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The Odometer on my bike ticked over to 50,000km today
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24-01-2014 11:13am#1Today, the odometer on my bike ticked over to 50,000km. I felt I should mark this milestone in some meaningful way - and a Boards post feels like a suitable way.
I've cycled everywhere for most of my life. I remember getting lifts to school "back in the day" early in primary school, and genuinely remember the shock on the 1st of September around 4th class (I would have been about 10) when my mother said to us "Right - no more lifts to school. I'll buy you bikes or you can walk". And that was that. I cycled right through secondary school. And then for four years in and out of Dublin city to college (I mastered the art of safely cycling in traffic going up George's Street and down Dame Street during those years). When I started work 6 and a half years ago, I just kept with the flow. It was at this point that I bought an odometer for the bike to see how far I was actually cycling. Given that I had been cycling for about 12 years at that point, I imagine the true figure is somewhere around 120,000km - but we have to start counting somewhere!
In hindsight - kicking me out of the car was probably the single biggest gift to get from a parent. Suddenly there was an "outside world". It's funny how the confines of a car separates you from the outside world. I realised that the world didn't consist of just "home", "the car" and "school".. But there was actually somewhere in between. With different routes that you could choose between.. And weather.. Suddenly I had the ability to explore places on the bike.
It wasn't long before I was having all sorts of adventures. I started cycling recreationally up in the mountains, raced Ironman Switzerland and the many, many, many miles of cycling in the Wicklow mountains to train for it:
I cycled from Dublin to Dingle to go on holidays one year :
During the Big Freeze in December 2010, there was a week a half where the roads in South West Dublin were covered in a foot and a half of snow and compacted ice, and impassable to any vehicle. Mountain bike was literally the only way to get around, and that I did! It was quite surreal making the 11km cycle to work on completely empty roads. You get quite fast at cycling in snow after a few days, it turns out, with a cycle / jump off and carry the bike combination where the snow got too deep to cycle through.
When I got married, I was damned if I was posting all of the invitations, so we created a twelve man cycle currier race to deliver the invitations around Dublin by bike. Time was assigned per invitation delivered, per km between invitations, as well as "tea time" when dropping into houses, and we set off in a staggered fashion with the winner being the first person crossing the finishing line having delivered all of his/her invitations. It turned out to be great craic, and a good talking point at the wedding.
Some personal musings on fifty thousand kilometres in the saddle:
Health: Does a large amount of cycling effect male fertility? I'm probably in a unique enough position to blast this one out of the water. I had been cycling for 12 years when I took part in a study on the effect of exercise on the body. Among other things, for the males participating, the two main factors in male fertility, sperm count and mobility, were measured. The people who exercised regularly scored significantly higher than those who didn't, and the subcategory of those who "cycled regularly" scored higher again than people who didn't. It seems if you want to be less fertile, chose a sedentary method of transport. The cardiovascular performance results of the study showed very clearly that people who walked or cycled to get around were in much better shape than people who drove or took another exercise-free method. I guess it's a funny quirk of human risk perception that many people see cycling as dangerous when your life expectancy actually goes up as soon as you start cycling. We seem to lack the long range risk perception to appreciate how badly obesity can damage our health/quality of life, or that of our children.
Safety: Although it's hard to deny that there are risks to cycling on the roads - I think there are a few things you can do to bring the chances of getting in an accident down to almost zero (less than that of being in a car accident anyway). I've come to observe a few principles to reduce risk as much as possible:- I observe that almost all of the "close calls" I've had have been due to left turning vehicles. Vehicles mostly turn left at junctions with other roads (when turning into drive ways, they seem to check their mirrors more than at junctions so this is less of a risk). That means there's only a small time that they'll occupy an area where you could come in contact with them. If you imagine a box to the front left of a car, that's where they'll turn into. If you never enter this box at a junction, you will never be in the position that you could be hit. I find that with very little energy waste, I can avoid ever entering that front left position of a car at a junction, thereby removing the highest risk point on the road. That alone probably reduces my chances of an accident by 75%.
- Obey the rules of the road. If you show respect to motorists and other cyclists, you'll get a lot more back.
- You hear this one a lot but most people still don't seem to do it - don't cycle right on the curb. Cycle a .5 to 1m out from it. If you cycle right beside the curb, cars will go by without waiting for a safe space to overtake and inevitably have to pull in on top of you when a car comes in the opposite direction. Cycling a little further out isn't "selfish". It reduces the chances of an accident for everyone around you.
- Don't ever enter go within a door's-opening-width of a parked car. Even if it means moving into the middle of a traffic lane - if you're never in that space, you'll never be caught by an unexpected opening door.
- Don't ever go up the inside of a Heavy Goods Vehicle. It may cost 2 or 3 minutes every tenth cycle, but given that almost all cyclists killed are due to left turning HGVs, if you observe this one alone, you probably cut your chances of being killed on the road to virtually zero.
Finance of cycling: We have one car in our household, and averaging the last 5 years (not including the initial purchase of the car) it costs €5427 a year to run between Tax, Insurance, Maintenance, Petrol and Sundry. My cycling to work and everywhere else has removed the need for a second car. In the six and a half years since I started working where I do, that's saved €35,275.50 and counting. I never thought about how much I saved while cycling into college for 4 years, because I probably wouldn't have been able to afford the bus anyway, but it would have been something like €4.40 per day x 260 weekdays a year x 4 years = €4,576. In terms of the cost of cycling, I've spent about €100 a year on components and maintenance (versus €5427 for a car). I bought this book many moons ago, along with a maintenance tool kit and a stand in Lidl, and have done most of my own servicing since. In terms of reducing component costs - the brakes are the only thing that wares out with regularity. I bought these brake shoes, and can just slip in new brake pads (these) - every 2-3 months. I haven't noticed any difference between these and more expensive V-brake options, and the price is certainly right.
It's certainly been a long road, but it's been a fun one. At my current rate, you can expect a "The Odometer on my bike ticked over to 100,000km today" post on the 18th June, 2020!
Here's to the next 50,000km!
Conor.278 - I observe that almost all of the "close calls" I've had have been due to left turning vehicles. Vehicles mostly turn left at junctions with other roads (when turning into drive ways, they seem to check their mirrors more than at junctions so this is less of a risk). That means there's only a small time that they'll occupy an area where you could come in contact with them. If you imagine a box to the front left of a car, that's where they'll turn into. If you never enter this box at a junction, you will never be in the position that you could be hit. I find that with very little energy waste, I can avoid ever entering that front left position of a car at a junction, thereby removing the highest risk point on the road. That alone probably reduces my chances of an accident by 75%.
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