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How and why to bike to work. Especially how to do it on Caltrain in the SF Bay Area.

Why should you bike to work? Many reasons:

• It's cheap. No car, no gas, no insurance. Also, in the SF Bay Area, many employers participate in a program that lets you pay for your Caltrain or Light Rail pass with pre-tax money.


• Your mind is your own. Driving rots the mind and wastes your life. Sitting in the Caltrain bike car and reading or chatting with your fellow bicyclists, you learn new and interesting things and enjoy yourself.


• You make friends. Drivers meet no one, unless they carpool, but carpooling is rare. Bicyclists in the Caltrain bike cars all see each other every day, and a lot of good friendships get formed.


• It's beautiful. Especially along the Embarcadero just past the Bay Bridge. You can just stop and stare in amazement, watch the seals, and just be there. Stopping and staring is not an option for drivers.


• It's great exercise. Especially as part of your daily routine, since it gets to be so automatic you don't even know you're exercising. Drivers get a fat ass and thin legs.

There are some good reasons not to commute by bike, but they can all be overcome. You can ride in any weather around here. I know, since I did it for more than 5 years as my daily commute.

• Darkness. In the winter, it gets dark as early as 4pm. Get some good bike lights and reflectors and don't ride as fast when it's dark. A waterproof flashlight strapped to the top of your helmet works great because it points where you look. It's also great for signalling drivers not to run you over. You can shine it in their eyes to get their attention if needed.
  


• Rain. In the winter, it rains and it can be pretty chilly. So get some waterproof gear. It's easy enough to carry a backpack with extra socks and things in a plastic bag. I also got "water shoes" like surfers wear. Worked great, since I didn't care if they got wet and had a pair of dress shoes at work. The hardest part is the rain pants. They tend to be expensive and to split open. My best luck has been with a pair of thick bright yellow plastic pants. They were not intended for bicycling, but they work well and never leak.


• Car doors. I once got knocked off my bike by a car door that opened on my left as I was passing a line of stuck traffic. I guess some passenger wanted to get out. You have to watch for doors opening on both the right and the left.

I've had a few bikes over the years. The one I like best for work commuting is a Marin "hybrid". Hybrid means it's halfway between a racing bike and a dirt bike. Good for potholes and curbs, but without the knobby tires to slow you down. It's light, which is good when you're lifting it up onto Caltrain every day. I just remove the kickstand since it takes off a pound or two and you don't really need one. I like the short (narrow, not wide) handlebars because you don't get caught on as much stuff in the bike car. You probably want two ankle straps, one for each leg, since either pant leg can get munged in the chain. Carry your lock with you, since you'll never know when you need it. Don't use a cable-type lock. They're too easy to cut. I lost a bike that way. Kryptonite locks with the tubular keys are supposedly easy to break into, but it's never happened to me nor to anyone I know. Every gas station must by law have an air hose, so that's an easy way to pump up your tires. Get a bike tag from a Caltrain conductor or at the station. Otherwise people end up shouting at every station, asking where your bike is going so they know whether to put theirs on top. The "baby bullet" Caltrain trains have been too popular, and Caltrain cut the number of bike spaces in half. This resulted in tension between bicyclists, because there is often not enough space for every biker. Anyway, there's always more room on the slow trains, and in the worst case, you could buy two bikes, keeping one at each end of your commute. Finally, note that it's often way faster to bike further along the waterfront than a shorter distance in the city. The waterfront is necessarily flat, and it's safer because there's no cross traffic (well, a few parking lots), and it's much more scenic.

A few more tips:

• Do not speed toward a changing light in the rain. That's just asking to get run over. First of all, your brakes aren't going to work well in the rain. Second of all, you'll be going too fast to stop anyway.


• Don't wear shoes with shoelaces. Eventually they'll get caught around the pedal and you'll have a problem.


• Don't ride right up to the edge of a building's corner, since you don't know what's on the other side.


• Watch for bikes just behind you when turning left or right.