Hey guys, Ryan here. Chad’s out trying to find someone to loan him an extra large Superfly to race at Deer Valley Nationals this Saturday, either that or he’s at the doctor’s, with a lot of explaining to do. In the meantime I’ve decided to hijack Chad’s blog and tell you one more reason you should be riding your bike to work. Here goes.
I have been commuting by bicycle for about 6 years. I don’t claim to be as dedicated as Chad. Yes, we know he goes out in the face of dark, rain, sleet, snow and raging lawn mower drivers, since he tells us every week. But that’s ok, even if you decide to commute 1 day a week the world is a better place.
Which brings me to the point of this post (are hooptedoodle posts supposed to have a point??) It seems that $4/gallon gas has started to change many people’s minds on how they get to work everyday, and the bicycle is looking better and better. I first noticed the increase in commuters this spring. I wasn’t quite sure if it was just the nice weather and it just seemed like there were more riders, or there actually were more riders. Then, just a couple of days ago I saw someone (I say saw someone because I said hello to them but he had his ipod in and just looked at me. Feel free to commute with your ipod, but feel free to take those things out of your ears and say hello at stoplights, as people pass you by, as you pass people by, remember we are all on the same commuting team) that I had not seen before on my commute. As we sat at the light I noticed he had a brand new helmet, new water bottle, new backpack and best of all, a new bike.
It wasn’t a new Primus Mootry road or cross bike, or some fancy new Gary Fisher 29er Superfly-full-carbon-super-fast-but-maybe-the-guy-who-rides-it-isn’t-but-who-cares-‘cause-the-bike-just-makes-you-laugh-when-you-ride-it because-it-is-so-much-fun mountain bike.
Nope, this was a commuter bike, a nice Novara commuter bike.
It got me thinking. How much did this guy pay for his bike? I went on the REI website and found out—$449 retail. Now I don’t know if he paid $449 but for the sake of hooptedoodle, let’s be conservative and assume he paid $300.
• Bike $300
• Helmet $40
• Water Bottle $3
• Backpack $30
So conservatively, this guy dropped $373 at REI so he could commute to whatever, or wherever he goes.
I’m going to pretend to know everything and bet that he is going to start out as fair weather commuter. This means he thinks he is going to recoup these costs and start saving even more money just over the summer by riding only on days when the temperature does not exceed 90 degrees or dip beneath 65 degrees. Further, he won’t ride in the rain, in the dark or when raging lawn mower drivers threaten to mow him down (if you haven’t read Chad’s raging lawnmower post, which I have now mentioned 3 times, your loss).
Since this is my pretend fantasy, let’s also say he used to drive a Hummer but sold it to Arnold so he could convert it to biodiesel and store it with the others in the garage at the Governor’s Mansion. Now our bike commuter is saving more money on unspent registration fees, insurance and maintenance costs.
Long story short, at $4 per gallon people are finally changing.
And that is not all, at my office there used to only be two bike commuters, one of them left because he got a job where he’s suckled by the Government Sow, errr…uhh….which left just me. That changed last year when Air Extraordinaire Mark put his bike where his car used to be and started commuting with me. That made two. Then this summer, Amit, (who had Chad build his commuter bike two years ago) Dave, Jenny, Nate and Silvana have all commuted into work more than once. They all used to have the same excuse: they were not sure of a good, safe route, but at $4 a gallon they found one (it may not be the most direct route, which is never the best route anyway, but they are safe road/pathways). If you are looking for a safe route just drop a comment on hooptedoodle, we’ll find you one.
So jump on the bandwagon. We don’t care why, and ride your bike, take the bus, train, carpool...The world will be a better place. It might also make you fast. Chad swears commuting is the only training he does.
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