I was reading about Charlie Cunningham yesterday on Wikipedia. He was an early Pioneer of the Mtn. Bike and went on to become a founder of Wilderness Trail Bikes. He worked with the company back in the day when they made a host of boutique items and also made a little over 180 lifetime warranteed bikes himself.
"By age twenty five he realized that automobile use in the USA is largely wasteful, polluting and socially ruinous. His solution: Bicycles"
Socially ruinous? Maybe not. But the way the auto is used in the states is definately silly and a little bit sad even. There are scores of students are UGA who pile into 300+lb boxes to make a trip to class that is less than two/three miles for most and less than 1mi for many.
Lets look at just the financial aspects of the bike vs car in commuting.
My brand new bike costs about $660. It's a hardtail MTB, perfect for four years of any biker hopping curbs, jumping stairs, doing more or less anything urban you can think of. It will easily last four years of college with minor repairs such as $10 brake pads.
Parking at UGA costs an average of about $315.00 per academic (9mth) year. Driving to and from school probably burns a minimum of 5 gallons a week when taking into account starting the car and running various systems like heat and AC. Thats $12.50 a week, minimum for gas, which comes to $50 a month. Cost for gas for the year then comes to $450. Add the 315 for parking and the total cost to commute to school comes out to about $765/yr. This is assuming an average cost for parking spaces at UGA and a cost of gasoline of 2.50/gal, which is really pretty fair if not low at this point in time.
AS YOU FOLKS CAN SEE
I spent less money on my BRAND NEW, BEAUTIFUL Fisher hardtail this year than many people spend driving to and from school every morning. And my bike is money folks. I love it, it brings me great joy when I see it in my living room every morning. Next year I could put this kinda money into my bike again and my lowly Marlin would probably be race-ready.
None of this takes into account the pure joy of cycling, or the supurb and abundant health benefits (I've def. shed some lbs).
Now, I just have to figure out a way to squeeze some of this saved $$$ out of my rents hands to put some Carbon Fiber on my bike, or better yet, save up for a 29er :)
GET ON A BIKE
Monday, February 8, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Riding Stairs
I've been reading about Niner Bikes a lot lately. The company seems good, the bikes are so sick looking, I really wanna ride one soon. The guy who runs my LBS has a Niner bike and says that the bike is too much bike for him. That's always a great feeling. Not much else is really going on. I finished my first test of the semester this week. Felt like it was really easy. It was a short one too, twenty five questions, so that was nice. I also finished the sequal to Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday, which was a good/typical Steinbeck book. I'm getting pretty damn close to finishing the total works on Steinbeck, and kinda want to make it happen, I love Steinbeck a lot.
As far as the bike goes, my time on the saddle has been great lately. It's all about shifting weight when riding on an kind of rough paths or OR stuff. I've also been trying to learn how to ride down stairs and have been doing some stairs close to the library on north campus just to train. I think I could probably ride down a full flight right now but there are a couple set of stairs in the area I've been working at that are fiveish steps long. I havent fallen once but the full flight is intimidating. Intimidation is one's biggest enemy on the bike, so I wanna make myself a bit more comfortable before I try the full flight. Last night though I was pretty hammered and all I wanted to do was go ride down a flight of stairs. Glad I didn't try to do it, if things had been fine it woulda been fine, but if things went wrong, well, it was three AM.
As far as the bike goes, my time on the saddle has been great lately. It's all about shifting weight when riding on an kind of rough paths or OR stuff. I've also been trying to learn how to ride down stairs and have been doing some stairs close to the library on north campus just to train. I think I could probably ride down a full flight right now but there are a couple set of stairs in the area I've been working at that are fiveish steps long. I havent fallen once but the full flight is intimidating. Intimidation is one's biggest enemy on the bike, so I wanna make myself a bit more comfortable before I try the full flight. Last night though I was pretty hammered and all I wanted to do was go ride down a flight of stairs. Glad I didn't try to do it, if things had been fine it woulda been fine, but if things went wrong, well, it was three AM.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Today has been a mixed day. A lot of it was rough but I also spent time with some good friends. Saw Rich, Tim, Barris, my roommates. Drove my new car around. Even then bad days have lots of good to them. As usual, the bike made a rough day a lot better.
Even though I didn't spend that much time on my bike today, the time I spent on it was really great. I've been having trouble figuring out how to take the hits from drops in my knees a bit better to spare my bike, and I think I finally got the hang of it today. I also just did a lot with weight shifting, my saddle is perfect for it and I've been really enjoying the feel of leaning and taking wide sweeping turns. The bike makes the worst day a little bit smoother, not that today was the worst.
Not all's well in the world of the Marlin. I put way too much chain oil on the other day. Don't have a proper brush either. My chain is a little mucked up. I think it's a bit stretched too, it's been falling off a lot. May need to look at getting a new one shortly. What I really need is some quality chain degreaser and a cleaning tool.
I gotta say I can't wait until the weather gets a little bit warmer though. The spring is right around the corner. Longer days are going to be even better than the temp increase. I really can't wait, the winter is nice, but it's gonna be good to feel the warmth of a strong spring sunshine.
I watched a really cool music video today. STP, sour girl. It's on Youtube, worth a look.
I've got my first test this Thursday, in my advertising class that I have with my friend James. I think it's gonna be pretty easy, we don't have a book for the class and just do relatively short readings that are posted on the profs website. Still want to make sure I'm prepared though, may as well ace it if it really is easy right? Even though the class is easy, it's really interesting. Honestly it's more creepy than anything else. The class is about how dominant advertising is throughout all of our lives. It's insane. Really made me notice tons of advertising in my life. You'd have to not get out of bed and get dressed in the morning to avoid advertising in daily life. The average Westerner sees 14,000 Ad impressions A DAY. Millions a year. It's really insane.
Advertising is interesting, but my best class by far is Sociology of Work and Industry. The people in there are so interesting. There's a real fly girl that sits next to me. The prof's the dept. head. And the subj. is FASCINATING. I picked the wrong major, I think. Also it's really taking a lot of the mystery out of the workforce for me. There's a couple total retards in there but even they are fun. There's generally a feeling of community in that class the prof cultivates with his conversational style. He's a really charming South African gentleman who is all about engaging the students. Patient as hell too, he hears some dumb shit.
Off to watch some King of the Hill. Then read a bit of Steinbeck
Even though I didn't spend that much time on my bike today, the time I spent on it was really great. I've been having trouble figuring out how to take the hits from drops in my knees a bit better to spare my bike, and I think I finally got the hang of it today. I also just did a lot with weight shifting, my saddle is perfect for it and I've been really enjoying the feel of leaning and taking wide sweeping turns. The bike makes the worst day a little bit smoother, not that today was the worst.
Not all's well in the world of the Marlin. I put way too much chain oil on the other day. Don't have a proper brush either. My chain is a little mucked up. I think it's a bit stretched too, it's been falling off a lot. May need to look at getting a new one shortly. What I really need is some quality chain degreaser and a cleaning tool.
I gotta say I can't wait until the weather gets a little bit warmer though. The spring is right around the corner. Longer days are going to be even better than the temp increase. I really can't wait, the winter is nice, but it's gonna be good to feel the warmth of a strong spring sunshine.
I watched a really cool music video today. STP, sour girl. It's on Youtube, worth a look.
I've got my first test this Thursday, in my advertising class that I have with my friend James. I think it's gonna be pretty easy, we don't have a book for the class and just do relatively short readings that are posted on the profs website. Still want to make sure I'm prepared though, may as well ace it if it really is easy right? Even though the class is easy, it's really interesting. Honestly it's more creepy than anything else. The class is about how dominant advertising is throughout all of our lives. It's insane. Really made me notice tons of advertising in my life. You'd have to not get out of bed and get dressed in the morning to avoid advertising in daily life. The average Westerner sees 14,000 Ad impressions A DAY. Millions a year. It's really insane.
Advertising is interesting, but my best class by far is Sociology of Work and Industry. The people in there are so interesting. There's a real fly girl that sits next to me. The prof's the dept. head. And the subj. is FASCINATING. I picked the wrong major, I think. Also it's really taking a lot of the mystery out of the workforce for me. There's a couple total retards in there but even they are fun. There's generally a feeling of community in that class the prof cultivates with his conversational style. He's a really charming South African gentleman who is all about engaging the students. Patient as hell too, he hears some dumb shit.
Off to watch some King of the Hill. Then read a bit of Steinbeck
Monday, February 1, 2010
Everybody Loves Dylan
Everyone should go listen to "Another Side of Bob Dylan" as soon as possible. If you don't have time for the whole album youtube Spanish Harlem Incident, I Don't Belive You and Ballad In Plain D.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
