I can’t believe it’s already 1 May and I’m just now getting in my first commute of 2025. There certainly has been a raft of days with bad weather and days when I had something on which implied a train day (such as a doctor’s appointment after work or a dinner engagement), but to be honest there were many days were I was just being lazy.

With Dionysus destined for the scrap heap and Hornsby not yet ready for prime time (José and I will be building the wheels this weekend), commuting duties fell to Kuroko — possibly for the first time since the Switching to Glide project.

Usually when I arrive at the office I sling Dionysus over a shoulder and walk up two flights of stairs to my office, making sure not to leave any marks on the carpeting. But my knees have not been in the best of shape this week, and so I simply wheeled Kuroko into the elevator and then down the carpeted halls, leaving no signs of our passage. The ratcheting of the cassette did get the attention of one friendly coworker, though, who visited the office after lunch and made the appropriate cooing noises while admiring Kuroko in her stand.

I got a good early start, but Garmie seems to have forgotten what his responsibilities are during a commute, and I lost the first kilometer and change before he finally located the satellites and deigned to record the event. I was expecting to put in a poor showing with so little time on the bike this year, but I felt good and didn’t have any particularly troublesome moments with traffic. On a moving time of 35:50 I averaged 19.5km/h, with which I’m very pleased.

On the way home I was again expecting to feel quite weak, but in the end I was stronger than I expected (without being particularly strong). I had good luck with some notable lights. On a moving time of 40:32 I averaged 19.2km/h, and again I’m very pleased with that.

We don’t need no stinkin’ …