Bike To Work Day: Your Photos, And Riding Advice From Grant Petersen

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For many people, Bike to Work Day (which is today) is a reason to put air in their bike's tires and see if their chain is too rusty to get them to work on time. And as a growing list of photographs shows, many people who follow NPR online also ride to work.

You can submit a photo of yourself and your bike, a scene from your commute's route — or, if you can manage it safely, a picture of yourself actually riding to work. Just post the image to Twitteror Instagram with the hashtag #NPRbike...

...For Grant Petersen, Bike to Work Day probably feels like just another day — after all, he has been riding his bike to work for three decades.

"It's always been easier for me that way," Petersen tells NPR's David Greene, for an interview on Morning Edition. "I've never really taken to the car. I don't hate cars; I own a couple. But, I like to ride my bike."

Petersen is the iconoclastic founder of Rivendell Bicycle Worksand the author of Just Ride, a new book that distills practical bike wisdom he has gleaned from years of riding and designing bikes. In it, he makes the case for putting comfort ahead of aerodynamics, and fun over efficiency.

 

When asked what advice he would give to bike commuters, Petersen starts out with the basics.

"Wear the clothes that you're going to wear at work," he says. "Don't dress up like an American Bike Geek just to ride a bicycle to work."

"If your commute is reasonable — say, 10 miles or under — no problem," Petersen adds. "Dress the way you're going to dress for the weather, or the day."

As for the equipment a commuter bike should have, here's what Petersen recommends: "A bell; lights; reflectors; kickstand; baskets; bags," he says. "You know, make the bike useful. Certainly for commuting, it is not a workout tool. It should be a pickup truck on two wheels."

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