Ride home for Thursday, 29 September

Stopped off at the bike shop to order another space grip for my mountain bike. I figure that I can have one on each bike and swap lights between them pretty easily until the roads start getting salted, then I can have both space grips on the mountain bike and go for a full on mod scooter effect.

I got talking to another customer in there who had a walmart bike of some description and was having problems with it (unsurprisingly). He asked me about my bike, taking interest in the lights and the horn, and asked if I rode in winter or not. He was quite interested when I said yes, and asked me all sorts of questions about tyre types (studded or not? probably not downtown, where the roads are salted so heavily, and he's only riding a relatively short distance) and clothing requirements (just an extra layer). I think he's going to ride his walmart bike into the ground over the winter then pick up a new one when it dies - he figured it's still cheaper than catching the bus twice a day, and obviously way cheaper than driving. He was quite shocked when I sketched out the cost difference for me between riding a bike or driving - around $2000 for a year's biking (which includes two bikes and all the necessary equipment) versus around $9500 for a car (with a large chunk of that disappearing in insurance and fuel).

I think I may have volunteered myself into updating the bikes on the IdealBikes website - I suppose it's the least I can do for all they do for me, and the guys down there don't have the equipment to really do it themselves (ie, a digital camera).

Distance logged: 13.811km
Time: 41:26
Average speed: 20.0km/hr
Max speed: 45.8km/hr
Temperature: 18C, overcast
Cumulative distance: 5355.012km