Nah. Just one mile will get you to 9th position in the August challenge 😀
(Not my challenges by the way, someone else here created these ones)
Pump
Tube
Multitool
Phone
Shorts, top, socks, for the ride home, I hate starting a ride in damp sweaty kit.
15 mile commute across the Quantocks (offroad if I fancy it).
Edit: Even if I dry my kit out (in the drying room) it still starts to stink as soon as it gets warm.
Okay, GrahamS - I'm in for the August challenge if it's not too complex to sort tomorrow!
Edit - the shoes and spare socks advice is spot on. Spent all day Monday in sopping wet shoes, which is possibly the worst cycling logistics fail there is.
[u]Outer top pocket (of rucksack)[/u]
House keys
Bike lock keys
Lip balm
Spare sunnies
Work ID
Work swipe card
Pen
[u]Inner top pocket[/u]
Witch Stick
Gym swipe card
Tube of Berocca tablets
Wallet
Phone
[u]Left pocket[/u]
2 x bike lock
Mini pump
Lock knife
[u]Right pocket[/u]
Puncture repair kit
Tyre levers
Multi tool
1 x 26" inner tube
1 x 700c inner tube
Lightweight waterproof shell
[u]Main compartment[/u]
Overshoes
Waterproof 3/4 shorts
Lunchbox (containing breakfast and erm, lunch)
A4 file
First aid kit
Dry bag containing -
Shirt + tie
Undercrackers
Socks
Spare cycling socks
..............bloody hell, no wonder it's heavy.
By the way. When I was on call, I had to take my laptop both ways as well. That's a T61, 15 inch screen, made out of solid heavinium. For a laugh I would take my bag off in the kitchen and the off-handedly ask my wife to move it for me. She'd grab the handle and then lurch forwards when she found she could barely move it off the floor.
"I just cycled home with that on my back", I would say.
"Oh my hero!" She'd reply ,"luckily I've just spent all day making myself look exactly like Rachel Aniston and now I'm right in the mood for some tough loving."
I don't know what's more impressive - toxicsoks' impressive list, which makes my commute bag seem positively puny, or Samurai's unbridled man-sexuality...
To be fair, I may have had a drink...
You're a beast, sir, pure and simple and I salute you for it.
UPDATE: had to test the STW clothes logistics technique as laid out above by the tried-and-tested STW commuter chaps. I'm barely creased – worked a treat! Ta, fellas
I have to confess: I brought a [b]return cycling shirt [/b] in today!
I think it's going to be warmer this afternoon, not cos I is stinky.
Dezzie, I did too. 😳
Freaks. Call me a filthy bugger, but I shall mostly be cycling both ways in the same top (dakine casual technical T).
And I'll probably wear it tomorrow too.
Sometimes, on the way home, I'll be waiting at lights and then there will be this incredibly strong wiff of BO about me. I'll look over my shoulder and there will be some guy there who thinks that since he dries his shirt out, it's all fine.
But
it's
not.
😉
Saves using my bell.
My bag packing this morning was über impressive. 😉 But whether I can keep it up - fwooaarr! - is another matter.
Usually, I'm a 'fly by the seat of my (wet) pants' kind of guy.
Nice not to stink and to have some clothing back-up though. Sure my colleagues would agree.
Don't think I could be faffed with a bike for that kind of distance. I'd spend more time getting it out of the shed and chaining it up again than I would riding it.
I know what you mean, and if it's wet, forget riding! It only takes a minute or two to get the bike out of the shed, and five or six minutes against nearer twenty walking means the bike wins. And it gets parked at the bottom of a flight of stairs behind a keycarded security door, which I have to go through to get to my work area.
Plus my left knee is playing me up more and more after a me/tarmac interface three years ago, and gets really quite painful at the mo', so the bike is more comfortable. Going to get the knee checked out, but I'm afraid of what they might find, it looks more swollen now than six months ago
[i] I'll look over my shoulder and there will be some guy there who thinks that since he dries his shirt out, it's all fine.[/i]
I think I followed him once... not for long though. Ghastly!
The downside of intense personal hygiene a la samurai (as I'm finding out) is you need way more cycling gear than I've got.
Two loads of gear per day... so you have to have at least four of everything, no? That's a pretty expensive outlay.
Also, does spraying the stench out of your shoes [b]EVER[/b] work?
Also, does spraying the stench out of your shoes EVER work?
Kiwi Deo Fresh is remarkably effective (in a slightly overpowering Febreeze-smell way):
[img] 
[/img]
Plus every now and again* I just properly wash them in the sink with a bit of Napisan
* i.e. usually when I've got so soaked that they are filled with water already.
I always dry my helmet with paper towels when I arrive. Seems to stop that being stinky.
[img] http://tinyurl.com/kh3ovnz [/img]
You know the scene from Withnail and I when Withnail attempts the washing up and says "Matter? Where's it coming from?"
That's the bottom of my Ortlieb, that is.
