, and vans. I didn’t see any taxis on the road. The lrt is just letting 10% of passengers in per trip — that’s 100 out of 1,000 passengers. This only means riding public is much too unreliable and tiring. It’s either I ride a bicycle or walk.

I’m actually trying to prepare for both. I’m cleaning and prepping up Cherry’s former mountain bike (pictured above) which I previously converted for city commuting so It doesn’t have those knobby tires anymore. It’s old but it is quite usable.

I also will be cleaning and prepping my road bike (also old) which I prefer to use but it’s a fixie so there are no apparent brakes. But since it is a fixed gear bike, when you stop pedaling, it stops. But to make things easier I will be installing brakes on it.

I will be practicing on both bikes to determine which one is easier for me to use. I haven’t been on a bike for a while now so I have to practice for a couple of weeks to get back the confidence of riding on the road again.

And have started to actively do light exercise at first — morning walks, light yoga, light weights — just to wake up my system again and prepare it to be more active. It’s just a little more difficult because the weather’s a bit hotter these past few days.

Stay safe folks.