Hope you had the chance to “celebrate” Bike to Work Day or week, or month. It certainly changes your perspective. Here’s just a few of the things I observed over the last 7 days. 1) Biking to work — or taking alternative forms of transportation — makes you smile. Really, it does. Just look at this group of Garmin associates who took part in the Kansas City Commuter Challenge this week. Smiles all around — okay, maybe some are squinting. But nonetheless, lightening the load on Mother Earth does us all good. As of mid-day Friday, Garmin’s team of car-free commuters had logged over 7,500 miles. Amazing! Hats off to all the commuters and the folks who promoted and organized it. The 7,500+ figure includes mileage saved by carpooling, taking public transportation, or biking or walking to work and errands. Our team, the Bleeding Edge, is affectionately named for the Edge bike computers that so many of us use to track our miles. And now, with the addition of the 605 and 705 with maps — we can use the map detail to find new routes or get turn-by-turn directions.

Back to the lessons learned on 2 wheels: 2) Biker beware when sharing the road with drivers who haven’t had their first cup o’ joe. 3) Yellow traffic light: don’t even think about it; particularly if you’re on an uphill with a weighty backpack. 4) Don’t expect a tailwind on your way home; especially if you’re in a time crunch and need to run other errands, get a kid to baseball, etc. Wind and weather have a funny way of doing their own thing, regardless of your mode of transport. 5) If you bike to the hair salon and spending $XX on a cut and style, you may get some strange looks when you strap on that helmet as you wheel away. Lastly: 6) Every mile saved counts. If you are fortunate enough to have public transportation or alternative methods available to you, make the most of them. Hope all the car-free commuters out there learned some interesting lessons and had a safe week. Follow the jump for more commuter pics, including scenes from Garmin's on-site "lube-n-tube" event hosted by some resident bike experts.