Biking to Work
A quick update: I just did an interview with Scott from moneybloggerpodcast.blogspot.com. He previously interviewed Cap from Stop Buying Crap, Dawn from Frugal for Life, Jane Dough from Boston Gal’s Open Wallet, and Jonathan from My Money Blog, so I’m in good company. If you are tired of my anonymity and at least would like to know what I sound like, be sure to check in with his site to catch the podcast with me in it.
So yeah, second week in Texas, and hotter than hell. We like it, though. Not like “fooling-ourselves, pretending-to-like-it“, but actually liking it. We can hang by the pool a lot, which is something we couldn’t have done in the ole State of Michigan. We’re pretty happy we’ll never see 2 feet of snow EVER AGAIN.
I mentioned $8/hr jobs my wife and I applied for. They are not going to work out because we found $20/hr jobs, so the choice is clear.
Onto the topic now. While in Michigan, we spent the following on the transportation:
- Wife’s car payment – $203/mo.
- Wife’s gasoline – $120/mo.
- My car payment – $0.
- My diesel – $150/mo.
- Insurance (both) – $137/mo.
- Wife’s maintenance (avg) – $30/mo.
- My maintenance (avg) – $15/mo.
Total – an unavoidable $655 per month, no matter how we spun it. The maintenance for wife’s car is higher because of a fender-bender and a few maintenance issues (shocks, struts, etc). My maintenance was cheap, well, because I drive the best car ever created by human beings in the history of mankind.
Here’s the situation now – we live 0.9 miles from my job and 1.2 miles from wife’s job. I wonder if we can ride a bike to work …
- Two bikes on Craigslist – $300.
- Inconveniences to shower and get ready at work – we’ll just deal with those.
- Crazy Texas heat – definitely a sweaty issue.
What do you think?
A ride bikes a lot.
Biking a mile to work? That should take about 6 minutes at a moderate pace. If you don’t want to sweat, do it in 10-15 minutes. You’ll be slow, comfortable, keep a low heart rate, and the breez will feel good.
Check out commuter web sites for lots of tips about bike locks, what to wear, wiping down with wet wipes, etc. Also, spend $10 – $20 for a red LED rear light and a white LED head light.
That’s awesome that you can do that!
Comment by Wes — August 18, 2006 @ 4:39 am
One more thing – the mtn bike in the picture doesn’t look comfy for commuting. Try and get a “commuter” bike. Less likely to get stolen/stripped.
Comment by Wes — August 18, 2006 @ 4:41 am
I think living without a car in Austin is perfectly reasonable (if you are downtown.) Anywhere else in Texas. No way.
Comment by Billy Zelsnack — August 18, 2006 @ 8:32 pm
btw. Don’t even bother with the bike. Walking the mile is better for you, much safer, and while you’ll still be sweaty, at least you won’t have sweaty seat ass when you get to work.
Comment by Billy Zelsnack — August 18, 2006 @ 8:37 pm
I have two differant jobs that are both within 2 miles of my house and eachother.
I have a nice Chevy Lumina but like to save the gas and miles on the car.
The post above is correct. Just take a nice pace and it won’t be that bad.
I live near St. Louis so we have really hot and really cold snowy weather but it has not effected the ride that much.
Comment by Jason — August 19, 2006 @ 5:08 pm
I would observe the drivers in your area to make sure it appears safe. While Austin is probably the only bike-friendly city in TX, I believe you have said you are in a suburb. Here in Houston, I wouldn’t dare ride a bike, forget the heat, watch out for the Bubba trucks!!!
Comment by bespeckled — August 21, 2006 @ 5:15 pm
What type of work will you be doing? I’d love to be making $20 per hour.
Comment by FRUGAL1TY — August 23, 2006 @ 2:10 pm
First of all, I just happened to run across this blog. What a great site! I added you to my RSS feed list.
I rode my bike to work for six months last year, including several months through snow during the wintertime. I prefer a cheap car, but I must say that the time to and from work was quite relaxing. And I was in much better shape. My ride to work was 8.5 miles. You should totally be able to swing a one mile ride to work.
In fact. One mile to work… why don’t you just walk?
Comment by Jay Bryner — September 17, 2006 @ 9:32 am
Oh, one more thing. The comment above was right. If you’re just going to be doing city bike riding you’ll want to make a couple of modifications to your bike. First, spend a few bucks to get a more comfortable seat. Second, change the tires from the mountain bike tires to ‘slicks’. They’re thick mountain bike tires, but meant to ride on pavement. It is like 3 times easier to ride on slicks than with the bumpy mountain terrain tires. But again, walking would be even more relaxing, and you wouldn’t have to worry about locking your bike up or wearing a helmet, or anything.
Comment by Jay Bryner — September 17, 2006 @ 9:37 am