My newfound joy

Over the past year I have happily become a regular bike commuter, biking to and from the office a few times a week. Doing so has shaped my life for the better. Not only am I a healthier person physically, but I find myself looking forward to the moments of sunshine and exercise that my commute now offers me; the new practice has boosted my mental health and added to my day two bright points to await. It’s also a great opportunity to get some audiobook time in!

While all you really need to commute by bike is, well, a bike, I have found there have been some accessories and other items that minimize some of the hassles that can come with commuting by bike - hassles such as storing your stuff, staying comfortable during and after the ride, and staying as safe as you can. Some of these items are must-haves for me, and others are nice-to-haves. All-in-all, they add up to a comfortable riding experience, and they are all relatively inexpensive modifications to make once you have the bike itself.

For reference, my bike is a Trek 4500 mountain bike that I bought on Craigslist for $200 back in 2013. I will not be mentioning specific products with a couple of exceptions, as I’m not endorsing anything in particular, but rather the concept of the product in general. Also, I’m still a newbie, so I don’t want to steer anyone’s dollars in the wrong direction.

Here are what I consider to be my ESSENTIALS.

• a rear bike rack. These tend to be in the $30-$60 range and affix to the bike with the same hex screws used for water bottle cages. I consider this essential because at the bare minimum, you can stack stuff on the rack itself & secure it with a cargo net or affix a milk crate for an easy storage bucket. Don’t want to ride with a backpack on your back? Just secure it to the rack!

• rechargeable headlight & taillight. These are removable from the bike itself, so when you get to work it’s easy to take them off and charge them up at work. Mine last for several rides, and because I’m paranoid of them dying mid-ride, I charge mine frequently when I can. I ride with them on in broad daylight just for some extra visibility.

• a bell. It is legal for me to ride on the sidewalk where I live, and I often do so because of a lack of safe bike lanes. I always yield the sidewalk to pedestrians, but when I do have to go around them, I always signal my presence with a couple bell rings. Any bell will do, but my bell was a Christmas gift from my family - a Crane bell. It really does have a great ring to it! But though my bell is particularly luxurious, any bell will do.

• a bike maintenance kit. This one is a bit DIY. In my kit I have a spare tire tube, a small tire foot pump, zip ties, extra hex screws (in case my bike rack tries to fall if - it’s happened), and a hex screwdriver (Allen wrench) set. I am not sure if I carry around more than I actually need, but I’d rather have it and not need it than vice versa.

• a helmet. Mine is just a plain ol’ helmet in a color I thought was pretty. It originally had a flashing light on the back of it, but the battery on that is long since dead and I haven’t bothered replacing it. One day I will replace my helmet with, I think, something bright and neon colored, just for some extra visibility.

Hre are the items I consider to be NICE-TO-HAVES.

You can absolutely get by without these things, but I added them to my set-up for a reason, and I’ll really miss them if they were to be taken away!

• a water bottle holder that fits my 32oz bottle. For years, before I started commuting, I’ve carried around my beloved metal 32oz water bottle. To my chagrin, it does not fit in any standard water bottle cage! Refusing to switch to another bottle, I just hauled around my favorite bottle in a backpack, going through the burden of taking it out at stoplights to rehydrate. However, this Any Bottle Cage from BiKASE has really been such a great quality-of-life upgrade for my bike. I’m able to have ice water at any point on my ride now, with ease, and the ratcheting design of the cage ensures my bottle is held snug on my bike. If my current ABC cage broke, I’d just buy this one over again.

• an electric tire pump. I believe I paid about $50 for one of these but it’s been worth every penny. Before this electric pump, I was inflating my tires with my small foot pump before every ride. It’s such a pain to pump, gauge the pressure, then pump again, etc for both tires. My electric pump lets me set a desired PSI, hook it to the valve stem, and inflate the tire with just one button. Though I don’t actually bring this on my ride with me (too big and requires electricity), I bring it with me in my car for every road trip, because it will save the day with car tires too.

• a leather handle for my bike frame. This item won’t be useful to everyone, but it certainly is useful to me. Because I am an apartment dweller, every time I ride, I have to haul my bike up and down 3 flights of stairs. My mountain bike is pretty darn heavy as it is, and I’m not a tall person, which means it’s a struggle to lift my bike high enough to clear each stair as I ascend/descend. The leather handle, which I’ve affixed to my frame as well as round my water bottle holder, allows me an easy lift point for the bike. Granted, it’s still a major struggle to lift the bike up the stairs (my least favorite part of my ride!). But the handle makes it slightly easier.

• a pair of shorts. Yeah, this is a weird one. But I’ve only recently discovered how much nicer it is to bike to work in shorts and change into my “real” pants once I arrive, rather than to bike to work in my “real” pants.

• a pannier bag that easily detaches from the bike. My last nice-to-have is a pannier bag that detaches from the bike with ease and also converts to a messenger back or a backpack. I’ve tried 3 different panniers so far, and before I purchased a convertible one, I realized the hassle of stopping at the store and struggling to detach the panniers to bring inside only to struggle to reattach them a few minutes later. A convertible pannier is more of an investment, which scared me away from immediately getting one, but for me, the versatility and ease is worth the extra money.

Thank you for reading!