Each week, I meet colleagues at a local coffee shop early in the morning. We fill our travel mugs with our favorite cup of Joe, hop on our saddles and bike into the office together. For me, it’s a great way to blend a passion with my profession. But, it’s become so much more.
Cycling has been an important part of my life since I scored my first bike in the 5th grade. It was a Schwinn Sting-Ray, lime green with a long sissy bar. What a sweet ride! Since then, my years have been filled with everything from late night mountain bike rides to burn off a little stress – to weekend centuries to raise money for various charities – to long solo journeys in search of a bit of perspective.
Surprisingly, regular bicycle commuting has been a fairly recent choice. I’ve done it only infrequently over the past decades favoring my car for commuting because I thought it was less of a hassle. After all, commuting by bicycle requires a bit of extra effort. You’ve got to stage your clothes, have access to a shower, and schedule additional time for your commute.
But my thinking changed a few months ago after we kicked off our Bay Area Adobe cycling club (even got a love letter because of it). After discovering some fellow Adobe employees in my neighborhood with a similar passion, we decided to form a “bike pool”. We began by meeting at a designated time and place each week and riding to work together. Over time, other employees have begun to join us at various locations as we pedal along our 12 mile route to the office. Fueled by the caffeine and exercise, it’s become a wonderful way to begin the day, as well as the chance to discover more about colleagues and develop new friendships. I’ve also learned that I work with some really cool people.
So why do I hate Bike to Work Day? It’s because – with all of the positive aspects of the experience – fitness, camaraderie, the psychic pleasure of riding past a freeway filled with cars in gridlock, the societal benefits of reducing carbon emissions – you would think that the idea of having a day devoted to commuting by bicycle would be unnecessary. Instead, it would just be part of how we live.
To that end, get a group of fellow employees and pedal into work one day. Just give it a try. If you do, I’m convinced that in the years ahead Bike to Work Day will be a thing of the past.
mike's blog 
Good to see you this morning Mike! I’ve been riding my bike, taking the train since Jan and it’s changed my life in many positive ways.
-no second car (positive carbon footprint and no second car payment$)
-good for my health
-life has slowed down
I hope people will try it out today and make it a bigger part of their lives!
Mike:
I too have adopted a bike-based commute. I bike to the ACE train in Pleasanton and then bike from Great America to Juniper in Sunnyvale. Most of the ride is on trails. True, I have to get up earlier and this lengthens my commute but I have come to love Major Dickinson’s coffee (and the Juniper Cafe worker who makes its at a strength that surely sets me on my day, unfortunately with the attention span of a ferret).
Mike,
I’m a prospective Adobe employee (actually just putting in my application today for a position in SF). I’ve bike commuted 17 miles each way to my job in Washington, D.C. for about 3 years. I oftentimes stop to fill up my thermos at some of my favorite coffee shops, too.
I love the idea of the Adobe cycling team! The prospect of grabbing an early morning coffee and biking into work with some colleagues sounds like the best way to start a workday.
I would like to see this happen in INDY weather permitting.
U. Dick