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Hi,
I would like to make a more consistent use of the bike for commuting.
The one fear I have is getting stuck on the road w/ a mechanical problem I can't solve at 6 in the morning.
(I am BTW comfortable w/ changing flats etc. and to a lesser extent opening and reassembling chains)
I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for taxi companies?
Particularly ones w/ vans/mini-vans. I can pop my bike in the back of a Honda Odyssey w/out requiring any disassembling.
I'm sure that some companies aren't too keen about transporting a bike (dirt/chain etc) but I'm hoping there would
be some that are more pro-cyclist.
My bike is a recumbent so I feel a van would be better than a Taxi.
Again, I hope I don't need this; but I want to feel secure that there's a backup plan.
Getting home from work isn't that much of an issue as I'd have the day to find a friend to pick me up.
Thanks.
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I've traditionally used Yellow Cab and never gotten any guff from them about having a bike in the back. They certainly have mini-vans, though I've never had to request one.
That said, a quick rant (though this isn't applicable to you) -- my bike is a folder (a Bike Friday Tikit... incidentally, they also made a foldable recumbent, the Sat'r'Day, for a while; though it's discontinued and hard to find now), and fits great inside of a Mini. So -- a car2go subscription should be the perfect backup option, right?
Except that when I need to actually *use* that subscription it's typically middle of the night, and the Austin office is closed, and for one reason or another (wrong info in their insurance, credit card reported lost and never gave them the replacement number yet, etc) my account never seems to be active when I want to use it. And the overseas offices can't do anything with Austin accounts.
So -- even if you get a bike that fits in their vehicles, be careful relying on car2go as a backup unless they change their policies to empower the foreign offices to do account maintenance and reactivation.
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I've seen a few postings on craigslist where people who are not official taxi cab drivers offer rides around town for about $20. I'm not sure how legit or even legal these people are, so I'm not recommending it.
I use my bike to get almost everywhere and so I check it over for problems everyday. I spare no expense in keeping my bike maintained. I would suggest doing the same if at all possible. That should bring the likelihood of a breakdown to below that of a car. I actually worry less about mechanical failure preventing me from getting places than when I had a car. And, it's a lot less expensive to keep your bike in tip top shape than it is a car! Shifting your transportation to your bike will save you money.
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I use the folding bike, car2go method.
I've never had a problem... not saying there are not problems, just never personally experienced one.
(I've used it about 20 times)
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I have the same concern, and early in my commuting career, I had some adventures related to changing flats on the way to work and getting caught in torrential rain with insufficient water protection for my laptop.
To address the issue of flat tires, I now buy armored tires. I have never had a puncture since I installed Michelin Pilot City tires. (I used to work for Michelin and have a lot of respect for their quality system and level of technical expertise.) They may be heavier and slightly more expensive, but for me this is a no-brainer on a commuter bike. I hate changing flats on the side of the road for a host of reasons.
As for rain protection, I found that a Tyvek sleeve (I repurposed a free one from FedEx) is light, waterproof, and folds up nicely. I discovered that my laptop got wet from the /bottom/ of my backpack since that's where the water pooled. Make sure the sleeve opens upward, and cover the top.
When it's rainy all day or obnoxiously hot, I take the bus. We're a one-car family, so one way or another I have to get to work car-free every day. It works. I don't miss having a car (too much).
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A couple more thoughts... I went to BSS and picked up three or four extra spokes which I have taped to the frame of my commuting/touring bike. I also carry an extra brake cable which could double as a derailleur cable if need be. Along with my patch kit, extra inner tube, bike multi-tool and multi-tool Gerber knife I also carry a little bit of parachute cord, some duct tape and a bunch of zip ties.
I'm no longer worried about getting stuck by mechanical failure on the way to work. With some zip ties, duct tape and a sharp knife I could carve out a new civilization in the wilderness!
My company doesn't trust me with a lap top, but for pannier bags I got some Jandd Hurricanes. They are big, roomy and totally water proof. They seal up the same way as a canoe/kayak bag seals. They have never let me down.
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A couple more thoughts... I went to BSS and picked up three or four extra spokes which I have taped to the frame of my commuting/touring bike. I also carry an extra brake cable which could double as a derailleur cable if need be. Along with my patch kit, extra inner tube, bike multi-tool and multi-tool Gerber knife I also carry a little bit of parachute cord, some duct tape and a bunch of zip ties.
I'm no longer worried about getting stuck by mechanical failure on the way to work. With some zip ties, duct tape and a sharp knife I could carve out a new civilization in the wilderness!
My company doesn't trust me with a lap top, but for pannier bags I got some Jandd Hurricanes. They are big, roomy and totally water proof. They seal up the same way as a canoe/kayak bag seals. They have never let me down.
Well, since we've switched from backup options to getting together a commuting setup that avoids needing them, let me throw in my $.02:
Wheels: Thick, double-walled rims with as many spokes as possible -- in my case 36o, to match the hub. Haven't lost a spoke or had truing issues since finding the right rim, and they were a plague beforehand. (36o on a double-walled 16" rim at a width for road riding rather than BMX is hard to find -- spent more than a little time hunting around until Mike at Easy Street ordered a Velocity Aeroheat in the right drilling, which has been perfect).
Tires: Schwalbe Marathon Plus (advantage: extremely puncture-resistant; disadvantage: royal PITA to remove or replace, particularly in the small sizes; also had a single case where a Marathon Plus wore out extremely quickly on one side of center tread, but calling it a one-off as it hasn't happened again).
Gearing: Internal. Not only is being able to shift at a total stop convenient, but there's that much less to clean and maintain with an internally geared hub (no derailleur, no jockey wheel, far less chain wear). Planning on an Alfine 11 (which, like the Rohloff with its 100,000km design life, has an internal oil bath) and belt drive for my next bike -- going from 2,000mi per chain to 8,000mi per belt seems like a major win (though, admittedly, belt failures are less amenable to side-of-the-road repair than chain failures... well, that's the point of having a backup transport mechanism, per initial topic of this thread). Also, the grease-reduction advantages of belt systems are particularly compelling for a folder.
Lights: At least two lightheads and two batteries for each of front and back; wide-beam on the handlebars, narrow-beam on the helmet. Maybe a little paranoid -- but I used to commute to/from Round Rock on the I-35 frontage road, going home well after dark; a total lighting failure was just as fatal to a successful commute as a broken chain.
Re: carrying extra brake+shift cable -- never had more than one brake fail at a time; rear-brake-only requires caution and awareness, but is completely doable given those things. Shifting, though, is a good point -- one of the thing I miss about using a Rohloff was that if you had a cable failure, you could detach the shifting mechanism from the hub and set the gear with a hex bit off your multitool; the i-Motion, by contrast, goes straight to low gear in the event of a cable break. I hope Shimano and SRAM get around to copying that feature someday.
On torrent-proof panniers, I've had similar good luck with Detours X-Country -- I throw my wallet and phone in there and roll it up if there's even a hint of rain.
General point: With some tuning, it is indeed possible to make the need for a backup system a very rare thing indeed!
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Gearing: Internal. Not only is being able to shift at a total stop convenient, but there's that much less to clean and maintain with an internally geared hub (no derailleur, no jockey wheel, far less chain wear). Planning on an Alfine 11 (which, like the Rohloff with its 100,000km design life, has an internal oil bath) and belt drive for my next bike -- going from 2,000mi per chain to 8,000mi per belt seems like a major win (though, admittedly, belt failures are less amenable to side-of-the-road repair than chain failures... well, that's the point of having a backup transport mechanism, per initial topic of this thread). Also, the grease-reduction advantages of belt systems are particularly compelling for a folder.
Hi Charles....
i built a bike with an Alfine 11. The hub came apart in two weeks. I got another one under warranty which failed to shift into 11th gear reliably right out of the box. The third one is shifting well most of the time, but occasionally slips and pops. I am not the only one who has had problems with these.
Time will tell. The hub certainly has some advantages, but absolute reliability does not seem to be one of them at this time.
Don in Austin
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i built a bike with an Alfine 11. The hub came apart in two weeks. I got another one under warranty which failed to shift into 11th gear reliably right out of the box. The third one is shifting well most of the time, but occasionally slips and pops. I am not the only one who has had problems with these.
Time will tell. The hub certainly has some advantages, but absolute reliability does not seem to be one of them at this time.
Oi -- that's a disappointment to hear, though I suppose it's to be expected in the first generation. The other hub I've had in mind is the N360, but from what I understand it's hard to get a high enough gearing using one of those with 16" wheels and a belt drive. One of the folks over at Bike Friday is thinking of setting up his personal bike with that configuration -- hopefully I'll make it up to Eugene and be able to borrow it for a test drive.
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Thanks for the breadth and depth of advice!
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