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

Although it is at least a year into the future in my plans, I am seriously researching a cargo e-bike.

Trailer hasn't happened yet. Front basket is great though!

On the way back from the doctors and local shop.

James, look at the front rack called lowrider, it makes bike very stable with weight not up high.  You'll be amazed at the difference

Still bike daily at 65, God willing I will never stop.  Touring and camping with my bike has been a passion since the 70s, from the entire Hwy 1 route on the west coast, to the athens ga to Canada route via Blue Ridge parkway  

Traveled mostly with road bike in Asia and Europe,  had a blast on the trails a d dirt roads of Africa on my mountain bike , total of 21 countries  now, what a blessing.  When touring with heavy gear, folks you meet are so welcoming..... a farmer Costa Rica once stopped his work and helped work on one bike that lost a crank arm, as we realized the next bike shop was 80 dirt road miles away.  Serendipity often rears her head at the right moment.

My new ride to replace one stolen, with 29 inch wheels and 2.5 tires. Bashing into curb feels like a marshmallow...

Thanks to Bike Zone Viseu!

Having trouble posting from phone

Rico Loma wrote:James, look at the front rack called lowrider, it makes bike very stable with weight not up high.  You'll be amazed at the difference

Hi Rico,

The basket attaches to the frame not the fork. I've tried having stuff on the fork before and really didn't like what it did to the feeling of the steering.

Keep riding!

How many of you have experience with a trike? Either a simple pedal version or an eTrike. I’m looking into one to use for travel in my small town and to use at work so I can haul things around with me, grocery shop, etc.

Unfortunately, I had to vote no. Other than recreational use on trails bicycles aren't a safe option in my area given the number of fatalities involving vehicles and pedestrians/cyclists. We have a cross at the front of our neighborhood where one young man was struck by a vehicle while walking to work.

I love farming with a bike, and showing off my harvest while biking between field and home.

Live in western NH...hill country. I'm single and live by myself, not in the heart of a town. I have lived car free since the end of April 2010. Rode 125,000 miles last decade. Do pretty much everything by bicycle year round. Had one stretch of 444 consecutive days of riding on the road here in NH in the mid 2010s. Haven't been doing as much riding anymore, too busy with too many other things. Have a rack mounted to the bike with kitty liter buckets I got from the dump, attached that I use for hauling everything. I live at the top of a hill so it always downhill to leave home and uphill to ride back home.

I would love to use a bicycle, but it would be a challenge for me. Aside from the challenge of taking up bicycling at 7000' altitude, I have nowhere reasonably close to go with a bike except to the cluster mailbox, a10 mi round trip over a gravel road. If I wanted to go to a store - any store except for a sometimes-open rock shop near the mailboxes - it would be a 60+ mile round trip with little carrying capacity.

Bicycles are great for cities and for fun, but not as useful for routine transportation in extremely rural areas like where I live. Even so, I would still love to ride a bicycle out to the mailboxes and back. I keep looking at bikes in the local swap groups, just in case one would pop up that didn't have a million gears and fancy suspension and all that. A sturdy three-speed built for gravel roads, with a basket on it for carrying mail ,would be perfect.  Unfortunately I know nothing about bikes (last one I owned and rode - 30 years ago - was a street bike that was terrible on dirt roads.

Lif Strand wrote:I would love to use a bicycle, but it would be a challenge for me. Aside from the challenge of taking up bicycling at 7000' altitude, I have nowhere reasonably close to go with a bike except to the cluster mailbox, a10 mi round trip over a gravel road. If I wanted to go to a store - any store except for a sometimes-open rock shop near the mailboxes - it would be a 60+ mile round trip with little carrying capacity.

Bicycles are great for cities and for fun, but not as useful for routine transportation in extremely rural areas like where I live. Even so, I would still love to ride a bicycle out to the mailboxes and back. I keep looking at bikes in the local swap groups, just in case one would pop up that didn't have a million gears and fancy suspension and all that. A sturdy three-speed built for gravel roads, with a basket on it for carrying mail ,would be perfect.  Unfortunately I know nothing about bikes (last one I owned and rode - 30 years ago - was a street bike that was terrible on dirt roads.

I ride 30 mile roundtrip to go to the grocery store. I have ridden 200 mile one day rides carrying groceries home with the last 30-50 miles, simply because they were on sale and I wanted them. I structured the ride around being able to get one of their nearest stores so I could buy the sale.

It's all about the wanton desire. You can get in shape for doing anything you want to do, you just have to want it bad enough.

I haven't, but when I moved to this island last fall I did bring my daughters old bike with me.

Here there are signs everywhere warning motorists of bikes and pedestrians because its just that prolific in the summer when the summer people arrive. But it is also just more conducive to bike riding here. The highest natural point elevation wise is 82 feet above sea level, but the biggest "hill" is actually the bridge that leads from the island to the mainland. it has to be steep and tall to allow boats to pass underneath, but there are very few natural hills. And here, people just drive slow. Its this crazy world where as soon as you go over the bridge, you just naturally slow down to 25 mph. Life on this island is just a lot slower.

But I plan to fix up her bike and use it a lot this summer. Mainland is only three miles away but just about anything you want is either on the island or across the bay on the mainland. With no mailboxes on the island and only one post office, everyone has to stop there for their mail. To get there it is a perfectly flat, around the bay ride with no hills, and a 2 mile (or 4 mile round trip ride). It really is perfect for biking and forces us 500 islanders to meet up and talk. I swear this place never left the 1950's.

Here is the bridge from the mainland, on the left side looking towards the first island in this view from the mainland.

Steve, How would you feel about mentioning your location? It helps others to visualize the limits on your bike riding, and the weather implications.

JohN S
PDX OR

Hank Fletcher wrote:
I ride 30 mile roundtrip to go to the grocery store. I have ridden 200 mile one day rides carrying groceries home with the last 30-50 miles, simply because they were on sale and I wanted them. I structured the ride around being able to get one of their nearest stores so I could buy the sale.

It's all about the wanton desire. You can get in shape for doing anything you want to do, you just have to want it bad enough.

I guess I don't have the desire. If I was only going to town for the groceries, that might be one thing, but my every-other-week restocking fills up the back seat of my car or the bed of my pickup depending on what I'm restocking. But even if I could juggle my budget to buy in even bigger loads so I'd only need to drive a vehicle once a month or even less, it would take me a year to become fit enough to ride a bike in that terrain. It's not 30 miles with mild hills, it's 30 miles of multiple steep 1000' climbs between 7000' - 8000'. The people I see biking it are either decked out in special gear and often have support vehicles following them, or they're pushing their bikes up those 'hills'.  You sound like you could do it with a load of groceries, but as a senior citizen who's not even thrown my leg over a bicycle in probably 25 years, and given the weather extremes here in the high country of western NM, it's not particularly enticing an idea for me.

My desire level is more the idea of biking out to the mailboxes and back. Crappy gravel road, but there's only a 300' altitude difference to deal with, and it's only a ten mile round trip. Now all I have to do is get serious enough to find a bike to do it on!

EDITED TO ADD: Note that I used to endurance race horses 50 and 100 mile trails over rough terrain. I'm not a stranger to what it takes to prep for that kind of physical exertation. But that was then and I'm not the person I was anymore. These days I'm happy I can jog 3 miles on my own two feet.