Commuting to work is wonderful

Fall has finally hit us here in the Northwest. After last weeks cold snap and the rains for the past few days it's no escaping it: it is here. The leafs are starting to fall and the roads are getting wet and slick. To my surprise, this has not thinned out the throngs of commuters that I pass every day on my own commute. I commute mostly on marked bike routes so I always have a healthy amount of commuters joining me every morning and despite the weather they were out in force today. Perhaps they're just being stubborn or they're simply getting ready to fight old man winter, but there was a lot of them this morning. Certainly there is no reason for Victorians not to commute year round, and a I was happy to see the masses out, even though it was drizzling rain. The prevailing type you see on those wet days is the "Super commuter."
this character can be recognized by the trademark brightly coloured rain jacked, the abundance of reflective material on clothing and bike, pant clips or reflective Velcro straps, and a bike with fenders, a rack and panniers (mirror optional). This is the stereotype, but individualism does exist among those types. One of those individualistic types crossed my path this morning. He had all the hallmarks of the Super commuter proudly displayed. However there was one anomaly to his getup. This particular commuter did not have any use for pants, or even shorts for that matter. No, when he woke up this morning and looked out the window he somehow figured that this weather would call for his shortest of short shorts. Akin to these:
This choice in clothing struck me as a bit strange, and I contemplated what the reason for this could be, as wished I had an Iphone to capture this fantastic moment.
These are the possible options I came up with:
1 The cyclist is always super warm and if he wears pants he will overheat, pass out, crash and drown in a pool of sweat.
2 The cyclist is proud of his sculpted cycling legs (they were pretty muscular, and shaved) and wants the world to know.
3 The cyclist lost a bet.
4 The cyclist has a good sense of humor.

In any case, this odd commuter, a drooling Boxer in a car at a red light, and the homeless man that was screaming obscenities at cars but said "good morning sir" to me as a I rolled by made for a fun commute this morning.
And top of the morning to you sir!

Spring commute

As the weather is getting better, I see more and more people riding bikes on my morning commute. I'm lucky because I can ride on a "bike route" for the most part, through quiet streets filled with cyclists. I love seeing all the people out there riding and I get nods and waves from people that I see most days, as well as from other fixed-gear riders. That's nice and adds to the experience and on a sunny day like today with the cherry blossoms out in full force, it's just a great commute. But sometimes as I'm floating down the road on my purple colored cloud of blissfulness I get jolted out of that euphoria when I see (or hear) something in my fellow cyclist that boggles my mind and makes the hamster upstairs go into a speed wobble on the running wheel, derail and get killed in a disgusting fiery explosive crash, little bits of fur everywhere...
Now what could cause something like that in the mind of Halldor you may ask, and following are a few answers to that question.

Squeaky chains... what could possibly make someone ride around with a chain that is so dry that I can hear it across two lanes of traffic? Honestly, not only is the sound of a squeaky chain unbearable, but have you ever ridden a bike with a completely dry chain? It's horrible, slow and wrong. It destroys your drive train in record time, and it annoys the hell out of your fellow commuters.
If I so much as hear my chain, not squeaking just whirring, I lube it up, and if I hear the slightest squeak I feel really embarrassed and bad about not taking care of my bike. So for you crazy people out there with your squeaky chains, go to a bike shop and have them lube you're chain. Please?! They don't even charge you for it.
Low tire pressures...people riding with REALLY low tire pressures are up there with the squeaky chain crowd. It wears your tires out, it's slow and inefficient and the fix is, AGAIN, free. Go to your bike shop, pump the tires up and be more efficient.
Bad setup...Don't ride a bike that's way to small for you or too big. It looks silly, it's bad for your body and it ruins the whole experience. Same goes for seat height. Sadly, I see sooo many people riding with their saddle way too low. You can also see a few of the over-extenders out there and their easy to spot because their hips are rocking from side to side. Some people insist that they're not "getting the full extension" when their test riding our bikes and we've set up their saddle for them. But the thing is that you shouldn't have full extension. there should be a slight bend in your knee at the bottom of the pedal stroke, or about 30 degrees. If you're having pain at the front of your knees, the saddle is probably too low, and if you're having pain at the back (hamstrings) then it's probably too high. A bike fit will do wonders for people who are uncomfortable on their bike.
Helmets...First of all I'd like to mention helmets on the handlebars. What is up with that?! If you've got a helmet, and you even take it out with you on your ride, why on earth don't you store it on your noggin? That's where it is designed to sit, not on your bar. The Helmet's lest annoying place is on your head, not dangling from your bars, getting in the way of shifting and breaking etc. Another worthy point here is that you're no more legal in Victoria riding with your helmet on the bars than just riding without a helmet altogether.
Helmet positioning. I see a lot of people, kid's especially, riding with their helmet tipped way backwards so that its basically not covering any of the forehead. That's bad news. If you ride like that and take a spill you're more than likely to crack you're head on the pavement where there's no helmet. This can be solved with the "The two finger rule:" Place helmet level on head, so that it sits about one to two finger widths above the eyebrow of the wearer. Simple as that.
To those that think they're too cool to ride with a helmet I ask: Have you aver seen a person with brain injury? Not very cool, and the protection costs $40 bucks. Don't be stupid.

There are other things that bug me but I thing these are the ones that bug me the most...But in spite of all my pet peeves about bicycle etiquette, I still love seeing all the cyclists out there, warts and all.