Fifty Plus (50+) - Unexpected result of biking more

Going over my credit card bills I find I am using quite a bit more gas because I am driving more to go to my favorite riding places.

Times past my recreation was riding my motorcyle on weekends (50+ mpg) but now I'd rather bike and most of my choosen places are at least a 40 mile round trip.

I don't expect any solutions for this but the "biking to save fuel" line is out in my case.

I'll bet this is true for many of us.

Mike

It's true in my case, too. But I know that biking has helped to keep me healthier than many people my age and my medical expenses aren't as high as theirs. I guess I'm willing to pay the extra money in gas costs to enjoy riding.

My current gas costs are also lower than when I was working full-time due to my long commute.

Here's a suggestion. Instead of going someplace to ride your bike, why not ride your bike to go places?

95% of the time I ride from my front door, and do a whole lot of errands on my bike, and my gas bill is down. Wish I could get the wife to do the same! sometimes I drive "my" car (2000 Neon with 61,000 miles) just to make sure it still runs

I noticed (but never tried to quantify) that trend happening with me a while back when I was constantly driving to road rides and MTB rides. I started doing as many rides as possible starting from my front door or take my bike with me to work to avoid a special trip for a remote starting after-work ride. I try to arrange car pooling when there is a ride out of town.
But anyway you cut it, I am burning gas to support my recreational bicycling. Then again, I don't have a big V8 truck pulling a bass boat with huge engines or pulling a trailer loaded with dirt bikes or 4-wheelers like so many of the good ol' boys who pass me while I'm riding my bike.

LOL, well I'll help you all make it more EVEN, since we can't afford to own a car, we go almost everywhere on our bikes and all our rides start from homebase so we use NO GAS!! We've been looking at getting a "Bike Friday" Tandem so we could put the bikes on a bus, then a train then be able to "start" at different points for rides in different areas, states, ect. Till that happens you can use our "negitive gas usuage" to counter your "Postive gas useage"! ;)

I suppose putting my bike in the back of my Hemi powered Quad Cab Ram is way over the top! :lol: 98% of my rides are from my front door as well...but I look at it like this, I could be driving to the golf course or gym, so I figure what gas I burn to support my "habit" is not a big deal. And for me, it isn't about doing something green, I just like riding.

I suppose putting my bike in the back of my Hemi powered Quad Cab Ram is way over the top! :lol: 98% of my rides are from my front door as well...but I look at it like this, I could be driving to the golf course or gym, so I figure what gas I burn to support my "habit" is not a big deal. And for me, it isn't about doing something green, I just like riding.


[And for me, it isn't about doing something green, I just like riding.]:thumb: +1, I get asked, are you a "tree hugger", I say NOPE, "I just like to RIDE"!:D

I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who has to drive to get to the good trails. Now that the weather has cooled off I plan on doing more mtb'ing. The nearest singletrack is 24 miles from my house.

OTOH, Where I live it is very hilly. I've gotten used to the hills. Now I'm to the point that I find long, flat, mile eating rides somewhat boring. I'd rather do 20-30 hilly miles close to home on the local blacktops instead of a metric on a nice, flat bike trail.

95%+ of my rides start from the front door, and I use the bike for many errands, so my gas bill is down. For variety, if I want to get to some hill country quickly, I can carry the bike on a light rail train and be fresh for the climbs. Having said all that, I will drive the bike to participate in a club ride or ride outside my local area, but those are the exceptions.

It balances out. Monday to Friday my car just sits in the carport since I ride to work all the time, and use the bike for errands where I don't need to carry awkward stuff. But on weekends, I'm often driving to Seattle (over 200 km away) to ride my bike or go to the opera or whatever. During the winter, I'll drive to the Burnaby indoor velodrome (only about 15 minutes away) with my track bike in my car.

But the past five months, I've been working in Victoria. Since it costs about $60 each way to take a car on the ferry, compared to $15 each way with a bike, I have been living car-free in Victoria, and sometimes my car just sits in the carport for two or three weeks at a time. I can't remember the last time I bought a tank of gas (but I guess buying the ferry ticket wipes out those savings).

Luis

I'm planning a 200 km "rails to trails" ride on an old railway right of way next summer. It is 400 kms from home.
Now i'm considering making it a 1000 km bike round trip. Probably 12 to 14 days. Why not? But what I don't spend on gas, I'll spend on food.

99% of my rides start in my garage and end there too. ( road bike)
MTB is another story, I have to drive about 10 miles to one location and 20 for the other single track spot. I have thought about riding to the closet though.

For me it's 50/50 some days I don't feel like loading the bike up so I just ride from the house but with our winter residents on their way back I will be driving to the ride start for safety reasons.

Unfortunately, I drive to the start of most of my bike rides. There are some intersections between my condo and my favorite riding area that are simply danagerous. A friend of mine was hit by a car at the worst intersection (he did survive). Although it is only 8 miles to a good starting point to ride to club rides, for the sake of staying alive, I drive.

Most of my rides start from home, and most of the ones that don't start from fairly close to home. That's been a conscious change on my part as I prepare for retirement, trying to live cheaper and put fewer miles on my soon to be paid for vehicle.

OTOH, Where I live it is very hilly. I've gotten used to the hills. Now I'm to the point that I find long, flat, mile eating rides somewhat boring. I'd rather do 20-30 hilly miles close to home on the local blacktops instead of a metric on a nice, flat bike trail.

Illinois? Hilly? As a West Virginian, I'm ROTFL.

Illinois? Hilly? As a West Virginian, I'm ROTFL.
in comparison to South Florida.