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I have a nice Mt Bike and have considered riding it more to save gas. My concern is that having an AR15 and a big black bag strapped to it, will attract unwanted attention. I don't know, maybe I am just paranoid. Nobody is going to notice, right?

A mountain bike is a poor choice for a commute bike unless you put 1" 90psi slick tires on it. After a while you begin to notice that it's heavy and slow and something more suited to commuting would get you to work quicker.

I ride my bike to work nearly every day. If you have a car that gets 25mpg, you are a skilled bicycle mechanic and you are a bargain hunter for bike parts, then riding a bicycle every day will just about cut your commute cost in half at the current $4/gal or so fuel prices. Most people don't consider that bicycles and bike parts do not have infinite lifetimes. If you ride 20-50 miles per day on your bicycle you will discover how astonishingly fast bicycle tires, chains, bearings, wheels, etc. wear out and since they are niche market products, they are very expensive compared to car parts. I mean a bicycle tire contains less than 1/2 lb of rubber and costs as much as a 25 lb commuter car tire, while having only about 1-2% of the lifetime of a car tire. You will have to replace a $30 chain about twice as often as you'd have to do a $20 oil change in a car. Riding a bike is not free. If you have to hire a shop to do things like true wheels, replace that chain or bottom bracket, replace spokes, change tires, adjust the derailleurs, etc. then it will cost you far more to ride a bike than it would to drive your car.

Far and away the best thing you can do to save on gas is buy a late 80s sub-2500lb compact car with 80 hp that will get 40mpg and cost you under $2K. I had an '88 8V VW Jetta with a 5-speed that got about 32mpg in the city and 40-45 highway. My dearly departed '85 Toyota Tercel 4WD wagon got over 40mpg on the city and dang near 50 on the highway and would haul a family of four and a load of camping gear with ease, plus greater off-road utility than most modern SUVs. If you're just commuting in it then a fuel-injected '80s Tercel hatchback will get close to 50mpg wherever you drive it. I should sell my Miata and buy another Tercel 4WD if I can find one in good shape. They just don't make fuel efficient cars anymore. They are all way too big and heavy these days. It's simple physics. It takes more energy to move a heavier vehicle with a larger wind profile.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I put a $99 deposit down on a Smart Car "Passion." We also test drove it, and it is surprisingly substantial inside. Even though it's only a two seater, it has more seat room than my Nissan Pathfinder. It has all the cool safety stuff built in, and even with a tiny little motor, it drives surprisingly well and handles beautifully. It even has paddle shifters, for cryin' out loud. How cool is that? The cars are manufactured by Mercedes, and the build quality is very good, given that they do cut some cost corners with materials. There is currently a 12-18 month waiting list for one. In about 9 months, Smart Car will contact us to ask what options we want on ours and then it will get into the production queue. We have right up until the day of delivery to get our $99 back if we don't want it, because they will turn around and sell it in about 5 minutes, no problem. But we're going to take it anyway for three reasons.

One reason is that it gets 33 mpg on surface streets, and 41 mpg on the highway. Saving money is always cool, particularly when the "Passion," which is full of features, only cost $13,590.00.

A second reason is that we're going to wrap it with our company's graphics. Whether you think these cars are cool or weird, they DO get your attention. That means that people are looking at my company's advertising. In so doing, there are tax benefits to buying the car in the first place, and then using it as advertising. We won't use it to travel in or drive real long distances, but for running around the DFW metroplex, it's ideal.

The third reason is that, even if we decide we don't want it, I've seen the $13,590 version we ordered going on e-Bay selling for over $20K. So even if I don't want to keep it, I can turn around and sell it (and sell it quickly) for more than I paid for it and make a little money.

Mountain bike with a 25 pound capacity storage rack. Plenty of room to carry a couple days worth of groceries, and it's good for staying in shape. Doesn't take a bit of gas either.

agbullet2k1 wrote:Mountain bike with a 25 pound capacity storage rack. Plenty of room to carry a couple days worth of groceries, and it's good for staying in shape. Doesn't take a bit of gas either.

Well like I said before, a mountain bike definitely takes costly upkeep items if you ride it as much as you'd drive a car, and the cost of those things adds up.

A set of knobby tires will not last 200 miles ridden on asphalt, and they will be no fun to ride those 200 miles.

mr.72 wrote:

agbullet2k1 wrote:Mountain bike with a 25 pound capacity storage rack. Plenty of room to carry a couple days worth of groceries, and it's good for staying in shape. Doesn't take a bit of gas either.

Well like I said before, a mountain bike definitely takes costly upkeep items if you ride it as much as you'd drive a car, and the cost of those things adds up.

A set of knobby tires will not last 200 miles ridden on asphalt, and they will be no fun to ride those 200 miles.

Knobbies turn into slicks eventually, and then it's comfy riding. I wouldn't turn a bike into my daily commute vehicle, but for quick errands, it's perfect. There's no sense taking my truck to return a movie rental or pick up a prescription.