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Comment by city41 | Hacker News Reader

I ride my bicycle just about everywhere: to the office, grocery store, restaurants, everywhere. It's a great way to get exercise and doesn't cut into your schedule all that much, because due to traffic lights you can often get to where you are going on a bike only slightly slower than in a car.

Also starting the day after my 7 mile commute is fantastic, my brain is rocking and ready.

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My problem with riding my bike to the office is that I arrive all sweaty. I can change my T-shirt (I don't have to wear a suit), but I'll still smell afterwards.

Thanks to the London bike scheme I can now take a bike home in the evening without having to ride one to work in the morning.

A similar scheme would be great in Manhattan, the rides between a lot of high density places (including Brooklyn and Manhattan) are pretty short. At 70k people per square mile they could put in a bike pick up/drop off point on every block. Plus it might give them enough critical mass to shut off some lanes as cycle paths.

The more you use your bike, the less tired you will be after your commute. It took me ~6 months to go from really sweaty after 7km to barely breaking a sweat. Just keep in mind that you have to take off some of your clothes on the way once you warm up.

Some more tips:

- Proper clothing (e.g. dry fit) which helps sweat evaporate faster

- Using a more efficient road bike if you're currently riding a mountain/hybrid bike

- Pedaling at a lower gear, and higher cadence

- Properly inflated tires

- A bag with mesh back support, so your back doesn't get all sweaty.

Showers at work are helpful. In the morning i just wake up, throw on my bike clothes and go, and finish my morning routine once at work.

Agreed. 7 miles at a moderate pace shouldn't get you too sweaty either, but you do lose time by most likely having to spend 5 minutes cooling down or cleaning up before actually sitting down at your desk.

Also helps to live in a city such as Madison, WI with tons of paved bike paths.

Does your city have a bicycle trail, has only light traffic, or are you hyperventilating on car exhaust fumes?

I never really got why would people cycle/jog on busy roads.

Being knocked off my bicycle by a car door finally convinced me, after too many uncomfortably close encounters, that I was somehow invisible to drivers. Today I believe that for my well-being the risks of biking far outweigh any potential benefits.

1. You, the cyclist, need to be driving very defensively. Read the road and always assume you have not been seen and take action to do fix that.

Here in the tiny streets of Cambridge, UK, I sometimes feel cycling in the middle of the street is the best option. BTW, an equally big risk to cyclists is pedestrians who, by sheer stupidity or collectively having death wishes, start crossing the road without looking. It's worse when it's a group.

2. Get some high visibility gear and get a helmet and pads. I also use two sets of lights: the reds at the back are placed one high (my back or helmet) and one low, and the front lights are angled differently to give me full coverage for a good distance.

The cheapest and lightest way for visibility gear is the "jacket" type that you wear over your clothes.

I used to commute by bicycle about 20 miles a day (total) from the East side of Edinburgh, through the middle of town and out to the West (to the Riccarton Campus) - I worked late a lot so I was often returning in the dark.

Best thing I ever did was get an extremely powerful set of lights (Vistalite I think) - they were very expensive but I'm sure they saved my life on multiple occasions. I used to have one light angled so that it illuminated the road with the other pretty much shining into the faces of car drivers - probably not legal but at least I knew I could wiggle the handlebars to shine a light into a drivers face if they were about to do something that would cause a problem.

Unfortunately, bright lights can't protect you from other road hazzards - kids throwing a brick at me being an example of what cyclists have to put up with.

Where do you live and where do you work?

I work in downtown Denver and live nearby. Denver is a pretty bike friendly city.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9n_V6XDrL8. Couldn't resist.

  > Couldn't resist.

Try.

  Yoda:
    > Do, or do not.
    > There is no try.

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