"Choosing a Bike"

The site Commute by Bike has a list of over 40 articles in a section called Commuting 101. Since the subject came up in my friend Cordelia's comment on this post, I thought I'd direct your attention to their article on choosing a bike. It lists all the variables the commuter-cyclist-to-be should consider when shopping: the terrain of your route, traffic, your physical condition, the types of bikes, whether to buy a new or used bike, and where to buy it, and more.

It's a thorough list--and the list of articles is thorough as well. Go have a look.

Some observations on this cycling-lifestyle thing

Via the Bike Commute Tips Blog comes a story noting a correlation between the upsurge in cycling as an alternative transportation and an upsurge in cycling-related injuries. Well, yes: I've noted in, and linked to, various places which sound various cautionary notes regarding cycling safety on the streets. This is advice that I personally have been careful to heed--advice, I might add, that has already spared me from a couple of close calls with cars, if not actual accidents. (In particular, a most grateful tip of the bike helmet to BicycleSafe for #s 4 and 5.)

But safety isn't the subject of this particular post. It's this passage from the story:

Mike Schatz figured it was the right thing to do. Horrified by his first $70 trip to the gas station, Schatz drove to a bike shop last month, plunked down $2,500 on a new touring bicycle and began two-wheel commuting from his Grant Park home to his office in West Midtown.

(italics mine)

I obviously don't know Mr. Schatz, and I sincerely wish him a speedy recovery from his injuries. Nor am I the sort of person who gets all soapbox-y about how people should/shouldn't spend their money. But, like, wow: Even if I had $2500 to spend on a bicycle (full disclosure--that's a bit less than two months' salary for me, and I pay rent and enjoy, you know, eating, so you can do the math), I'm not the sort of person that would spend that kind of money to get some exercise and save money on gas--the reasons Mr. Schatz gives as his reasons for buying his bicycle. So, as I read that I thought, All other things being equal (I don't know the distance he commutes or the terrain of that commute, so maybe such a bike really would be useful for him), does a bicycle that costs that much really better accomplish what my humble Fuji does?

Well, no. So, even as I wish Mr. Schatz well, I found myself wondering as well just what he had bought--or, perhaps better-phrased, bought into--when he bought his bike.

All this is on my mind for a couple of reasons. First up is the blog Bikes for the Rest of Us, which has this as part of its manifesto:

Sometimes I wish Greg Lemond never won the Tour de France in 1986.

At the time, in the excitement surrounding the first American win at Le Tour, there was talk of a “renewed interest” in bicycling. As it turns out, there was a renewed interest in the sport of cycling, but not in building a real, pervasive bike culture here in the United States.

In fact, bike shops across the country began putting aside their single speeds, 3-speeds and cruisers to make room for expensive, lightweight, “high-end” racing bikes. In other words, bike shops lost interest in selling regular bikes to regular people.

[snip]

My hope is that higher gas prices will not only change the way Americans think about bicycles but also the way the bicycle industry thinks as well, so that we can finally have bike shops selling bicycles designed for regular folks who just want to ride from point A to point B and aren’t interested in paying a fortune.

Or winning the Tour de France.

Exhibit A of the sort of audience Bikes for the Rest of us is targeting is a fellow Wichitan named Todd. Over at his appropriately-named The Todd Blog, he recently posted this query, with questions, about the possibility of his bike-commuting. Go and read--it won't take long. As you can see, he doesn't want, or need, much; nor can he afford much. He just wants to Do Something, some little Something. Todd's thinking is very much in the spirit of this recent post of mine.

I'd just say, by way of winding all this up, that I'd hope that those of us without (or even those of us with) Mr. Schatz's means not let that get in the way of trying to achieve the sorts of ends Todd hopes to achieve.

In which your correspondent talks a bit about his bicycle

Image found here.

My bloggy friend Cordelia of The Phenomenal Field (who, you know, apparently has a life--which is unfortunate because otherwise she would probably post more frequently than she does) recently posted on her decision to bike-commute to work and how, according to Bike Commuter's gas-saving calculator, she'll end up saving much more money than she had thought. There's also something in there about getting "shapely calves" in the bargain, too. Now, like me, she seems to be seeing bicycles everywhere she looks. Cordelia is not a Wichitan, but after visiting this blog she e-mailed me to suggest that visitors here might be interested in learning how I had come to decide to buy my Fuji Crosstown 3.0 (pictured above).

Well, maybe you will be.

Once I'd made the decision to buy a bike, I started looking at how much money I had for this enterprise. Not much. So, I oh-so-naïvely asked friends what kind of decent bike they could recommend for, say, $200. That seemed reasonable to me; everywhere I looked, it seemed, I was seeing $85 bikes from Wal-Mart--how much more could a good one cost? They alternately a) laughed in my face and b) said I'd only find good used bikes for that price--and to be wary of buying a used bike. But whether a) or b), they also all said: Go to a reputable shop to buy it. That, in retrospect, was the best piece of advice anyone has yet given me about all this.

By the end of June, I'd done some extra teaching and had a little extra money; I'd also done a little research and learned that Fujis had a good reputation for building solid bikes that didn't also cost one's first-born. So, when I walked in the doors of the east-side Bicycle X-Change and said, "I'd like to see a good in-town bike for around $300" and the dealer said, "Here's what you're looking for" and walked over to the Crosstown, it felt right.

I should say here that I'd not regularly ridden a bicycle since high school, so having a bike that felt responsive but sturdy was important to me. So, in addition to the Crosstown I test-rode a rehabbed touring bike, but it felt so light that it startled me. So, the Crosstown it was. No regrets, either.

I got lucky--I know this. I should have researched more than I did; on the other hand, though, a limited budget has a way of defining one's horizon. That's why the advice about seeing a dealer is the single-best piece of advice I can pass on to you, too. That, and thinking about what you want and need in a bike--psychologically as well as physically.