210 in 2010 Challenge

I've spent the last few months pondering a new challenge for myself and I've finally decided on one. I'm calling it the "210 in 2010 Challenge". For this challenge I will attempt to commute to work by bike 210 of the 365 days in 2010. 

How did I come up with 210 days? Well, I started with the 365 days that are in a year, and since this challenge is for commuting to work I discarded weekends and holidays. That gave me a total of 251 days. I'm the type of person who uses every last second of vacation and sick time, so after taking all that into account I was left with 234 days. That's 234 days that I could potentially use to commute. I'm giving myself 24 days to use for when it's just not logical to ride, like for my dentist appointment that's way down in Sarasota. That gives me my 210 days.

The "210 in 2010 Challenge" will start on Jan. 1st, 2010 and run until Dec. 31st, 2010. If I am to succeed I'll have to spend over 420 hours in the saddle and travel over 5,000 miles. I'll have to ride in temperatures ranging from the 30s to the 90s and relative humidities reaching above 90%. I'll get soaked by the Florida summer rains and blown over by the tropical storms. It's definitely going to interesting.


I'd also like to challenge all of you to either attempt the 210 in 2010 Challenge or make up a commute by bike challenge of your own. If anyone decides to attempt this challenge or create one of their own let me know and keep me posted on your progress.


Wish me luck and stay tuned for updates.

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Bike Withdrawals

I've been off my bike for well over a month and I'm starting have withdrawals. I spent hours online perusing bike commuting sites and blogs while daydreaming of commuting again. Screw it, I'm going to start riding into work again. Tomorrow sounds like a perfect day, what do y'all think? I'll deal with the running consequences later.

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More Commute Pics

Here are a few more photos taken of my commute route. I've also added all these images to a map if anyone cares to see exactly where they were taken.

Some Canal.

Well maintained bike lanes of Bradenton

With bike lanes mysteriously disappearing Bradenton isn't the most bike friendly city around.

Approaching a new traffic circle in a developing area of Manatee County

Long Bar Pointe Development Sign.

Looks like it's in the middle of nowhere, but it's really not.

At least I get some great sunsets.

Some neat graffiti near our house.

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My Poor, Neglected Superfly

My bad ass carbon fiber Gary Fisher Superfly is just sitting in my garage doing nothing. Actually, I guess that's not entirely true. Over the past couple months it's been collecting samples for it's research on "Particles of matter regarded as the result of disintegration", more commonly known as "dust". Not only is is covered in dust but, I had to pillage the saddle for use on my commuter. So there it sits covered in mud and dust with a lone seat post protruding from it's sleek "nude carbon" frame. What's that? Mud? Did I forget to mention that it's still covered in mud from my last outing at Boyette? Yeah, It is. I know, I'm a horrible bike owner.

I'm hoping to get out for a short ride at Boyette soon. "Hoping" being the key word. I have to run 27 miles this weekend. 9 on Friday and 18 on Saturday. That leaves Sunday open. Providing I can still walk on Sunday I'm going to take the Superfly in all it's "nude carbon" glory out for a spin.

Yes, I'll be re-installing the saddle before I go.

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Memories Of Cold Weather Commuting

I'm not talking about Florida cold weather commuting either. The memories I'm referring to consist of sub freezing temps and lots of snow. I first started commuting by bike while attending college in Spokane, Wa. Although I don't have any images of my actual commute it looked a little something like this.

And here was my route. Oh how I miss commuting in the snow.

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