I’m hoping that the current Gulf disaster encourages many more people to grab a bike and help cut our dependence on oil. TheFatLadySings has a great diary on the rec list with a video at the end showing bikers during rush hour in the Netherlands.
It got me thinking about bike commuting, and it’s always been on my mind to write a diary about this topic. I’ve discovered over the past 3 years of commuting to work by bike that it’s possible to be an irresponsible biker. Though you may save gas at the pump, if you’re not conscientious, you may end up using more oil than you have to.
Join me after the jump for the details.
Just for background, I wrote a diary last year about the money side of commuting by bike. I’ll give the quick summary to those interested in the money side, just in case you think you’re going to save a ton of money by ditching your car. You won’t.
Now, if you trade in your car for a bike, then you might save money, but I still have a car for long trips and winter driving (2 months out of 12 I drive because of ice and snow here in Chicago). But just based on gas savings alone, you’ll never win on a bike.
I commute 10 miles each way, so 20 miles a day. That’s a gallon of gas a day, which costs about $3. However, I’m not burning free energy. I’m burning calories. To ride 20 miles takes 800 to 1,000 calories. Next time you’re at the grocery story, try to buy 1,000 calories for around $3. Bottom line, you can’t do it. Calories are more expensive than gas. So, if you’re looking to save money riding based on gas alone, it’s not going to happen.
This topic though has another angle: if you’re burning 500 to 1,000 additional calories a day biking, how much oil are you using. The answer, unfortunately, is not 0. As well, if you’re not conscientious, you may end up burning more than you mean to.
There's a great article on FromTheWilderness.com about oil consumption and modern farming and food processing. According to the article:
In the United States, 400 gallons of oil equivalents are expended annually to feed each American (as of data provided in 1994). Agricultural energy consumption is broken down as follows:
• 31% for the manufacture of inorganic fertilizer
• 19% for the operation of field machinery
• 16% for transportation
• 13% for irrigation
• 08% for raising livestock (not including livestock feed)
• 05% for crop drying
• 05% for pesticide production
• 08% miscellaneous
400 gallons per American per year means 1.09 gallons of oil per person a day. When I bike, I burn an additional 800 to 1,000 a day, or 40% more than I would without biking. Applying this 40% to 1.09 gallons of oil means I have the potential to burn a half a gallon of oil a day biking.
I say potential, because there are ways to limit this. I’ve given it a lot of thought and have put together the following tips for anyone interested in biking and doing so in a way that doesn’t waste just as much fuel as they’re saving.
First thing to look at is the bike itself:
- Buy a used bike. This country is full of barely ridden used bikes for sale. Bikes are one of those things that lots of people buy intending to use, but they end up collecting dust in the garage. Craigslist is a good place to start. Most cities have bike shops that specialize in used bikes. From an energy savings perspective, this is a pretty obvious decision.
- Buy a good bike. Used doesn’t mean cheap and old. You might be putting 50 to 100 miles a week on this bike. A cheap, old, or poorly maintained bike will cause you to work harder than you have to, or worse. You might be so miserable you go back to your car. There are enough used bikes out there to find something that is nearly new, or at least well maintained.
- Don’t ride a mountain bike, a heavy bike, a bike with shocks, or a bike with big tires or tread. Riding a big fat tire mountain bike through the city is a complete waste of energy. If you’re going off road and jumping tree stumps, you need big knobby tires. If you’re on pavement, you need road slicks: thin round tires with very little tread. The difference in rolling resistance and power required between a mountain bike with big tires and a light commuter bike with thin tires is huge. You’ll work 20% to 30% less on a light commuter, which translates into fewer calories which translates into saving money and oil. The same goes for shocks. The only thing producing energy on a bike is you, and a shock’s job is to absorb that energy. Shocks are completely unnecessary on pavement and do nothing but waste your energy.
- Don’t buy a bike with a big wide seat. Your ass is only going to hurt for a week or two. It’s not the bike seat, it’s your ass. If you rode a horse all day, you’re ass would hurt. But if you went to the stable and asked for a gel saddle or different kind of seat or wider horse, you’d get scolded. Same with the bike. In fact, officially, it’s not a bike seat. It’s called a saddle. You don’t sit on it. If you’re in shape and ride often, two things happen. 1) your ass toughens up. 2) your legs are always spinning and always pressing down on the peddles and holding part of your weight so that your ass is never carrying the entire weight of your body. All that said, saddle fit can be a problem for some people and you need to have a good saddle that doesn’t rub you awkwardly or put pressure on the wrong places (for instance, women’s saddles and men’s saddles are shaped differently to accommodate the differing shape of our pelvises). However, every seat is going to be uncomfortable for the first few weeks. The problem with a big wide seat is that it gets in your way. You can’t run for several miles with something big between your legs, and you can’t ride a bike for a lot of miles unless you have a thin saddle that allows your legs to spin. Those big fat seats are made for people that putter around the block twice a year.
Here’s a picture of a 1903 Tour De France bike. Notice the long, thin saddle, the narrow tires, and the dropped handlebars so your upper body doesn’t act like a giant air break.
The bottom line: the only thing producing energy on a bike is you. Don’t waste it. Use your energy efficiently like smart bikers have been doing going back more than 100 years.
Now, onto the source of that energy:
- Don’t buy bottled drinks (bottled water, bottled energy drinks, etc): If you’re riding a hundred mile road race, you need an energy drink. If you’re riding 5 or 10 miles to work, you don’t. Great Article on oil use and plastic bottle. I usually only drink during my 10 mile commute on hot summer days, and for the past 3 years I’ve used the same bottle which I fill with tap water. Also avoid plastic containers for food. I like Whole Foods, for instance, but have you ever noticed how much of their food, especially the prepared food, comes in heavy plastic containers? If you bike to work and go through 2 bottles of Gatorade and have a salad from a plastic container for lunch, it’s possible that you’ve used more petroleum than you’ve saved.
- Don’t buy biking specific food or reward foods, like energy bars or candy bars. Again, a ten mile commute is not a hundred mile road race, you don’t need energy food. Also, a lot of people like to reward themselves for working out with a candy bar or similar treat. All this does is cut into the money and energy you’re trying to save. You’re going to find yourself making a lot more food decisions because you’re consuming more calories, so you need to have some kind of plan to consume in a smart way.
- Utilize sunk costs. Don’t buy additional foods. You’re burning 400 to 500 calories for every 10 miles you ride. These calories aren’t free. They cost money. They also cost fuel.
Fortunately most Americans have a lot of sunk costs with regard to food. The biggest is fat. A pound of fat contains 3,500 calories. So that’s a lot of miles you’ve already paid for. However, I know from experience, it’s very hard to bike five days a week and not naturally eat more. I certainly don’t have that willpower. Plus, after a year or so, you reach a point where, hopefully, you really don’t have a lot of extra fat to burn, so you do need to take in calories.
The second way utilize sunk costs is to cut down on waste. If your home is anything like mine, you throw a lot of food away a week. Sometimes, bikers get hungry in the middle of the day and go out and buy a big lunch, then go home and eat a normal dinner, complete with leftovers that eventually spoil in the fridge and get thrown out. This is very sloppy consumption. If you’re biking and throwing away leftovers, there’s an opportunity to use less oil by eating more leftovers and not buying new foods.
Well, I hope this helps a bit. I was amazed when I started calculating the costs involved with biking, both monetary and energy. The bottom line is, there’s an importance to efficiently using our energy when biking. Just as fuel efficiency is important for cars, it’s important for bikers as well.
Ride safe!