Alternative Commuting Methods

I've been thinking about getting more exercise, as is reflected in my personal blog, Ben's Daily Thoughts and Ben's Workouts, and so was looking into options for commuting to work by bicycle instead of by car.

I have several bikes already, each for a specific purpose; a mountain bike, a road bike, a unicycle. The purpose of the unicycle is "because I've always wanted to be able to ride a unicycle" which is purpose enough considering that I didn't even have to pay the $50 cost myself as someone bought it for me. I expect that the buyer thought that $50 was a bargain to see me make an ass of myself, but I digress.

One class of bike which I didn't own, until a couple of months ago, is a "Trash Bike". I was helping someone with thier car and talked them out of their ancient Schwinn road bike, however, it was just too trashy. A couple of weeks later I happened to be at a yard sale with my wife and noticed a much less trashy road bike for $10, I talked them down to $7 and became the proud owner of a "Trash Bike" which really wasn't very trashy at all.

That was a few months ago, and I still haven't actually ridden the new bike beyond my back garden. The excuse is that I have been waiting for the weather to improve, however, there's no excuse now as the weather is perfect. My next excuse it that I'm just too lazy, which leads me long windedly into this current question which I submit to myself; "Does a powered bike trailer exist?"

The answer is; "Yes, and there are a couple of them."

The expensive version seems to not be available currently:

Motobob

The cheap one requires you to build it yourself:

Bidwell Bike Pusher

I'm quite tempted by the cheap version, as I think that I could probably build it for only about $200 including all the parts. I like the fact that it's cheap, I like the fact that it has a low center of gravity, I like the fact that it is load bearing, but I especially like the fact that it is easilly detachable for the times when you just want a normal bike.

Do you commute by bike?

Be careful if you choose to ride a bike to work or school, if you have any suggestions please leave a comment or email your question, which you'd like me to answer for free, to Ben Dash at ben.dash@gmail.com