Commute to Work? ATGATT

I rather enjoy my commutes in the rain. SD weather is so mundane, when a good down pour (if you can call them that here) comes by, its a nice change in pace. Besides the looks and comments at the office are priceless....

I tend to skip my riding pants in favor of Carhartts when the weather permits. Other than that it's very quick to throw on some touring boots, jacket, gloves, helmet and go. I carry it all into the office in an Icon backpack... I hate Icon but they make the only high-viz backpack on the market.

Thanx for all the great posts. I have been riding the last two weeks and have been doing ATGATT. Just getting there 10 min. early and changing in the locker room. Have been getting the standard questions

I commute about 25 miles including some gravel to the CS building at Purdue University. The main reason I started commuting on the bike was a loophole in the parking situation on campus. I can park my bike in the garage 10 feet from my building. The closest I can park a car is a mile walk. It is warmer for me to commute on the bike in the winter than it is to go out and warm up a freezing cold car, then drive it to an abandoned lot on campus and walk a mile in the freezing cold to my building. I can suit up in the warm, ride warm, and stroll in the doors without ever exposing skin to our single digit winters.

I am also a poor graduate student (who lucked into a 950 adventure but that is another story) so I can't really afford 'commuter' gear. So every morning I stroll into the building past the professors wearing my tech3s and clunk my way to my desk where I stuff all the gear underneath.

At first this was embarrassing but now it has made me a folk legend of sorts. I have had all sorts of other staff members I don't know ask if I am the guy with the crazy boots. It has also been a much needed ice breaker with some of the other students who come from countries where 2 wheels is the only wheels.

So... long story short, the ATGATT has actually been a big part of the commuting experience for me. Now I clunk through the hallways proudly and thoroughly enjoy when a professor takes time out of his single-minded research pursuits and notices something unusual going on. It is good fun.