*RIDE OUT THE RECESSION* Push pedals that fold, not one that says 'gas'

"I SAVED a bunch on car insurance - I bought a Bike Friday!" It's a cheeky bumper sticker, but one that consistently "ka-chings" true for cyclists empowered by a bicycle you can take with you. Whether using a folder "intermodally" i.e. with the bus, train, ferry, plane, or riding it door-to-desk, the amount of folding stuff you can save is impressive. With the tikit® gaining popularity across datelines and equators, we're encouraging everyone to Burn Carbs Not Hydrocarbs. It starts each day with a decision to push two pedals, not one. And if you can take those pedals where you go ... - LC

I easily save £100 ($US159) a month, says Gareth Dent, UK. I use my tikit® to commute daily from Sheffield (Yorkshire, UK) to Barnsley by doing bike-train-bike. The 17.5m trip each way takes me 50 minutes, precisely the same time as it would take to commute by car on a good day. It costs me £56.50 a month for the train season ticket. If I were to drive, with UK petrol prices, the petrol alone would cost £97.50. Add to this the depreciation on the car, tyres, etc, and I easily save £100 a month. My tikit® has paid for itself since I bought it in February. Yorkshire is hilly, so I get a good work out climbing the 14% gradient back to the house each evening and I get two 25 minute sessions where I can read each day.
Pictured: Hanna Scholz prepares to get on the bus with her Express tikit®

I saved even more insurance - because I suspended it! - Linda "I was so impressed, I became a Bike Friday Dealer" Gryczen. I first bought a Friday when my spouse said, "your bicycle is not going in my car again!" We lived 15 miles from town, and I would pedal in and carpool home. Or carpool in and pedal home during the off-0bike season. Along came a Bike Friday with a neat and tidy bag that could fold into one convenient package and fit in a back seat or a trunk of a car, depending on that day's carpool arrangements. Come fall, I would suspend the insurance on my mobile bike shop van and pull out the Friday, which saved a couple of hundred dollars in insurance plus $30 a week in commuting costs. Pictured: Linda Gryczan aka Alice B Toeclips Cyclery tackling the Saddle Road on the Big Island of Hawaii, USA

I've saved on parking (~$75/month), gym fees, gas and public transportation - now they're paying me to ride, says Dale Steele, Sacramento, CA. I've just completed my first year with my trusty Pocket Llama, purchased for daily commuting and secondarily for recreation. I ride it to work in downtown Sacramento every day rain or shine, and stuff it in a bike locker until it's time to head home - unless I get an interesting lunch invitation across town somewhere. I found that I was enjoying this opportunity to be outdoors everyday so much that I started finding longer ways to get to and from work. Not having a shower & changing facility at my work was the limiting factor, but I worked a few things out that allow me to take the American river trail downtown and more than double my commute ride. My return ride backtracked this route and often, extended it by going farther up the trail before returning home.

Most recently, I've been averaging well over 20 miles a day that way and over 700 miles per month for the last two months of this first year. I've now got over 5000 miles on the bike and feel and look healthier that I have for a few years. All together, I'd say I've spent about $200 in parts & supplies plus the cost of the bike. I've saved the hassle and cost of parking downtown (~$75/month), no gym fees or fancy riding clothes, plus no gas and/or public transportation expenses. Apparently, I'll start receiving $20/month from the State for riding my bike to work beginning next year. My Llama has paid for itself already and will be earning its keep even more soon ...
Pictured above: Fellow Sacramento commuter and Little Person, Dan Okenfuss reports for duty at the Capitol building. Read about Special Needs Fridays.

The economy is why I went with not one, but two Bike Fridays, says Amy, a single mother of two in Rochester, NY. The NWT for me, and the Triple Traveler as our new 'station wagon'. As a single mama, we've been squeaking by on an income well below the poverty level. It was with many a pang that I finally decided to make the investment for two Bike Fridays. I knew they'd pay for themselves, but it was still a financially scary investment to make. We are city mice, where about 90% of where we three go as a family are all within a 5-mile radius of home. Plenty of off-road bike trails. Once the gas pumps hit $4, I finally went ahead and ordered the bikes. The impact on our lives ? We spent $50 on gas in July. I bought my annual full tank of gas in August to get us to/from the Champlain Valley Folk Festival in Vermont, and then my usual $50 for the rest of the month. Bottom-line: we're saving tons of money by using our Bike Fridays! Not to mention that it's fun! And the best benefit of all is TIRED KIDS! Yeee ha! Pictured: Happily tired kids at the end of the day come free with every Bike Friday tandem. Read about Kids on Fridays

In my first 3 years of commuting, I saved enough to buy a $1000 MTB and a $2800 BF recumbent, says Hugh Larkin, formerly of Arizona.

I commuted for 7 years in Phoenix - did it 3-5 days a week, 40+ miles roundtrip, year-round. When I started, I used to commute solo, and in the end, had 2 other regular partners.

I think I saved about $1200-1500 a year in gas and maintenance, $300-400 a year in reduced car insurance, and another $300 a year in gym memberships. In my first 3 years of commuting, I saved enough to buy a $1000 MTB and a $2800 BF recumbent.

I also got to 'know' other individuals - drivers, on-coming bikers, and pedestrians - who's paths I crossed daily, exchanging waves, nods, and occasionally, a few words. These folks became my 'support network' as I rode through some of the rougher sections of Phoenix. It got to be that if I didn't see them, or them not seeing me for a few days, we became concerned for the other, expressing so when we could speak to each other.

$AVING MONEY isn't the biggest benefit, suggests Paul Staly:

I have been commuting seriously for the last three years, and on a folder for the last 1 1/2 years. Just within the last month I upgraded to a used NWT. Recently I noticed how often I think in terms of "how can I avoid using the car?" I get a thrill out of seeing it parked, unmoving for a week or more at a time. It feels like I am approaching a comfortable balance between car and bike usage. One or the other is going to be more appropriate for the task at hand, time of day, weather conditions, etc.

Probably the most important factor for me is my feeling that bikes are more of a "human-scale" device than cars are. I feel more comfortable, more at home, more in connection with the world around me when on a bike, as opposed to a car. Cars are fabulous for getting us from place to place quickly, but that very quickness feels deadening. Add in the noise, the isolation from the outside environment, the mind-numbing effect from being over stimulated, and you have a non human-scale activity that can rob of us our very humanity.

One need look no further than the unfortunate, selfish behavior of too many people when they slip behind the wheel. The fact that I am not immune to any of this has helped me see it more clearly.

Whether we take advantage of it or not, riding a bike gives us the opportunity to interact more easily with the fellow humans we encounter along our way.

I now have a few regulars that I see on my commute. I look forward to seeing them, waving and saying hello, something that would never happen in a car. More friendly human interaction can only be a good thing. It is something we all need and seek.

Pictured: A human-scale bike like a Bike Friday tikit® helps seniors like Jeanne, here at BF dealer Velosport, Berkeley CA, "keep up with her dog." Read about Bike Friday Super Seniors

RELATED LINKS

Bike Friday Mission It's not (just) about the fold - a wealth of multimedia

MOVIE CLIPS

The tikit® World's fastest fold with the Famous Friday ride

Grocery shopping with a tikit it's the cart and car in one

To the Capitol and back on a Friday Little Person Dan commutes on a Pocket Rocket

9th Avenue Separated Bike Lane in New York City A sign of things to come

Can we get it past the guards? The tikit on Trial in New York City

Why the tikit® why now Alan Scholz, Bike Friday co-founder

Cycle2City A new-breed bicycle commuter facility, for those who are yet to fold ...

It's a bailout bike! Just for fun

More advocacy on a Friday movies

STORIES

Solutions on a Friday Some challenging issues solved with a Friday

Just the tikit® for a cleaner, saner world

Monday to Friday on a Friday Commuting is easier on two small wheels

Burn Carbs Not Hydrocarbs It's easy when you can take it with you