Garmin cyclists log nearly 9,000 commuter miles this winter

At Garmin, we don’t just
dream up and build products for people on the move — we’re quite active
ourselves. And some of us won’t let a tough Midwest winter or 18 inches of snow
stop us in our tracks. A group of Garmin cyclists, including one in Romania,
embarked on a winter bike commuter challenge from November through the end of
March. Riders, equipped with their own Garmin Edge or other GPS devices, were
asked to track the total miles they rode each day, along with the number of
days they biked. The data was tracked on a shared spreadsheet, and their stats,
when all stacked up, are quite impressive:

• 13 riders
• 821 round trip
  commutes
• 10 miles,
  average commute
• 8,620 total
  miles
• 4.73 tons of CO2
  annually (saved)

Jason,
a software engineering manager, was the originator of this commuter challenge.
This image shows how the collective miles of these commuters look when mapped out in Garmin Connect — a roundtrip ride ’round the continental U.S.! Here’s what Jason, who logged a total of 1,162 miles, had to say about the
experience:

There
have been moments, especially at 6:15am and with single-digit temperatures,
when I’ve questioned my commitment to bicycle commuting to work. It wasn’t
until we began collecting and viewing our ride data that I began to understand
that there’s more to this than exercising and my own selfish
benefit. Collectively, we made an impact on the number of cars on the road
and carbon emitted into our environment. It’s not just me anymore, and
that’s empowering. While some might consider riding in the snow “crazy”, I
found that those were some of the most memorable, peaceful and perfect
rides. It’s amazing how quiet and soft everything is when you’re rolling
through fresh snow. When I imagine the car-version of that, it makes me
cringe.

Bob,
director of aviation software engineering, is a long-time bike commuter. With a
roundtrip commute of 28 miles and 1,820 miles total for this challenge, he
logged the most miles of the group and he had a few interesting tales to share:

Dec 20^st blizzard: A large snowfall was predicted. I had a really early
meeting to discuss a project, so I had to be to work by 4:00 am. I left
before the snow really started at 2:52 am. The ride to work was really not
bad, but when everyone else was trying to get to work, the conditions were much
worse and nobody could believe I was able to ride. The ride home was
challenging. I was able to ride on the trails, but they were icy. This
was probably my hardest ride of the winter.

Feb
21^st blizzard: Ride to work
was pretty normal, no snow when I left the house, and just a couple of inches
by the time I got to work. The ride home was not so traditional. I knew my
trail would be too deep to make any progress (thanks to Jason who emailed me
after his challenges of getting home), so I waited it out until the plows
finally caught up and decided to take as many 4-lane roads as possible, knowing
the shoulder would be packed with snow. Only stopped once to push one lady out
of the snow.

Just goes to show a little white
stuff…or a lot of it…won’t stop folks with two wheels and one big goal. Check out the Garmin Connect data from Bob’s coldest ride. His Edge 810 recorded an average temp of 4.7 degrees!

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