Project Ride to Work

Our wet as hell version of winter is fully upon us here on the Wet Coast of British Columbia and I'm not stoked on it. But I've recently moved a lot closer to work and I'm thinking that driving that short distance no longer makes a lot/any sense unless I am absolutely going to require my truck that day. With that in mind, I've to started commuting to work again like I did from time to time while I lived in Calgary. Turns out next week (November 17-23) is actually the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition's Bike to Work Week. Here is my set up that I am currently running and will make changes to as the winter gets worse and I remember what all is needed to make the ride more enjoyable on all these wet days.

Read on and join me next week for Ride to Work Week where ever you live,While Christmas shopping at Mountain Equipment Co-op last week I saw a pamphlet for the VACC - Bike to Work Week, so I thought that this was the perfect time to tell you all about my little winter project and to hopefully encourage you to join in on the activity this coming week and maybe you too will enjoy it so much that you continue all winter too.

My bike of choice is my trusty Chromag Gypsy that I've had for about 3 years now. It's a steel hard tail that loves to be pedaled (even when the owner neglects it) and was easy to build up for riding to work versus a fully. The current build spec is fully done with XC and AM riding in mind, but will slowly become more commute orientated I am sure.


I know that my components aren't about to let me down as I've been riding them on other bikes off and on all season, it's the accessories that I'll be needing to make the rider better. Since the ride to work is done in the day light, everyone seems to be able to see me and I can see just fine too. The ride home is another story as it's often after dinner time and pitch black outside so I had to go digging around for a light for the front and one for my pack back. I've had my blinking LED rear light for like 7-8 and the thing still works fine, so it's mounted on my pack so folks can see me. As for a front light, we had two options in the parts bins, one was a Nightpro helmet mount that I used last winter riding XC at night and the other was a BLT Firewire 4.0 that's a bar mount LED set up. The Nightpro works great, but is over kill for commuting to and from work around here, so I went with the BLT light. Last year Koda got his paws and jaws on this light when we got it and ate one of the mounts and made it unusable. Well it turned out to be an easy fix and after installing 4 AA batteries it is now mounted up on my top tube and is providing me with all the light I need to get home.


With lighting taken care of, I had to get the moisture off of me next. Let's start with the bike and then move on to me the rider. The fact that I rarely throw bike parts away is a blessing at times and I found my old rear fender that I used in Calgary in an old fork box along with a Crud Catcher down tube fender that had a broken O-ring (used to attach it) and had found its way into the "I may use this again one day" bin. Well one zip tie and an O-ring later and I had it mounted up. I like that the accessories haven't cost me much yet as I'm just using things that were laying around and just needed some work to make then function. Since the Crud Catcher is only a down tube mount, I was still getting some front wheel spray. That was soon fixed with an old DH tube, turned Ghetto mud flap.


The only part that I've had to change out on my bike has been the stem as I have been running a short 50mm stem most of the time on the Chromag, but for riding back and forth to work I was needing a little longer reach. Thankfully I was able to do a trade and now I am running a 70mm Race Face Atlas AM stem and I'm happy with the longer reach. The rest of the parts are unchanged from the last XC rides up on Majuba. Let's see how that goes as I'm always looking for ways to make biking more fun or for an excuse to try out some new parts.


Since the bike is dialed in so far, I too have to get dialed in with proper clothes for all the different weather we get out here. In Calgary winter gear worked great as snow just brushed off and the slush would take a while to soak in. Here it's lot of rain or occasionally dry with only a few snow days, so I figured my old snow pants would work - nope they soaked through halfway to work on a really wet day. Thankfully Sombrio was having their sample sale a few weeks ago and I was in town for it. I managed to pick up a pair of their ROAM pants (they zip off to shorts), which are highly waterproof and have pull chords at the ankle cuffs so that the pant doesn't get caught in the chainrings - just what I needed. Another item I found there that I was in search of was a pair of winter riding gloves. All I own is standard riding gloves or big winter mitts, so finding a pair of gloves that were built for the task was a real bonus. Running the glove material high up on the wrists also means that they tuck nicely under my coat's cuffs and then I can cinch my rain coat down on them and have no worries about water getting inside.


So that covers the primary parts that are getting wet, but what about my head? Well I dug out my old XC lid, changed the stinky pads out and taped off all the forward and upward facing vents to keep the water out. This old lid has been around for years and is not my regular XC lid but rather old faithful that I use for projects just like this, I will lost likely retire it after this winter and make my good lid into the project one as it's best to keep your helmets fresh if you are using them a lot. They need to be replaced even if you haven't crashed as UV rays and your sweat will do their own damage over time too.


So there you have it, my first post for the winter riding season. I'll do my best to keep you all updated on how it's going and any changes I make to the bike or to my riding gear to make the ride better. I hope that you too are inspired to ride to work this coming week or maybe next week, either way give it a try and you may like it. Plus the amount I've spent ($129.34) only equates to less than 2 tanks of gas in my truck and that doesn't go all that far anyhow, so I'm enjoying saving in the long run. Hey that should mean more cash for spring time road trips! For what ever reason you need to justify it to yourself, simply just do it and I'll see you out there riding to work.


-Tyler "Brule" Maine

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