How many days do you bicycle commute to work?

Do you use your bike for other functional purposes other than work commuting?

Are you a full fledged bicyclist who has given up automobiles?

Let's hear about your dedication to the saddle.

I voted 3 or 4 days per week, but it varies quite a bit. Some of my weeks are 6 days, and sometimes I'll commute to other areas in addition to the usual work location, so it's hard to say exactly.

The main thing is, I'm doing more all the time, and attempting to incorporate my bike into other activities as much as possible, too.

Like aerobat, I voted 3 or 4 days per week, but it does vary. On days I don't ride, I try to walk an hour instead. Again like aerobat, my goal is to do more cycling (and walking,) not less.
The more I can rely on my feet or my bike, the stronger and happier I feel.

But I have a family of 5 and I have yet to find it convenient to grocery shop or do anything as a family without the car. Too bad!

The bicycle as transportation is a doorway to one of the most fascinating worlds I have ever known! I doubt I will ever voluntarily give it up or seek to do less of it.

Having a body that is trained by regular bicycling and walking really pays off in increased stamina with which to address all the unknown challenges of each day. And my chances of really enjoying my senior years is far better than many people's chances of even reaching their senior years. (I hate to put it so bluntly, but it's absolutely true.)

Three or four days a week of bicycle commuting is pretty good - especially if you are consistant.

To be able to commute every day or even to give up the use of an automobile is a real luxury. It shows that the rider has a flexible lifestyle either afforded by either being single, or having a spouse who will pick up a lot of the auto travel responsibilities.

In my case, my wife picks up the slack, so I don't have to worry about leaving work at a certain time to pick up kids and taxi them to the various activities. If not for that, I would be using the one foot transport as well (automobile with auto transmission - get it- one foot).

Every little bit of commuting counts. Even if you only ride once in a while, that is super.

For some people with enormous commutes like 20+ miles each way, once a week has the equivelant miles of riding every day.

I commute every day, though the last few weeks, Rainbabe has been meeting me downtown on Wednesday afternoons for free concerts. Those days, I bummed a ride home with her. Actually, I would have ridden, but she insisted.

I HATE not riding. As I have described before, I am very fortunate to have a nearly perfect distance and very rideable and nice route. Riding beats driving hands down and it is faster than the bus. Besides, I am getting better at this thing called cycling and having a lot of fun.

I keep saying I am going to do all my errands by bike, but I seldom do. It kills me to jump in the car to run to the store, news stand, post office, etc., which are only about a mile away. Time always seems to be short or I have just showered and don't want to get sweaty again. I am going to keep trying, though.

Car-free would be great and actually quite doable. There is just one obstacle - Rainbabe. But she is just so darn cute.
Regards,
Rainman

I commute every gosh-darn day!!! Plus I try to get rides in during lunch.

Hang in there, Mr. Fubar!

You are the future, man.

I do not have a formal job such as you normal people. I do however work six days a week. I am officially retired from the 9 to 5 slob a job. My wife an I run a farm so that is my job. I commute everywhere around the ranch. I cannot however tote a 1000 lb. plus cow to the sale or slaughter.

If you ever try, PLEASE take pictures.

I bike every day of the week, rain or shine. Winter's are a little different. I won't ride after a snow, due to the snow covering the ice. But in the summer, one would be hard pressed not to see me on the daily 6:30am commute.

I commute by bike daily, rain or shine. I have a van and car at home that AlphaBabe drive. Now that I commute by bike the van is only used when we need the people mover (household of 8). It has been a financial help and a healthy thing to do!

Rainman, I am the same way about those little errands and taking the car. I think alot of it, is pre-planning, just like we do with work. When we take the time to look at where we can pickup those little items, and think ahead with a bike path that's fun, then it becomes a foregone conclusion to take the bike.

I am finding several guys in my neighborhood who are biking more so we're looking into planning some group rides on the weekends too!

I became bike dependent because I ride a bike.

Ya, that's right. The more I bicycled, the less I drove the car until one day, the car wouldn't start anymore. In desparation, I hopped on the bike and mashed the peddles faster to get where I needed to go.

The car didn't fix itself and I didn't fix the car, so now I am biking full time.

I still have a car, but it still won't start and now it has two flat tires. Yup, gotta fix that...

If you ever get time, but with your new repair stand I think thats a very slim chance.

My commute is only 4 miles, and I ride it virtually every day. Since I started 2 months ago, I've only missed one day, and that was because I had to take my bike to the shop.

I run most of my errands with the bike, using a backpack, a fanny pack (I hate that name...), or bungee cords on the Blackburn rack to carry what I need. I take my dog for walks (well, runs) on the bike, and when our granddaughter visits, we usually ride bikes to the park. I haven't ridden my bike to church yet, but I ride it to choir practice...

c~

Fantastic, Hogwild. Hats off to you and everybody responding who is using their bikes as real transportation (as well as sport).

In order help liberate yourselves even further from automobile dependancy and to enhance your use of bicycles, let me suggest the following:

Get yourself a freighter. That is a bike with the capacity to haul a whole bunch of stuff. Mine is an old three speed with two huge rear sidesaddle baskets. I also have front baskets I can add on for heavy loads.

Some ambitious cats even use those whatchamajiggers that people use to haul children in (oh, what are they called?). I haven't hit that stage yet, but I would if I had one. Hunter could use one of those for hauling his livestock.

When you're commute is as nice as mine is, you tend to do it as often as you can. I therefore commute every day (or night if need be) in all kinds of weather (I have ridden in hail, lightning, flash floods and just about everything else except snow, which it never does here ).

Chris

What Hunter needs is found at www.bikesatwork.com.
Of course taking 1 steer at a time might be a strain, and they might not sit as still as a refrigerator. There are other "work bike" sites that offer other possibilities.

What a site, Jean! Another series of photos designed to make me feel hopelessly inadequate... Oh, well! I"m glad somebody's that resourceful.

Hunter! I want pictures when you do this!!!

Consider...

Waist Pack (Homophone: Waste Pack)
Butt Bag
Belt Bag
Side Bag

Jonathan

I am truly blessed... um, I mean obsessed.

I ride to work & back every day... My office is only 12 miles from home, but I do like so many of you, and add "warmup miles." So, I end up with anywhere from 38 to 45 miles a day, depending upon how creative I get with my route.

Then, I get up at "work time" and put in 40 to 45 miles each day on my weekends and days off. Out the door at 6:00am, I'm home by 9:30am, cleaned up, and still have nearly a whole day off ahead of me.

And no, I don't get to bed by 9:00pm in order to get up at 5:00... I just don't sleep much. See, old people don't require as much sleep.

On rainy days, I'll either: 1) ride anyway, and just do the 12 mile "short run," 2) call in with whatever excuse buys me time until the rain lets up, 3) catch a ride to work... or home with a car-owning coworker. Typically, I'll just ride in the rain and b*tch about it all day.

On rainy weekends, it's a judgement call. I'll hang around the house all day watching the Weather Channel. "Jeez, a clear patch! Can I sneak in 20 miles here?" If its over 70 degrees out, and if the rain is only intermittent, well, I'll go out anyway. I've forgotten how to have fun indoors...

In Georgia, winter weather is rarely a problem. Most deep-winter dawns see 25 to 30 DegF lows, and the afternoon ride home can be in the 50s. Snow is so rare that everything closes... uh, except for my company (electricity is a 24/7 business), and they sort of understand that it's gonna take me longer to get to work. If I ask, they'll send someone to pick me up. Darkness is my only real winter problem, and I've sorta solved that with an assortment of lights & reflectors. Pee Wee Herman would KILL for my winter bike.

Summers, conversely, are intense... my dawn commute was at 75 DegF & 90% humidity, my ride home will either be at 94 DegF with a heat index of 100++, or beneath a refreshing but ferocious thunderstorm. Then, around about the end of this month, the REAL summer hits... say, 40 or more days of 100 to 105 degree highs, and heat indices nearing 120. Primo suntan weather... I get dark as crispy bacon.

I take my lunch to work, or, if I have to run an errand or go somewhere else to eat, I'll sign out one of the company's motor pool cars or pickups. I've even been known... uh, regularly... to push my luck and make a clandestine lunchtime grocery run while I have a company truck. (Wimpy? Perhaps. But definitely better than having to own a car.)

I'm not fast... my typical commute averages in the low 15mphs, but when I'm outrunning a thunderstorm, I've been known to post mid 16mph averages. (The 20 - 22mph "race pace" is way beyond my ability.)

I don't really know how this happenned to me... but it has, and there's no going back to the old drive-the-too-expensive-new-car-to-work-with-a-cup-of-coffee-&-an-egg-McMuffin-while-listening-to-some-talking-head-on-the-radio. Been there. Done with that.

Now that's what I call bike commuting.

I want to change jobs. I want to haul refrigerators around with my bike.

Maybe a steer once in a while, though, contrary to popular belief, even among Kansas City residents, we don't have livestock come through here.

Jonathan

Jonathan, you're not old enough, and in fact I just barely am old enough, to remember the smell of the then-famous Kansas City stockyards when they were still full of cattle, and meat- and cattle-handling was big in the West Bottoms. Oooh. Not something our vegetarian members would relish at all.

Of course nowadays meat doesn't come from stockyards; it comes from McDonald's or maybe the supermarket, in those little plastic-wrapped packages. So much neater....

Since I bought a mountain bike, I've taken the car to work once. 'Course my work is only about 2 1/2 miles away but it's a nice ride by way of an urban trail and it's just enough to get me pumped and hyper when I get to work.

'Nother benefit of biking to work ( besides all the obvious ones) is people stop askin for rides home. Plus if I'm lucky , I might see some deer or other critters on the way.