Goin' bi-modal

Here's the postscript to Friday morning's bike-to-work. I decided to make it a bi-modal commute home - use the bike rack on the front of the 48X and then cycle the remaining 4.5 miles home. 

I'm impressed by the simplicity of the rack system that CATS uses. Pull down the rack, drop your bike into the trough and secure it with the spring-loaded bar that comes up over the front wheel. Quick and easy.

And darn secure, as it turns out. My baby had only worry about bug splatters as we cruised up I-77 at traffic speeds. I did strip off the electronics - didn't want anything to come loose from vibration. 

Seemed like my bi-modal plan was working flawlessly - until we hit traffic just north of exit 18. Folks fleeing the city for the Labor Day weekend. Dead stop or slow crawl for about 4 miles. Could've made it home at about the same time if I'd done the entire commute on the bike.

In all fairness, the jam was the result of a perfect storm. It was Friday. It was a banker holiday weekend in America's second-largest financial center. It was rush hour timing. 

Also, taking a few kudo-points away from my NiteRider Minewt X2 headlight. I noticed during my morning commute that my computer was not registering anything - no speed, no mileage, nothing. At about mile 16 it began registering all sorts of funky things - like that I was pedaling 50 mph. I was ready to blame it on a failing battery or faulty wireless computer.

Later, I was showing a colleague at work how the light functioned. When I turned on the light, my sleeping computer came to life and started giving all sorts of readings. Seems the X2 is putting out some sort of frequency that interferes with the transmission to my bike computer. Hmmmmmmm.