Originally Posted by
cagedbird
However, my brother's house is six miles away and it is 8 miles to work. It's a very quick drive and if I do well on a bicycle, perhaps it would be a great way to make that trip. Am I underestimating that mileage?
The savings from replacing car trips with bike trips will add up pretty quickly. So buy a cheap bike (realizing that you get what you pay for so you aren't discouraged if it breaks) and see how well you do with using the bike for errands and/or commuting. If you think it's something you can/will do on a regular basis, then it's much easier to justify the expense of upgrading to a better bike. If you're like most of us, within a month you'll be researching carbon fiber road bikes and fancy do-it-all commuter bikes so you can have a bike for every occasion.