Why A Bicycle

Above, the best photo ever taken of me on a motorcycle, shot during the F800GS Instructional DVD taping by Helge Pedersen of Globeriders.Used with permission. 

Very simply, climate change. Knowing what I know now, burning fossil fuels recreationally can no longer hold the attraction it once did. Riding a motorcycle still makes a lot of sense as means of transportation, when I have to go too far or carry too much to ride a bicycle. The carbon emissions of my bike are lower than that of most cars. I wrote about that on my work blog, here. My current motorcycle (a 2009 BMW F800GS) gets about the same mileage as a Prius--the car many of my clients drive--and with a catalytic convertor, is fairly clean. Still, the mileage is far below what ought to be possible, given that this motorcycle weighs 25% of what a typical car weighs. But it's good enough to justify (rationalize?) riding the motorcycle over driving a car. The F800GS is now the only fossil-fuel-driven vehicle in our family. We sold our Mini Cooper in August of 2009, and have been car-free since. (Have a look here to see what all used to be in our green-roofed garage. Scroll down....)