Surly Touring, One Less Car Style

Cole over at 1 Less Car (http://www.1lesscar.com) got himself a Surly LHT and took that as a chance to do a nice midwest fall tour.  You can (and should) read about his adventure on the blog over there, http://1lesscarnews.blogspot.com. 

Getting Cold!

Last week fall really set in for us front-rangers as a sharp cold front moved in over the weekend.  Monday and Tuesday it was below freezing when I left the house for work, so it was a good chance for me to test my current cold weather setup.

Changes that I've recently implemented:

1) Switched my super-light Optik jacket for my PI Barrier jacket.

2) Added knee warmers.  Also learned that knee warmers stay on better if you put them on under your shorts.

3) Switched toe covers for the Performance Neoprene booties I got about 10 days ago. 

4) Added the facemask.

5) Started wearing the Chiba Bio X Cell gloves I got a few weeks back.

Even at freezing temps just this really helped.  I still have a long way to go as far as cold temps, but I have a lot more in the arsenal too.  Pretty soon I'll switch to the PI fleece tights, add ski goggles, switch to wool socks, switch to lobster gloves.  I'll probably add a wool jersey under the barrier jacket too.  I may switch from the Barrier jacket to my cheapo Adidas rain jacket, which doesn't breathe at all.  I have some experimenting to do.  My only concern is for my fingers and toes, and I feel much more prepared for that this year than last.

Also need to bite the bullet and spend a chunk of change on some Nokian studded tires.  Still cheaper than owning a car, right?

Right Turn, Clyde

I like bike commuters, and bike commuters that use hand signals and ride appropriately.  Friday, however, I realized that perhaps we need some hand-signal education.  My teachers always told me that if I had a question, I should ask it, because there are probably other kids in the class who have the same question.

By that logic, I figure there are at least 10 bike commuters in the Denver metro area who need this lesson, based on my brief encounter with another bike commuter Friday. 

First, a quick clarification.  In Colorado, state law changed a few years ago and now cyclists can signal a right-hand turn with their right arm, instead of with their left arm at a 90 degree angle.

However, it appears that not everyone is clear how to use hand signals.  Here I am, approaching a 4 way stop in a residential area, turning right.  As I begin my right hand turn, I look up and see a cyclist approaching from the direction I am heading towards.  Of course, I'm immediately excited by the sight of another bike commuter, especially since it's getting cold out.  I see this person approach the stop, and signal like this:

And I think: look, they're turning right.  But NOOOOO, cyclist turns left through the intersection.  So, to clarify:

 

This:

Means RIGHT TURN.

This:

Means LEFT TURN.

 

Thanks for using hand signals, but you should probably know what they mean.  It would be better for all of us.

Saving money

So, recently my sister implied that perhaps I'm really not saving money bike commuting as I have a tendency to buy bike-related stuff. (ok, maybe a lot). So I thought I would break down the numbers and find out if I really am savings money.

Before I get into too many details, let's have some full disclosure:
1) We're now a one car family, so my savings will be significantly more than someone who still owns a car. I get to save money on depreciation, insurance, registration, maintenance, etc, that someone who owns a car wouldn't.
2) I am not including hospital bills from when I broke my ankle this past January. This is because I have a high-deductible health insurance plan (read: I paid for basically 100% of the costs) and this would have been avoidable if I had ponied up the cash for studded tires. Or just not been dumb.

Alright. For the costs side of the equation, it is pretty simple. Because I am hyper-detailed about money, we use Quicken to track every penny. I have a category called 'transportation' for all non-car transportation spending, which so far has only been bike stuff.

Total spending over the past 12 months: $1,455.78.

I'd like to point out that about $1050 of this is the long-haul trucker. If we were really being accurate, I'd amortize that amount over the bike's useful life, be conservative and say 5 years (for all parts, and I get free tuneups), so really you could get away with saying that this year's cost was only like $210, so this year's total spending would be like $650. Big difference, but who's counting.

For the savings, I simply used the current IRS mileage reimbursement rate of $0.585 and only accounted for miles to and from the office. The office is about 8.2 miles from home, so I figured 82 miles a week for 50 weeks a year, which comes to:

Total cost of driving for 12 months: $2,398.50.

This doesn't even reflect any miles I've saved riding to the store or the hardware store or anything like that.

So there, sister of mine. I have saved money. And this doesn't even reflect how much I love to ride, and how much healthier I am because I ride 100 miles a week, and I don't have the stress of sitting in traffic 5-10 hours a week.