Does anyone else have to find a creative, longer solutions to getting to work, just so you can ride?

I just got a second bike to be used as my commuter, because it seems like all I want to do now since having caught the roadie disease, is ride all the time. It's a full Shimano 105 bike at a very good price. The twice as expensive and upgraded weekend warrior Ultegra/Mavic SL machine awaits at my girlfriends place in a couple cities over where the riding country is gorgeous (Lafayette, Bay Area CA). But living in downtown Oakland, within a 10 minute walk to the closest BART station leaves me with having to come up with alternative ways to make my trip to San Francisco longer.

In San Francisco, my office is just off of 5th and Market streets, right next to the Powell Street BART station. So my world is full of too many close-by BART stations. There are alternatives however, that I'm coming up with.

1) easiest: catch BART only 3 miles away at the West Oakland station (the last East Bay Station)
2) take the longer, but gorgeous Oakland/Alameda ferry into San Francisco, and be an urban warrior up Market Street from the Ferry Building. (Perhaps extending this further by riding onto Alameda island and catching the ferry there (not from Oakland.)
3) ride a few or more miles to a Bart station in the East Bay that's a lot further from my house.
4) All of this in combination or otherwise in reverse on the way back.

So far, since I just started this week, I've caught the ferry going to the East Bay in the afternoon from SF. This is practically the only alternative to getting to the East Bay from 4:30 - 6:30. BART has a bike ban on all trains at high volume commuter time in the afternoon. But the ferry is rather pricey unless you get the multi-pack book.

But even with a small rain and drizzle this morning, getting a nice little ride in, even if it was only 5ish miles today, was worth it. I had a physical yesterday with my Dr. First time in years, and everything is fine, but he said I could perhaps loose some weigtht. I'm 5'11 and 175lbs now, and he thought 160lbs would be ideal. Man, I've got a ways, and it could help my slightly highish blood pressure (I'm only 34!) So, I guess this impulse to ride a lot and figure out ways to extend my commute will help getting the love handles off!

Sorry to ramble, but I'm just a bike geek now. Can't seem to think of anything else.
-Hunter

One option you didn't think of:
Move to the Midwest and freeze with the rest of us.Plenty of country roads and awesome views.





Does anyone else have to find a creative, longer solutions to getting to work, just so you can ride?

I just got a second bike to be used as my commuter, because it seems like all I want to do now since having caught the roadie disease, is ride all the time. It's a full Shimano 105 bike at a very good price. The twice as expensive and upgraded weekend warrior Ultegra/Mavic SL machine awaits at my girlfriends place in a couple cities over where the riding country is gorgeous (Lafayette, Bay Area CA). But living in downtown Oakland, within a 10 minute walk to the closest BART station leaves me with having to come up with alternative ways to make my trip to San Francisco longer.

In San Francisco, my office is just off of 5th and Market streets, right next to the Powell Street BART station. So my world is full of too many close-by BART stations. There are alternatives however, that I'm coming up with.

1) easiest: catch BART only 3 miles away at the West Oakland station (the last East Bay Station)
2) take the longer, but gorgeous Oakland/Alameda ferry into San Francisco, and be an urban warrior up Market Street from the Ferry Building. (Perhaps extending this further by riding onto Alameda island and catching the ferry there (not from Oakland.)
3) ride a few or more miles to a Bart station in the East Bay that's a lot further from my house.
4) All of this in combination or otherwise in reverse on the way back.

So far, since I just started this week, I've caught the ferry going to the East Bay in the afternoon from SF. This is practically the only alternative to getting to the East Bay from 4:30 - 6:30. BART has a bike ban on all trains at high volume commuter time in the afternoon. But the ferry is rather pricey unless you get the multi-pack book.

But even with a small rain and drizzle this morning, getting a nice little ride in, even if it was only 5ish miles today, was worth it. I had a physical yesterday with my Dr. First time in years, and everything is fine, but he said I could perhaps loose some weigtht. I'm 5'11 and 175lbs now, and he thought 160lbs would be ideal. Man, I've got a ways, and it could help my slightly highish blood pressure (I'm only 34!) So, I guess this impulse to ride a lot and figure out ways to extend my commute will help getting the love handles off!

Sorry to ramble, but I'm just a bike geek now. Can't seem to think of anything else.
-Hunter

I know how it is, though I live in Berkeley and cycle to downtown Oakland. You don't have a lot of options. Do you have any flexibility in your schedule to get your cycling fix outside of normal commute times?
Your BART commute from work to home is so quick; how about just going on an afternoon ride each day after work? Get your nice bike back from your GF, get a Richmond train to Berkeley (no restrictions on trains on the Fremont line) and start up the hill from there. You could do the Grizzly Peak-Skyline loop, or for some real climbing go over the hill on Wildcat, do the 3 Bears to Happy Valley Rd, and back to your GF in Lafayette. Take the train home... or not.