Biking to Work

It would be great to be able to bike to work. Amy almost had to do it on marathon day because of road closures, but we found an open route from our house to the office so it was unnecessary. That’s the most recent time it’s come up, but by no means the only time. We know lots of people in the area who use their bikes for transportation, so this isn’t breaking new ground or doing something dramatic and radical.

Bike to Work in Real EstateBasically, it comes down to the old Nike tagline – “Just Do It.” Making excuses is easy, here’s a sample. I don’t want to get all sweaty since I’m meeting clients. My bike’s chain is exposed and tends to get grease on me and my clothes. My showings are in distant towns, or there are long distances between homes. I don’t have a good way to carry my stuff. My house doesn’t have a garage, so I have to haul my bike out of the basement each time I ride. I could go on all day.

Rather than focusing on why I can’t ride a bike to sell real estate, I’m going to start focusing on opportunities when it is possible. And it’s not always going to be possible. I’m not going to ride in bad weather. I’m not going to ride long distances. I’m probably not going to be riding on weekend days in the spring when we’re busiest.

I’m going to start small, and I’m going to start today. I’m writing this on a Tuesday in October. It’s a relatively slow day, so I’m going to go on broker’s tour on my bike. There are only a few houses I need to see, and they’re all in Hartford and West Hartford, so it’s manageable. Moderate distance, no time constraints, no client interaction. Just do it.

We’ll see how it goes…

10 thoughts on “Biking to Work

  1. I desperately wish your blog showed which one of you wrote this article. I have to turn to the RSS feed to tell. I have a guess…

  2. I am so excited that you are taking this step. A lot of the time, riding a bike is easier than trying to navigate congested streets in a car.

  3. Buy a scooter. Having owned both bicycles motorcycles and cars in this area I am increasingly seeing scooters as the best compromise between all of these. 100mpg no sweating built in storage mom and dad friendly and you can pick one up used for $500. And also fit right into those scooter gangs on the off days.

  4. Wear dark clothing that will hide any oil mark. If you bike to work on a regular basis soon you will adapt and rarely even break a sweat if you dress properly.

    Biking to work is a complex combination of careful planning and time management and a learning curve of finding more efficient ways to do it. The more you do it the easier it gets. I’ve gotten to the point after 8 years that it is easier for me to bike to work than drive to work.

  5. I’m happy to read this, and I’ll echo that it get easier, and more enjoyable, the more you do it. I’m down to driving my car once or twice a month, and it’s usually a stress-inducing pain in the ass. Watching people lose their collective sense of reason and civility in the post-storm traffic and gas lines last week reinforced that point as I pedaled past.

    Regarding the scooter as a compromise, it can indeed be a nice intermediate step when time and/or distance make the bike impractical. That said:

    Don’t get a 2-stroke, they smell and pollute badly. Some 2-stroke scooters get high mpg while actually producing more particulates per mile than a diesel bus! They’re like rolling asthma factories. I rode vintage Vespas and Lambrettas for years before learning that, so I’m doing my penance now.

    Buy a decent brand-name scoot (new or used) from a scooter or motorcycle shop (I’m partial to Scooter Centrale in Plainville) and take a motorcycle safety course. The market has been flooded with cheap Chinese scooters being sold at places like Pep Boys and even furniture stores (?!) which offer no support when they inevitably break. An MSF safety course will teach you lots and put a motorcycle endorsement on your drivers license, which is legally required (but sadly often ignored) for anything over 49.9cc.

    Lastly, I recommend that you (and everybody else on two wheels) wear a helmet.

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