I made it !!! Bike to Work Day 2008

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For those who didn’t see a twitter update, I arrived safe and sound at work at my usual time on Bike to Work Day.

The ride down the dark, steep, pothole riddled streets of Tacoma wasn’t quite as terrifying as I thought. But between being nervous, working the camera and carrying a heavy backpack, I decided that I was pushing my luck and “crash karma” and chose to ride the downtown Tacoma stretch unclipped (I’m very happy I have that option with the pedals I purchased)

The ride into work is pretty easy, a quick shot up Smith Street to the Inter Urban trail and then a short (but dicey due to road construction) ride down S 228th to my office. One asshat in a big truck sped up and revved his engine when he went past me to show his displeasure with one of those “damn cyclists” being on the road.

I'm glad that the Cascade Bicycle Club and the Tacoma Wheelmaen advocate for us.

I was not amused. I’ll have to see if I can pull a still photo off the video and post it all over the internet with his license plate showing.

Asshat.

I was the first “customer” of our booth and got a SWAG water bottle, cliff bar, free breakfast coupon (eating my yummy fruit and cottage cheese right now) and a prize drawing entry.

Since the bike room will be overflowing and I’ve already got a prime location (end, low, hook) taken up by Shiny, I brought Flash upstairs with me. This will also make sure I don’t forget that I rode in and accidentally jump on the van.

And now, I present to you, my loud, mismatched bike outfit… (biking is one of the few sports where it’s “cool” (and more important safe) to dress in bright, bugly mismatched colors. I just need some loud obnoxious socks to complete the outfit.

As you can see, I’m standing next to the “possessed” printer (which still has my warning complete with picture of the South Park Satan on it) and Deborah’s rubber ducky collection.



And now, I need to get these bike shorts OFF (I’m field testing some gel shorts for work, and the chamois doesn’t air/dry out like regular ones do) and get back to work.

I shot about six minutes total of video, which will be easy to edit down to about 3-5 minutes. I’ll have it up on YouTube later tonight.

The steep uphill on the way home, in the heat should be “interesting”.

Have a great day all..

~L