I laughed quite a bit when you mentioned riding to music in your head. The bike person you talked to was right about cadence. Biking at a higher cadence is much more efficient than “mashing” the gears. It takes some getting used to though.

The music doesn’t usually flow for me when I am riding, but it does when I run, and even more so when I am walking on my own. Then the under-educated little composer in my head wakes up and gets creative. Good stuff.

And yeah, Hwy 2’s scary enough on a bike when the speed limit’s 25. 45-55 and no shoulder and offroad == swamp? Definitely put the bikes on the car for that.

…

We’re musical guys, I guess — for me, it’s the only way to plug in to my internal clock. It’s too bad that march tempo is a little too slow for powerful pedaling. If that worked, I’d be unstoppable.

I couldn’t do Take 5 because it always slides into “The Russians are Coming”, which wouldn’t do at all.

That’s great — biking to work rocks! Not, mind you, that I’ve made my 25-mile commute via pedal power anytime recently. Ever, actually. But back in the day, I rode/walked to work pretty regularly, and I’m right there in the get focused/de-stressed benefits therein. I’d like to ride to work now, but I’m scared of the traffic on the highways up here.

I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only one who pedals to music in his head, though truth be told, I’m more of a “Take Five” kinda guy – 5/4 keeps me from putting the downbeat on the same foot and is more interesting than most of the 3/4 pieces in my repertoire.

What are your thoughts/plans for commuting in the winter? If you haven’t seen it yet, you might check out icebike, for laughs, if nothing else.

-aj