Cyclists do have higher risk of injury from traffic, but the health benefits from the exercise they get more than makes up for it. Cyclists have significantly lower all-around mortality and injury/sickness rates than car drivers.
This might mean that your bike is the wrong size for you, or you have the seat adjusted too high or too low. Or even that your crank arms are too short or too long for you. You should definitely play around with changing the geometry of your bike and/or try bikes with different geometry. You might find that knee pain goes away once you dial it in correctly.
Then again, maybe not. Well, if all else fails, you could always get an ebike instead; that should help with knee issues if nothing else does. Though they’re becoming illegal/legally problematic in some jurisdictions now.
I’m passively considering the e-bike option but need to actually look it up, if it’s affordable, thanks.
I added vertical handle bars and some height to my seat so it’s alright on a plane road, yep. My problems comes from a very rough terrain with hills, sand pockets, no pavement etc I’m forced to use since public roads are tight and have barriers, no curb. 45mx2 per day, 5 days a week was rough, and I was probably pushing myself too hard trying to get in a timeframe comparable to a public transport.
I wonder if popular ebikes may come in a fitting, rugged variant, that can survive being offroad like MTBs.
Dual suspension e-bikes are kinda pricey, but fat tire ones will handle most of what you mentioned. Those ones unfortunately tend to be more like electric mopeds or dirt bikes though, and are giving e-bikes a bad rep in some circles.
I wonder if popular ebikes may come in a fitting, rugged variant, that can survive being offroad like MTBs.
There are actual electric MTBs out there if you look for them, though the real MTB ones tend to be quite pricey.
Thankfully, it doesn’t really sound like you need a fully legit MTB. Plenty of ebikes out there on Amazon or whatever that have fat tires and suspension and should be able to handle some light off-road riding.
I see more people on scooters these days - maybe that would be gentler on the knees? Roller blades might also help, but I find every crack and bump on the road a source of terror with those
You need food regardless if you bike or drive. Maybe just a little more if you are in good trim and bike a lot. Still cheaper than gas for a car though.
Yeah, ebikes are significantly more economical and ecological. The human body is very inefficient at converting calories into kinetic energy, and producing 1kcal of food has a much worse CO2 output than even burning 1kcal worth of coal. Even if you follow a vegan diet
It still beats driving a car by a long shot though
The human body will burn calories pretty much either way, and if you let your body adjust to daily riding your resting energy use will go down. If you want to be healthy you need exercise either way. Given all that you can consider the energy required to ride a bicycle for a medium distance daily to be virtually free.
if you let your body adjust to daily riding your resting energy use will go down
No, that’s just a lie. The only way you’re gonna significantly reduce your BMR from daily bike riding is if you were a fatty and lost weight due to it, but a diet would accomplish the same job. If an untrained person starts commuting daily with their bike the exact opposite will happen, they will grow more muscles in their calves and quads, which will significantly increase the amount of calories they passively burn, and that’s on top of the energy you burn while riding the bicycle.
You don’t need to make up bullshit to justify commuting with a bicycle, it will absolutely increase the amount of calories you will need to eat, but that’s a low price to pay for the money you save not commuting with a car, let alone the health benefits
You are right, I was working with outdated info. Just last year there was a study that showed the body doesn’t compensate metabolically for the exercise and the added calorie burn is not offset by conservation elsewhere. I can’t find the source of my misconception, but I guess it was widespread enough that they ran a study to disprove it.
One of my friends did a personal study on his costs at uni and found it was more cost effective to drive his car (this was in the early 2000’s) than it was to ride his bike to uni everyday than buy the food required to fuel the 50km round trip.
Round trip, so it was 25km. Sadly Peth Australia has one of the largest urban sprawls on the planet so 25km isn’t an unreasonable commute here and when you are a young uni student sometimes it’s more cost effective overall to live with your parents. This isn’t a post in support of cars, it’s more saying that fuel for bicycles is most certainly not free and to suggest it is is disingenuous. Arguably there may have been other things my friend could have done to reduce his food bill, but he was already pretty thrifty in general.
He tracked his food costs and fuel costs for a few months, noted when he drove and when he cycled and then correlated total costs with transportation mode. I have no idea how he was sourcing his food or what he was eating.
I think public transport at the time was a real screw around for him because his area was poorly serviced and the nearest train station was super dodgy
Yeah I live in a city with decent public transportation, but unfortunately my neighborhood is the one that’s poorly serviced, it’d take me two hours and multiple changes to get to work, it takes me 35 minutes by car and 20 by motorbike.
Of course I take the latter as often as possible, it’s just better, even on fuel consumption.
I’d like to bicycle to work like I did to my previous job, but here it’s just not an option, it’d take over one hour, I’d get there drenched in sweat, and risk my life multiple times.
I think food to pedal the bike cost money.
And don’t even get me started on all the healthcare the meat bag driving it needs.
Edmonton is in Canada, so that is covered 👍
Just don’t get your teeth knocked out in the crash
Teeth? Do you mean Luxury Bones™?
Luxury Bones Enamel Edition Pro Max
Probably less than non-cyclists due to better health, so a net negative cost.
Studies have actually been done on this.
Cyclists do have higher risk of injury from traffic, but the health benefits from the exercise they get more than makes up for it. Cyclists have significantly lower all-around mortality and injury/sickness rates than car drivers.
Fuck them knees tho. Even on good bike, commuting daily overwhelmes them for me :(
This might mean that your bike is the wrong size for you, or you have the seat adjusted too high or too low. Or even that your crank arms are too short or too long for you. You should definitely play around with changing the geometry of your bike and/or try bikes with different geometry. You might find that knee pain goes away once you dial it in correctly.
Then again, maybe not. Well, if all else fails, you could always get an ebike instead; that should help with knee issues if nothing else does. Though they’re becoming illegal/legally problematic in some jurisdictions now.
I’m passively considering the e-bike option but need to actually look it up, if it’s affordable, thanks.
I added vertical handle bars and some height to my seat so it’s alright on a plane road, yep. My problems comes from a very rough terrain with hills, sand pockets, no pavement etc I’m forced to use since public roads are tight and have barriers, no curb. 45mx2 per day, 5 days a week was rough, and I was probably pushing myself too hard trying to get in a timeframe comparable to a public transport.
I wonder if popular ebikes may come in a fitting, rugged variant, that can survive being offroad like MTBs.
Dual suspension e-bikes are kinda pricey, but fat tire ones will handle most of what you mentioned. Those ones unfortunately tend to be more like electric mopeds or dirt bikes though, and are giving e-bikes a bad rep in some circles.
There are actual electric MTBs out there if you look for them, though the real MTB ones tend to be quite pricey.
Thankfully, it doesn’t really sound like you need a fully legit MTB. Plenty of ebikes out there on Amazon or whatever that have fat tires and suspension and should be able to handle some light off-road riding.
You should not have any knee strain. Most people ride poorly fitting bikes with the seat too low.
I see more people on scooters these days - maybe that would be gentler on the knees? Roller blades might also help, but I find every crack and bump on the road a source of terror with those
US specific issue.
I guess when you have fancy pants, you go on adventures.
Also the extra exercise will prolong your life and you’ll have to pay even more.
Longer life means you have to buy more food. That will make a hilarious ad campaign for cars - save money, live shorter
Live fat, die young
Damn, I miss their compilations
You need food regardless if you bike or drive. Maybe just a little more if you are in good trim and bike a lot. Still cheaper than gas for a car though.
Its more the cocaine needed to ride long distance that costs the money.
That’s why I use an electric self driving bike
Yeah, ebikes are significantly more economical and ecological. The human body is very inefficient at converting calories into kinetic energy, and producing 1kcal of food has a much worse CO2 output than even burning 1kcal worth of coal. Even if you follow a vegan diet
It still beats driving a car by a long shot though
The human body will burn calories pretty much either way, and if you let your body adjust to daily riding your resting energy use will go down. If you want to be healthy you need exercise either way. Given all that you can consider the energy required to ride a bicycle for a medium distance daily to be virtually free.
No, that’s just a lie. The only way you’re gonna significantly reduce your BMR from daily bike riding is if you were a fatty and lost weight due to it, but a diet would accomplish the same job. If an untrained person starts commuting daily with their bike the exact opposite will happen, they will grow more muscles in their calves and quads, which will significantly increase the amount of calories they passively burn, and that’s on top of the energy you burn while riding the bicycle.
You don’t need to make up bullshit to justify commuting with a bicycle, it will absolutely increase the amount of calories you will need to eat, but that’s a low price to pay for the money you save not commuting with a car, let alone the health benefits
You are right, I was working with outdated info. Just last year there was a study that showed the body doesn’t compensate metabolically for the exercise and the added calorie burn is not offset by conservation elsewhere. I can’t find the source of my misconception, but I guess it was widespread enough that they ran a study to disprove it.
One of my friends did a personal study on his costs at uni and found it was more cost effective to drive his car (this was in the early 2000’s) than it was to ride his bike to uni everyday than buy the food required to fuel the 50km round trip.
Hope he wasn’t majoring in anything like math or biology.
Well he certainly wasn’t majoring in wilful ignorance so that probably works in his favour.
So drive and starve was the conclusion? Was this Trump U?
No it was the increase in petrol cost was less when he drove than his increase in food cost when he rode, he ate fine when he drove
Maybe try not living 50km away from the university you need to attend almost every day?
Round trip, so it was 25km. Sadly Peth Australia has one of the largest urban sprawls on the planet so 25km isn’t an unreasonable commute here and when you are a young uni student sometimes it’s more cost effective overall to live with your parents. This isn’t a post in support of cars, it’s more saying that fuel for bicycles is most certainly not free and to suggest it is is disingenuous. Arguably there may have been other things my friend could have done to reduce his food bill, but he was already pretty thrifty in general.
Wbat food did he use for that math? Because I doubt it would have hold up if he only used rice/beans/noodles/etc. To fuel his bike ride.
He tracked his food costs and fuel costs for a few months, noted when he drove and when he cycled and then correlated total costs with transportation mode. I have no idea how he was sourcing his food or what he was eating.
25km each way is, best case scenario, 1h per trip, in that case if public transport is not an option, yeah, I’d take the car
I think public transport at the time was a real screw around for him because his area was poorly serviced and the nearest train station was super dodgy
Yeah I live in a city with decent public transportation, but unfortunately my neighborhood is the one that’s poorly serviced, it’d take me two hours and multiple changes to get to work, it takes me 35 minutes by car and 20 by motorbike.
Of course I take the latter as often as possible, it’s just better, even on fuel consumption.
I’d like to bicycle to work like I did to my previous job, but here it’s just not an option, it’d take over one hour, I’d get there drenched in sweat, and risk my life multiple times.