I remember growing up during the beginning of consumerism in India. My father owned a car that I used for errands and to transport myself to the commuter rail station. He used the company car to commute to work. Before I have been driving, I watched my friends get motorcycles and scooters. I have been drooling over motorcycles for as long as I can remember.

Mom and Dad, fearing traffic conditions of Bombay, never bought me one. After laboriously evaluating every production motorcycle in India through magazines and internet, I had zeroed in on the Enfield Bullet 350 as the object of my affection. I got to ride a 1971 Royal Enfield Bullet 350 on the closed streets of Godrej & Boyce manufacturing campus. Even though I ended up pushing the heavy kick-start bike back to its owner for a quarter mile, consumerism was taking over. I wanted to acquire motorcycles from everything like the Enfield 350 to the over powered liquid cooled V4 engined Yamaha V-Max. Frugal options like 100 cc to 150 cc commuter motorcycles legendary for their reliability, affordability and fuel efficiency were not on my radar.

Others: Get what you really want. You will grow tired of this in three months.

Me: But I don’t have $9000 for the Triumph America. I want to keep my operating costs low.

Others: Put it on your credit card. Ask for an extension on your limit. Get financing. (in other words, get deeper into debt like the rest of us)

Me: I get 90+ miles per gallon. Insurance costs only $181 annually for Liability and Comprehensive.

Others: You will grow out of it soon. Get what you really want.

Me: I just want to commute. Not really worried about speed.

Others: You’ll think your bike is too slow in 3 months.

I am in a position where only time can tell if I grow tired of this bike quickly. Till now, my top speed has been a modest 30 mph on slippery rainy conditions with slippery new tires. I plan to own this bike for two to three years till I can afford to own and maintain a bigger motorcycle without going into debt. I am not, however, excited about being pulled into the rat race of traffic and commute. Owning a motor vehicle is one step closer to being another brick in the wall.

The nail that stands out gets hammered the most.

Calling a much slower instrument a vehicle and placing it on the road with much larger vehicles only with a thin shear blanket of a law is lazy. I am of the opinion that the definition of bicycles as vehicles is flawed. If the law and motorist’s courtesy is all that sufficiently protects a cyclist on a road, then let’s remove sidewalks and place the pedestrians on the road as well. They can use the shoulder and save bucket loads of money on concrete sidewalks.

Projecting a vehicular cyclist logic forward, cars, motorcycles, buses, trucks, tractor-trailers, bicycles, wheel chair bound disabled people, pedestrians etc. will all be called ‘widgets’ and all widgets will share the road with each other. Why should pedestrians be separated from the road to make it easier for vehicles to travel safely? Why support vehicular superiority? Vehicular Cyclists do not aggressively support Shared Space (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_space), making their arguments hypocritic and selfish.

Living in any sprawled area with no infrastructure but the blind principles of John Forrester makes life friction-full. Yells and honks start becoming an itch that wouldn’t cease so much that you would wish to cut off your limb to ease the pain. Initially, optimism and gumption help overcome the constant reminder that you as a bicyclist are unwanted and unwelcome on the road. The hammering does not stop, not till a large organization (Eg. a government) recognizes it and makes plans to stop it. Such efforts are usually graced with positive and constructive outcomes as seen in the cities of Portland OR, Davis CA and New York City NY.

I have decided to stop getting hammered. I am buying a motorcycle and moving to a bicycle-friendly neighborhood further away from work. I am moving from the top of a pile of bicycle commuters to the bottom of the pile of motor-vehicle commuters. In my efforts to latch on to a higher dynamic quality, namely car-free bicycle commuting, I am degenerating to an activity of lower quality, namely motorcycle ownership for commuting. I have kept gas bills, insurance and depreciation on the motorcycle to a frugal low of $100 a month, which used to be my taxi fare budget.

Lastly, the people who continue to bicycle commute here, Jonathan, Jose, Rebekah and the couple others who I haven’t met, are bigger people than I am. They are true heroes.

I am buying a motorcycle. It has been my life long goals to own one and I am finally doing it. I enjoy living car free. I enjoy not heavily depending on oil for transportation. I also enjoy not having any insurance expense.

I have chosen to move to another part of town 13 miles away. A bicycle friendly and socially active part of town. I therefore need a motorcycle to commute to and from work. I would have done it on a bicycle but I have a dog to take care of and it is not fair to leave her in a room for 12+ hours while I am away.

My goals are to keep my expense at a minimum, gasoline usage low and not much insurance to pay. I have been looking at commuter motorcycles for a while. These are the options I am considering:

My route includes 12 miles of Interstate 95 and State Road 202 where the average speed of travel is 65 mph.

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I bought some red tomatoes, green tomatoes, egg plant, cucumbers, lemon, shrimp from the farmers market at the St. Johns Town Center.

Having left work at 5 PM, I rode over to the ATM to pick up some cash. The rain was a little more than a drizzle but my rain gear was adequate. Cash in hand, I made it to the farmers market. After a quick browse, I started pickng up the vegetables. I think they were quite reasonably priced. It wasn’t organic but it was local. This means my vegetables did not travel a couple thousand miles to my kitchen.

Shopping at your Local Farmers Market is a good way to reduce your carbon footprint. The best part about shopping there is one gets to come home and make a delicious Tomato Sandwich. Toast a couple of slices of bread apply mayo while the bread is hot so the mayo can melt a little. Lay a variety of tomato slices on top. I like how the crunchiness of the green tomatoes compliment the taste of the red. Top with salt and pepper. Eat open faced.

Posted via email from shek’s posterous

Posted via email from shek’s posterous