Hello everyone,
I just wanted to share my excitement about my new-found enjoyment skateboarding and associated skills. You're never too old to try new things, and you should never let others judge you!
My question for you is: How do you commute? Do you use anything unusual, like a self-balancing monowheel, segway, electric skateboard, kickboard/scooter, ...?
I'm 30 years old, and have never skateboarded in my life. I am an avid biker, but now ended up in situation where I can't do the 35 mile commute without a car or public transport. Due to construction, the bus stop I take was moved, and it's now a 15-20 minute walk across town, with no chance to lock my bike.
I just ordered a $50 ridge mini cruiser board, watched a couple of Youtube videos and went wild. My commute is mostly straight along a river, on a smoothly paved walkway. I tried a couple of times over the weekend, only fell a bunch of times off the board, and made the commute in like 7 minutes - three times as fast as walking the distance. Even if I look like the most insane hipster, I will enjoy more free time ;)
Cheers!
My own commute is a combination of taking a train and walking, but I see a lot of people (in San Francisco) using the other methods you've listed -- Razor scooters, Airwheel-style standing unicycles, folding bikes, and skateboards (both standard and electric). You definitely don't need to feel awkward about skateboarding at age thirty -- I've seen folks in their fifties wearing suits and carrying a skateboard with them, and indeed, that's nothing to judge someone for.
I have a 7 minute drive to the bus terminal and then a 45 minute commute to work by bus, followed by 20 minutes of walking to get where I'm going. It's still more stress free than driving. Plus I get in some good gaming time on the bus with my 3DS. I played the bulk of Majora's Mask and Shin Megami Tensei IV on my commutes to and from work.
I live very close to my campus, so I just walk. I either walk or bus to pretty much everything else, besides some carpooling to weekly events. I have a bike but am not very experienced. I didn't learn to ride a bike until 10 or 11 and haven't done much riding off of trails. I don't know how to ride a bike on the road and am kind of terrified of cars. Hopefully this year I'll grow the confidence to bring it out and ride it downtown.
I mostly commute by public transit and walking though I do have a car. Sometimes I bike. Your post is exciting for me: I'm hoping to get into longboarding here shortly! It seems like sooo much fun to just cruise, and it'll make all that walking way more awesome. Who cares what age you are? Rock it!
I ride one of those self balancing one-wheel things with no seat. I didn't know what to call it, so I looked on Wikipedia and they call it a micro unicycle. Here's the one I'm riding right now - there's a video of a pretty girl riding it hahaha I'm upgrading to this one now; ordered it a few days ago! It's faster, better safety features, etc. I used to skateboard, but the roads are so bumpy and I would arrive all sweaty, so this is awesome. The big wheel makes the ride real smooth, and it charges itself going down hill because of regenerative braking, so it's easy to control my speed. I don't have to lock it up like my electric bike, and I'm barely using the car anymore!
Wow, not bad! I saw one of those here recently and looked them up...but I figured that they are really too expensive to just get to try out. How do you feel about carrying it around? It's not very lightweight, right?
Carrying it short distances is no big deal, but not ideal. They range from 15 pounds all the way up to 40 pounds depending on battery size, wheel size, and materials quality. Most people ride the smaller sizes; beginner units tend to be lighter, as most riders upgrade to bigger wheel sizes for a smoother ride or bigger batteries for longer range. The lowest priced one I've found that has a reasonably safe battery size is about 400 dollars. I don't want to spam it up here so PM me if you want a link
I skateboarded for a while with one arm in a cast, but only if I was late for class. The arm was broken, of course, from skateboarding. I judiciously limited myself to sidewalk skating, not trick riding, and "only fell a bunch of times", yes, but I had another arm to catch me, and luckily that one never broke. Trick riding, you fall a lot when you're trying to progress your skillset. I started wearing wristguards when I practiced tricks, even though it wasn't cool. Started only skating at night. Some punks stole my board out of my car a couple years ago, and I'm through with it for now. I'd better not meet someone else this upcoming semester who skates, because that wouldn't be good for my grades. Oh, and to answer the real question, I drive to work in a car (BOOO, BORRRRING!). The way we've built our cities down here in Texas was pretty stupid. I'm about to move to a more urban area in a new city, so we'll see what happens with that. I'm planning on using public transport for my daily commute.
Sorry to say my commute isn't anything interesting, I drive a hand-me-down minivan which used to be my mom's. It's a car full of memories for me though (we've had it since I was 4), and I'm not getting rid of the old rustbucket until the day it dies!
That used to be the case for me as well, back when I lived at my old place. My commute was the river though.
Seriously, during summertime, I packed all my stuff in a watertight bag and floated down the river for 20min (the current is about 4.5 mph) until I reached a public bath in the center of the city. From there, it was a 10min walk to university/work. Best commute ever. If you ever happen to visit Bern during the summer, take a plunge! BBC videoMy commute is mostly straight along a river,
I wish I lived close enough to uni to use any other method than taking the subway or bus. Getting on a skateboard would be ideal! Or that "hoverboard" Casey Neistat and a ton of other celebrities were obsessed with a little while back.
Built a bike for the commute to Uni in London a couple of years ago. Best thing I ever did, lovely ride along the canal is a perfect way to start the day! Have seen an increasing amount of the monowheels around. They look like fun!
You built your own bike? What made you decide for building over just buying?
Mainly, I wanted to be able to fix it when it went wrong! I thought building one would ensure that when bits went wrong I'd know exactly how to make it right. It certainly wasn't profitable. Even buying all the parts second hand, I spent about £250 on a bike that I could probably only sell for £200 if I'm lucky! No regrets though - learnt a lot, can fix it with my eyes closed now and got a great sense of achievement from the project! Plus - the tools I bought as part of the budget will continue to come in handy.
Oh yes, you can fix almost anything on a bike yourself if you spend some time with it. I grew up with bikes, so I'm always baffled when people fail to do the simplest things like replace or fix flat tires or worn out brakes.
I bike the five or so miles it takes to get to uni every day. It's not bad, nice even to get some fresh air before class. For some reason though everyone I tell acts as if I'm walking across a desert barefoot everyday. Doesn't bug me, I just find it amusing. I hope you enjoy your new found mode of transport, it definitely beats walking or driving.