bicycle culture

[Tuckervill]

I get a lot of "you guys are so lucky!" from coworkers and relatives, but that irritates me a little. We bought our house when prices were really cheap in this area, but the neighborhood was also a little crappy. We were just very committed to living here. Many of my coworkers used to live in this area, but as they made more money and started families, they moved to the nicer suburbs, and now they spend two hours every day in their cars. Choices.

:applause:

We, too, get that "you're so lucky" speech. Lucky my BUTT. We WORKED for what we have. What's so hard for them to realize is they think they're working hard for what THEY have, but they have their priorities all mixed up.

DH went in to a bank to talk about refinancing our house. The guy's face actually fell when he said we only needed to finance $100k. What? You can't buy a new house here for less than $250,000 (it's way worse in other parts of the country, I know). The bank guy was fully expecting us to be maxed out on our credit and the debt-to-value ratio on the house. No. We don't live that way. We gave up a lot of "amenities" so we could have an acre of land in a city (near a bike trail), and that's all we paid for it. We LOVE our neighborhood and we love that each house is different and unique, and we love our 110 yo Victorian with original windows that we picked up for less than HALF what people working two jobs get all starry-eyed over in the new subdivision up the street.

I guess my rant is over now, but I could go on and on. lol.

Karen

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Tell me more? We bought mirrors that we thought would work but they were awful.

I have to say here that when I first bought my little Third Eye helmet mirror, I found it hard to get used to. Seemed to block my field of vision, be annoying to constantly adjust, etc. My brother had told me of how he had bought a helmet mirror and discarded it after a day because it "blocked his vision". But because I wisely have a policy of NOT doing what my brother does (!), I gave my mirror more time because I figured it might simply take getting used to.
Other types of mirrors would not fit on my drop bars with bar-end shifters.

I'm really glad I stuck with it, because after about 2-3 weeks it became second nature to me, I didn't even notice it in my field of vision anymore, and adjusting it became quick and easy. I absolutely LOVE being able to glance at it and see the ENTIRE panorama in back of me- including all the road shoulders. Amazing how a little 1 inch round mirror can show you the entire world in back of you. I tend to glance at it automatically, just the way I do with my car rearview mirror, and at any given moment I do feel safer knowing what's going on traffic-wise all around me, and what's coming up the road 2 blocks behind me.

[Geonz]

I'm afraid I sometimes glance in the mirror... when I'm walking down the street, not wearing a helmet I'm so accustomed to it. I make a point of maintaining the habit of looking behind me so I don't cream myself if I'm wearing a differnet helmet.

[bikewriter]

Hi! New to the forum and so glad I found you all!

Lisa S.H. ...There are some good chapters in the book The Art of Urban Cycling which discuss how America came to be a nation of automobile worshippers...

I recently started Asphalt Nation which takes a more in depth look at how the car took over the road (and how we can reclaim it). I also recommend How To Live Well Without Owning A Car which really helped me make the decision to go car-lite (and eventually - fingers crossed - car-free) through a combo of cycling and bus riding. The book has a Car Cost Calculator that my bf put online that lets you calculate how much your car costs you (or conversely, how much you can save by relying on your bike for transportation!).

[mimitabby]

Hi! New to the forum and so glad I found you all!

Lisa S.H. ...There are some good chapters in the book The Art of Urban Cycling which discuss how America came to be a nation of automobile worshippers...

I recently started Asphalt Nation which takes a more in depth look at how the car took over the road (and how we can reclaim it). I also recommend How To Live Well Without Owning A Car which really helped me make the decision to go car-lite (and eventually - fingers crossed - car-free) through a combo of cycling and bus riding. The book has a Car Cost Calculator that my bf put online that lets you calculate how much your car costs you (or conversely, how much you can save by relying on your bike for transportation!).

Welcome to the forum! we have a spot for you to tell us about yourself!
"getting to know you" please do stop there and tell us. I am most curious about your "nome di plume" so to speak.

[pooks]

What a wonderful thread.

I'm a bit of the backward chick here, because I became truly motivated by reading a friend's blog (http://nobody-knows-anything.com/) and being inspired by her desire to ride more for environmental reasons (she has an xtracycle, too) and by her bloglist, where I found many of the bike blogs I read regularly now, including Oil is for Sissies (http://blog.lib.umn.edu/thil0020/carfreelife/) and Minus Car (http://minuscar.blogspot.com/).

So when I got my bike (for health reasons) and was so horribly out of shape, I found it easier to motivate myself to go on short trips to the post office, etc. than to simply get out in the heat and ride for the sake of riding. Thus I've accumulated a fairly nice number of "green miles" but no ride longer than 11 miles!

I just figured out a new 6 or 7 mile ride for me that goes largely on good streets that get very little traffic during the day (unless it's rush hour or time for school carpools) but haven't quite motivated myself to try it. Instead I've done a few 2-mile loops in the immediate 'hood. But now that the weather is FINALLY more pleasant I hope to get back into riding the way I did in July and August -- where I'm on and off my bike two or three times a day. At least once to just get some miles done, and then for errands as needed.

I did make it a point to ride to Starbucks, to the grocery store (and took my bike in to pick up my prescription), through the bike drive-through, and into the doc's office to schedule an appointment. Each little challenge was fun.

So thanks for this thread. I needed it to goose me a little. I've been too distracted lately to be as motivated.

Oh yeah -- Geonz -- I have already linked to the sojourner's entry because I saw it on your blog, and now I'll add the friends one. Thanks!

[JmcG]

I too try to do a lot errands and go places on a bike. In this area, where there's always traffic, it's so refreshing to ride a bike everywhere, especially when you're moving faster than the cars. We live a mile from the grocery store, and will ride over on our bikes if we're not buying too many groceries. It's actually so much easier to ride to the grocery store than driving and I don't think it takes any longer. On a Friday afternoon, driving can take longer!

We also like to go house hunting on our bikes and explore new neighborhoods. This past Sunday we rode to a new neighborhood that we just discovered while riding on Saturday - and went to all the open houses in the neighborhood. This area is really nice for biking b/c between all the bike trails and area roads, it's really pretty easy to get around on a bike. I love using my bike as a main mode of transportation - it's somehow freeing to the spirit. When I commute to work, it takes about an hour, where driving only takes 15-20 minutes, but I'm in such a better mood after riding than driving, even though the drive is much quicker.