I finally went to the bike shop today to hear the inevitable, “What have you done to your bike!” line concerning my lack of maintenance to my major mode of transportation. I lamented over the $200 tune-up and part replacement estimate, realizing I’d paid just $210 for the bike used one year ago. I thought over the maintenance I could do myself, and felt guilty about the fact that I’ve said I would do it for months now. It’s probably the same with our car if I think about it, but I don’t use the car enough to really care.

So, a bike, like a car, cost money to maintain, and yet I’m so reluctant to maintain it. I’m constantly playing a numbers game as to whether one choice or another saves more money. It’s total economics and I forget to take into consideration the external benefits of biking to work: better for the environment, exercise, quiet time for myself to and from work, guaranteed hour outdoors a day. It’s really a wonderful thing to do and I’m still so hesitant when it comes to making sure I take care of my bike. The truth is, I just don’t like spending money on anything really. I usually think to myself, if it’s not broken, why fix it? Which is what I was thinking as my tire blew out leaving the bike shop after getting the estimate. Needless to say I’ve schedule a tune-up for next week.

Speaking of externals. The baby is coming soon, which means at least for a little while, my daily bike commute will be coming to a close. I plan on doing a lot more walking around once she’s hear, but for a while biking will be out (at least till she can hold up her head). But I do have another use for biking, something I’ve been interested in for a while. I don’t know when or if I can find one, but I’d really like one of these Bike powered Washing machines. Wouldn’t it be great? We are going to be using cloth diapers and this would be a great way to continue on the environmentally friendly path. Not sure I could hack something together, but the Cyclean guy said he’s putting together some instructions (another guy gave some instructions too). Bonus points if anyone wants to give us this as a baby shower gift.