I'm a mech engineering undergrad, snubbed the buses during the warm weather last year on my ten speed Skyline. This year I'm gonna go after the snowy months with it, while my newly converted early 70's Sekine singlespeed has just taken to the road. I ALWAYS beat the buses to my campus (just under 5 km) as well as just about everywhere else in the city, and so Far I've paid less for my Sekine than a single monthly transit pass would have cost me (even at student prices). And I PAID for the Sekine! My other two useable bikes were free.

At under 5 km, I can make it to class in under ten minutes even with the incessant headwinds. I lock up in front of whichever building I have class in, although I favour one set of racks which have a camera high above them. I have a condescending chuckle at some of the more hideous tarcky bikes (yeah, you with the Ourys on the chop & flops and the single green rim, or the guy with the bike that looks like it was spraypainted black with the rims and seatpost handpainted green over top). I just need to figure out a way of making my bookbags into quick-release panniers so that I can take my twenty pounds of textbooks to my tutorials without killing my back. I carry my archery case by bike, too.

I think Ottawa's great for cycling. The bike lane's suck, appearing for short distances and disappearing again, but the scenic multi-use-paths are a good way of quickly getting downtown along the canal, and lots of people bike so drivers are used to it. Besides which, this city is pretty small, and the mess of one-way streets and no-left-turn intersections are no big deal on a bike.

Now I just need some bursary money to blow on a classic, double-butted steel racing frame and everything'll be doubleplusgood. That and a balaclava come November.