Re:They only get a few months.. (Score 1)

In winter, why would you rather walk for 20 minutes when it's 20 below than use your bike for 5 minutes? And you don't have to shovel your car in and out of your "spot" every time the snowplow comes by. You dress accordingly, which is less than when you walk. You don't tour Quebec in winter: when it's slippery, which happens maybe 10 days a year, you take the sidewalk.

Can you explain why it's so much hotter 100 feet in the air on a chairlift dressed in a nice little trendy ski suit, than on a bike properly dressed, which is less than if you were walking?

And for the yearly cost of a car, you can spend a summer cycling in America, even in Europe.

I don't understand why people in general think that bikers are only die-hard ecologists. Heck, it's convenient. You don't have to look for parking spaces. Anywhere I go, even downtown Montreal, I park right in front of the door. And you don't have to go to a fitness center at night to keep in shape.

In summer, bike tours are really nice. The longest I did was Montreal, around Lac St-Jean and back. (Honestly, you better take the train or bus to Quebec city. It's flat and not very interesting.) It's from far the nicest trip I ever took in Quebec. I was greeted all over the place, so much so that I had to refuse some invitations. (I was already way under my daily city mileage. The whole trip took nearly 3 months. Sometimes, you have to move on.)

As for the bikes that will be rented in Montreal, I don't believe that Montrealers will use them a lot: it's much better to have your own bike. But, if you use the transit system and you have 3 stops to make on the length of 6 metro stations, what do you do? Walk? Go back to the tube for 2 stations and walk again? Or use a bike?

But renting one to visit is a great idea. I brought mine last time I went to Paris (1988). From the first time I arrived at Orly, I always had this vision of coming into Paris from the airport :) Of course, it wasn't as cozy as Amsterdam, but it was nonetheless a fine way to (re)visit the city.

A good bike will set you back $500, last 10 years and you'll add, let's say, $50 a year on average for parts. With a few tools, small maintenance is easy. Otherwise, you go to the bike shop. So, that's $100 a year!!! Hey, what can be so useful today for this kind of money?

Forget ecology, just think wise. A bike is freedom. It's really heaven sent. I couldn't do without mine for a day.