Tales from the early days

Like an old man on the porch outside the general store, I’ve been reminiscing about my early days of bicycling, before I knew what I was doing, before I considered myself a bicyclist. Each of my stories has a moral.

9. Money makes the bicycle wheels go round

After major abdominal surgery in October of 2005, I began bicycling whenever I could, instead of when I had to. I wanted to recover at least as much fitness as I had before surgery, if not more.

In January of 2006, I drove to work for the last time. It was snowing and I thought it might not be safe on a bike. One fellow in a truck with a snow plow attached was merrily clearing the parking lots around the hospital. Push the snow forward, zip back with a twist, push the snow forward, repeat, like a dance. I waited at what I thought was a safe distance, until I realized that he was backing up straight at me! I laid on my horn, which he heard, and as he continued to back up at a brisk pace, he looked around trying to see who was honking. Finally I frantically tried to put it in reverse and get out of his path but it was too late. He ran into me. Insurance paid for the repair (mostly), but to me, this was a message to stay out of the car and stick to my bike.

I can hardly articulate what I love about bicycling. There are so many things. Sometimes I think the ego trip is the driving force, sometimes I think it is how safe I feel on a bike, sometimes I think it is the endorphins that I love. The first year, I spent a lot of time on my bicycle calculating in my head how much money I was saving. Mental math distracted me while toiling up the toughest hills.

Since we shared the car, driving to work for me meant Iain had to make 2 trips: one to drop me off and one to pick me up. I calculated that with our car’s mileage and the current price of gas (about $3/gal at the time), I saved us $1 in gas alone every time I bicycled to work.

If we had 2 cars, one trip to work would be just one trip to work, about 50 cents in gas. However, the median cost of car ownership is $9,000 a year according to AAA, totaling up all expenses (not just gas). Since we have not owned a 2nd car for over 10 years now, my bicycling has saved us $90,000.

The moral of this story is that money is a powerful motivator.