Valhalla Island

University forced me to drive. I didn’t live on campus, it doesn’t sit on a train line and to get a bus from my home to school took three buses, an hour and 40 minutes, assuming buses ran on time. The drive would take 30 minutes on a good day. I had little choice. About a month before graduating I was reading a lot about fixed gear bicycles, they sounded like something I’d enjoy so I bought one. And it turns out I did enjoy it, a lot. Riding a fixed gear bike felt great and I started using it to make the 3km journey to the pool and back each day.

After class finished for the year weeks went by without using my car. I didn’t have any long trips to make, I was riding exclusively and loving it. When time came to renew my car’s registration — a $300 fee that allows me to use it on the road for another six months — I questioned whether it was something I wanted to do. I thought maybe it’d be a good idea to keep my car, you know, just in case. It wasn’t, my car was barely worth $300 itself. The registration lapsed, I wrote for sale in pen on a piece of cardboard, parked it on the road and sold it as is for $250.

That makes it around three months I’ve been bike only and two months I’ve had no choice. And having no choice is the best.

Many friends when discovering I traded in my car for a bike dont’t understand, they can’t believe such a thing is possible and are still sceptical months later. I get asked what if I need to go far, like the 40 minute drive into the city? I get the train, bikes are welcome on trains. What if I need to carry something? I wear a backpack. How do I get here or there? I ride. What if you get a job somewhere inaccessible by public transport or bike? I won’t, just like people with cars won’t take a job 4 hours drive away, my radius is just a little smaller.

People rely so heavily on their cars, allow bad habits to become such a big part of their lives that they fail to consider whether the $40 they spend on fuel a week, the $600 in registration fees and the hundreds worth of insurance is worth it. Change becomes an inconceivable idea.

Motivation isn’t a problem for me, I enjoy riding while I hated driving. But when you have no car and no other option, getting on the bike is even easier. Just like a driver doesn’t resent the lack of a helicopter to commute to work with, never am I frustrated by having to cycle, driving isn’t an option.

Cycling takes longer than driving, a gap that decreases the longer you’ve been riding. But there’s also time-saving benefits like never having to find a park and shortcuts on bike paths.

Apart from making me the fittest and healthiest I’ve ever been in my life, it’s made me appreciate taking my time. Taking 10 minutes to cool down, drink some water and towel off after reaching your destination isn’t an inconvenience but a welcome reward after putting in some hard yards. There’s no rush.

Travelling used to frustrate me, it felt like so much time wasted, time that could be spent actually doing something and not just getting from place to place. Now it’s something I relish. Feeling the sun on my skin and the breeze in my face is a great feeling. I’m doing and experiencing something, not just mindlessly crawling through traffic.

If ditching your expensive shitbox for a bike sounds like something you’d like to do, I can’t recommend riding fixed gear enough. They’re super efficient, every ounce of energy you put in is transferred to the road. They feel like an extension of your body, you have fantastic control and grow familiar with exactly how much effort translates into how much forward momentum. And besides being a joy to ride, they’re simple, reliable, cheap, stylish and require little or no maintenance.

The amount of people that immediately write it off as something they could never do amazes me. Think about the places you go, how long it takes, how frustrating it is paying for parking and petrol, getting stuck in traffic and then having to pay a road toll for the privilege.

I’ll ride a bike for long as it makes sense. In the meantime I’ll save a lot money, get fit, stay healthy, take my time and enjoy life just a little bit more.