The Daily Commute

Thought I'd post a little blurb on my daily commute to work. I have been interning at Columbia Sportswear in the marketing department for almost 3 months now, and I gotta say that I can't be happier to be working where I am right now. The company is fantastic, and I love being in this industry. I consider myself very lucky as I was granted the internship a few days after completing my MBA from Gonzaga University. Go Zags!

Since Columbia HQ is located so close to my residence, I decided that I wanted to start biking to work. It is literally quicker for me to bike to work than drive because I can take short cuts the whole way there, and also because parking at HQ is very limited so most people have to be shuttled in from a local church parking lot down the road a little bit. I am so blessed to be able to ride about 50-60 yards of pristine singletrack on the way to and from work everyday. It might not sound like much but it feels great to be able to rip a little bit to and from work everyday.



So considering that I can take these shortcuts will inevitably become wet and muddy here in the PacNW, I needed a bike that could get me through the mud. I decided to take my old Jamis Durango SX mountain bike, which had a broken rear derailleur & hanger and strip it down to bare bones in order to convert it to a singlespeed. I didnt really know much about bike maintenance but had always wanted to learn more so I decided to make this a little project for myself. I purchased a single speed conversion kit, a crank puller, single speed chain and lock ring device at the local Performance bike shop and then after watching a few YouTube tutorials, I set to work. The hardest park of the project was aligning the cogs with the crank arm and finding the appropriate derailleur hanger that matched my bike frame. After a few weeks of searching for the hanger, I finally found one that fit down at Fat Tire Farm. Once I had that missing piece, things proceeded smoothly and shortly thereafter the Green Dragon was completed, outfitted with the necessary bike lights and fenders. Ill try and get a photo of my bike up here soon. Feel free to ask any questions about singlespeed conversion.

So now that my bike is ready to roll, I ride my bike rain or shine everyday to work, unless I need my car for work. The 2.53 ish mile trip is a breeze and it sometimes makes me wish that I had farther to ride so that I could actually get a workout from the trip. Hopefully, Ill be able to find an apartment in the upcoming months, but that is dependent on the job situation.


UNT

Bryan