The smell of a hundred different dinners....

I have two routes home at the end of the day. One takes the main drag. I dodge the traffic, keep my eye out for doors and jaywalkers, keep my head down, and pedal. I get home quickly, but that's about it. It's a habit. Routine. Keeps me active, and it's fun to be on the bike, but that's about it.

The other route I take goes through back streets -- through the neighborhoods. It calmer, quieter, but it takes longer. I don't have a lot of free time these days, so I don't always I take this route home after work. But I did tonight, and I'm glad I did. As I pedaled this way at a more leisurely pace than is typical for me, I breathed in the tantalizing scents of a hundred different dinners being cooked in a hundred different kitchens, and I started to smile.

In one neighborhood, it's the smells of East Africa - curry and greens. In another, it's Mexican food - frijoles simmering in the pot. Hamburgers on the grill, pizzas in the oven, rice pilaf on the stove... I got to smell it all. All those people making all that food, not knowing that some of those aromatic molecules would crash their crazy, chaotic paths through the atmosphere to find their way to my olfactory glands as I cruised by with my fluorescent green shirt and blinky lights ablaze in the last rays of the setting sun.

And when I finally did get home, tummy rumbling, I sat down to eat my own dinner (pork chops and beet salad tonight) with a gusto most will never know. With gusto, and with a sense of deep connection to all my unknown neighbors. Neighbors I may never meet, but who had, unwittingly, shared a tiny piece of their meals with me tonight. It's a connection I get to have because I pedal to and from work, and because I chose to take the long way tonight. It's about as intimate as you can get with total strangers who maybe never even knew you were rolling past, but one which all those people in all those cars will never know because those layers of metal and glass seal them up away from the world. All they get are podcasts and radio DJ's and traffic reports. What I get is to share a hundred different dinners with a hundred different families.

The view at dinner time from the summit of my "neighborhood" bike route. Gorgeous light, and tantalizing smells wafting from the houses below.

This post was original written by me and posted to r/bikecommuting under the title "The smell of many dinners". This version is an edited and extended version of that original post.

Long time away, back at it now!

Hello Thrifty Bike Commuters!

Wow, ok. I've been a bad blogger. It's been too long since I last posted, and I admit it. I am sorry. A lot has been going on in my little world, and it all just got away from me. New city, new job, new bike, new commute. A lot of changes! But I'm coming back to this blog, I promise you that. Bike commuting is more important to me now than it has ever been, and I want to help spread that joy. So keep your eye out for me here, and hope to keep helping more folks to get on their bike and roll into work!

~TBC

Why I ride a bike to work.

As an inaugural post, I thought I'd take the opportunity to set the tone for this little blog. What I mean by that is that I think it's important that we set the record straight on why this thrifty bike commuter does what he does. What I mean by that, is why do I choose to ride a bike to work. Well, as with all things in life, the answer is more complicated than "Because I like to". While I do like doing it, there are other, even more important reasons why I do. Namely, that it saves me time and saves me money.

TIME: 

Let's start with the statement that it saves me time. So, what do I mean by that? Doesn't riding a bike take *longer* than driving somewhere? How can it possibly be saving me time? Well, I'm here to tell you that it does. Here's how:

1) I don't have to go to the gym every day. 

Let's face it, I'm getting older, and my metabolism isn't what it was. After a youth full of them, I really am not into doing any team sports anymore, and I don't run, and I HATE going to the gym. Basically, I don't like to do anything that's typically considered "working out". That doesn't mean I'm not an active guy: I like hiking, I'm known to do a little racquetball, frisbee golf is cool, basically, I like doing anything kinda low-key. But, even if I wanted to go the gym and pump iron until my forehead veins exploded, who has time for all that? I got responsibilities now, and I gotta do a buncha stuff around the house when I get home from work! But, still, I gotta do some sort of workout, or else all those nachos are going to catch up to me, and I'll become a fat-ass. Biking to work solves that problem for me in a way that nothing else can. It lets me get a good workout in everyday, without adding any extra time commitment. Plus, it's fun! And I can choose the intensity of the work out - if I'm feeling all gung-ho I can pedal my ass off, if not, well I can just cruise.

2) Traffic? What traffic?!

This one's a no-brainer. There is nothing more satisfying than blasting past a line up of cars stuck at a light or in gridlock traffic. Ha! Look at all those fools locked up in their tin-cans like sardines! Not me, man! I'm free, and I'm rolling!

3) I can leave when I want to.

When I go in by bike, I don't have to worry about the time of day (is it rush hour?), or the bus schedule (does it come on the 45 or on the 10 today?), or when my carpool ride is gonna finally get his ass to my house. In the morning I can get up, eat my yogurt in peace, and when I'm ready, I can just hop on my bike and roll into work. No waiting for a bus. No waiting for a ride. Do I want to leave early today? Why not! Did I have to stay a little later to get some stuff done? No prob! Should I stop by the store on the way home? Sure!

4) Riding a bike is a door to door activity.

My bike takes me from my garage, straight to my office door. No parking lots involved. And seriously, on the campus where I work, if I were to park my car, the only lot I could afford is almost a mile away!

So you see, I save a lot of time. But, as a thrifty bike commuter, I also save money. And I mean, a lot of money.

MONEY:

Here's a general sense of some of commuting expenses I could be paying per year just to get to work!

Car Commuting:

Parking: $300-600 (actual price of permits on my campus)
Gas:  $960 (estimated fill up of $40 twice a month)
Maintenance: $300-800 (a couple of oil-changes, a tune-up, and maybe something breaks)
Registration: $40-60 (depends on if I need to get a smog check that year too)
Insurance: $1200 (and that's after saving 15% at GEICO)
Car Payment: ????? (This could be in the thousands!!)

Total: $2800 per year at the low end, to over $3600 at the high!!!

Bus Commuting:

Annual bus pass: $390 (and that's the discount rate as an employee! Full price would be $780)
Dark sunglassess so the crazy people don't look me in the eyes: $20
Bus pants: $40
Potpourri to hold to my nose: $30
Big headphones so no one talks to me: $50

Total: Minimum $390 per year, could be up to $900. Plus therapy.

So, how much does biking cost me? Well, here are some ONE TIME expenses that I have actually paid for my cycling:

Bicycling:

Bike: $200 (bought used on craigslist. It's a nice bike.)
5 Athletic shirts to sweat in during the commute: $20 (got 'em at the Burlington coat factory)
Good bike lights: $50 (Planet bike Blaze 2w headlight and Superflash rear combo pack, on Amazon)
Good helmet: $50 (Giro Reverb, on Amazon)
Good Lock: $42 (Kryptonite Kryptolock and cable, on Amazon)
Nice bike-friendly, waterproof backpack: $55 (from Timbuk2, got it on sale)
Sunglasses: $15 (at JC Penney)
Bike pump: $15 (BV High pressure pump, on Amazon)
Tool kit: $10 (assembled from stuff I already had, though)
Patch kit: $5 (amazon)
Chain lube: $5 (amazon)

Total: $462, and all are one time expenses.

So, five years of bike commuting cost me (let's round up for some more gear purchases, etc) about $500-$600, five years of bus commuting costs me on the order of $1950-$4800, and five years of car commuting costs me $14,000 to more than $18,000. Holy SHIT! Yeah, I'll take my bike any day.

So, to sum up, riding a bike not only FUN, but it saves you TIME and saves you MONEY. And, because it does that, it makes you happier. In short, it gives you freedom, and that, dear reader, is why I ride a bike to work.

This will be a very brief first post.

Does the world need another blog? Probably not. Does the world need another blog about bikes? Well, maybe it does. I am starting this blog because I can't really find anything like it out there on the interwebs, and I figured I might as well give it a go. I expect this blog to go absolutely nowhere in terms of viral-ness or monetary compensation, and with such low expectations, I can only be pleasantly surprised, right? Right?

Okay, okay. So what the heck is this blog about, and why should you, dear reader, give a flying flap about it? Well, most simply put, it's about the duality of, a) riding your bike to work, and b) being frugal (i.e., a "broke-ass penny pincher"). If you expect reviews of thousand-dollar bike frames and $300 panniers, then man are you in the wrong place! What you'll find here are my musings and tips about how to get on a bike and roll into work safely, on time, in style, and on a damn budget. I'm a pragmatist, however, and I know when and where I ought to spend my dollars. So this will not be a blog about cheaping out for cheaping-out's sake. This will be a blog about how to leverage the small amounts of money most of us have at our disposal towards a fun hobby that is also a practical means of travel.

So, why should you listen to me? Well, you probably shouldn't, but just so you know where I'm coming from: I'm not a crazy bicycler guy. I have no aspirations on the Tour de France, I don't wear spandex, and I didn't give a crap when they outed Lance Armstrong as a souped-up, chemically enhanced, lab-created biking machine. I'm also not a hipster/scenster. You won't hear me talk about my "whip", how to coordinate facial hair with grip tape, or how I attached a mobile boombox to my bike. What I am is a guy who has been using a bike to get around town, mainly to and from work, for coming up on 18 years. I've commuted in 6 cities, from the West Coast to the East, in major urban centers and suburban sprawl, and in snow, rain, and 110 degree temps. And I did it all while on a student's budget (what can I say, it took a long time to get my PhD!). In other words, I'm a thrifty bike commuter, and I think you should be one too.