how bikes pay for themselves
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
When I bought my bike in Tokyo, I spent more than I wanted to. I couldn't help it—finding a frame that fit mine meant spending more.
But as I started to ride that bike to work every day it dawned on me that I was saving a lot of transit fees. Roughly $10 worth every day. By keeping track of my occasional expenses for the bike, and the amount I was saving on fares, I was able to determine that I'd passed the mark where the bike paid for itself in only seven months.
Now I'm going to start again. So far, I figure I've spent $225 on getting the old bike I'm riding into shape. That includes new tires and tubes and a new stem, some of those small vertical riser things for the handlebars, two locks, and two lights. At this time, I've only saved six TTC trips getting to work, but even so that's already $15. I estimate that the savings will catch the expenses by early June. And in the mean time we've already had our first ride for pleasure on the weekend as well, getting around the neighbourhood on a three-hour jaunt that would have been impossible without the bikes. And I'm using it to extend my reach while running errands.
In fact, having spent half a dozen hours on the bike in the past week has been enough that I've outgrown the rather low gear configuration on the thing, which was in a mountain bike configuration. So last night I switched out the middle gear for the higher gear. It's a tight fit against the frame but I hope it will prevent the high RPM peddling I've been doing.
Three good things that happened today:
1. The CIC received our PR application for Mari
2. I enjoyed cycling to work on a foggy, sub-zero morning
3. I concluded one of those "extending" exercises at work; a management proposal for the owners