bike commuter confessional

I killed my cable a while back, and yesterday after work I rode to the cable store to return the cable box. It was raining, near dusk, the lighting in the empty store was really low, and the only clerk on duty was a middle-aged woman, sitting behind the counter in the corner. The darkness, quietness, solitude, and questions she peppered me with made me feel like I was doing a confession at church (I've never done one, so I may be taking some liberties here).

Her: "How did you get this thing here on a bike?"
Me: "I've got panniers."
Her: Blank stare.
Me: "Saddlebags. Bags that attach to the side of the bike to carry stuff."
Her: "You rode all the way over here in the rain from 38th and East Cliff?"
Me: "Yeah. It's not that far, and I don't have a choice. I sold my car a while back."
Her: "So you don't own a car." (The way she said this was interesting - verbally it came out as a statement; non-verbally it came out as a question - head cocked, chin down, eyebrows raised. She was doubtful.)
Me: "Nope."
Her: "Do you like your helmet?" (I was wearing it inside.)
Me: "Yeah. It's nice."
Her: "I bet you can ride really fast."
Me: Blank stare.
Her: "What do you do when you go on a date?"
Me: "I make her drive." Pause for effect. Then, "Just kidding. We ride bikes or drive her car. Sometimes I rent a car for a weekend to take a break from riding."

I like when people show interest, or doubt, in how I support myself on a bicycle. Although most of the questions are the same, I never get tired of talking to people about it. I guess that's the first law of bike commuting in effect (http://clayton-ryon.blogspot.com/2009/02/four-laws-of-bike-commuting.html). I need to find out a way to take this to the next level and actually *inspire* people to reduce their own dependence on automobiles. Fourteen percent of our car trips are less than half a mile...a five minute bike ride.

recession indicator #896

Random email from my friend Nick yesterday:

For our work, we both deal with transportation and logistics in the organic foods industry (I still want to call it a "community" and not an "industry", but I think we're beyond that now). His email got me thinking about this new economy (i.e. recession) and my job. I've never been scared about the economy and losing my job. I'm still not scared about losing my job, but I am really concerned about the economy. Got my 401K statement for the year and it lost 7% of its total value. And I do feel like the squeeze is hitting closer to home. In the last 60 days, two of my friends have lost their jobs. Another friend saw the writing on the wall and found another job about 30 days before massive layoffs at the company she left. Three weeks ago, an ex-boss with a company I worked for in Philly called me from the East Coast looking for work. Scary.

the four laws of bike commuting

I made a choice 16 months ago to sell my car and fully support myself on a bicycle. I was inspired by a book (How To Live Well Without a Car) - the premise of which was "If you can get to work reliably without a car, you don't need one." I molded my life around this premise. Luckily I live and work in Santa Cruz so getting to work without a car is not difficult. The rest of my daily routine - surfing, yoga, mountain biking, and food gathering are all within a 4-mile radius of my home. I am 106 steps from the ocean for surfing; I am four miles from the yoga dive; I am a 45-minute bike ride from epic trails; and I am less than one mile from New Leaf. For the past 16 months, I have definitely learned how to live well without a car.

Supporting myself on a bicycle for 16 months has taught me a lot about myself. So far, I have distilled those learnings into my "Four Laws of Bike Commuting."

1. Have fun.
(share pictures of funny stuff you see on your rides, talk to people, wave at fellow bicyclists, slow down and look around, explore different routes)

2. Be prepared.
(know your ride and how to fix it, stay in tune with the weather, have emergency cash stashed somewhere on your ride, carry extra lighting and batteries, make sure people know where/when you are riding, buy a bus pass for days when you need to rest, buy the best gear you can afford, invest in a RoadID (http://www.roadid.com/), know that you will eventually be struck by an oblivious driver, know and obey the rules of the road and respectfully stand up for bicyclists' rights when you are on the road)

3. Don't bitch.
(you made a tough choice that most people will never understand - keep your chin up, always)

4. Don't ask for help when things get hard.
(don't let people bail you out of adverse conditions unless your welfare is at stake)

I can write these rules because I have broken all of them. I have ridden for days where I was having no fun at all. I have been stranded because I didn't have the tools or knowledge to fix a mechanical issue. I have complained about the choice I made, and questioned why I sold my car. I have slept in on a cold, dark, rainy morning hoping my aweseome girlfriend would offer take me to work. And in the end, I was the most grateful and had the most fun when I followed all of these rules.

maybe I'm not over surfing

• Timed it just right today and surfed Drainpipes on an outgoing tide.
• Steep faces over reef. Sunny day. Cold water. Lots of energy in the water.
• People spread out with lots of room.
• 9'11" single-fin with a huge, square tail, concave nose - tricky in anything over shoulder-high.
• First wave - head high and I was grinning on the paddle back to the lineup. Stoke.
• Second wave - dorked because I was replaying the first wave in my head.
• Third wave - yielded to a short-boarder in the perfect spot, but he backed off at the last possible second so I spun around and took it. Late take off - Deep - Made it. Felt the connection with the ocean that I've been missing. Surfed like I didn't give a damn and had a blast. Thanks, guy on a shortboard, for not taking that wave.

my morning commute

Friday, February 6, 2009.

6:04 am.

56 degrees with rain and fog.

Climbed from a warm bed into a warm rain for my morning commute to work (from Felton). Not much to see along the way, because it was raining and foggy.

Stopped by LuLu Carpenter's for a coffee:

Got to work and the one-liners immediately started from my co-workers:

T: "Clay's here. In his tights. Hey, Clay, you should start bringing your ice skates to work."

T (as I was stripping out of the rain and sweat-soaked layers of clothing): "Clay, you're not going to win the Cleanliness Award this week." Me: "Hey, I just rode 10 miles to work. This is what saving the planet looks like." D (from a cubicle across the room): "...and smells like..."

Here's my route:

morning commute and vegan cupcakes

Proud moment last week: I honored my body and didn't ride for four days. I rented a car from Thursday to Monday, had the bike shop do my tune-up since I didn't have time and was beating myself up for it, and didn't ride at all for four days. I think my body just needed a break from riding.

I got back on Monday afternoon and feel super-strong. So strong, in fact, that I'm going to punish myself and do a cyclocross race on Saturday. I have no idea about the course - all I know is that it starts at 11am at Waddell Creek, there may be some beach riding involved, there's a keg on the course with shot stops, and big potluck dinner afterwards. And it's supposed to rain for two days leading up to the race.

I'm exploring new routes to work this week. Here's today's route. I am fortunate that I live just under three miles from work. Whatever happens in the future, I will never forget the joy of riding my bike to and from work. It makes me happy.

Here's the sunrise I enjoyed as I turned onto East Cliff:

And here's a homemade street sign on 30th Ave. It was the grammatical error that first caught my attention, and then I wondered: "Is this a request or a statement?"

I made vegan cupcakes for firefighters on Saturday. It was a partial success. Nineteen cupcakes shouldn't last more than 24 hours in a firestation. These did, so that's why it wasn't a total success.

"I was built for recreation."

So I got out and surfed for the first time in nearly two months last weekend. It's funny, really, how little I've surfed recently. When I moved to Santa Cruz three years ago I would go out in any conditions - it didn't matter how cold or dirty the water was, how cold the air was, or how crappy the surf was. I was just stoked to be out in it. So stoked that a couple of times, strangers would comment on the smile on my face as I was paddling out, and people I knew would give me shit for being so smiley in the lineup. My sessions would last up to three or four hours, and I would get out of the water *stoked*, no regrets. Get on my bike and ride, soaking wet in a wetsuit, the mile-and-half back to my apartment. That's changed in the last few months, and it kinda makes me sad. Now, instead of living a mile-and-a-half from the ocean, I live 109 steps from the ocean, and I've gotten so picky about conditions - I can make a handful of excuses about why I shouldn't go out. "There's too many people out." "The tide isn't working." "It's too windy." "The water's too dirty." I know that I hit a plateau a while back, because for a few months it felt like every wave was the same (impossible!) and that I was doing the same thing on every wave. So I had a shorter board custom-made for me to mix things up. And that's what I took out this past weekend. It's a 7'6" fish - hardly a shortboard - but I still call it that because it rides so much differently than the boards that I normally ride (a 9'6" single-fin pintail, and a 9'11" single-fin noserider). I figured I was going to suffer no matter what I was on, since I hadn't surfed in nearly two months, so why not suffer on something that I want to get better on? I paddled out in 50 degree water, a 4/3 wetsuit with booties, did a good job of keeping my head dry for the first 20 minutes or so, and caught eight waves during my 45 minute session. And I was bored about 30 minutes into it. Don't know what's up with that. Could it be that I'm over surfing?? On Sunday afternoon, Adria and I were walking along East Cliff and we ran into Chris. He had just harvested some broccoli from his community garden plot. He shared a bit of his harvest with me. I'm going to juice it tomorrow morning. Yumm.

After the East Cliff stroll, we made our way to the West Side. Along the way, Adria and I were talking about her previous jobs. I commented that I bet she was really, really good at this one job she had before her current job and her response was immediate and confident: "I was built for recreation." I loved that answer.

We were walking along West Cliff and we looked down to the beach and saw this cool piece of temporary art. It was gone a few hours later when the tide came in.

A bit further down West Cliff, there was a BMX bike lying on the pavement and I jokingly turned to Adria and said, "I'll give you fifty bucks if you jump on that bike and ride off on it." Without hesitating, she pulled away from me, ran to the bike, picked it up, hollered to the guys that it belonged to "hey is this your bike can I ride it?" When she came back to me, she didn't ask for the fifty bucks. "Put it towards our round-the-world bike trip", she said. Yeah, more on that later...