Commuting - ?

What is the purpose of riding a bicycle, the ultimate recreation machine, in place of driving a car?

A car is faster, easier.

A car has air conditioning, comfort seats and stereo music.

A car keeps you drier (no sweat.)

A car won't make you tired.

A car comes in more colors.

A car makes a fashion statement.

You don't have to dress specially to drive.

Weather is hardly a problem.

You can eat whatever you want and still drive just as well.

You can get more "horse"power from a car simply by spending more money instead of having to build up to it by training/nutrition.

You can have a bigger, larger, more egotistical grille than that other stupid driver who can't afford an "Escalator."

People will accept you, even admire you (or your new car, actually.)

Why do it?

A car is faster, easier.

a bicycle, as you said, is the ultimate recreation machine. the breaks in pedaling, due to traffic or the ilk, don't raise our bloodpressure the same as if we were "caged" and motionless. in fact, it's my bit of interval training as i sprint from light to light, bobbing and weaving amongst the cars.



A car has air conditioning, comfort seats and stereo music.


my bike cools me as fast as i can pedal, my saddles' conformed to my behind and i can hear the sounds of the bay, the birds and the wind touseling the tops of the willows and euclyptus trees.



A car keeps you drier (no sweat.)


sweat is [wo]manly. :D



A car won't make you tired.


reminds me of an ancient chinese proverb:
man who rides in front of car gets tired,
man who rides behind car gets exhausted.

the feeling of coming down from an endorphin-fueled high, THAT kind of tired, is a good tired. it reminds us that we are alive.



A car comes in more colors.


so do my jerseys.



A car makes a fashion statement.


so do my jerseys.
i'm just not quite sure if it's a good fashion statement. :rolleyes:

seriously, people dropping 2K+ on their ride can have motivations running the gamut from engineering to "it-looks-prettiest". those are statements unto themselves.



You don't have to dress specially to drive.


heck, when i drive, i usually don't bother dressing at all! :P



Weather is hardly a problem.


i'm a fair-weather cyclist so i won't comment. of course, in san francisco there's a lot of "fair" weather.



You can eat whatever you want and still drive just as well.


i'm lucky: i still have the metabolism, am young enough, and am not a racer so i eat whatever i want anyways.



You can get more "horse"power from a car simply by spending more money instead of having to build up to it by training/nutrition.


ahhh, but here is where the fun really starts. the capability to develop our bodies and wills to new limits and new abilities is where the joy and satisfaction comes from.

working on a car/truck/motorcycle and pushing it's limits beyond what the factory intended is fun indeed, but those are external items that shouldn't be intrinsic to our mental or emotional well-being, and for sure they are not tied into our physical health. they are accessories. they are accruments. they do not "prove" anything about us as persons, other that we can afford them, or are willing to go into debt for them.

cycling, however, as with any physical endeavor, can develop strength of will, strength of body. you can feel good about YOURSELF, not what you own or possess. the drive to conquer that mountain, to train and reach a specific goal, is a lesson that can be applied universally, no matter what the situation or time.



You can have a bigger, larger, more egotistical grille than that other stupid driver who can't afford an "Escalator."

People will accept you, even admire you (or your new car, actually.)


if they accept me, nay, ADMIRE me for my car, then i'm doing something wrong. they should be looking at me, not my car! :roflmao:

bt

If you have to ask why, Then I ask you. Why are you cycling?

I cycle because I can, Many look at me in envy when they find out I ride more than 10,000 miles a year on a bicycle, I'm 47 years old and fit enough to power my self whereever I want to go. I ride in the nice weather and in the not so nice weather, more often than not I'm heavily loaded. I ride a very high tech bike, in fact 5 of them. I also have a ford excursion, it sits in the garage, I use it when I need to drive and bring others with me, So you see, it's MY choice to ride, I will ride until I can't ride any longer, then I will dream of the rides I took when I could ride. Anyone can drive just about anywhere, but few can ride everywhere.

I usually feel worse at the end of a long drive than at the start, and better at the end of a long ride.

BTW why the two words "drive" and "ride". Drive is active, purposeful, potent (we'll drive through this legislation.. etc), whilst ride is passive (that sucker was taken for a ride). Its what british comedian Ben Elton called "The Reality Gap"

When I ride, I AM the power!

Originally posted by mrfix
...I ride more than 10,000 miles a year on a bicycle, I'm 47 years old and fit enough to power my self whereever I want to go.
"Mr. Fix,"

You have just spelled out my mission statement.

I am 42 years old and my goal is to be as fit as you someday. I believe this will make us examples to all mankind, much like Mr. Duckham of Dayton, Ohio, who still rides centuries at 94.

:beer:

Well little, as you can tell, I am on the 150 year plan. I look at it this way, If I can ride a 200 mile day at 47, and a 100 mile day at 75, and a 50 mile day at 90, hopefully I'll be able to ride 1 mile at 100 years old. After that I can sit on the porch for the next 50 years telling my stories about the rides I took.
Oh, one more thing, I really like being different.

I never saw it like that before. I'm giving up cycling right away. it just doesn't make sense anymore.

Anyone want to buy a couple of cheap bikes?