I am currently in my third week of bike commuting and, sore tush aside, I am pretty happy with this experiment in frugality. I can make the 12 mile commute home in just about 45 minutes, which gets me home faster than riding the bus. In fact, I like to think of myself as racing the bus home. Up to a certain point we take the exact same track toward my home before it turns down a major street to connect on the freeway. In all my rides I have either “tied” the bus or beaten it to that point.1
The benefits are more than just time though. Instead of standing around on the bus waiting for a seat to open up I can now improve my overall fitness and increase my mental toughness. I am essentially trading standing up and not being able to do anything on a bus to being able to exercise on my bike. I think that that is a pretty good trade.
So right now I am two for three in terms of the things that I was thinking biking would do for me. The third, which is save money, has yet to fully materialize. The main reason for this is that I bought a bus pass for the month of August, effectively preventing me from realizing any savings this month. In fact, I have done nothing but spend more money to get my bike in shape for me to ride it. Here is the skinny on the money that I have spent so far:
All told I have spent $228.64 US on bike related expenses since I started this human powered transportation adventure. If I don’t spend another penny until my savings equal the amount invested it would take 4 months for me to start seeing a positive impact on my expenses. Once that is done I could spend up to $64 US a month on bike transportation and still be breaking even with the added time and exercise benefits. I probably won’t be spending $64 a month.
I don’t know how much I should be spending a month on stuff, but I have heard Jacob from Early Retirement Extreme recommend a $5 a month transportation budget in his post about how to retire early. If I could get by spending $5 a month on recurring bike related expenses (including bike maintenance in general) I would be pretty excited. I would be saving at least $708 a year at that rate - and that could turn into something big down the line in terms of future personal assets or world infrastructure.
But can I keep it up? I certainly hope so.
By tied I mean that once I arrived after the bus got there, but it was still sitting at the stop because it had gotten there early and had to wait due to its schedule requirements. So even if I had ridden the bus I would only have been at the same place biking had gotten me without any of the beneficial exercise. [↩]
My brother had an old helmet that he gave me a few years ago. I look like a complete dork wearing it, but it fits and keeps my head safe - what more could a brother want? [↩]
I just wear normal clothes and since I already have these I consider this free [↩]
What a great idea! If you run a blog then consider taking a part in this years Blog Action Day. By raising awareness of the local and worldwide issue concerning poverty and social justice maybe we can turn some of our (i.e. Western Civilization’s) massive amounts of private wealth toward more fruitful and beneficial causes than buying lattes, watching movies, and burning gasoline. We could focus on how to improve the condition of the estimated 1.1 billion living in extreme poverty (less than $1 a day).1
Just imagine if the ~301,000,000 people living in America were to universally divert $1 a day from their own pockets to improve economic infrastructure and food production capabilities in the communities of these 1.1 billion. What type of impact could we make in 1 year? In five? In ten? I can’t even imagine what 1,098,650,000,000 (1 trillion, 98 billion, 650 million) could do for the poorest of the poor in terms of equipping them thrive in a world economy - but my guess it could do a whole heck of a lot.
I hope that this is what the Blog Action Day 2008 will turn into - a day where we raise our collective awareness of how using our financial power thoughtfully can make a significant impact the world around us.
A special thanks need to go out to Gather Little By Little for bringing this to my attention.
Last week I inaugurated a season of bike commuting and in the subtitle of my Bike Commuting Begins post I jokingly proclaimed it the “dawn of the sore bottom.” I was expecting a little soreness, maybe a little tenderness to the touch - but nothing like what I am experiencing. My quest for frugal transportation is making my sit bones feel like they’ve been hammered by Thor himself.
Now I have narrowed down the culprit to one (or all) of three things:
(1) My biking shorts. That’s right, my biking shorts are none other than the highly sought after khaki shorts. To be honest, they just aren’t providing the padding that my delicate derriere needs. They fit well, loose and comfortable - but not so loose that they get caught in my wheels. That is really important so I don’t eat crap in the middle of the road. Additionally, they are stylish and resist stains pretty well - but if you look carefully you can see the marks left on the seat of my shorts by potential culprit #2 - my saddle.
(2) Iguana seat … ha! … more like Iguana-make-your-arse-sore-eat. I knew the seat was a little firm, but golly whiz. I didn’t think it would grind the flesh and muscle between it and my Ischial Tuberosity into grits. This is my prime suspect (and like $40+ bucks to replace).
(3) Then there is my riding style - as fast as my little legs can handle. Now I don’t have a bike computer or anything else to measure my RPMs, but I think I am in the 60-120 range.1 Since my legs are spinning pretty fast-ish I generally feel bumps in the road without the benefit of my legs cushioning the blow. This may be a technique thing, but I’m not sure.
Since I have such soreness I have been reluctant to take the long rides. When all is said and done, I have ridden 55.1 miles in 6 1/2 days of commuting2 I could be logging many more miles if I thought I could sit in the saddle for that long every day. The day after my longer days, like when I ride the 12 miles home after work, I am usually pretty tender, but not sore anywhere else on my body except my butt. Lame.
I have ridden all the way home from work twice now. The first time I did it on “accident” after getting ditched by my bus. It already had two bikes on it (the limit on my transit system) so I got left at the stop. Instead of waiting another 30 minutes till the next bus might ditch me I decided I’d ride until the next bus caught up - it never did. On that first trip I went door-to-door in about 1 hour 10 minutes.
The second attempt I did much better, making the 12 mile trip in ~45 minutes.3 That was a very pleasant surprise to say the least. It has me thinking after some training I might be able to make the trip in 30 minutes. That would be as quick as driving to work in a car … on the freeway.
Another concern that has been raised about bike commuting has been safety. As of today, I have not had any close calls, been afraid for my life; or encountered an out of control driver. Everyone has been very respectful and I have felt nothing but safe on the roads.
I really hope that I can get past the tender tush and on to more ridding. Before I go out and buy a new seat or riding shorts with padding I may do some experimenting with old pillows since my wife has a penchant for sewing. I’d rather look like a toddler with a loaded diaper than let this soreness keep up. Think of all the practical joke I could play … Seriously, think about it and leave a comment - I need to know what they are.
I know this range is pretty big - like I said, I don’t have one of those fancy bike computer things. [↩]
6.2 miles on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday last week; 15.1 on Thursday last week; 15.1 on Monday this week, 6.2 on Tuesday, and 3.1 so far today. [↩]
Life is all about maximizing happiness. My Family's Money is about exploring how money fits in to making the world a happier place through humor, financial transparency, wartime living, and looking at life's major events through the money lens. There is so much more to life than money, so it’s high time we made money work for us so we can really get down to living instead of working.
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(1) My biking shorts. That’s right, my biking shorts are none other than the highly sought after khaki shorts. To be honest, they just aren’t providing the padding that my delicate derriere needs. They fit well, loose and comfortable - but not so loose that they get caught in my wheels. That is really important so I don’t eat crap in the middle of the road. Additionally, they are stylish and resist stains pretty well - but if you look carefully you can see the marks left on the seat of my shorts by potential culprit #2 - my saddle.
