Bicycle

I may have mentioned it once or twice before, but I haven't yet written much about my experience riding a bicycle to school over the past six months. When we moved to our current apartment last summer, I was looking forward to being so close to school. It's only a few miles, so I decided to buy a bicycle and bike to school as often as possible.

The last several months have been an interesting two-wheeled odyssey for me, so I thought I'd share a few thoughts and comments about bike commuting in a city.

• Work. I immediately discovered that I don't have strong bicycling legs. I have one major hill I must go up and down every day on my way to school, and I almost didn't make it up the hill on my first day of biking. Thankfully, it's a more gradual ascent on the way home, but it can still be brutal in the mornings. Especially if I've already gone running or worked out that morning. You don't have to think about the physical side of transportation when you just jump in the car and drive. I've gotten much stronger over the past few months so now it isn't as big of a deal, but it still leaves me huffing and puffing some mornings.
  
• Pain. After the second day of biking to and from school, I was actually quite uncomfortable. To put it delicately, I didn't want to sit down. Some bike seats are better than others, but mine was fairly solid and I ended up with a bruised backside. Fortunately, just like my legs, my bum toughened up after a few weeks. Now I don't really have a problem. But it goes away quickly. My first time biking to school after a long Christmas break resulted in another few days of bruising.
• Dogs. When they see a person bicycling down the road, something goes off in a dog's brain. It's like the canis lupis part of the dog takes control, and the dog can't resist chasing you down. And compared to the other vehicles on the road, a bicyclist is the slower, aged member of the herd that will be easy prey.
  
• Route. The route I take is carefully planned out to avoid traffic, busy streets, and narrow roads. I'm fortunate in that I have a bike lane that goes through much of my neighborhood. When I get to the larger roads, I sometimes switch to the sidewalk. I know bikes really are supposed to be on the road, but it beats the alternative.
• Uncoolness. Motorcycles are cool. Bicycles are not. People in America like their cars. They always seem confused when they have to share the road with a bicycle. They may like Lance Armstrong, but they secretly think bike helmets look foolish. And the reflective bands I wear when it's dark take uncoolness to a whole new level. There is a certain appeal of riding a long under my own power, but in general, I am nerdiness on wheels.
  
• Maintenance. I have spent a lot of time trying to keep my bike in working condition. It's not an expensive bike, but it has had a lot of mechanical problems in its short ownership period. I've had my brakes fail, I have had two flat tires, and I've had parts of the bike fall off while I was riding it. When I first got the bike I bought a set of fenders to put on it so I could ride it on wet days without getting a skunk stripe of mud and water up my back. The fenders proved to be extremely problematic. They required constant adjusting and I was never able to install them properly on my bike. I eventually removed them when I went over a curb one day and several of the nuts holding the fenders in place flew off simultaneously and were lost in a busy intersection.
  
• Storage. I don't have a good place to lock up my bike. The only place I can lock it up is right on a busy street corner, which is just asking for it to be stolen. So I have to store it inside our apartment, which isn't exactly spacious. My daughter thinks it's a great toy and she likes to play with the gears, getting her fingers grubby in the process.
• Cost. I'm not sure how much I'm saving by bicycling to school. I still have to pay car insurance because I still use it occasionally. My commute isn't that long, so I'm not saving a ton on gas. It does make a difference, but I don't know if it makes up for the cost of buying and maintaining the bike. If I used it over a longer period of time, it would definitely pay off in the long run. But for the past 7 months, I don't know how much I've saved, if any at all.
• Weather. I have to pay attention to the weather report in the morning when I got to school. If it's going to thunderstorm, it's not a good day to take the bike. It's also pretty chilly riding to school on some mornings. I had to bundle up in the winter, although I ended up unzipping my coat by the time I got to the top of the hill because I was overheating at that point. The most important part of my biking gear in the winter were my gloves -- we picked up a cheap pair of leather gloves that were perfect for biking, since they are windproof. Biking without gloves in the winter can be painfully cold.
  
• Satisfaction. Despite the problems with maintenance, storage, dogs, and crazy drivers, I like riding a bike. Even though it's nerdy, I think there's something attractive about moving yourself around on your own. You can really move quickly on a bicycle; my commute is only 5 minutes slower on a bicycle than in the car. (Those extra 5 minutes are probably due to the hill.) I like getting some exercise in my day, and I like that I'm avoiding road congestion and pollution.

My bike-riding days may be over for a while. Yesterday I got my second flat tire on the way home from school. I only have a few more days left at school, after which I will be taking bar classes and working downtown. I probably won't be able to bike to those places. Still, it's been an interesting experience, and given the opportunity, I might try to ride a bicycle to work.
Photo credit: Salim Virji