Anyone bike?

[MetroMPG]

I hear you. Last time I rode the beater 10-speed, there was a chunk of ice on the rim. BANG! BANG! BANG! as I rode down the street, slowly chipping itself off as it hit the brakes.

[GasSavers_Ryland]

I was suprized to hear that a higher percentage of Canadians ride a bicycle year round then people in the US, and Canadia, as most of your know is farther north, and colder, but the US doesn't know how to design suberbs, or cities in a way that you can get around them easly without a car.
I live in a town of 15,000 people plus 7,000 collage students, and I used to ride a bicycle all the time, the main draw back was that to get home our road goes from about 10 feet above lake leavle, and a mile latter is the highest point in town... it makes it a very slow ride to end your day with.
I'll sometimes take my bike with me in to town if I have alot of stops to make, if I get a bike rack made that fits my receaver hitch then I'll most likely take it even more, I also am planing to get a bicycle motor kit to give a bit more push going up hills.
I think I've convinced a Motorcycle shop that I work for in the summer to start selling Tomos Mopeds, and Scooter, I have one of there mopeds from 1985, and it seems to be of reasonable quality, and parts are still avalible, the compeny clames 100+mpg on all of there mopeds, and scooters, and a wide varity of styles.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by Ryland

the main draw back was that to get home our road goes from about 10 feet above lake leavle, and a mile latter is the highest point in town... it makes it a very slow ride to end your day with.

Yeah, ideally you'd want the opposite, wouldn't you? Coast home at the end of long day.

A motorized bike, like you're investigating, is a great solution to that problem.

[GasSavers_James]

Yes, I love bicycles. In the warm weather i ride to work when i have the energy, but coming home is a 700ft vertical climb, so your body pays for it. Now it is -15F +- at night, maybe 10 during the day, so the bike is parked. I hope to get a bike trailer so i can haul around the little one in it this summer.

[bzipitidoo]

I'd love to ride a bike around town, but it's dangerous. Only way to get anywhere are the entirely too busy main streets. One time a crazy old woman went out of her way to run my brother off the street when he was out on his bike because in her opinion bikes shouldn't be allowed on streets. Another time we were out on bikes, and we'd gotten far ahead of my mother leaving her by herself, when some creeps in a van decided to follow her. She didn't think to get the license plate number-- too shook up. And anyway what that van driver did was I suppose technically not illegal. You can be sure the cops around here would take that attitude. Yet another time I was biking home around 3 AM, and a cop followed me all the way to the house where he got out of his patrol car and proceeded to question me, and I hadn't done anything. Just riding a bike at 3 AM is suspicious activity you know.

I've occasionally tried suggesting that the city put in some bike trails, but of course city hall will not do anything that might cost money or hurt property values, and isn't interested in listening to any group too small to swing the next election. We even have a 0.5% sales tax for outdoor sports facilities-- facilities that have plenty of parking for cars of course, sigh. There's that Texan, Lance Armstrong, but what can he do even if he wanted to?

[onegammyleg]

I used to ride A LOT , untill I blew my knees out.

[GasSavers_Bruce]

Originally Posted by Ryland

I was suprized to hear that a higher percentage of Canadians ride a bicycle year round then people in the US

When my wife and I visited Nova Scotia for our honeymoon in 1994, I was impressed by the number of Chevrolet Chevettes (or Canadian equivalents) still in use up there. A lot of Americans buy SUVs so they can handle snow in the winter. Chevettes are terrible in snow -- they're small RWD cars, so there's no weight over the drive wheels -- but the Canadians appeared to prefer them, presumably because of the gas mileage they offered...and Canada gets a lot more snow than the US.

[repete86]

Where I live, my biking is the opposite of the rest of this site. In the winter, it's perfect riding weather, but in the summer, it's extremely hot (likely to get heat stroke after a mile or two) and storms every afternoon.

My gas mileage also suffers in the summer because I need to start turning my AC on.

[GasSavers_nathan]

Originally Posted by Bruce

When my wife and I visited Nova Scotia for our honeymoon in 1994, I was impressed by the number of Chevrolet Chevettes (or Canadian equivalents) still in use up there. A lot of Americans buy SUVs so they can handle snow in the winter. Chevettes are terrible in snow -- they're small RWD cars, so there's no weight over the drive wheels -- but the Canadians appeared to prefer them, presumably because of the gas mileage they offered...and Canada gets a lot more snow than the US.

as much as i love my chevette i must admit it is pretty bad in the snow. ive been stuck in as little as 3 inches of snow. most people carry some sand bags in the back but im not fond of that for FE loss. FE isnt very great to begin with anyway, somewhere in the area of 30mpg and i find it drops quite a bit with the colder temps.

[jwxr7]

as much as i love my chevette

I like chevettes too, I didn't know there were any on here. Do you have a gas log or garage for it on here? I'm interested in how it's doing FE wise.

I love bicycling on or off road, but I'm a bit of a seasonal biker. The cold doesn't agree with my lungs . My commute is 23 miles one way and I'm not in good enough shape to try that yet. Most of my riding is for fun. In the summer I love to ride around my township looking for garage sales on saturday mornings. There are also many miles of off road trails close to work that I try to hit in the summer. If all goes well I may have a home built recumbent to ride this summer. I just have to brave the cold to start building it, and of course, find time to do it.