frugal living 6

FRUGAL LIVING 6

TRANSPORTATION

Part 2

I wear my slacks to twenty degrees, then place a pair of exercise/warm-up pants over those.  At about ten degrees it is time to replace those with a pair of heavy wool pants.  You might be better off with long underwear bottoms ( also, if your area is wet and cold, your requirements might differ.  Everyone is going to be different.  Some of you will be fine just warming the torso, others just get cold hands, etc.  ).  Below freezing I wear a wool sweater under my jacket ( if you are sensitive to wool, wear cotton underneath it ) and under twenty I wear two sweaters.  My head is covered by layers of cotton caps, one in the 40’s, two in the 30’s and below, with a wool cap over them.  At 20 and below I wear a ski mask under all of them.  My hands are very sensitive and above freezing I wear wool gloves inserts with a leather mitten over those.  Under freezing I wear heavier insulated mittens rather than a leather shell.  At ten degrees I get out the Artic heavy duty extreme cold mittens ( don’t wear inserts with those, or your hands sweat ).  All told, even with back up items, the whole get up only costs about the same as one pair of Sorrel boots from a higher end retail establishment.  Less than the cost of the bike.  If you are in a wet climate, you would probably also need some kind of studded tire, which I’m sure is not cheap on a bike.  Not that a set for the car isn’t more expensive, so it really is a moot point.

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When I first started seriously riding a bike ( after having had to move to a metro area from smaller pedestrian friendly towns ), LED lights had just started coming out.  Almost no one had heard of them.  At the bike shop you could get a bike lamp in LED for $30 or so.  They were weak and a the batteries good for around twenty hours if not less.  But at the time, even that was great compared to incandescing bulb lamps which had far less performance.  Nowadays, LED’s are everywhere, even in Dollar Stores, and the performance in power and longevity are far better.  You can have your bike lit up like a Christmas tree and only spend a few bucks a month in disposable batteries.  Along with a VERY bright reflective vest, you are far safer on a bike than ever before.  Yes, some areas are nearly impossible to ride a bike in, but not all that many.  One good thing the Yuppie Scum have done is petition across the land for better bicycle accommodations. 

Continued on the same subject next Frugal Living article.

END

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