My commuting decade

This year’s Earth week celebrations at my workplace  coincided approximately with my finishing a decade of commuting with a bicycle to work. I had bought my Hero cycle (model name was Nitrogen) for around 2200/- in 2003. The choices back then were restricted to Indian brands at least in the local shops around my place. I also had it fitted with a child seat on the top tube for taking my 2 year old around. It was a great decision he loved the wind in his hair, I did not have that privilege.

This bike took me around Pune, for sundry shopping and of course was my daily commute to office other than dropping and picking up my son from his play school and then Nursery class in the Bishops School nearby. I could have continued dropping him but his growing legs made him uncomfortable with the handle turns and he graduated to the school van in the next standard.

This bike got stolen in 2009 from my society parking lot. The vandals must have carried the locked bike despite security. Following which I bought myself a second hand Hero Hawk. This was a drop bar (bent racer type) handles, frame size perfect for my height and the most inconspicuous for any body to even fiddle around. I later replaced the handle, stem and crank with a lighter version from Metro Cycles, Kalbadevi, Mumbai. In 2010 I got a locally made Pannier form a cyclist friend in Bangalore for a mere 600/-. This pannier bag rests on the carrier behind and overflows on both sides of the cycle. My wife was eternally thankful for this biking accessory as all her sundry shopping needs fit into this bag including vegetables, eggs and even a dozen ceramic cups once during Diwali.

A couple of months back looking at the north bound fuel prices I got around to calculating the saving that my commute would have made especially since I was nearing 10 years. The results, predictably, was interesting and a solid proof with which I could justify my purchase of cycles and accessories to the home minister. (Not that she ever grumbled). So for your sake, below is the graph of savings per year with blue dots representing the average fuel cost of that year (petrol). 18270 Rs is the saving in 2012 alone when the petrol prices jumped into the 70’s

The below table shows the detailed break up till December last year with an average of 10 km per day and calculated for five days of  commute per week. (with a car mileage of 10 km per litre)

A saving of around 2609 litres of petrol which converts into a virtual saving Rs 1.3 lakhs. Now let me go shop for a carbon frame bike J.

I got a couple more bikes in my stable - a Trek 4300 and a Masi Cyclocross. Guess, I have utilised part of the virtual savings for now :-).

Wish you all a safe commute and a Happy Earth week - 2013.