Tell Us About Your Weekend Bike Commuting

Well, perhaps that's not the greatest title in the world.  After all, the concept of the commute is getting to and from your job each day.  And naturally, not everyone has a Monday-Friday 8:00-5:00 job, so many of you are still commuting to work.

But I'm curious how many of you are using your bikes to get around town on the weekend.  And that doesn't include training rides, charity rides, or things like that - not that those aren't perfectly valid.  But as you know, this blog is about bikes as transportation, not recreation.  I want to know how you're using your bike to get from place to place.

So what do you use your bike for on weekends?  Do you use it to get to church?  Do you take it out for nights on the town?  Do you pack up a trailer and get your family to the park to see the kids play soccer?  Do you use it to visit friends? Do you go shopping?

I'll bet that there are lots of folks out there who get into a mental rut where their bikes are just for their commute, but they don't use them for other perfectly valid and do-able errands and trips.  So maybe if we all start sharing how we use our bikes for non-commuting trips, it'll spark some ideas in other folks about how they can use them too!

And, with this being Bike Month and some beautiful weather, there's no better time to be sparking these ideas...

So share in the comments! How do you use your bike on weekends?

People, not speed.

Comments

  1. I have two collapsible baskets and a rack on my bike. I use my bike to get supplies from the grocery. My personal record, while using a backpack also, is 43 items.

    T J O'Keefe

    PS. Sadly I have not been biking since Januarybecause I wrecked my knee. I should be able to start riding again soon though.

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  2. I used to make a game of it. It would give a sense of accomplishment if I could avoid getting into my car through the whole work week. Then I started seeing how much I could do without my car on the weekends, and it turned out I didn't need the car much at all. These days I keep track of when I use my car mainly because I once let it sit too long and the battery died. Now I try and take it somewhere every two weeks whether I need to use it or not. These days the car is used mainly for out-of-town trips and fetching items that are unwieldy to carry on the bike. I do some light grocery shopping on my bike, but the "real" shopping is done by my wife, in her car. If not for that, I might be tempted to use my car for grocery runs, but as it is now, I can easily go weeks without driving. Last night I biked to and from a concert. This weekend I'm hoping to take a ride to the movies with my wife. But these are just examples. For the most part I don't even consider the car for short trips around town anymore. There was a shift in my mindset going from using my bike mainly to avoid the parking situation at work to using my bike to get everywhere, but once I started asking myself, "Can I bike there?" for all of my destinations, my car use went down pretty quickly.

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  3. I use it for going to the Olentangy trail where I run on Sundays morning. On Saturdays, I mostly come to my workplace on bike or either complete few errands.

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  4. I like to visit the coffee shop on Sunday mornings, and the bike is a great way to get there.

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