Permies Poll: Do you use a bicycle?

I currently have an old Specialized mountain bike (so old, it has no suspension, not even a fork, and it's made of small diameter steel tubing and has skinny-ish tires to match) and an old BikeE recumbent (it's classed as a compact long wheelbase, with a 12" front wheel and a 20" rear wheel), recently given to me by a friend.  My wife has a newer Biria with a step-through frame, which she absolutely loves, bought used from a rental company at the end of the season.

We are seasonal riders - for pleasure, exercise and short distance transportation.  We get quite a lot of snow here (average is something like 200-250" per season, but we've had more than 350" - in general, sidewalks are only cleared in the downtown areas of villages, and roads become quite narrow - minimal shoulder, but high snow banks, and side streets are often icy due to freeze-thaw cycling), so for several months it's less convenient - and possibly less safe - to ride.  Plus, I still haven't built the as-yet-theoretical timber framed garage-cum-shop-cum-machinery shed, so we are still using a tarp shed (ShelterLogic, heavy duty agricultural grade, acquired off Craigslist) for winter storage,  Due to what all goes in there for the winter (including a small camper, to help protect it from snow loads on the roof), getting things in and out isn't so easy when packed to capacity.  These are really excuses, I'm sure, since I've had coworkers who were dedicated wheelmen, and who rode to work on one or another of their bicycles (fixed gear bikes seem to be popular for low traction environments, but I haven't ever tried it myself), almost no matter what the weather.

But, in the not-snowy months we ride a fair bit.  My wife more than I, because she rides the ~2miles each way to and from work on any nice day.  I often use the recumbent to run errands (zip to the hardware store or the local bank branch, which is in our local grocery store, etc.).  We often go for a ride in the evening.  There are nice trails around the sewage settling ponds.  That may sound off-putting, but it's really not.  We often see bald eagles, swans, great blue herons, ducks, geese and more.  In June, there are wild strawberries everywhere.  And, we'll ride to one of our local restaurants to go to dinner.  While my wife's bike has a small parcel shelf built into the frame over the rear wheel, I need to rig up something better than just looping the straps of a backpack or the handles of a shopping bag over the uprights on the seat back of the recumbent.  I've also strapped a leaf rake to the longitudinal frame member (looked funny, but worked).  I currently don't use the mountain bike much, since the seat position isn't very suitable to some health challenges, though it was my one-and-only for many years.

On my list of projects-not-yet-started is a tadpole recumbent - two wheels in front, with a single rear wheel in back.  Ideally, three wheel drive (there was a Russian 3X3 called Solovjov or some such, which was being made for a while, maybe a decade or so ago).  The trike can't tip over when geared way down to climb a hill or start a loaded trailer rolling.  With the crankset a bit higher than my current two-wheeled recumbent (ideally, heart-high when seated in a reclined position), the mechanics should be a bit more efficient.  And three-wheeled drive, because I think it would help me to feel more comfortable in the snow - it's a lot harder to hop off a recumbent to push it out of traffic if you're spinning your drive wheel in the slush.  I have the means to do that project (the skill is another question!) but it'll have to wait at least until the aforementioned garage is built.  I have a long list of projects which are in process, but temporarily on hold, or have not yet been started, even though I have been collecting the tools or materials for them.  Consequently, the homemade tadpole recumbent is realistically pretty far down the list, at the moment.  If it became more of a necessity for transport, for some reason, it might get re-prioritized.

Off Topic:

Kevin Olson wrote:... We often go for a ride in the evening.  There are nice trails around the sewage settling ponds.  That may sound off-putting, but it's really not.  We often see bald eagles, swans, great blue herons, ducks, geese and more.  

There is a small city near the south end of Lake Huron in Ontario, which became a tourist attraction due to the birds attracted to their sewage ponds.  The City did a huge amount of outreach to their People to keep toxins out of their waste water to the best they can. When photographers started climbing the fence, they raised the funds to build walkways.
If only more places would take these sort of approaches. Properly managed artificial wetlands could soak up huge amounts of nutrients that we don't want in our rivers and can produce biomass for compost/biochar/upcycling to help off-set any costs.

Jay -

These are pretty much standard issue settling ponds, but they have really done a nice job of making a "necessary" into something much more than that.  They keep making small incremental improvements around the margins, bit by bit, but nothing over the top.

There is a small disc golf course which is a tad rustic but still seems to see a fair bit of use in season, the village's campground adjoins, the village park with playground, picnic pavilion and Friday night farmer's market is just over a pedestrian bridge from the campground, etc.  There's a decent sized inland lake with a channel connecting to bigger waters, a small marina nearby, and a smaller, but connected lake/pond which is very secluded.  It's a very nice complex, and the busy bit (i.e. the campground and the disc golf course) is just a couple of blocks from the little downtown district, the grocery store, and a laundromat, which is convenient for people who are camping.

But, if you go up over the hill and loop around to the back side of the settling ponds, and it's quiet and peaceful.  The biggest hubbub is usually a bullfrog croaking in the cattails, red wing blackbirds trilling or an occasional sandhill crane getting vociferous.  We haven't had any pelicans spend their summer here, though a small flock did fly over a couple of springs ago, transients headed to the Kanuckistani nesting grounds, I imagine.  It took me a while, including looking at several bird books, to come to the conclusion that they really had been pelicans, having only seen them from below and on the wing.  They are regular summer residents at small lakes and dug farm ponds a couple hours drive south of here, and I've seen scads of them up in Manitoba, but I just haven't seen any right here before.

So far, I haven't noticed any great rush of birders at the settling ponds, but I suppose it could happen.  We do get briefly overrun with leaf peepers in the fall, and one of the local communities has managed to turn itself into something of a regional mecca for mountain biking and skiing (so they have both seasons covered - winter and tough sledding!).  I'd be OK with getting a lot of bird watchers, with their binoculars, bird books and journals!

Kevin

Last vote in apple poll was on November 19, 2024