Lessons I've learned from cycle commuting.

1. Never, never say (at least where anyone can hear you
"Only a wimp puts fenders on a mountain bike." You will spend a lot of time walking around with a stripe of mud up your butt in order to save face.

2. Always carry enough change for the bus. The time you don't is the time you will have your 3rd flat tire and have to push it four miles home in a snow storm.

3. Even though the city you live in brags about being cycle friendly, THEY ARE LYING!! The roads are full of rubble and bike eating potholes.

4. Always assume you are invisible to motorists. For the most part, you are.

5. Never assume that because you have made eye contact with a motorist they have seen you.

6. Resist the urge to do seriously bodily harm to drivers or pedestrians that cut you off. They don't realize that you can be doing 25 mph when they step or turn in front of you.

7. Always show appreciation for small kindnesses by motorists. There are a lot of ignorant cyclists out there too...hopefully YOU will be the one they remember.

8. Resist the urge to give obscene hand gestures when someone cuts you off and almost kills you. They are bigger than you and might be packing a loaded weapon.

9. Carry a tool and patch kit and know how to use it.

10. Learn how to save face by "accidentally" making your chain pop off. ("Awww.....gee, I coulda made it all the way to the top of that BIG hill, but my chain came off!")

11. Always carry and old sock or glove in your bike bag. Saves your hands from grease when your chain comes off.

I am sure I will think of more as time goes by.  Some things actually are quicker by bike...like running to the grocery store and even getting home from work. But if one more person says to me, "Hey, you're gonna get in good shape with all that biking!"  I may or may not resist the urge to rip their face off!! Like I said to the last person who said that to me, "I'm already in #%^$@%#!!!! good shape!!