As promised, I took the bicycle to work this morning.  Let me see if I can find a site to generate [ a free interactive map of the route... ] Thanks again, anonymous javascript monkeys.

I took it pretty easy when feasible, and it probably took me a little under an hour.  That sounds horribly slow given the short distance, but whatever.  It was pretty nice out; not too hot.  I tried to concentrate on changing my hand position regularly, leaning forward rather than letting my backbone hang between my hips and shoulders, and posting when I had the leg energy.  My hands feel okay; not sure whether that’s technique, less distance, or some combination of both.

Still interested in the iPhone CoreLocation trip logger idea, especially if I can export routes in some standard format (like Google Earth), and especially especially if that format can include inlined image data that I could let users grab via the iPhone’s camera.  Someone’s probably already QAing something like that already, but it’d be a neat app to build for learning purposes anyway.

The title to my motorcycle arrived in the mail today.  “Hey that’s pretty cool, guess I’m done paying for it!” I thought, then it dawned on me that it’s been four years.  Let’s recap!  I have not:

1. Executed a live DJ set, before a discriminating and unsympathetic audience, that was recognized as both technically proficient and eminently tasteful.
2. Finished my private pilot’s license, and used it to get somewhere I haven’t been before, safely.
3. Grown a business to 8-figure annual earnings.

I have, however, rid myself of plausible excuses.  I’m kinda pissed now, so I guess that plan is working out…sort of.

Tomorrow I will bicycle to work, and it will hurt, but it will be worth it.   For the 0.01% chance that the act of deciding chips away at some topologically-nearby plaque-of-passivity, and the >50% chance that it exhausts my body to the point where my mind shuts the hell up.

frame, fork, drivetrain: Surly Cross Check complete
saddle: Brooks B17 (black)
bars: Nitto moustache, grip tape TBD
fenders: TBD
pedals: TBD
hotness: pretty much guaranteed

rider’s ability to pedal 12mi each way: unknown

(parts pix after the break) (more…)

Along the lines of “there’s more to economy than fuel economy” and “there’s more to fuel economy than using less gas per unit distance” and “hybrid cars are expensive”…

I’m not sure what mileage my bike was getting last year, and I’m not sure it’ll get the same mileage this year, but let’s call it “40+ mpg, around double the mileage of my car.” So I’ve decided to use it.

But even though I already have the bike (ie - I don’t need to spend $50k on a hybrid SUV, $25k on a hybrid car, or $2k on a 2-stroke scooter) there are non-trivial startup costs attached to that decision.

Inspection, mounting/balancing new tires, new battery…all straightforward “make it work technically and within the law” expenses.

But for safety and comfort, I also decided to get some armored riding pants, and some proper waterproof/breathable riding boots with grippy soles.

And just like that, the startup costs of moving to the motorcycle eclipsed the cost of a decent bicycle. But let’s face facts here: a motorcycle is already at risk of being an unreasonable car replacement, depending on weather, etc. I’m pretty sure I could *survive* a bicycle ride to work, but I’m pretty sure I’d opt for the car more often than not.

toll roads vs. surface roads; car vs. scooter; work vs. not

Just got ticketed for speeding. Sunday, 11:59am, beautiful day at the beginning of springtime. On my way to the office, of course. Been taking surface roads recently to save $1.25 in pike tolls, using some extra gas but not $1.25 worth. This little event, however, obliterates a lower-bound of 160 decisions not to take the pike. That’s without counting the extra gas to take surface roads, or how this will affect my insurance.

I almost always take the pike home, so that’s 160 days. At 5 days a week, that’s 32 weeks. At 6 days a week, it’s still just over half a year assuming zero vacation.

On a scooter:
I wouldn’t be speeding,
I’d be using about a quarter as much gas, and
I’d be paying zero insurance.

Pretty compelling until winter rolls around in a few months, for a few months.

Workaholism vs. not:
Work certainly contributed to my being on the way to the freakin’ office this morning. I’m pretty sure that related stress also contributed to my tendency to drive faster. It might even have a bit to do with buying a torquey car, but I didn’t need much help there. But even including the rising cost of gas (both in ++$/gal and –mpg), the rising cost of (my) insurance, and the cost of this ticket, I’m definitely coming out ahead.

Conclusion: I should keep working like a sonofabitch, but I should get an EZPass transponder and take the pike to work.

By way of elegant analogy, TJIC writes:

There are a billion different commodities and six billion different locations that a commodity might be in, and the market is a heat engine that runs off the differences across locations.

In a sense, trillions and trillions of instantiations of the market are hooked up across every one of those commodity / location / location tuples…but the vast majority of them aren’t spinning.

For example, you (for any given “you”) and I are not currently engaged in trading apples, oranges, nitrous oxide upgrades for racecar engines, replacement peripheral boards for IBM mainframes, or valet services.

Not yet, at least.