CommuterDude featured in Bicycling Mag

Nine years ago, Keith Gates took up cycling because of a guitar. "I threw the strap over my shoulder, looked down and couldn't see the strings," says the 34-year-old systems analyst from Olathe, Kansas, who weighed 245 pounds at the time. "I started Weight Watchers the next week." He also started riding on weekends--once around the block at first, then on a local rec trail. Before long, "weekends just weren't enough," Gates says, so he began riding to work a couple times a week. "Eventually, I realized I hadn't filled my car with gas in three months." The Commuter Dude was born.

Today Gates, who has lost nearly 100 pounds, commutes 22 miles round-trip and is on a mission to help others do the same--by dishing out advice and shooting down excuses at his website, www.commuterdude.com.