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Old 09-19-06, 10:19 PM
  #19  
ThatWhichRolls
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Originally Posted by ryanparrish
What systems do you use to get your self started. I heard some people put a dollar in the jar everytime they ride. Also after almost getting hit twice I seem to talk my self out of it even more. When it is raining, and I just don't feel like riding anymore. I could really use some one to yell at me or something.
I started out with commuting in spring '05, and I'll admit, I didn't take to it right away. I found myself with a connundrum: I'd just sank money on a bike and was risking not making the purchase worth its while. Then one night, I was sitting on the john, taking a dump, when it hit me: the drunken crazy man who wanders around my neighborhood needs money for booze! I need a reason to bike! So what I did was, see, I went and told this guy to come around to the front of my building every day at 8:00, and if he shouted loud enough, I'd come down and give him a buck to go towards his half-pint of Wild Turkey or whatever he was into that day. So when he came round and started hollerin', I wanted to get out of my building and away from him as quickly as possible. The first couple times were a bit hairy, but after a few weeks, I got to the point where I could accelerate just fast enough to where he didn't have a chance of laying a finger on me. An extra dollar saved became my incentive, and more than a year later, I've...


Er, okay, that didn't happen. In fact, I'd looked at it like this: I'd bought the bike and wanted to start commuting via bike because CTA was threatening all sorts of crazy fare hikes and service cuts at the time. I was at least going to ride as often as possible until the money I would've spent on transit equalled the amount of money I'd spent on the bike (an early-eighties Raleigh road bike that was a real beater but worked). By the time the bike "paid for itself", I found that I was so accustomed to biking and loved it so much that it was more of a hassle *not* to bike.

And they all lived happily ever-after. The end.
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