Finally sold my car and bought a bike

[Lethe]

Sold my car straight cash and bought the bike on the same day.

I got a nice Breezer town bike with panniers for groceries. It gets about 40 miles per gallon of water. (woohoo!)

Should have done this years ago. It's great fun biking all across town. I'm saving about $550 a month not having car payment, insurance, gas, and maintenance. (probably more than that because of less impulse buys)

[AAARRRGGGHHH]

1. Class act, Ikhor

I live about a mile from work and think about doing the same thing every day. Good on you for doing it.

[taterguy]

2. Why do you hate Big Oil?

[Angela Shelley]

3. You Rock, Ikhor!

Happy travels :-)

[ThomCat]

4. That was a wonderful decision!

I hope you can manage very well with your bike. Congratulations!
:)

[hobbit709]

5. In Austin in the summer about 10mpg

[Lethe]

30. lol yes it's hot as hell in Texas right now

but the heat don't bother me too much, especially since you get a good breeze going fast on a bike.

But thats another problem though, cause I always smell like sweat when I get where I'm going. :(

[Bullwinkle925]

6. splendid!

wish that i could do the same!! if i could, I WOULD!!

[WinkyDink]

7. That's awesome! But I wouldn't fare too well here with a bicycle in winter.

Or rain.

[bikebloke]

8. I did the same many years ago.

Watch your savings begin to accumulate. And when you do have to get repairs, remember the costs for repairing a car is ten times the amount.

[blueknight]

9. where do you live?

do you have bad winters there?

[Lethe]

17. hot summers, mild winters

i live in texas.

[bikebloke]

21. DC area

During snow and ice, I have to resort to the train ( I hate that) - which isn't for too long. Before I moved up a big hill, I used to chance the snow. At my present locale, when it ices over, walking is dodgy.

[Kali]

10. shit you could buy a whole new bike for the price of some of my recent repairs.

hell I probably could have bought another CAR for one of them :mad:

[Lethe]

19. my bike will pay for itself in 1.5 months

from the savings i get by not owning a car

[mwooldri]

11. Neat!

Glad you live somewhere where it is feasible. I'd love to be able to take bike and public transport but it's not an option for me. 20 mile commute on unbikeable roads (too many lanes, traffic), and a pathetic public transport service that's inaccessible from where I live. If I was poor or recently unemployed or didn't own a car I could use the county's "dial-a-ride" but because I have a car...

If I could have afforded property back home in the UK then biking would definitely have been feasible.

Mark.

[NJmaverick]

12. I picked up a chainless Dynamic Bike in May

I use it for errands around town. Already save a few gallons of gas (plus wear and tear) by using it. My commute to work is too long though. It's also a great way to get in shape.

[mnhtnbb]

13. Congrats to you! My son is biking to work but doubt he'll ever give up his car.

He loves cars way too much.

[applegrove]

14. Go Ikhor go Ikhor go Ikhor!

[one mean sheath]

15. rock the fuck on.

bike power, friend.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. Congratulations!

Living without a car is liberating.

My ultimate aim is to get around mostly on transit supplemented by an electric or semi-recumbent bike. (My knees refuse to do hills.)

When I moved to Minneapolis and had to start driving due to bad public transit and obligations to cart my elders around, I immediately noticed a $3000 drop in disposable income.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

18. Wish I could do that...

But my work is 14 miles each way and you can get there only by freeway and I'm too old and unfit to be biking that distance anyhow, even if another route were available. And then there's the fact that biking is impossible around here five or six months out of the year.

Maybe I'll get a horse.

[Mutley]

20. I would do that if I didn't have a 20 mile one-way commute to work.

x(

[harmonicon]

22. it's gonna suck when you want to buy a new couch though...

*sigh*

[taterguy]

23. How many people can fit a couch in their car?

[harmonicon]

24. if you count small couches....

I'd guess about 23 million, but I don't really know for sure.

[taterguy]

25. My guess is that most furniture stores also deliver

You might miss out on some yard sale couches but who wants a couch that's been funkified by someone else?

[Gormy Cuss]

26. Delivery service. It's pretty common

and for the infrequency of the need it's still cheaper than owning a car.

[Lethe]

29. the big stuff is not a problem cause you can get delivery, it's the medium size items

that I need help with......

90% of stuff i can get myself within walking or biking distance. Another 9% I can order online. The other 1% are stuff that I would need help getting, like a propane tank refill for my grill, etc, stuff that is too big or bulky for me to carry while walking or biking.

[harmonicon]

33. yeah, I'm with you there

I've now been carless for over a year, and I do prefer it, but sometimes it is a real pain. I was mostly joking.... except that I do need some furniture for my new house, and since I live alone and keep a strange schedule where I'm often away from home for days or weeks at a time, it's really hard to organize deliveries. I'm feeling the carless suckies this week, but it still beats looking for parking every day, buying gas, worrying about maintenance, etc.

[Phillycat]

27. What will you do in the rain?

I would love to do this but it seems so impractical...

[Lethe]

28. poncho

i like to keep my bike dry though, so I usually tend to not get out in the rain.

[Lautremont]

32. Rain doesn't hurt as much as many seem to think it does!

There are a couple of posts on this thread listing "rain" as the main problem with cycling. It's not so bad! Even kind of refreshing.

[taterguy]

34. Depends on the rain and your job

If you live in an area that gets a lot of serious morning showers then some folks might be reluctant to bike in them.

You can get decent rain gear but nothing's perfect.

OTOH if most of your rain is on your way home from work then it might not be as big of a problem.

[montanto]

31. Good job!! I gave up

driving about a month ago and have been walking or riding my bike. I'm thinking about a Vespa for when I need to hurry.