It’s been two months since I started this experiment to ride my bike as much as possible in everyday life. Every good experiment needs some statistics to make sense of what’s happening – at least that’s what the beancounter in me says.

So, I’ve been recording some facts about my bicycle riding: where I rode, why I rode, how far it was, how long I took and, if in the past, I would have used the car.

Here’s a snapshot of some interesting facts from the first two months:

• I rode 668 kilometres.
• About 276 kilometres were to places where I would usually drive the car. There are also car journeys that I chose not to take because it would be too difficult to ride by bike or I decided I wasn’t that motivated to go there after all.
• In a typical week:
  • I make about 10 journeys on my bike
  • I ride about 75 kilometres
  • I spend nearly 6 hours riding my bike.
• I haven’t yet broken my fastest speed of 45.2 km/hour that I reported in my statistics after the first two weeks.
• Holidays and Christmas shopping saw me drive the car a couple of times. So too did my nephew’s beautiful wedding in January at Bargara.

Simply riding around the neighbourhood – for a swim at the beach, to meet with friends for coffee, and to do the shopping – I might ride fifteen or sixteen kilometres across two or three small journeys. I find that quite amazing. By swapping the car for my bike for these short journeys, I’m exercising without even trying!

It’s also saving us some money – which, of course, is making the beancounter in me very happy!