Seattle Bicycle Commuting
Seattle’s winter weather can be a bummer to bike through. Here’s a breakdown of the gear I use to make my daily 6-mile commute comfortable.
After the pandemic pushed me away from my work-walkable Seattle downtown apartment to a nearby neighborhood, I worked fully remote from my home office for about 18 months. As Return To Office enforcement began, I found myself needing to plan for a regular 6.6 mile commute.
After a few weeks of testing, I decided to commit to cycling as my main method of commuting for a few reasons:
- Consistent, mentally-engaging morning cardio: Needing to sweat and pay attention to get to work makes me not even realize I’m getting exercise. And at ~50 minutes and 500 calories/day, it’s a meaningful amount of cardio.
- Quicker than bussing: The bus is great, but very inconsistent especially in the evenings, adding ~20m/day to my total commute compared to bike or car on average, with outliers of > 40m.
- Cheap: Parking downtown is $18/day + $6/week in gas, and Uber was ~$28/day, so I’d spend somewhere around ~$3500/year to get to the office.
- Low carbon footprint: Using rough estimates, cycling uses about ~21gCO2e/km, compared to driving’s 271gCO2e/km.
Issues
After my test-runs, I found a few problems to solve, some more important than others:
- Rain: In Seattle, it rains an average of 156 days per year (42% of days), even though the total rainfall is low. After just one representative rainy commute, I was soaked, dirty, and carried around a wet backpack all day. I knew right away I wanted a few gear upgrades.
- Backpack sweat: Cycling with a backpack made me sweaty. I really needed a shower at the office, increasing my total time spent getting from bed-to-desk-to-couch.
- Big Laptop, Small Bag: My MacBook Pro is chunky and doesn’t fit in my usual bag. So I was carrying around a 28L hiking pack all day because it’s all I had that worked.
- Visibility: Early mornings and late evenings mean low light. I’d like to not be squished, so I wanted some visibility improvements.
The Gear I Picked
I spent a lot of time shopping around, reading reviews, agonizing, talking to cycling friends, etc, so I thought it might be valuable to summarize what I settled on for someone who also wants to commute via bike.
Kona Dew Bike
The Kona Dew is my steed. It’s simple, comfortable, inexpensive, and has many threaded mount-points on the frame to mount the gear described below. I find the relatively upright riding position to be easy on the back, and the cushy slick tires to be a good combination of comfortable riding and road traction.
Portland Design Works Full Metal Fenders — 650 Beast
I bought a set of Portland Design Works Full Metal Fenders — 650 Beast from a local shop, Free Range Cycles, justifying the costly hardware by installing them myself. My only complaint so far is the difficult install, requiring some after-market aluminum spacers to fit around my disc brakes, a hacksaw to shorten the fender stays, and an hour of wiggling and adjusting, but now I’m ready for those rainy days.
Pannier and Bags
To solve my “sweaty back” problem, I opted to ditch the backpack and get a bike-mounted pannier.
However, I use my bag in and around the office many days, occasionally moving around floors and buildings. I wanted a bike-mounted bag that I could use as an office bag, big enough to fit a laptop, clothes, and an extra layer, but not be giant and ungainly.
Arkel Signature H — Urban Pannier
The Arkel Signature H Urban Pannier was my answer after looking at a dozen other options. Made with carbon-neutral waterproof X-Pac X11 fabric, it feels very tough and stayed perfectly dry after a shower test. Plus, no backpack means no sweaty back. This was recommended as the best pannier of 2023 by NY Times, and I can see why.
Topeak Explorer Rack
I got a Topeak Explorer Rack, also being rated best on a bike rack test by the NY Times. Even though I have disc brakes I opted for the non-disc option after looking at the dimensions and reading some reviews. Some disc brake designs have the brake caliper mounted on top of the chain stay, so lots of “disc brake” gear acommodate with spacers, increasing the footprint of the rack. To save some space, knowing my brake calipers wouldn’t interfere at all, I got the more narrow option. This was super simple to install, taking about 30m and typical bike Allen tools.
Tailfin Top Tube Pack — Flip
I use a Tailfin Top Tube Pack for items I regularly want access to while I’m riding, without dismounting: phone, keys, garage door opener, work badge, snacks.
This thing is great, and if you have to pick one position for a small bag, I highly recommend a top tube bag such as this.
Perfectly waterproof (passed a shower test), mounts securely to the top-tube bottle eyelets on my Kona Dew bike (shown below with optional straps I don’t use).
Ortlieb Saddle Bag Two
I use the Ortlieb Saddle Bag Two for the things I need occasionally, but don’t need to-hand while riding: some cash, contact lenses, tube and chain repair items, and gloves. These things I’m OK stopping to get out, as I need them only once in a while or never.
Lights and Tools
Light & Motion VIS Pro 1000 Blacktop
At the recommendation of a friend, I bought a Light & Motion VIS Pro 1000 Blacktop. The side-pointing lights make me feel a bit safer on those dim mornings and evenings, and might avoid a side-swiping.
OneUp Components EDC System
After just a few weeks of biking to work, I saw more than one person repairing a flat on the side of the Lake Union trail. I decided I should get a pump and tools to fix a flat enough for me to limp home.
The OneUp Components EDC Pump seemed perfect. It’s a pump that has a EDC Tool System and EDC Plug Kit that fit within the pump itself, all mounting to the frame of the bike, saving space in my bag.
Wrapping Up
Gear makes a big difference in comfort, especially riding in a rainy city like Seattle. I hope my cycling gear listed above gives you a good starting point for your commute.
-Zach
