There are so many great options for bikes that it’s hard to just pick a few. Several of my Greenville friends have asked for recommendations for around-town pavement riding, so I thought I’d compile a ‘starter’ list for reference. Most of these fall within the ‘city commuter’ category, but you can customize most mountain, cruiser, or road bike to suit your commute. For example, you might outfit a beater mountain bike in a city with high bike theft problems, or a cruiser if you live in a flat coastal area with low mileage rides, and I currently commute on a steel frame road bike model that I fell in love with that didn’t have a step through frame. Anyway, here are some general, around-town bikes to consider if you want something fun, reliable and practical (in no particular order); I’ve pictured the step through models but you can try out a men’s frame too if you need a taller size or if you don’t care about the step-through. Most bike shops carry one or several major bike brands, but you won’t find all of these at the same store. If you’re shopping for any new bike, treat it like buying a car: take the time to go to several places, talk to the staff, and take a few bikes out on a test ride at each place to get a feel for the differences between models.

 

 

The Fuji Absolute series ($400 and up) is a sporty model that’s great for city riding as well. It also offers upgrades to disc brakes, which perform well in rain/muddy conditions.

 

 

 

The Liv Alight series ($380 and up) is popular for paved trail and city riding. Liv tends to carry more petite sizes and is a womens-centered offshoot of Giant Bicycles.

 

 

The Specialized Alibi series (starting at $450) comes in a more skirt-friendly step through design, with fenders and a rear rack on the EQ model (pictured). I must admit I haven’t tried the Nimbus solid core tires for more than a test ride, but if you’re worried about flats they could be an added bonus.

 

 

The Jamis Coda series ($369 and up) is a great steel frame option with plenty of gears for hills – this bike is one of Jamis’s best sellers for city riding (just add a rack and panniers), and it can easily double as a fitness bike for paved trail riding as well.

 

 

Bianchi’s ‘Turismo’ collection of city bikes ($400 and up) includes this completely gorgeous Venezia Dama, and while I should have highlighted the Torino, Milano or really any model that’s not a single speed, this one is the prettiest and I’m more than a little smitten with it. If you like the vintage European look, you may also want to check out Linus and Biria bikes.

 

 

 

PS: this is not a paid/promoted post in any form, I just like recommending good stuff. 

 

 

 

For my anniversary marking 3 years of living car free, I went full middle aged hipster and celebrated with craft beer and a new 1×10 groupset on my commuter (halfway to a fixed gear, which is as close as I’m ever going to get). I have the tendency to put off replacing parts until it’s absolutely necessary (mostly out of laziness), so it feels like a whole new bike now that I have new gears and recently new brakes.

 

 

I changed out my brakes myself this time, and I did a fairly mediocre job if I do say so myself. In the course of planning my summer bike trip somewhere around the Great Lakes, I’ve realized my mechanic/maintenance skills really need to exist be kicked up a notch. You would think that living by bike would have taught me some basic functional skills by default by now, such as changing a flat or derailleur adjusting, but I’ve been pretty lucky over the last 3 years in terms of mechanical issues.

Well, except for the other day when of all things, I went to lock up my bike and found that the whole barrel of my combination lock had randomly broken off:

 

 

Thankfully there’s usually a bike shop nearby when riding around in Greenville, but for a 1,000+ mile trip like the one I’m planning, I’m going to need to be a bit more self-reliant.

At any rate, considering all the worries I had 3 years ago about what life would be like without a car, I wish I could go back a bit further and tell myself to just go for it. I haven’t missed car ownership once, not even through hurricanes, snow, or even moving last summer. It’s not always convenient or comfortable to ride a bike for transportation, but ultimately having 24/7 convenience and comfort aren’t what I’m after. If I’m lucky, there will be many more car free anniversaries to celebrate in my future.

A funny thing about bike commuting, as is also often the case with bike touring, is that random inconveniences often tend to work out perfectly. For example, today I ended up with a free hour to spend downtown since it wasn’t worth riding home between work and going to dinner. In a car, I would have rushed home for just a few minutes or found an errand to run along a busy, traffic clogged road, since there’s no inherent need to drive downtown and find parking at this hour. Instead, I took a quiet bike route through neighborhoods into Greenville and have wound up sitting and relaxing by the waterfall in our beautiful downtown park.The parking is free and easy, the view is gorgeous, and it’s a perfect opportunity to vote for my town in the elite 8 of the Strong Towns bracket and unwind in the sunshine.

Every year for me since 2015 is the “year of the bike” by default, but 2017 was exceptional.

Following a conversation at my local bike shop, a handful of shop regulars started a friendly competition to see who could ride their bike at least 1 mile (logged on Strava for proof) per consecutive day of 2017, with a  “last wo/man standing” approach.

It was said that as a commuter, I would surely win. But with the time I have off with a school district job, and my inclination on some weekends to stay at home and slowly drown in cat hair, it was a challenge nonetheless.

Strava did let me down unfortunately, with a total of 362 days logged for the year between times that I saved my ride the next morning and an overnight, 2-day logged ride while on the Natchez Trace with spotty reception.

But scout’s honor, I did ride the minimum mile each day, for a total of 5k logged miles at years end.

It was a sad day when I broke the streak on January 2 of 2018. I half considered keeping it going, but a) I do feel bad clogging up people’s Strava feeds with often underwhelming 1.1 mile or repetitive commute logs on many days, b) it does add pressure and an extra complication when planning a trip, and c) I would rather set a total 7k mile goal for 2018 instead. Oh, and d) I currently have bronchitis and haven’t left the house for 3 days.

The best result of this experiment was creating a photo diary of sorts for the year. I think I took more pictures than usual, in part to add some interest to my boring commutes and short rides. Between the title, pictures added and comments among friends, I have a capsule of sorts for 2017 to remember the literal and figurative ups and downs of 2017. In a year where the need for self care was pretty much unprecedented, riding daily was also a thoroughly needed catharsis and mental break from the general chaos that often seemed to reign supreme.

Some highlights of the year?

Marches and rallies, because 2017:

 

Group rides that might otherwise blend together:

 

Getting a beautiful new road bike:

 

Crossing items off the bike-it list: Georgia Guidestones, Silver Comet Trail

 

 

The Natchez Trace in April

 

Good times with friends and family:

 

Road trip ‘side rides’ with borrowed wheels along the way:

 

Buying and renovating a house.. with some interesting trips to Lowe’s

 

Sharing ongoing progress with house projects:

 

Not to mention countless other memories.. it’s hard to fit a year into a post.

There were some challenging days (Marked by neighborhood loops during Irma, which took out our power for 3 days)

And icy snow days that I had off of work but managed a slow roll down the street or around a salted parking lot)

 

But I can’t recall once regretting the yearlong commitment.

 

Not to mention I finally got my gummy bear prize, hand delivered:

 

I would highly recommend a month or year long experiment like this; I may even try it again myself down the road. In the meantime, I’ll keep rolling through 2018, open to new adventures✌️

 

Today marks day #360 of my ‘ride every day if 2017’ challenge (and yes, I see the flashing red light at the end of the tunnel!).

Some days I take a quick turn around the neighborhood to get the minimum required 1.0 mile in, but today on a whim I decided to venture out with the trailer to do some errands and post-Christmas shopping. The faintest hint of sunset was showing in the sky when I exited my last stop and heard a friendly “I hope you stay warm out there!” as I bungeed my bags onto my already rather full load.

I have to admit, at first I thought that this kind person had assumed that I was experiencing homelessness, and I found myself self consciously explaining that I live nearby and enjoy bike commuting.

As it turns out, the friendly voice belonged to Sandra, who used to bike commute regularly when she lived in Las Vegas and Massachusetts. I could tell it thrilled her to see someone bike commuting in a place like South Carolina, and we enjoyed swapping stories about our experiences and shared frustrations with the car-centric culture we live in.

I love the sense that every ride has the potential to build community and new connections. You just can’t say the same for driving!

Not having a car can get awkward in unexpected ways. Like filling out residency forms for South Carolina. I guess they’ll let me know if they have questions?