Our New Year's Resolution: Ride More Often

• Posted on 2 January 2018
• By Ben Cowie
• Posted in Bike Habit
• 0

What we're thinking about for 2018 (and every day)

Happy New Year from Windy Wellington, New Zealand! We had a fantastic ride today, and with apologies to everyone Frostbiking, sunshine and 22C was A-OK. We'll be blogging about our travels with Brompton Bicycles soon! 

Happy New Year! We hope you’ve had a fantastic couple of weeks spending time with friends and family and dreaming of spring bike rides, of course. During January we’re going to throw down a New Year’s Resolution bike post, and then dive straight into a three-part series about coffee. Our café re-opens January 9, on a winter schedule, while the bike shop will remain closed until February 1. Join us from 8:30AM – 3PM Tuesday – Friday, and 11-3 on Saturdays for a delicious cup of Rosso coffee, or a tasty biscuit, scone, or butter tart from Petit Paris Bakery!

Our New Year's Resolution for 2018: ride our bikes more often. We think riding bike makes a great New Year’s Resolution for anyone (but we won’t tell anyone if you don’t start until spring). Here's why:

Are you looking for a fantastic New Year’s Resolution that will change your life? Some people want to be healthier, some happier, wealthier, wiser, or have more time to spend with people you care about. No singular change in your lifestyle could be better at accomplishing those goals than starting an urban cycling habit. Here’s why riding your bike to work, to school, for errands and shopping, or to get you around in your social like makes sense:

• Riding a bike is fun! It’s a habit that’s easy to start because it’s enjoyable. Unlike spending grueling hours on a stairmaster, riding your bike for transportation is like a casual stroll in the park where you pass through the world a little quicker than walking. John F. Kennedy perhaps said it best, “Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.” Canadian adventurer Will Gadd writes: Sitting on our butts for two hours a day commuting is the same as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day in terms of life expectancy and in lost joy in life.
• Riding a bike is fast. Bikes are way faster than driving in the city when you consider the time spent working to pay for your car. For example, your morning commute of 10 km might take you twenty minutes in a car if you catch all the green lights, but you’ll spend the first forty minutes of your working day paying for your car to drive you that distance. On a bike that same commute will take you thirty-three minutes riding at a slow pace (in your work clothes), and you’ll only clock six minutes of working time to pay for your ride once you arrive. The end result? You save twenty-one minutes per trip each way, more than forty minutes per day. What could you accomplish with an extra forty minutes of time or money every day? Read the full article here.
• Riding a bike is healthy. Some of the best weight loss, and healthy-habit success stories come from changing daily habits, rather than “adding” something to your schedule like a trip to the gym. If riding a bike becomes your default way of getting around, exercise is built into your day, requiring no additional time commitment. I’ve met countless people in urban cycling communities who have undergone incredible health transformations just by changing how they arrived at work every day. It’s not just weight loss and general fitness, but disease prevention, too. The risk of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer are all greatly lowered just by switching the way you get to work. What are you waiting for?
• Riding a bike brings community together. There’s nothing better than being out for a ride and bumping into a friend for a quick chat in the morning, or stopping to share a morning coffee on your way to work. Riding a bike is social in a way that driving a car never is. When was the last time you saw someone from your car and pulled over to say hi? Never? Exactly.
• All of the above. Riding your bike in the city is all of these things, rolled into one simple daily activity. Start imagining your better life today. Come start a bike habit with us this year, and make 2018 the year you pick up the truly life-changing habit of urban cycling.