The urban biker's five-bike stable

A car costs thousands of dollars. A new one is many thousands for purchase, a used one is fewer thousands for purchase plus unknown thousands for repairs. If a person can get by without owning one at all, it might be reasonable to divert some of those thousands to other transportation, specfically, bicycles.

One should have proper tools for the jobs one is expected to do, and if one is doing a job that saves thousands of dollars, it seems appropriate to have enough tools of good quality. So if the job is to get around by bike and not have to use or even own a car, spending a bit on bicycles does not seem out of line.

This line of thinking leads to the concept of the urban utility cyclist's basic five-bike stable. This is just my current idea, and yours will vary. A person could get by with just one, but sometimes a special tool just makes certain jobs so much easier. So here is my current five-bike goal.

The basic commuter. This bike gets person to and from work most days, and can run some errands. Mine is a Trek 4300 with the classic milk crate attached to a rear rack. It has fenders, and a homemade light with a 20-watt halogen spotlight. It can go in all weather except snow.

The winter beater. This is for riding in parts of the world where there is snow. It has studded tires and is old enough that I don't worry if it starts to rust away. It has acceptable lights, but not ones that require a heavy battery. It is light enough to drive through some snow. In the summer, it does double duty as a backup bike or as the multi-modal bike, one that is light enough to heave up on the bike rack on the front of the bus. Mine is Diamondback that I got used at the bike store.

The urban errand bike. This is a bicycle with no quick-release anything on it, something that is not a big theft target, and would not cause great financial loss if it were stolen. Mine is a Schwinn Suburban that I found for free on the curb in the neighborhood. It has a generator headlight that I salvaged from the garbage. Currently the rear derailer is broken and it is in the bike shop being modified to a single-speed, which should decrease its theft value even more.

The folder. This is used for those times when nothing else will do, like when taking the car in for repair and then proceeding on to work. Mine is a Sun Rambler-7 that was my 2007 Christmas present from my father-in-law.

The cargo bike. This is something that can haul at least four standard bags of groceries. I don't have on of these yet. I am thinking that my budget will allow for only an Xtracycle at some future time. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on a bakfiets, but even when we can dump one car, thousands for a bike is not going to be in the picture.