It takes too long for milk and corn flakes to arrive from ebay and I get cranky without breakfast! :p:p:p

Seriously, I too order almost EVERYTHING online, even 80-90% of my grocery shopping, and the vast majority of cycling goods too! You can tell because my ebay account is in the first 6 months of the company opening! lol

Unfortunately almost without exception, businesses here in Athens do not allow you to bring the bike in, and since cyclist don't even bother asking about this, when I do, I get very peculiar stares from the employees or management (and of course a negative answer).

I had to have a rear rack custom-made for the DL-1 so although I've had the panniers for a while, I only started commuting with them in the last six weeks. My bike stays indoors so the panniers haven't been tested too much yet in the elements. The material is a water-resistant cotton canvas with leather trim. I hope they will last a long time.

The love the peace and quiet of the commute especially when working in corporate he11 :)

A whole string of good answers here. I can hardly add anything.

And like Spivonius (I think..) I'm a bit narcissistic about it. I like the fact that I'm (we're) right and all of those others are wrong, wrong, wrong.

Bike commuters have taken the Red Pill.

One of many is being able to overcome the elements. I like snowbiking and I don't mind riding in the rain.

In much of the metro DC area, it's easier and less hassle than driving.

This is a definite downside the “multi-modal” thing. Sadly, my only other alternatives are to drive, or bike 65 miles each way. On the up side, in over five years of train/biking I have had only five seriously hampered rides. Three suicide by train:( (one of which was a guy threatening to jump off an overpass onto the tracks who was eventually talked down-at 4:00 AM the next day), one car on the tracks-occupants escaped-no derailment, and a Raiders game when a few years ago when my commute was to San Diego.

Accidents on the freeway, or just plain congestive gridlock, are for more common.

I gotta admit, for me this is a big part of it. If you travel in Third World Countries, you're constantly besieged by poor people holding out their hands for money. Here in North America, you are constantly besieged by corporations holding out their hands for whatever they can get away with charging. I see they're just now starting to charge for secure bike parking & showers, and I can see it getting worse as numbers reach a "critical mass." But for now, I can still "screw the system," defeat the corporate transportation infrastructure. Like Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, I can use the existing infrastructure for free, avoiding the frustrating gridlock of being one bit in a serial synchronous half-duplex communications model (and once downtown, the stream gets packetized by the stoplights). Allegorically, bikes operate at a measly 300 baud, but it's all full duplex and parallel!

So bike commuters come out far ahead in terms of minimizing cost and aggravation. I remember seeing a survey of bike commuters, done back in the 70's (I recall John Forester mentioned it), and most bike commuters of the time were engineers and technical people, folks who think about how to make things better. I don't think you see too many stupid people riding bikes; those people are still stuck in their cars because that's the way it's always been done, and they can't think beyond that.

And beyond that, I just love being on the bike, regardless of weather or time of day.

Luis

Really? Where are "they" charging cyclists for secure bike parking & showers or using the "corporate transportation infrastructure?"

I think you are thinking too hard about this; relax, you are riding a dang bike and it is NOT rocket science.

I suggest you think more about what you are writing on this subject and try not so hard to emulate an elitist, club cycling thought process based on bogus "studies."

Good thinking!

I like the free bungee cords I find on the side of the road.

"They" are the BC Institute of Technology in downtown Vancouver BC, which charges about $35/month to use a bike parking facility downtown. As numbers of cyclists increase, I can see more of this cropping up. Currently, my employer gives me access to a fairly secure bike room plus a shower facility for free, for which I am thankful. It's really expensive to park a car in downtown Vancouver, but it's nothing like Toronto!

"Transportation infrastructure:" you pay to drive and park the car. You pay to take the bus or rapid transit. You pay for streets and maintenance.

"Thinking too hard about this." No, just thinking about it for a long time. Thought I'd inject some novel ideas; you hear so many of the cliches anytime it comes to cycling. And you are right, it's not rocket science; anybody with a degree in computer science (or communications) can easily comprehend what I'm saying, or even better, refute it!

"emulating an elitist, club cycling thought process" - Who's emulating? I AM an elitist club cyclist. And just what's wrong with elitism, if you've worked all your life at getting better at something? I've been riding, racing, commuting for over 40 years, so I can't help but be smug!

Since I'm not sure about the tone of your response, I will forego any ill-intentioned rejoinder. But I can see that I'm not likely to encounter intelligent, respectful, and scintillating exchanges in this subforum! Good day!

Luis

Your pride in your smugness will not bring forth any respectful or scintillating exchanges from me.
BTW riding, but not racing for 60 dang years.

I was thinking about this today because I overslept and had to drive in. Traffic was so annoying coming home, dealing with stop and go and juvenile maneuvers and sitting still on the interstate burning gas, that all I could think about was all these people doing this every day and not realizing what a waste it is. And most of them, if conversations with acquaintances and random strangers can be generalized, believe that I'm the crazy or eccentric one. Heck I was one of them for years, decades. It just boggles the mind that cycling is a vastly more attractive alternative, that is even cheaper and easier, yet so few people even attempt it.

I guess it's not a matter of smugness for doing something better, but more like the satisfaction of evading the trap that ensnares so many.

I like that I get to do what I love twice a day and it takes nothing away from my life but adds so much.

It's weird in that it's the one thing I never get sick of doing.
At least once I'm 10 minutes into it... ;)

Are you smug about not being smug?;)

Ditto, precisely:thumb:

I am glad that I enjoy riding my bike for getting around town. Now that I am retired I no longer do the 24 mile R/T commute year round.

I am glad that a lot of other people have all sorts of positive thoughts about their bicycling.

I am also glad that I can enjoy cycling (and enjoyed bike commuting) without becoming a pompous elitist thinking that I must be superior and smarter than all the alleged üntermenchen who do not ride bicycles to every destination.

We lead busy lives with a daily increase in the amount of cars on the road. I still to this day as I am riding out the gate feel like a kid leaving the house after my morning chores, off to explore, with a smile from ear to ear. I do not know of anything else that gives me this feeling.

Bicycles are my addiction, a way of holding onto my sense of self.

I am 37 and I think within my life time we will see a major increase again in the price of fuel again and again and I think it will keep going until it becomes near impossible for normal people on normal wages to afford to run their vehicles on a daily basis.

Then and only then will we see massive improvement in the cycle path type infrastructures.

Behold the humble bicycle . . . . the oldest form of mechanical transport for the individual person . . . and they will be the last.



Just my 2 cents

I simply enjoy riding my bike. :)

The nice side effects: Since I commute mostly on rural roads there's no more road rage, I get a healthy excercise, I m enjoying nature and I'm reducing car usage. Plus it always feels nice to gradually add more km's. to my total commuting mileage (I like to keep track with my bike computer)

Living in NYC, I save money and I'm faster than every other mode of commute that I've tried along this route, which is subway, bus, car, and motorcycle. I love arriving in the morning, throwing on a change of clothes and feeling ready to work. I love my Friday night ride home, when I feel tired, but go a little slower and think about the weekend.

This thread couldn't have come at a worse time, as I just armed myself with a weekly unlimited pass so I can haul some stuff to and from the office and get out of the cold rain. :) Oh well, I'll catch up yet.

I love sharing my commute with my toddler son. Sometimes we talk, sometimes we don't. I love the sights, sounds, smells we experience together. Cruising down a hill and hearing him say "weeeee" makes me want to do it too. I know I won't have this time forever, so I cherish it.

Other than that, a bike commute is really the best way for me to wake up and start my day. When I was working an office job, I always relished the fact that I got to the office feeling invigorated by the fresh air instead of stressed from being in my car and fighting for a parking space.