I ride my bike to college everyday. I live in Thunder Bay Ontario Canada. It’s usually one of the best parts of my day. It’s now Monday December, 19 2005. On Friday I was biking to school in a snow storm and everyone driving their cars looked at me and shook their head. I couldn’t help but shake back.

Every morning around 7:30 – 8:00 something really cool happens. I get on my bike and watch the sunrise over the town and pedal my way to class. Now I’m not surprised that generally people do not want to bike to school in Thunder Bay it can get extremely cold and sometimes uncomfortable. It’s also very difficult and sometimes dangerous to bike in slush and snow. But if I can do it in Thunder Bay surely people in warmer places with less snowfall would be able to make the trek.

It generally gets really cold here in the winter. I had good gloves, helmet, goggles, jacket, and pants on so I was very comfortable and enjoying myself working manually to get from point a to b. I was thinking that the key to biking and enjoying it is to get the proper equipment and either have it maintained properly or learn how to take care of it.

This may seem like a big investment If you want top quality and someone else to fix it you would be looking at around $4,000 for bike/gear/maintenance for 1 yr. If you learn or know how to maintain bikes and buy a used year old model you would spend about $1700 for bike/gear. When you compare these figures to that of a motor vehicle these numbers become miniscule. Not to mention the increase in gas prices. Of course you can have all the equipment and still have no idea how to bike, but by practice especially balance, pedal stroke and proper gearing to reduce your workload but make you faster.

This can provide a difficult workout and a good sense of balance. I can guarantee that any person who bikes or walks to work/ school/ for fun at least 3 times a week will not regret it. The low cost, incresed energy, lower stress, weight loss and experience are hard to ignore. That’s not to say it’s easy it takes dedication and hard work but it works 100 percent of the time.

The benefits of simply riding your bike to school or work are inspiring. There are the obvious physical benefits like weight loss, better cardiovascular endurance, increased strength etc. Biking over driving causes no greenhouse gas or carbon dioxide emissions. An added benefit is increased energy throughout the day. When we the western world are severely overweight and produce more greenhouse gas emissions then anywhere in the world I catch myself wondering why so few people simply ride their bike.

-Jeff Radecki