Riding for a Year, 1700 Miles

A year ago I bought a new bicycle. Nothing fancy; just a step up from the run-down department store bike I'd owned for almost a decade. The reason is that over the summers of 2014 and 2015 I slowly started to build momentum to commuting by bicycle and I soon was asking more from my old bike than what it was capable of providing.

Over those 2 seasons I grew confident in traffic, learned to fix a flat and did it many times over, started riding the majority of the weekdays instead of a single time a week, and brought my commute time from 40-something minutes to 24. My old bike didn't like going over 20mph. It would complain by wobbling the front wheel and I was never really able to get it in true. So I got a new bike, which I've been riding for the past year:

With the new bike, and improved consistency and confidence during my commute I decided over the course of 2016 to see how far I'd get by pushing myself to keep riding as summer gave way to fall and winter. So I rode through fall, and found myself in the dead of winter, still riding. And eventually May was around the corner again.

1700 miles later, it's been a fun year full of great experiences!