Biking More To Get Rich #389

But now it's been multiple years since we've covered that topics that we're going to revisit biking and talk about all the different ways that it makes us. Richard, we definitely talked about it some during the pandemic because biking was hot, right and like, oh yeah, it turned out at the beginning a lot of bike companies were like, oh no, what are we gonna do? And then there was like, oh, what we're gonna do is have to like double our orders because everybody wants a bike right now.

So yeah, we definitely covered that a little bit, but we haven't kind of talked about the economics of biking in the many ways that a bike can fit into your life. It can save you money, but it can do more than that. So we're gonna talk about all that in this episode, and we're gonna talk about the many different ways that you can realize a return on your investment. Where YouTube bike more. And I've even called

bikes an actual investment before. Actually I think I use that. Uh. I use that phrase to justify my bike purchase last year. Remember I used my stimmy money to buy my little gravel bike. Uh, And I called it an investment. And I call you saying, you're kind of pushing it, buddy, it's not quiet an investment. But we are kind of using that language here because we feel that there truly is a return on the money that you put into

your bike. Yeah. Yeah, and it goes beyond just money savings, right, So that's right, there's a whole host of benefits we get from biking. Yeah, all right, man, I got a quick little story for you. So as a kid, I think I've shared this before on the show, but anytime my parents would ask for a discount, anytime they would use coupons, anytime they're just basically just trying to save money,

I was embarrassed. Like, as a little kid, I was just so embarrassed that my parents were trying we're trying to save money, and I just perceived it to be cheap. So on that note, let me tell you about how I scored a bunch of free Halloween decorations and now

your kids can be thoroughly embarrassed by you, dude. Okay, So you know, folks move and oftentimes will leave a bunch of stuff that they have toward in their basement because they're thinking, all right, we're not gonna haul this with us, or maybe in this case it was custom or it was specific to that house, but man, uh so we have some neighbors move and they put out what I'm guessing was close to at least five worth of Halloween decorations where I had to go and buy

that stuff new from a Halloween store. Spirit right or whatever. The pop up halloween stores are got like a full size skeleton and a bunch of fuzzy spiders. Spider Web even got some um what's that? It's like the liquid that you put into a fog fog machine. We don't have the fog machine, but I really want one, and I feel like this is even more of an incentive for me to actually look for one, maybe before Halloween hits, before the prices go up. But and I will say

my kids were pumped. They were not at all in the least embarrassed. They were old enough to be embarrassed by I guess that's I guess that's it. So, yeah, they're not in bart school age so embarrassed by you. But I guess I just want to point out how I've grown. As a kid. Obviously I was so embarrassed to do stuff like that, but as an adult man, the lengths I go to save a buck, and I hate seeing stuff on the side of the road that's

perfectly good go to waste. Right, you don't want the city picking that stuff up, tossing it in the trash, Like if it's usable, if it's useful, then yeah, it's better to reuse it. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean there's a chance somebody else would have picked it up as well, but I don't, you know, me picking it up, I made sure that it wasn't going to the landfill, and it's all stuff that we will definitely use this coming Halloween. But like you said, I'm glad to see that my

kids right now that they're not embarrassed. But we will see how long that lasts. As we've grown older, as we have had kids of our own, I feel like a lot of the decisions that my parents made make a whole lot more sense to me now. And I'm like doing a lot of those same things, some of which maybe I said I would never do. I think that's kind of like part of the circle of life

or whatever. Is part of growing up. Man. Yeah, you just kind of you begin to as you get older, like, oh, yeah, my parents they're not as dumb as I thought they were when I was like twelve or fifteen or whatever. Um, they're actually pretty smart. Maybe they had more wisdom than I believe they did. But if only middle school Matt could see me. Now, congratulations on your Halloween decoration. Look

forward to the Halloween in our neighborhood is huge. We talked about this before in the show, but last year, you know, we thought it was gonna be massive because it was it was gonna fall on a Saturday, right, But then with the pandemic, it kind of you know, everyone was on the fence, should we do Halloween, shouldn't we do Halloween? And so I think Lrench stole freaking Halloween. There exactly, but I think that means that this year

it's gonna be it's gonna be pretty huge. I'm looking forward to it already, especially with all the free stuff we scored side of the Road, the resurgence of Halloween, I'm ready for all right, Well, Matt, let's move on. Let's mention the beer we're having on the show. This one is called double Fruited Boysonberry BlackBerry Raspberry Hill by Southern Grist. So lots of different kinds of berries in here, and apparently double fruited. So fruited I like lots of

fruit might be or so. Well. We'll let listeners know what we think about this beer at the end of the episode, but for now, let's get onto the topic of hand talking about bikes. You know what I just thought of. If we were really on our game, we would have gotten their hands on some cycle brewing beers. Cycle. Yeah, down in Tampa or St. Pete or whatever, have you had their beers? No? I haven't. I've been meeting just

a couple others before here. They make good stounts. But I'll have to remedy that and have have some of these one of these days. Yes, all right, Well, yeah,

let's keep going. Let's talk about bikes, and we really do believe the biking more will help you get rich, and uh, yeah, man, it makes me think, like my favorite bands and some of my favorite albums of all time, they weren't necessarily my favorites the first time I heard him, right, it took me a while to get acclimated to Let's say, like, I remember one of my friends playing this span Bright Eyes for me back in the day, right, and I

was like, this is terrible. I really didn't like it initially, and then I just like listened to the album over and over as he was like playing it, and I was like, actually, this is really growing on me. And now they're one of my all time favorite bands, right. Uh. They make some great tunes. And the same thing is true with like sour beers. Were drinking a sour beer right now, and I was like, fruited beers, those aren't good, or you know, sour beers, those make my lips pucker.

I don't think I like them, But over time they kind of grew on me and I was like, bang, actually I've come to really appreciate how tasty these beers are. Our tastes change over time. I mean, yeah, I'm with you. And the very first time ever had a sour beer was one from New Belgium and I could barely finish the dang thing because it was. Yeah, I mean, in my opinion at the time, so sour. But again, like you said, our tastes change, we come around, we evolve,

and it's now one of my favorite styles of beer. Yeah. And I think on the surface, right, the idea of biking might not sound super appealing to a lot of people. They might think that we're weird or coming out of left field with this. But uh, and and someone's initial reaction might be like, maybe that's good, good for Matt

and Joel, but it's not for me. Well, in today's episode, we're gonna talk about all of the reasons that biking makes sense for folks who want to save money, and we do believe biking can grow on you, right, just like a band maybe that you weren't interest to be end the first time you heard it, or a beer style that you didn't like the first time you tasted it. And then we're also going to talk about the other benefits of biking too. We don't necessarily want to oversell

how good biking can be for you. But I actually think it's kind of hard to oversell how good bikes are mat for for people, for their lives and for their ability to save money, even if there's a lot of folks out there who don't want to hear us talk about it, right because like before, folks who are listening right now, before you skip onto your next podcast, because maybe you're not into biking, like I mean, essentially, we're pleading with you to have an open mind here.

We know, we know that at some point, maybe you've decided that biking isn't going to work for you, but it's likely that things have changed for you. And just because maybe you made that decision once, like once upon a time you made this decision, that doesn't mean that you should never revisit the idea again, just you know, purely based on principle, right, we want you to be open to a little self experimentation here if you aren't naturally drawn towards biking. For me, I will say that

biking was more like love at first sight. But a lot of folks are only thinking about the things that they don't like when it comes to biking. But there are, like we said, so many benefits that come with biking regularly. Money is only going to be a single factor, and so we're gonna spend this episode convincing you why you need to be biking more as we dig into the return on investments, uh and the lifestyle benefits that bikes provide.

All right, so let's first get into the monetary benefits of biking, because this is how the money and we gotta start with the money. Gonna start with that, We're gonna get to a bunch of other factors that make biking a win win win for for you. But yeah,

let us talk about cost savings first. And man, I think the biggest potential savings comes if any of our listeners are able to eliminate a car from their lives, right, like for most people like you and your family were a well do we we ditched one car because we bike a whole lot more than we used to. We used to have two cars, and so yeah, that has come in really handy and saved us a bunch of money.

Like Triple A runs the numbers every year on what it costs to own and operate a new car, all expenses included, and most people will be shocked to hear this, but triple A says a call us over nine thou dollars annually to own and maintain that car. That includes fuel, maintenance, insurance taxes, and of course the ever ever pesky depreciation which is happening usually out of sight, like you're not

thinking about it. Although we've randomly been in an inflationary cycle for cars lately, which is um surprising to say the least, especially for these used cars. But yeah, nine thousand dollars a year is an incredible sum of money. And to think that by ditching one car from your life you can save that much, um is pretty incredible. Yeah. Yeah, And not to mention to the time and energy that it takes once your some roofs starts leaking into your

car and starts smelling terrible. There are a lot of headaches that a company vehicles as well. Yeah, the maintenance associated with the car is certainly a lot more annoying and frustrating than the maintenance associated with a bike. And not everyone is going to ditch a car in favor of biking, right, and they're not going to save that much money. But it is important to note that you can and that that's possible in our family has actually

done it. So yeah, But just by going from commuting by your car to to comuting by bike, let's say you still keep both cars around that you that you have in your family, or if you're single individual, you keep the one car. You don't decide to go down to zero cars in favor of biking all the time. Well, even that is likely to save you at least a thousand dollars a year, maybe closer to two thousand dollars

a year based on driving your car less. And and even that, Matt, that's not chump change, that's some meaningful savings. That's real money right there. And here's the other thing too, is we need to keep in mind how easy it could be for us to adopt biking more often in our lives. Approximately half of all car trips are for short runs to places, most likely in your neighborhood, that are four miles away or less. Uh, and bikes are

perfect for these trips. Uh. The more that you ride, obviously, the fewer miles that you're gonna be putting onto your car, and that means less fuel, less frequent repair needs. And if you're able to squeeze the average miles that you drive to under seventy miles every year, you'll likely qualify for an additional discount on your insurance. And so that's kind of a I don't know, I feel like that's

kind of a fun goal to set for yourself. So you choose to ride your bike more frequently as opposed to just jump in the car starting up, you know, starting it up and hitting the road. But that's a great way to start biking, right, So looking at those shorter, those easier trips, uh, and we're hoping that that will kind of get the ball rolling for you in your biking as well. You have to know that of all

the trips you're taking are easy pickings. It's like shooting fish in a barrel with just a ride of a few short miles. I think maybe that's a psychological hurdle that you have to overcome. It's like, okay, yeah, if it's if it's a short trip, did you say cycle logical? Oh yeah, hurdle My dad jokes are strong, but not that strong. But yeah, I think, yeah, just just reframing and realizing that so many of your trips really aren't

that far. Um is going to help you maybe hop on your bike next time as opposed to hopping in the car. And also, you know, while the initial costs of buying a bike, getting the gear that you need can set you back a bit, each successive year that you bike will essentially amortize those costs right by year two of Mike, and you'll be saving big money. And also, bikes really they're the kings of efficiency, Matt. There's there's

no more efficient mode of transportation. Um, nothing beats the humble old bicycle, right unless you have wings and you could just like glad on the what I don't know upstream what is it called? When like the stuff I got turned into a hawk and then I would be efficient exactly. Yeah, which you know I've always wanted to be a hawk. There. Cool cool cool creatures use gravity uh air, But yeah, biking is is even more efficient

than walking, right, It's five times more efficient than walking. Um, and riding a bike takes fifty eight times less energy than driving a car when you're going in an equal distance. So yes, since we're fans of efficiency in general, I feel like this is a solid selling point for bikes

to rite. It's just like incredibly efficient if you also are a fan of efficiency, know that, well, the bike, it's the king of efficiency, Like, I can't think of many other things that provide such efficiency, you know, Or for the costs did you pay? Absolutely? I feel like any engineer out there should be like, yep, all right, I have to bike because it is the most efficient, and you know, you always have to go the most

efficient path. And you know, Joe two, this is assuming that someone listening that they don't already have a pretty good bike, that's maybe just sitting in their garage, you know, just waiting to be ridden. But either way, like, we're not saying that it's completely free to ride and maintain a bike, but the costs of an annual tunup are literal sense on the dollar compared to the ongoing costs

of maintaining an automobile. And you know, if you want to do, you could even fully eliminate that additional cost of maintenance just by watching a few YouTube videos online,

having a fread come over to show you the ropes. Like, honestly, if you just know how to adjust your brakes every now and then, or you know, just to adjust your shifters your derailers, then you are going to be golden because oftentimes those are the main things that need to be looked at, and so cost that is one major aspect of how biking is going to allow you to get more rich, how it's going to grow your financial wealth, but will also discuss more benefits than how to incorporate

biking into your lifestyle. Right after this break, all right, we'll back from the break, and we're gonna talk about some of the other benefits of bicycling more frequently that there are a lot of them, and we'll also kind of maybe tackle some of the excuses in just a second that people might have like, uh, well it's not for me, guys, Like, of course I can't participate in biking because this this order, this reason. Well maybe like no shade towards you, guys, but I'm not gonna do it,

and and here's why. And so hopefully if you have one of these excuses in your mind, you know, we'll be able to tackle it preemptively so that you can actually hop on a bike still. Um but Matt, Yeah, we were just talking about the numbers, and it's interesting too, because the affordability of biking um is obviously one of the number reasons we're in favor of people biking more.

You know, spending nine thousand dollars a year in order to get from point A to point b Uh, it should sound like a lot of money to people because it's a ton of money, right that. That's a huge percentage of people's take home pay in an average Your transportation is one of the most expensive line items in everyone's budget. And just think about what you could do if you had an extra seven and fifty a month back in your life. I mean, I think too that is is one of the ways I think that that

bikes can be a selling point. It's like how much money is legit? Like, you can do a whole lot of unique, fun, interesting stuff in your life if you aren't shelling that out for you know, a car every single month. But let's take a look at the numbers and see what that would actually get you too, because if you were to take that seven and fifty a month and invest it in the market instead, you're looking at having over a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars

over just ten years, earning seven percent. And let's say you did that for a working career of thirty seven years, which is the length of time between graduating and being able to draw on retirement funds in a roth ira, Well, we're talking about nearly one five million dollars, right, so so much money when you put it in that start contrast in those terms, it's like, okay, biking. Uh yeah, yeah, maybe that's actually a really good idea for me because I didn't realize one it was going to save that

much money. And I didn't realize that if I started to invest that money instead, that I was going to be able to make some life changing moves. Maybe my car is not as good of a move as I thought it was. Maybe I should think again. Yeah, I mean that's just a massive amount of money to pay for, Like I think what some people would just call the stock traditional lifestyle, right where you have a car, you've

got to maintain these payments on it. Obviously, it takes gas in order to get it from point A to point B, it takes insurance, all these things that go into um, just operating a vehicle is much bigger than we realize. So yeah, sometimes you gotta just crunch those numbers as a wake up call. Uh. And you know, we want you to save and invest your money, and therefore we want you to ride your bike on a

good bit more of those trips that you're taking. But there are so many other reasons why you should be biking more, and so let's talk about those. And so the health benefits that biking provides is kind of an obvious one, right, But biking more often truly is great for your overall health. If you bike enough, you can

ditch your gym membership as well. Uh. And you know, when your favorite mode of transportation also replaces that gym that used to go to, that used to have to pay to go to, that is like some some real life synergy going on right there. There's nothing more frustrating to me than like hearing somebody that like pays for an expensive gym membership and they drive to get there just kind of I don't know, man, it just blows

my mind. And the worst, the worst is when people go to those in person cycling classes that costs like a hundred and something dollars a month, like the really fancy ones. I've never been in one of those. So you've been to I talked about you had a co worker who had like a birthday party at a spin

place that's right. Yeah, I guess I did it at one time her birthday, and I was like, it's like, instead of going to like Laser Tag when you're a kid, like now you're going to like And it's not like it wasn't anything class, but it certainly wasn't worth a hundred plus dollars a month. And I was like, I

honestly rather just be on my bike outside. But yeah, I think, and I don't want to hate on anybody does that, but it's just when you think about additional motivation I know that comes with going to those classes, Like I don't at all want to discount the accountability that that provides exactly exactly. But I think as people who are avid biker, it's like we want people to be outdoors on on their bikes. To to think about going indoors and paying that much money, it's just kind

of hard for me to fathom. It's true. And when you bike more often, right, the likelihood that you're gonna save on healthcare costs just over the decades, it's pretty high. Uh, if you ride your bike regularly as well, And so I think you know you hear the old saying an apple a day like how that keeps the doctor away. I feel like it's more likely that a bike ride a day is likely going to benefit Yes, can we change that? Can we change that? I think? So bike

ride a day keeps a doctor away? I like that. And of course, you know, we can't give you a specific number as to how much you know your health is going to increase. We can't, like, you know, calories you're gonna burn it a day, right, Well, I guess you could. You know, little calculators you can calculate some of that. You can't be like I've just extended my life this many years exactly, or I have lost X

number of pounds, right, who knows? And actually maybe even just gain a little bit away because like all those muscles developing your legs. But the more fit you are, you know, the better off you're gonna be. And riding

a bike is some top notch cardio. Not to mention too man, just the additional mental benefits that come with riding your bike, right, just kind of getting out on the road, the ability to well, first of all, like when you I don't want to get to detailed here, but like when you're in commuting by car, you're always like on the inter state typically right or state highways

where there's a lot of congestion. But when you're riding your bike, you're on like surface streets, like slower streets, and you're not in traffic, so you can you get to just ride and and with that ride often comes like this mental refreshing that takes place. Yeah, I think there's definitely a physical health component and a mental health

component to riding bikes. Right, it's both. And again it's hard to quantify like both of those, um and give you any sort of specific number for how it's going to help. But biking definitely, I mean it's it's increased

you know, my fitness level, um. And it's also just made me feel better mentally, um Because I know, like my wife would literally say, if I would come home after biking home from work, or if I came home after thirty minutes stuck in the car all the way home from work, she was like, you're so much more irritable. She could tell, she could totally tell an attitude difference. So I walked through the door. I was more frustrated as opposed to I just like burned off all that

steam on a bike ride. I might have been a little bit tired, but I wasn't like angry. You know, hey, I'd rather be a little tired than angry. Yeah, exactly, exactly, me too, And so I think, yeah to the next. One of the next additional benefits of biking is that

it's fun, right. It really is, Like if you haven't hopped on your bike in a while, you might just assume that it's for kids, right, Um, watching stranger things, like it's one of our favorite things, watching the kids ride around the bikes, and you're like, all right, great, that's like the perfect way for like seven to thirteen

year olds to get around in the late eighties. Exactly. Yeah, you might think it gets today play of Minecraft, right, right, and you might think that you're too old for that or something, But that's just that's just not true, right. We we see groups of riders around town all the time, Um,

and Matt. It's not like we're living in Copenhagen, Like there's just literally I was going to pick up a U haul truck downtown recently, Um, and there was this massive group of bike riders and I just like smiling the whole time as they're going back, because it was like seventy or eighty people in one group, and I don't know whether where they were riding to what they

were up to, but they're like they were having fun. Yeah, and those kind of bikers too, are a little more serious, you know, like they're I feel like those those folks sometimes. Well that being said, I mean we we kind of have like the critical mass groups where it looks like like a bunch of hipsters. But then sometimes you have like a bunch of boomers and they're you know, they've kind of got like more of their biking outfits on and whatnot. But either way, regardless of how old they are,

they're all having a ton of fun. I'd bike with either one of those groups. Yeah, I feel like we could easily fall into one category or the other. But I might not necessarily wear spanex go biking. Hopefully one of these days you might. Yeah, as we get older, I don't know, but I feel like that. Yeah, I see those people riding and they're like joking and they're talking to each other like it's it's still people are

able to enjoy riding together. You know, bikes don't have to be isolating, and plus two, you can get places you wouldn't otherwise be able to get when you're biking versus being in your car. Right in Atlanta, Matt, we have the belt Line, which is just this old railroad track that's been converted to like, uh, just this fancy walking path essentially walking a biking path that helps people

get around town, especially like a rails to trails program. Yeah, and you can't drive a car on the belt Line, but you can ride your bike. And there are other you could try to ride drive your car on the belt line but probably get arrested. Yeah you cant big trouble. But yeah, there's just so many places that a bike can take you, um and fun places that a bike can take you that that car just can't. Yeah. It makes me think of a recent listener question that we had.

They were asking about some just more affordable activities that they could do with their friends that doesn't just involve going to a restaurant, dropping a bunch of money, or just going you know, meeting up at a coffee shops, you know, spending way too much money on fancy coffees. The act of riding a bike together is just you know, can be so much fun and it makes me think

as well about traveling, right, Uh. Kate and I have rented bikes before when we go to different cities that we're exploring, and just traveling by bike is just a fun way to get to know a city. And so whether that means just a road trip where you throw the bikes on the back of the car or you know. Again, most cities have these bike share programs where you can just pay a little bit and have access you know, to a to a bike for like thirty minutes and

that gets you from one place to the next. Remember again doing that and having a blast doing that in d C back of the day. It was an amazing way to get to see all the different sites. It helps us to get a feel for kind of the mall and just all the different things that were there in d C that we wouldn't have otherwise been able

to do. And so not only does it allow you to experience a new location or a new city uh in an awesome way, but it allows you to experience your own neighborhood quiet a bit differently, uh, you know, when you bike through it versus driving, like it allows you to literally smell the roses. You get to experience all the different smells when you're on a bike, and you know, I even find myself waving at neighbors a

little bit more, even stopping to chat. When you're driving, you're basically just kind of getting from one one place to the next, you know, like anything that stands between you and your destination is sort of a hindrance. And if you do see somebody and you pull over, it's like, hey, is everything okay? Like I feel like folks are like, why did you stop? Or then there's another car coming behind you and they're like, get out of my way. Yeah,

it's it's just like a nuisance. As opposed to just being able to pull over on the bike, it's just so much more fun. So bike can kind of gives you this more visceral feeling for the place that you call home, and it just fosters the type of community that I know that we're looking for where we live. So, for instance, like if they're going to add another lane to a local road, I would be completely bummed out. That just tells me there's gonna be more traffic, more

people cutting through. However, when I hear that there's gonna be a new bike lane coming in, I get pumped. Because I know that means there's going to be more folks enjoying the neighborhood, talking to each other, treating each other with respect, which is oftentimes hard to do when

you're driving around in these metal boxes. And sometimes it's like, if you build it, they will come, And I think, yeah, more bike infrastructure just means more people will then feel comfortable because because sometimes that you know, that's one of the excuses we're gonna get to a little bit later. But when when there isn't enough of that infrastructure, it's it's definitely it's a reasonable and understandable excuse. And I think some you know, cities, prioritizing at is a good thing.

Absolutely makes it more comfortable to get that out there on two wheels. Also, bikes are a big winner when it comes to your ACKed on the environment, right, they don't pollute the air, no fossil fuels are consumed. But it goes beyond that, right, because noise pollution is a big deal in a whole lot of cities. Too. Fewer cars and more bikes cuts down on that. Bikes can also reduce the need for car infrastructure like we're just talking about, which can be costly it can be an eyesore.

So it can you know, create not just savings in your own personal wallet, but citywide savings too. Like the more bikes that are on the road, the fewer road improvements that are gonna have to be done over the course of years. So, yeah, bikes can be a big deal when it comes to cutting down on pollution where you live and cutting down on the budgets of some of the municipalities where you live exactly. Yeah, So folks might be saying, all right, Joel Matte, thanks for your

take on bikes. We know that you love bikes, but I've got a few reasons that it's just not gonna work for me. And so we've actually decided to kind of do this preemptive strike to respond to whatever excuses folks out there might have. And oftentimes I feel that one of the excuses we hear folks give is that they are transporting too much stuff. Okay't use my bike for grocery shopping. Uh have you seen my last grocery run? Right?

Or I can't take the kids to school on a bike. Well, you know, it does depend on how much you're getting at the store and how many kids you have. If you're running up to Costco, it might be difficult to load your bike up with, you know, a massive month long run of Costco groceries. I will say, I'm not taking my bike to cost Well, I mean we live a long ways from a Costco so and that's a reasonable excuse. But if you don't go to the store, if you don't go to Costco all that often, this

isn't something that should be a deal breaker, right. Well, we're also not trying to commence you to take your bike on every single trip ever, like there is a place for cars. We're just trying to convince you to bike more exactly, and just as far as a basic run to the grocery store. So say like the next time I'm gonna go to Aldi, I'm likely gonna take my bike. And the answer to how do I get all that stuff home are paintier bags. There are a great way for helping you to transport loads of stuff

like the food that you just bought at the grocery store. Uh. And then when it comes to kids, Joel, you and I we both have cargo bikes uh, and they are awesome for hauling small kids. I can get all three of my rolls on our bike and you know, make the runs of the different schools. So you know, I feel like that this excuse that I'm transporting too much stuff this kind of rates maybe like a four and f tin for accuracy, because there are solutions to the

conundrum of transporting kids as well as other stuff. We haven't even touched on the subject of getting bike trailers. This isn't something that you and I have ever done, but we see folks right and around with with bike trailers, these little you know, trailers hooked up to the bikes and allows them to haul all sorts of stuff. I've seen folks do that at lows before, where they're loading up plants for their yard on this little platform that's got its own wheels that they hook up to their bike.

That certainly takes another level of commitment, but the option is out there. Yea. Where there's a will, there's a way, right, And to see how some people in our town get around via their bike pretty much in every circumstance, it's like admirable. It makes me want to like even up my biking game even more, right, And uh, I think another matt popular excuse to people might give is I can't show up sweaty to work. I've definitely heard of

this one before. People are like, oh, that's that's nice to you bike, But I can't be sweaty and disgusting. I've got a real job. Yeah, I've got important meetings at not am, and so I cannot. I cannot do what you do. But I think there's a solution for that too. Write like, does your work have a shower? Can you bring a change of clothes? Can you bike a little slower? Like? All of those things are going to help you show up without being just a sweaty mass,

right um. And I think also another solution is that e bikes they're great middle ground for lots of folks because you want to provide nearly as much exertion. They really can be this perfect solution for a whole lot of folks. I think that's part of why we're in the middle of kind of an ebike boom, that people are starting to adopt them because they're saying, actually, that is going to fit from my lifestyle. I won't have to be crazy sweaty by the time I get into work.

But at the same time, there's a little bit of help, uh, pushing me along as well. Right, so I would read this excuse me be like a three out of ten, because there are ways to cut some of the sweatiness out of your bike commute. You don't have to be peddling like you would be in like a soul cycle class. Right, it doesn't. It doesn't have to do. Yeah, it doesn't. You don't have to be going you know all out. Um, you're still gonna realize a whole lot of physical benefits

just by biking at a moderate pace. Totally. Yeah. And one of the other excuses to that we often hear is that it just takes too long to get there by bike. And you know, if you you commute like over thirty miles on the interstate every day by car, then you know this excuse is likely totally true. We'll give you a pass, right. But it turns out that the average speed of a car around town is eighteen miles per hour, while the average speed of a biker

on a bicycle is fifteen miles per hour. Uh. There is this study of bike commuters done in Leone, France, and it found that bike commuters were faster during rush hour than folks who were driving their car. So it actually reversed the trend slightly there. And so if you are one of those people who has a length of interstate commute and instead maybe you're stuck in in town traffic and you kind of keep telling yourself how much quicker you are getting places in your car, to realize

that this is likely not true. Man. I found that for me, just hopping on the bike and running an air and up to east land of Village or running to Aldi for us has been just about the same. It's gonna take about the same amount of time that would take or I had to just jump in the car and then some shorter runs they have to make, like just running over to a place something like that.

I swear it would take longer for me to get in the vehicle, get in the van, like backing up out of the driveway, you know, drive down the street, as opposed to just grab my bike and going. I love the immediacy that biking provides. Not to mention the lack of parking concerns, which can be in a lot of in town areas, can be a real big deal wherever you If you pull up on your bike instead, it's like you go straight up to a bike rack,

you lock up and wh wherever you want. Man, you're in the place of business where you're going, it just makes it way easier. And and a lot of places in in town Atlanta they're charging for parking now, and so you save money that way too. Um and Matt. I think another major excuses I can't bike here where I live because the weather isn't good enough. You know, where you live certainly plays a role in this excuse. I don't mind biking when he gets really hot in Atlanta.

Like some people are like, oh, it's ninety five degrees, I don't want to bike, And I'm like, I don't mind it, but I do hate biking in January, Like I really don't like biking in the cold. I think I'm like more of the opposite, Like I don't mind riding in the summer if I know I don't have to, you know, talk to anybody for like the next fifteen minutes, because I just know I'm gonna be dripping sweat. Yeah, just full on. But in the winter, I just, man,

just bundle up. I love the idea of knowing that the exertion that I'm providing and like that that's fit literally making me warmer, and like I feel like that, just like, oh, it's like the natural order of things, you know. I feel like if I lived in Minnesota, I'd be a pathetic bike computer, but I'd still give

it a go. There's people who do that though. I mean when Kate and I we visited Portland, Maine, and we rented bikes from this this dude that has a little bike rental company, and he was talking about he lives across the river and even in the winter, in the middle of the winter, he bikes to work. He has a different job in the winter, because yeah, nobody wants to rent bikes in the winter, but it's definitely

still possible. Yeah, But I think what people have to realize is that there are lots of ways you can come back the weather, right, Like including the gear that you wear. A nice pair of gloves makes a huge different for those cold weather rides. Remember, Like I was like, oh, that's that's the first thing he gets called with your fingertips, Like,

you definitely gotta have some good gloves. There, a good rain jackets set of rain pants so that you can, you know, ride in the rain without becoming like a sloppy soggy mess. It really comes down to, in a lot of ways, just getting some gear that's gonna help you power through. And that gear maybe looks expensive on its face, but yeah, when you when you talk about not putting those mouths on your car or potentially being able to get rid of a car, that gear is

incredibly inexpensive in the scheme of things. That's right. Plus, even if you did get a little bit wet, I mean, you're just sitting there working a little bit and you're a little soggy, and your co workers might, like, you know, talk bad about you. But if you if you don't have like a client sort of facing job, what's that matter if you're just like a little damp, whether it be from sweat or the rain. Right, make sure both uh, And you know you mentioned this a little bit earlier, Jo.

Just like kind of the lack of like bike lanes or infrastructure that is often another common excuse that can certainly make it a little tougher to commute by bike. Atlanta, for instance, it's not known as a great city for biking. But you know that doesn't mean that it can't be done. Uh. And things are improving, right because folks like us support the Atlanta Bike Coalition and jel here's another thing. This might sound drastic, but we even feel that it's worth

reconsidering where you live. We feel that the benefits of biking are so massive that planning your housing in order to live in a more bikable area can be worthwhile. But maybe that's not the boat you're in. Maybe you don't want to move. But even still, right, cars they have to share the roads with bikes and so obviously were a good fitting helmet. But then make sure that you have lights to increase your visibility when you're on

roads that aren't necessarily made for bikers. You can still be on those roads, but make sure you've got the flashing red light on the back of your bike. Make sure you've got a light on the front of it that's super bright that also flashes. Being visible and having an ability to see things on the road is hugely important,

especially when you're commuting on a daily basis to work. Yeah, no doubt And Matt one final excuse I think I hear people say, and it was it's probably an excuse I gave back in the day, was like, well, I don't want to wear Spandex. I don't want to look like one of those goofballs, you know who's like I said that earlier, but I feel like I truly could see you one of these days, like getting the kind of the Spandex get up. I'm so tall, it's gonna

look awkward, I think. But like, I don't necessarily consider myself a quote unquote cyclist, Like I'm not going out there like doing fifty mile rides on the weekend. That's not my jam. It's kind of more of a to and fro point A to point B device, or it's a more practical approach. Yeah, exactly. And so I think, Yeah, you don't have to adopt that lifestyle. You don't have to be that person. You can just wear normal clothes um and opt to ride a bike instead of driving

a car. You don't necessarily have to get into cycling culture, uh too, in order to adopt that like more of a bike loving lifestyle. Yeah, all you have to do is just get on your bike and start like riding. That's how you be Like for you, like that can be cycling culture for you just see it as like almost as like a way of life as opposed to an activity. You know, it's not like something that you do.

You're not gonna go biking, although you can, and if you want to, have to like put the bike on the roof of your car and drive somewhere and then take it off and then go for a rod. Yeah, it's just a matter of okay, instead of you know, driving to the store, I'm gonna get on my bike and to the store. It's a very unglamorous, like non sexy way of embracing biking. But it's a way that is going to save you serious money plus all the

other benefits that we've mentioned. So now that we've debunked some of those different excuses, we've covered the different benefits, we're gonna talk about how you can start incorporating biking into your daily life. And we'll get to that right after this break. All right, Matt, we're back. We've covered a lot of benefits of biking so far, and we've debunked some of the excuses. Maybe they're not as good

of excuses as we're previously thought to be. And now somebody might be saying, well, I don't have a bike, or my bike is old and it's crusty. I need something. I need something new. Uh, And you know, I think the mold leftovers in the fridge kind of kind of crusty. And you know, maybe your bike it needs a little bit of work, or if you don't own one, maybe

you need to buy one. So let's kind of get into that too, because yeah, you might need to get out there on the market and find a bike, um, so that you can make biking more of a regular occurrence in your life. Right. And yeah, one of the things it's important to mention is that you might be able to fix up the bike that you currently own, right if it's got a flat tire or the chain is just rusty, those are pretty easy fixes. You can maybe take it to your local bike shop or watch

a couple of YouTube videos. They're gonna help you figure out how to do some of that minor work to your bike yourself. So I wouldn't necessarily just discard the bike that you've got without maybe you know, taking a look and seeing if it's got some life lift in it. But let's say you either don't have one, or or your bike is past its prime and it's not gonna work out for you. Buying a used bike is a

good way to go um. And you know, while biking has gained quite a bit of steam during the pandemic, a lot of new bikes were sold, bike companies experiencing you know, record numbers of orders. I'm sure some of those folks who got excited to get on their bike are already tired of it, right, um. And they're more likely to spend some of their money on travel now

that it's allowed, and they're like at the next hot things. Yeah, they're maybe I can get five hundred bucks for this thousand dollar bike I just bought, or you know, two hundred bucks for the five dollar bike I just bought. And so you might start seeing more listings popping up on Facebook, Marketplace or Craigslist. So yeah, search those sites in order to find a bike that's going to gonna work for you. Of course, buying used is going to saving more money than buying new, that's right. Yeah, So

obviously start with what you have already at home. But if you don't have a good option at home, look to buying used. But you can also buy new. You can buy a new bike as well, right, that's not a bad idea and you can do it well. Ari I is a great place to buy a bike. This actually again, that's where I purchased my bike last spring, but I've also purchased a bike from bikes Directs. It's

just an awesome online site. I've had multiple friends purchased bikes from them, and you can get a really great deal because they offer great bikes at an incredible discount. Essentially, it's yeah, there's no middleman. You're essentially buying straight from the manufacturer themselves. And it does, I will say, it does require a small amount of d I y, there's a little bit of assembly required. But here is why I'm to convince you that that's a good thing. And

first of all, it's because it's not that hard. It really just involves, uh, screwing some pedals, on cranking those, on getting your handleball something together from my kea. You can do this, I think exactly. I think so, uh And and the reason I think this is good is because it, like it gives you a little bit of sweat equity. And so just by having done that yourself some familiarity with your new ride. Exactly. Yeah, you're familiar with with some of the tools already, and oftentimes they

will ship the bike with tools. It's definitely something to check and something to look into. But I think that's going to cause you to be more likely to work and tinker on your bike in the future, saving you

potentially even more money. Right If if if you're like, oh my my brakes, I'm kind of like squeezing it all the way down, you know, down to the grips, and I'm like barely slowing down, It's like, okay, cool, All you really need to do is just kind of adjust the little space on your you know, on your brakes, or if you've already done that once, it's like, okay, maybe I should put that back and actually tighten the cable.

Like these are all things that you figure out slowly. Uh, And it starts by, you know, just some simple tinkering around with your bike. And I think that initial assembly can be a good way for you to personally get familiar with the mechanics of your bike. I like it.

I like it. And let's say someone is looking to buy a new e bike, right, well, that's gonna set you back a little more money, right because the battery, the motor, all the extra components that go into making an e bike do make them more expensive than traditional bikes. But yeah, there's a great place to go electric bike review dot com. It's one of my favorite sites for researching e bikes. It's super unbiased on this guy Court.

He reviews all the bikes personally and he does a great job riding at the reviews creating long form YouTube videos like showing you exactly how these bikes work. So I would suggest going there, and it almost sounds like a dream job. He has like fans of of biking, and as you in particular, you know, as a huge fan of electric bikes, it might only be like second

only to like beer review or something like that. Maybe maybe I can be like the Charlie Bucket to his Willy Wonka and I can take over his operations something that that would be fun. But I also I wrote an article recently a out riding a Radwagon. That's the electric bike that I'm a big fan of and that I've been riding for about four years now. So we'll link to that article that discusses all the benefits of

that bike in particular. But really, yeah, if you're looking for an ebike, there's so many more choices than there used to be, like three or four years ago. There weren't that many, and they weren't nearly as good as they are. They've improved so much, and the prices are

actually kind of getting more competitive. So I would say, yeah, check out that site, check out the article I wrote, um, and hopefully that will guide you in the right direction as you're looking to find the ebike that's best going to fit kind of your lifestyle and how you want to bike. But one of the great things about ebikes, Matt, is I think it will get a lot of people on the road that otherwise wouldn't because that's one of

those excuses, right, Um. And for some people, especially as they age, it's more difficult to get out there on an actual bike, and ebike just allows a much wider range of folks to actually enjoy biking that might not be able to otherwise. Absolutely, I mean that's why we don't hate at all on ebikes. I think there's some like purists out there who are just like, oh no, like that's like that's cheating, you know, like using the

battery or whatever. But as long as you're peddling, I mean I see some guys just literally just like their feet aren't moving at all and they're just like throttling it. Like in my mind, that's like an electric scooter basically, But I don't like seeing anything. But I love the accessibility and how it's gonna mean that more folks are going to be on their bikes. And so let's talk about how to incorporate biking into your commuting routine a little more easily. Start off slow, and you can do

this by getting around your neighborhood by bike. Like we said, you know, half of your driving is likely done within four miles of your home, so yeah, dip your toes in the water by just getting your bike out on the road for some of those easy trips. There's no need to jump on your bike for this massive thirteen

mile one way commute to work tomorrow morning. It'll probably turn you off from biking in general, because maybe you haven't thought about the different things that you're gonna learn as you start to ride a bike more than route you want to take, and you're like trying to figure that out on the fly while you're trying to get a work to work on time or yeah, or you're thinking, you're like, oh man, I didn't bring a lock, Like

how am I supposed to? Like like there's just small little things that you realize once you get more used to riding. And we're not going to cover all those little things, but you can learn all of these things yourself by just starting out small. Yeah. I think one other way to incorporate biking into your commuting routine is

to take some low stress, low pressure rides. Right, and if you think that commuting to work is a real possibility for you, I would suggest giving it a try on the weekend first, right, so well, less traffic, yeah, less traffic, you know, Monday morning, that ride can be daunting. Uh if if everybody's like talking at you because you

haven't ridden a bike in like ten years. Yeah, and you and you haven't given that route ago yet, so um, you can kind of familiarize yourself with the route instead of being under the crunch to get to work on time. And make sure to check out Google Maps. They do a great job helping you find the best route to take your bike on. Um. So yeah, it's it's likely going to be different than the route that you take in your car. That route might not be the best

route on a bike. So yeah, I would say don't prioritize the route that has the fewest amount of miles, choose the one that's going to be safer for you, and hopefully one with fewer hills too. Like hills in the car, not a big deal. Hills on a bike, um, you know, if it's if there's a bunch of them, can really wear you out absolutely. And one other thing too, as you start to think about biking more, especially backing

to work. If you decide that commuting is working out for you and you're excited to get into regular bike riding, you might want to upgrade your bike at some point. Having a lightweight bike will allow you to travel faster and enjoy biking even more. And so on one hand, we don't want you to go out and buy a bike tomorrow before you, you know, start to actually use the one that you already have, or before you even

take the first bike ride. But it's also important not to cheap out if you're going to bike consistently, right, So a heavy bike with just basic components will, I think that will quickly become frustrating to ride, um and ultimately that might end up discouraging you from riding at all. And that's what we're trying to avoid here. It's like going out there and trying to play disc golf with one of those you know, WAMO discs that really it's

meant for ultimate FRISB, like an ultimate disc. Yeah yeah, And and like no you need you can, but as gonna be nearly as effective that you know, driving down the fairway, and pretty soon you're just gonna like lose all joy into it because you're like, I see these other guys out here throwing it. They're getting to the hole in three, It takes me six strokes, Like it's just it's just not fun, and you need the proper

equipment in order to do it well. And I think the same thing can be true of biking, Like you don't want to go all in and bind an expensive bike before you're ready, but you want to make sure your equipment is decent. And then having a crumby bike isn't going to continue to be the excuse to keep you from biking, and so at some point you might have to put some money into that in order to make sure that you're riding on something that's going to get you excited to get out there on the road well.

And and this isn't to say that you can't find a great bike for five bucks, right, like from bike's director. Get a solid, awesome, great commuter bike that you can ride to and from work for years and years. I'm riding a free, hand me down bike and I'm still riding the same one and it's awesome, but it's also

a nice bike that you happen to get free. But I think said, if you find yourself drawn to biking and you're enjoying it more and more, well you can sell that five on your bike, you know, maybe do a upgrade, get that fifteen dollar bike. Uh, if you're able to maybe see your old bike for like safe hunter bucks. But that evens right, there is a small amount of money compared to the vast amount of money

that you're going to say over the years. Uh. And so we're trying to make sure that you are equipped to be able to do this in a way that's effective and in a way that you're actually going to be able to stick with. Yeah. So yeah, to sum it up, we're talking about biking more to get rich. That was the title of this episode, Matt. And I feel like, you know, biking has been a lifestyle game changer for my family, but it's also been a personal finance game changer for our family. It's allowed us to

own only one car, which has been awesome. But I feel like even more important than that, if someone were to say, you know, what's what are the best things about biking, the first things I would say wouldn't be financial. They would be the memories that I've made with my family on bikes. Um. And so like on a Saturday, if we're going to a playground, we don't happen the car anymore. We hop on bikes, um. And it kind of helps define the day for us in a positive way.

And instead of waiting in the car pool line for for my kids, you know, behind fIF eight other cars, you know, idoling as our kids run out top in the van, we we you and I ride up there together on our bikes and we pick up our kids. Um. And we talked the whole way there, and we're hanging out there with other folks, and sure we're a little bit sweaty, and I think some of the parents look at us funny, But man, it's such a better way

for us to live life. At least we feel it is. Yeah, yeah, it's it's really it's not possible to calculate the you know r o I of owning a decent bike and riding it consistently. But there are so many benefits you get from biking on the rag. And I don't even know if we did bikes justice with today's episode, but hopefully we did, and hopefully, you know, our listeners are

more encouraged to go hop on their own bikes. Maybe this week, this weekend, I hope maybe start kicking the tires on biking more regularly as like a lifestyle choice. That's right, it's gonna save you money, and it just even aside from the money man, it makes me think of like the last couple of gatherings we've done with with with a bunch of dudes, a few wants back for your birthday. We got a bunch of guys together

and we went we went riding. We rode to a brewery before we rode somewhere else, you know, for a on fire. That night a friend of ours had a baby shower. Recently, we rode to uh this taco truck basically had a bunch of tacos. Then we rode to another brewery from there, and then that night, you know, we wrote home it's just so much fun. Yeah, just getting a bunch of folks together like that and riding around town. And so at the core of it, this is a money show, but there are again so many

benefits that riding bikes can bring you. But man, let let's quickly get back to the beer that we enjoyed this episode. You and I shared a double fruited boisonberry, BlackBerry raspberry hill. Uh. This is from Southern Grist Brewing Company. These guys are at a Nashville, Tennessee. What were your thoughts on this sour man? I thought it was a little sweet, a little sour. It had like some smoothie kind of notes going on. Yeah, yeah, like my wife makes smoothies for the kids, like a lot of days.

We've been doing that a lot lately. Oh yeah, yeah, it takes like one of those I think in a lot of ways, like a beer smoothie. Um. And I think there was just so much fruit in there. In fact, it truly was double fruited. It really was. So it was this nice blending of like three different kinds of fruits. I think I was getting more of the BlackBerry and the boisonberry, but I think, man, it was it was well balanced. But again, I love fruited beers and so yeah,

this one is definitely right at my alley. Yeah. The first thing I do is when we poured it, is that I love when the label, like the color of the beer is like the same color as the label, and it one percent was like when I poured him and I was looking at him right next to each other, like there's no surprise as to what you're gonna get.

You know, like when you pour a beer and it's like not the color you're expecting it, you're kind of always thinking, oh, well, that's not what I was expecting, or like that happened one time with like a strawberry beer. We poured it and it's like, oh, it's just regular beer colored. It wasn't It wasn't red. And so obviously to get a berry loaded beer like this with that much color, I'm a huge fan of synchronizing those colors

like that. So Southern Grist, I know you're not listening, but good job, and we would highly recommend this beer if you like fruited sours. But Joel, that's gonna be it for this episode. You can find our show notes up on our website at how to money dot Com will make sure to link to any of the different resources that we mentioned, including that article that Joel wrote about his radwagon as well as that bike review site to all right man, Well, that's gonna do it for

this episode. Until next time, Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,