Wednesday, December 20, 2006

What did I do?

OK, let's recap. Yesterday I forgot the battery for my light and was looking at a 14 mile commute in the dark, with traffic and no front lighting of any sort. I did have a tailight, but that's not really even half the battle. I received many helpful, and some not so helpful, suggestions. Let's start with the not so helpful.

I think option F - stay overnight at work.

Staying overnight at work is just wrong. I do everything I can to ensure I only work somewhere between 35-40 hours per week on a regular basis, and I certainly don't want to change that. Thanks Snake, but I'm sending you to the remedial class.

Dude - you forget option G: buy another battery!

I'm currently rockin' the Planet Bike Alias light for my commute. It looks a little something like this:
planet bike alias headlight

I can't imagine anywhere downtown that would have one. Plus, I don't really want to shell out in the neighborhood of $70 for another battery. Nice idea, but loses something in the execution.

Doug wins the prize for what I should have done. He's absolutely right, I can always use another light. All my bikes should have blinkies front and rear, permanently mounted instead of shuttled back and forth. This scenario is the perfect proof as to why. But, since either of the bike shops I wanted to go to required miles of riding in traffic, I decided not to go with this one.

Oddly enough, the first comment hit the nail on the head. Minus Car (aka mytzpyk) guessed choice b right away. And that's what I went with. I took the train from downtown to Fort Snelling and rode the remaining 4 miles home. From Fort Snelling, it's pretty light traffic and nice wide shoulders. No worries.

Thanks for playing!

Date: December 20
Mileage: 20
Ride type/Bike: Commute/Schwinn
December mileage: 135
Year to date mileage: 3126

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cool, good idea.

I've been checking out your blog and love your tales of commuting by bicycle. That's something I want to try sometime. I have also been looking into the Jamis Satellite for a while, so it was cool to see that you've got one of those.

I'm blogrolling you and will be back to see more stuff. I might throw some questions your way sometime about what's good for commuting -- I want to get a new road bike sometime in the not-too-distant future. Thanks!

Doug said...

I use the same light, except mine has a snack size ziplock baggie around the switch. When It gets soggy outside that switch stops working. Other then that it works great.

I carry the battery into work with me. One day, at quitting time, I walked out of the building to leave. Just as the door closed and locked behind me I realized the battery was still sitting on my desk. Luckily my boss was still working and heard me knocking on the window.

Snakebite said...

You should have stayed at work and rearranged the furniture or something. So, do I get a prize for "miss congeniality" or something?

mytzpyk said...

yessssssssssssss

rigtenzin said...

It sounds like you missed a great opportunity to buy new bike stuff.

Which bike shops are downtown? One on One, Freewheel (sort of), others?

KM said...

Two words Pete -- Dynamo hub. Batteries are a thing of the past.

LvilleTex said...

after 2 or 3 commutes with my new dynamo hub (SON + Lumotec Oval...), I have to believe that's the way to go as long as you don't need megalight. My intensity is so-so, but for city riding it's near perfect. Not cheap, but near perfect!

Yokota Fritz said...

I have permanently mounted blinkies on my regular commuting bikes. I've forgotten batteries before and had my primary lights fail so the backups are handy to have

Yokota Fritz said...

Dynamo hubs can drive about 6 watts of lights so it's a good option, especially with LED lights. I own and ride multiple bikes, though, so the ability to swap lights among bikes is a prime requirement.

Tanya said...

In a pinch you could also just rig up a normal flashlight (if there is one around the office, or buy one at a convenience store) to use for a headlight.