Use Your Incentive! Buy A Bike!

You are about to get some money from Uncle Sam. I have a very easy way for this money to earn dividends beyond your wildest dreams. This small amount spent correctly, will improve your health, improve your mood, save you money on gas, and will open you up to your neighborhood.
Here's the plan:

Step #1 - Get your "Economic Stimulus" check or direct deposit. (Yay! I have $600.00 or $1200 for married couples.)
Step #2 - Look in your garage, or storage area for that bicycle that you used to ride. (If you don't have a bike, skip to Step #4)
Step #3 - Take that bike down to your local bike shop for a tune-up.
Step #4 - If you don't currently have a bike, go buy a bike at your local bike shop. You should get a bike that fits you. Have the shop recommend a simple bike for you to get around town with. Fit it with a basket, or rack so you can haul stuff that you picked up on your errands. A backpack also works, and you probably already have one. These are trips around your neighborhood you would normally take by car.
Step #5 - Buy a helmet, and some flashing lights. You want to be SEEN by drivers.
Step #6 - RIDE!! Every time you are about to get in the car, say to yourself, "Self... Can I run this errand on my bike?"

By following these steps, you WILL become healthier, save money, discover your neighborhood, and generally feel good. You will notice things about the world around you and find a long lost sense of freedom and adventure.
You've just been given free money. Put some of it away, sure. Pay down your debt, sure.
Trust in this... Health is wealth. Invest in yourself and buy a bike.

(Wear a helmet)

Roll Populi

The wheels on the bikes go round and round...
We can't avoid it. The news stream pounds into our heads the spectre of great socio-economic collapse spurned by higher and higher fuel prices, further reinforcing the Bush Plan.
However, an alternative is taking shape. A silent revolution of commuters dusting off the transportation in their garages and storage areas.
I see people on bicycles riding to work.
I see more people now on bikes as I drive, and I'm joined at stoplights by more cyclist commuters as I ride.
This is a beautiful thing. Think about it, as fuel prices go up, more people will turn to alternative transportation. We take buses and trains. We ride our bikes. We car pool.
Thus, we reduce airborne pollution and greenhouse gases. We become healthier by exercise. We discover new things and places in our own backyard, and become more social with other human beings.

My only request: Wear a helmet.

This Here's Nishiki Country...

Good Day!
Well, the sun is shining, and the rains have subsided. It's back on the bike time and I will never ever hibernate through the winter again. It doesn't do anyone any good.
So, in my contemplating the commute from Culver City to Burbank again, I built up a new (old) bike. Embracing the "steel is real" philosophy, I picked up a 1986 Nishiki Prestige from a seller on Craigslist. By all accounts, I should have stripped the frame and repainted, but just wanting to take a crack at rebuilding and overhauling a bike for the first time, I left it.
So now instead of rolling up to work on my graciously donated Cannondale, I'm now pedaling along on a proper tank of a bike. The bike came with these gold anodized Araya rims, so I trued them up and repacked the bearings over at Bikerowave in Santa Monica, and wrapped them with Continental Contact touring tires. Stripped all the parts off, replaced the headset, brake levers, cables, and chain. Swapped out for a new-to-me front deralieur. Added a Jandd lightweight rack for the back and... Wow. I've done a lot to that bike.
Either way, rode up to work for the first time this year last week and made it. The reward for an hour of climbing is flying at 30mph down Barham Blvd. to the Studio. Not bad.

So, I think that I'll be saving on fuel costs the more I ride into work. Just too bad that the fat I lose won't be made into biodiesel. That would be very gross. "Soylent Fuels"?