How to Live on a Bike
“But how am I going to get around without a car?! I NEED to drive!”
Well, it might not be as bad as you think. I’ve been getting around Provo (and beyond) without a car for the last two-and-a-half years. It has been very fulfilling.
I enjoy it, and I definitely don’t miss the driving and the parking and the insurance and the registration and the fuel and the traffic. I don’t miss worrying about breaking down or about somebody crashing into me or about me causing death or damage to somebody else. I don’t miss being enclosed in a padded metal box as I move from parking lot A to parking lot B.
I know that I’m not you, and that your life isn’t the same as mine. But I am going to share some things from my experience. I hope that it will help at least a few of you.
One low-cost bike setup the author experimented with for winter riding from 2019 through 2020
I started going car-light two years before I stopped driving altogether, and it was another year after that before I went all in by getting rid of my car—a car that had become my (not so) mobile storage unit.
In early 2021 I decided to do a big bike trip, something that I hadn’t done before. Like, biking from Provo to Denver kind of big. I had six months to prepare, and I decided that the first thing to do was to start biking everywhere to figure out the logistics of it all and to build up my strength and endurance.
I didn’t have a super dialed bike or a nice setup at this point. I just rode what I had on hand while I researched and put together the bike that I would use for my trip.
Unplanned grocery run
Biking to SLC for Christmas (1 of 2)
Biking to SLC for Christmas (2 of 2)
So how did it go?
I learned a lot about living on a bike just by doing it (I’m referring to regular life, not the big trip). As I went places by bike rather than by car, I learned what worked for me and what didn’t. And while I recognize that I am more mechanically adept than most people, I do believe that anybody can learn a great deal just by experimenting and by paying attention to the results.
Provo to Colorado bike trip, Flat Tops Wilderness Area
Lessons Learned
Start with what you have. Give yourself plenty of slack. Don’t expect to be perfect, or even to be very good at it. Don’t put unrealistic expectations on yourself. Just start, and you’ll learn how to live on a bike as you go, at your own pace.
Be yourself. Don’t think that you have to do it like anybody else. You don’t have to dress a certain way, or ride the same kind of bike as anybody else, or be as fast as anybody else, or go as far as anybody else, or carry as much stuff as anybody else. You’ll learn what works best for you just by trying it and by paying attention to what makes things easier and what makes things more difficult. You’ll develop your own style and your own systems that will be optimized for your own life.
Give yourself time to decide how well each element of your system works—mechanical components, clothing, timing, routes—all of it. While you are experimenting, your body will be getting used to the new things you are doing. Some parts that are difficult at first are going to get easier with time.
Bike used for the Colorado trip after a subsequent rebuild and ongoing experimentation
Make it fun. Enjoy the fresh air and the autonomy of getting around on your own power. Smile. Laugh. Look for and enjoy the beauty that surrounds you. Enjoy not paying for gas, and enjoy not having to worry about parking. See what you can do, and recognize your new skills and victories along the way.
Try it and see what happens. I believe in you.
