Welcome to Laketown
I've now commuted to work 52 times, averaging twice a week for a full year. I only need two more rides to match 2013's total commutes. Six more rides gets me to my goal of 1000 miles. Bilbo the bicyclist would be passing Laketown, just past the 900 mile mark. In short, things are going well.
I did break another spoke last week, my fifth. I decided to simply buy a new rim for my back tire, so now I have an entirely new heavy duty rim. Hopefully that'll keep me from breaking any more spokes; the minimal extra weight will be well worth it in that case.
Every time I bike to work I save 20 miles of car mileage. That's about 1,040 miles. At a conservative estimate of 350 miles per tank of gas, I've saved... 3 tanks of gas, or maybe $100. Biking to work does not actually save me a ton of money, especially when you take into account the opportunity cost of:
- I'm hourly, so I could get in earlier and stay later and make more overtime.
- Biking makes it harder to do things at night, so I don't go out as much.
1,000 miles has a minimal impact on a car's maintenance, so that's not much of a help either. Oh well, the exercise is benefit enough.
Another way of looking at it: there are 52 weeks in a year. I have to go to work 5 of them, so that's 260 days. Take out about 40 for holidays and vacations, and we're at 220. If I ride three more times this year and get to 55, I'll have biked to work fully 1/4 of the work days in 2014. It sounds more impressive that way, doesn't it?
I did break another spoke last week, my fifth. I decided to simply buy a new rim for my back tire, so now I have an entirely new heavy duty rim. Hopefully that'll keep me from breaking any more spokes; the minimal extra weight will be well worth it in that case.
Every time I bike to work I save 20 miles of car mileage. That's about 1,040 miles. At a conservative estimate of 350 miles per tank of gas, I've saved... 3 tanks of gas, or maybe $100. Biking to work does not actually save me a ton of money, especially when you take into account the opportunity cost of:
- I'm hourly, so I could get in earlier and stay later and make more overtime.
- Biking makes it harder to do things at night, so I don't go out as much.
1,000 miles has a minimal impact on a car's maintenance, so that's not much of a help either. Oh well, the exercise is benefit enough.
Another way of looking at it: there are 52 weeks in a year. I have to go to work 5 of them, so that's 260 days. Take out about 40 for holidays and vacations, and we're at 220. If I ride three more times this year and get to 55, I'll have biked to work fully 1/4 of the work days in 2014. It sounds more impressive that way, doesn't it?