Today was my first day biking 10 miles to the bus stop and catching the bus in to work for the last 15 miles. I ended up buying a new Giant XL mountain bike from a local bike shop. They replaced the knobby tires with slicks when I bought it. I'm amazed at what a difference the slicks make.
The XL model fits me well and the seat, for the first time in my life doesn't have to be set above the safe setting, just to fit me. I'm 6'-5" and its amazing how good a big bike feels.
I ended up buying paniers to go with it, but I don't like them so much and am going to take them back at lunch today and get something different. The thing I didn't like about them was that occassionally I'd kick it with my foot on the upstroke when I had my toes on the pedals. I felt like I was having to compensate with where my foot was positioned to keep from kicking it. Also taking the Paniers off and on isn't as easy as it could be.
The rack I put on is by Topeak.
And they make bags that slide right into the rack for easy on off. They are a bit spendier than the panier bags I bought, but it will be worth it, since I want to just slide it off when mounting the bike on the bus rack.
I'd like to get something like this that turns into paniers when I need extra storage. If its too spendy I'll go for the one without panier extensions
I also have this bike computer ordered from Amazon.com
Its not very expensive, but I like how it displays almost everything on one screen, so you don't have to toggle much. Hopefully It will be a pretty decent computer.
My ride took 41 minutes to ride about 10 miles. It took a little longer than I expected, but a friend of mine is making the same commute, but 1 mile shorter in 45 minutes, and he's been doing it for 2 weeks now, so that made me feel a bit better. As I get into shape and start using the computer I expect my time to drop some more.
So I saved about $10 today by biking in. Only about 50 more days like this and the bike will have paid for itself. If gas goes up to $8 / gallon it will pay for itself in half the commutes. Lets hope it doesn't though, since I still have to drive on bad weather days and fill up my wife's minivan.
-Steve G.