So I recently spent about $100 on bike supplies. It’s rare for me to blow $100 on any one project or thing, so you might guess that there was some special rationale behind this expenditure. There was.

I inherited my bike from my dad. It was a top of the line model in the 70s. The upside of this is that it has the feel of a top of the line bicycle and the downside is that it has the look of an artifact from the 70s. Ever since I moved to LA, the bike had been sitting in the storage room at my apartment building with a busted tire and cobwebs all over it. Then the other day, it hit me: biking would improve my health, lessen my cost of living and remove me from the horrendously stressful situations that I seem to get into whenever I’m behind the wheel of my vehicle.

I had been neglecting my bike for a couple reasons. Getting the tire fixed was too much of a pain, and I had concluded that it was too dangerous to try biking in the urban jungle. There was also the simple fact that the bike was out of sight and out of mind. But you know what, now that I’ve got it all fixed up, none of these reasons really seems like a legitimate obstacle, and I’m glad I can use it again.

One of the reasons I enjoy my bike - and it’s not one of the less important ones - is the way it makes my life cheaper. Let me explain.

As I said, I invested about $100 in bike supplies. Here’s what I got for my money: a new tire and inner tube, a bottle of slime for preventing flats, a tire patching kit, a pressure gauge, a gel-filled seat cover, a helmet, and a pump. I spent $30 on the pump alone and I seriously hesitated before making this purchase, calculating how many times I could fill up at using the $.75 air machine at the gas station before the pump would pay itself off. Then I actually tried filling my bike tires at the gas station and found I couldn’t achieve the tire pressure I needed, so I buckled down and bought the pump.

I calculate that if I use my bike to commute to my part-time job each day, this $100 expenditure will justify itself within a couple months. How’s that? Well, I live about 5 miles from my job, and I calculate that it costs me about $1.50 to drive this distance (maybe I’ll post again in the future about how I arrived at this number). When I bike, it costs nothing. So assuming I don’t have any more maintenance costs in the near future, I’ll start profiting from my investment in those bike supplies after 33 round trips (33 x 2 x $1.50 = $99). That’s not counting other trips I might make using my bike instead of my car.

But wait! you cry. Biking wastes time, and time is money! Well, biking takes a little longer than driving, but when you live in a congested urban area, there isn’t really that much of a difference. Including the time it takes to park my vehicle and walk a short distance on both ends, commuting by car takes me about 30 minutes. Biking takes 45. But you know what, biking is also great exercise, and I’d have to spend at least 30 minutes in the gym to equal the exercise I get by commuting round-trip to work on my bike. (And actually, one of the main reasons it takes 45 minutes on my bike is because I travel a roundabout path that uses mostly less congested side streets which seem safer to bike on.)

Biking offers real economic benefits for me. It’s also an easy way to get exercise, and it’s way more relaxing than driving. Perhaps it’s a little more dangerous. I can’t really say, although this article claims otherwise. I’ll keep my helmet on, stick to the side streets, and continue to enjoy the many tangible benefits of biking. Does that sound too cheesy? I’m serious - I really enjoy biking and don’t regret blowing the $100!

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