sbhikes

I just was reading a thread about some places where if you ride your bike for commuting or errands you are a real curiosity. Got me wondering.

If it's such an oddity to see someone ride a bike for errands and things where you live, how on earth did you get started with it? Did you move there from some other place where it was more common? Or did you just wake up one day and said, I'm going to be different and ride my bike?

Crash Dummy

I live about 2.5 miles from work in DC. There's a light every block, so traffic never really gets moving very fast before it stops again. I rode my bike for fun and exercise, and eventually I noticed that I moved along about as fast as cars did. I timed my route to work and it took about five minutes longer by bike. A few weeks later, I put on a rack and got some grocery bag panniers and I haven't driven my car in about a month and a half.

Dahon.Steve

After losing my car during a brief period of unemployment, I ran into Paul Dorn's site by happenstance. I figured if a guy older than me could do it, why not me?

End of story.

Jessica

I had a bike as a kid, and used a bike to commute as a student in college. I have returned to bike commuting for pleasure, financial and stress reduction every time i have had a job and a lifestyle that made it practical. I have had cars, and gotten rid of second cars because of bike commuting.

Makoa

Diane,

My local paper just did a little article about commuters. The article opened by saying that we were the "office oddballs" and the equivalent of geeks with pocket protectors. All I got to say is that is commuting makes me an oddball, then an oddball I am, and I'm darn proud of it!

I live in a community where it seems more people drive rusty farm-use pickup trucks than ride bikes. Well, that's not quite true, there are a heck of a lot of soccer moms in massive SUVs too. To answer your question, I got started when I lived in the Washington DC area (northern VA). There are a whole lot of commuters there. Everytime I visit that area, I am amazed by the number of rush-hour cyclists.

When I first moved back to rural VA, I decided that commuting was not practical due to the number of hills, length of commute, etc. But then one day I saw another guy pushing his bike into the building where I work. I talked to him and found out he was going a lot longer (and hillier) than I would have to. From that day on, I've been proud to call myself a bicycle commuter, and oddball.

Makoa

rs_woods

I'll buy a car when I need one. At the moment I don't. I used to walk around, but I decided it'd be faster and more fun to ride. So that's what I do, now. Is that odd?

Where I live it's not uncommon to see cyclists on the side of the road, but most of the time they appear to be junkies riding to their next fix. Across the river it's a different story though. I see a lot of well-kept bikes being used by well-kept people.

Monument Man

i just came back from a long ride a few weekends ago and my wife was going to the grocery store. well i joined her in the car but i was wearing my bike shorts.

i was amazed to see so many ohter bikers in the store. it was a health food supermarket in cambridge, mass so i wasn't too suprised to see so many people using nontraditional methods to travel to the store

caloso

I was training for a triathlon and was finding myself blowing off my evening workouts because it was too hot and I was too tired by the time I got home. It occurred to me that if I rode my bike to work, I'd have no excuse to avoid my training.

That race was a long time ago, and I'm still riding my bike to work. And I'm still an oddball.

Eggplant Jeff

Makoa:

You must have lived in a different part of N. Va than I do... I live in Manassas, I used to work in McLean but now work in Manassas. I've sure never seen any significant number of bicycle commuters.

After I got my new job (5 miles away instead of 23) I just decided to ride, mainly because it's better for the environment but also because it's better for me. Gas prices really had nothing to do with it (my car ran on Propane anyway) but I have (since I started riding) decided to get rid of one car.

Hickabod

I've been a certified oddball for many years now and I was looking for ways to expand my credentials.

In all honesty after my marriage went down the drain, I needed something to get me out of the house. Now I wish she would have left years ago. Such is life.

jakemoffatt

I saw a certifiable oddball the other day...

I was at the coast and a biker was in the bike lane (I was driving) and he looked like a vagrant. About 60 to 70% of his rear end was sticking out of his pants. Worse than any lycra you've ever seen period. Everyone else on a bike was cool though. I definitely could have gone without seeing that guy for the day.

phillybill

I started years ago when I had to rehad my knee...so I rode all over the place and enjoyed the excersise as well as not putting gas in the car. So when I live in areas where I can use the bike and it makes sense I do.

Now adays as a type 2 diabetic I need the excersise and from where I live I can either ride or take the train.

toyota200x

I live in Minnesota where "men" drive trucks and I didn't want to be a part of that mocho men crowd at all. So I drive a 4 cylinder car when I have to and bike the rest of the time. I consider myself different and biking instead of driving makes me even more different especially when I bike in the winter. I get tons of weird looks.

JohnBrooking

Similar to Eggplant Jeff. I used to live 16 miles out from my job, a distance I now realize many other people ride, but I didn't think of it as feasible at the time. (Might not have been anyway, since I've never been very athletic, and don't want to take several hours commuting each day due to having young kids.) But I always had a slight nagging guilt about being a single-occupancy car commuter. There was no public transportation, although I did carpool off and on.

Then we moved further in towards the teeming metropolis of Portland, ME , for various reasons, of which one was being closer to work. (As well as finding a great old house that we could just afford, being closer to everything else city life offers, and closer to THE OCEAN! ) I was looking forward to not being a single-occupancy car commuter anymore, but still wasn't specifically thinking of biking. But there turned out to be no good bus routes, and it was only 5 miles, so I figured I'd give it a try, and have been doing it ever since, three years this July!

JohnBrooking

Hey, toyota200x, did you steal my avatar? (Not a problem...)

Treespeed

I started cycling to and from school after seeing the movie "Breaking Away" and it was all uphill from there. A few long distance camping tours, then after high school I was a messenger on and off for seven years. I never felt like an oddball, but I also lived in Seattle surrounded by other cycling oddballs, so being young and fast I at least felt like one of the cooler oddballs.

Now that I'm in Los Angeles, I feel like not an oddball, but that I know a secret shortcut around the traffic nightmare that plague my neighbors and coworkers. "They always say, "Oh, I could never bike that far (6.5 mi. commute)" all the while they eat lunch at McDonalds, complain about traffic, gas prices, and trying to lose weight. I just keep thinking one of these days someone I pass stuck at a red light will see my skinny ass smiling as I motor on home and make the connection. I hope one day to see them on the road or complaining that there isn't enough room for all of the bikes in the storaga closet, or where can they get a Bob Trailer to haul their groceries home. If someone thinks I'm an oddball they haven't told me about it yet. In my opinion the stressed out, sedate, path to obesity seems a worse option.

farrellcollie

too cheap to pay for parking

darkmother

Good question. I started when I was in high school. I went to a school that was 10km from my house. Taking public transit took nearly an hour door to door, because of numerous transfers-and I hated travelling on those crowded busses and subways. At some point I realised that cycling would get me there much faster, which meant I could sleep later in the morning. It was an easy choice to make. I became a lot faster and started building purpose built commuter bikes. When the winter came, I didn't want to go back to transit, so I just kept riding. The rest is history.

eubi

It was easier to ride my bike to college than drive. It was quicker and parking wasn't a hassle. Note: I went to San Diego State University.

First job out of school was in Torrance. Only 4 miles to work so I rode through Palos Verdes Estates to make it longer. The president of my company was a cyclist, and he got the biggest kick out of me riding. I only had to drive my car to work one day when I lived in Torrance.

Those were the good old days. Now I live 40 miles from work. Oh well, I can ride part way in...

bigbenaugust 

It all started on 9 Sep 2000 when I bought a bike for exercise and to maybe commute on to save my car a little wear. Then I bought a pickup (a 4-cylinder Tacoma) to take my friends and our bikes places we couldn't ride to. Now I have two bicycles and the Tacoma is pretty neglected.

As for being an oddball, there are two other guys in this building that also ride (and one of them's in my group), so I'm not so odd.

djbrod

Too lazy to park 5-6 blocks from my building and walk in. Biking cured the parking problem and the laziness.

It also cut my total commute time (driving and walking) from 20 minutes to 6 minutes so I can sleep that much later.

TrevorInSoCal

I started commuting when I started racing mountain bikes. I got a used, beater road-bike (my first road bike) from a friend that worked at a bike shop and started putting in road-miles for training. I tracked down shower facilities at hospital near my work (It was a county facility, and the county IT dept. where I worked at the time was next door. I got the door-code, and permission to use one of the residents' shower-facilities from a nurse at the hospital who I did a small database app for.) and commuted 45 mi. r/t for four days/week during one summer.

That only lasted a summer 'cause I was in school at the time and trying to balance school and work and ride everywhere while classes were in session just wouldn't work.

Eventually I moved closer to work but no longer had access to a shower so I rode my motorcycle to work for a couple years. Having never commuted w/o the luxury of a shower I just didn't think it would work. Then in May of '03 the county had a commute-to-work month mileage contest, and I had a 2 1/2 month tour planned for June that I needed to ensure that I was in shape for, so I decided to give the commute a try again to get some extra miles in. This time on the beater, fixed-gear I had just built up to be my grocery-getter. It worked out fine, even w/o a shower, and apparently there are at least a few other bicycle-commuters around here, 'cause I only missed two days of my 20 mi. r/t commute druing the month of the contest, but that was only good enough for 3rd place. I've been commuting to work (Different workplace. Newer fixie. Still no shower.) since.

This is only my 2nd year or so (Unless you count the summer many years ago, that started it all.) of commuting, so I'm still a newbie compared to many here.

-Trevor

kirkmuffin

to get exercise when the mtb trails were too muddy - now I can't stop

steel_is_real

Doctors orders. I used to be a masters runner, but had a knee problem so the doc said I should take up cycling. Come to think of it, it's a bit ironic that I'm doing cycling to avoid knee problems!?

I do feel a bit odd when I walk through the office in my geeky lime green jersey and lycra shorts. I find myself thinking "I'm getting too old for this". It also isn't easy battling the rush hour traffic. But I reckon that's part of the attraction, it's a form of extreme sport.

tulip

I've been riding bikes ever since I can remember. I started commuting on Sept. 11, 2002 because I did not want to take the Metro or bus that day. I also wanted to see the anti-aircraft guns on the Mall. They were there, but pretty well-hidden. It was rather surreal experience.

I decided I liked cycling to work, so I've kept going.