I recently got a bike, and I don’t regret it. If a person doesn’t get around by cycling, it’s easy for them to think that cycling is just one level above walking from place to place. As it turns out, cyclists have a few things figured out, and one of those things is that bikes rock.

Cycling isn’t just a mode of transportation, it’s a form of exercise. So not only is a cyclist getting from one place to another, he’s developing rock-hard legs and getting in some cardio. Have you seen very many fat people on bikes? Me neither. And if the few that are keep at it, they’re not likely to stay that way. What makes cycling such a rocking form of exercise is that it has a built-in rewards system: If you’re good at it, you get to your destination sooner.

Not only that, cycling is far more cost effective than driving a car. In fact, if you live in the city and have a short commute to work, then owning a car isn’t doing you much good.

Consider the costs of owning a car: You have payments for financed cars, insurance payments, and the ongoing cost of filling up your tank about once a week. This can come up to about $500 a month, but can easily exceed it. Not only that, you have the cost of inspections, maintenance, and repairs when something breaks down.

For less than a quarter of the monthly cost of owning a car, I got out and got a decent bike on clearance at a major retailer. No need for payments, the bike is mine. No regulated insurance or other scams designed to squeeze out as much money as possible, so the bike isn’t an ongoing expense. There isn’t even a need to fuel it, the bike is powered by my own strength, which improves with time because of the exercise that comes with operating it, which in turn makes me an even sexier man in his prime. That’s right: I actually get rewarded just for using my bike! It’s a win on so many levels.

If your car gets in an accident, get ready so say good-bye to it. It’s gotten to the point that if cars so much as get a small dent in them from an accident, the cost of repairing the car easily goes beyond the current value of the car, and it’s considered “totaled”, and you only get a small amount of money back while your insurance company gets to keep the whole vehicle. It’s a massive scam, and we all know it happens because the cost of vehicle repairs of any sort have gotten ridiculous. Also, insurance companies are greedy and not at all afraid to screw you over. And while they’re at it, they’ll increase your insurance rates, because it’s not bad enough that you lost your main form of transportation.

If a bunch of German engineers are going to carefully design for maximum efficiency a heap of metal and plastic that can go something like 90 MPH, why don’t they go to a little extra trouble of making them not so fragile? If I were to design a car, it would have a reinforced perimeter to not only ensure that the car would survive a collision, it would effectively demolish inferior automobiles. GET THAT FRAGILE JUNK OFF THE ROAD!!!

It’s great that bikes aren’t the victim of regulated mandatory insurance. Speaking of which, I’m glad that the Affordable Care Act has been defeated. Even if you don’t like Trump, it’s not hard to acknowledge that he did a great thing in doing away with the penalty for not signing up for the ACA. When I did my taxes last year, I only had health insurance for part of the previous year. This made one step of calculating my taxes harder than the rest of my taxes combined. What a pain. I know that I’m going to trigger some leftists by saying so, but Trump did something pretty cool.

Did I mean to bring politics into this? Not really. But it does go to show how the regulation of things intended to be a convenience has gone too far. It’s great to have found something that is mostly untouched by over-regulation. At worst, cyclists are required to wear a helmet, and not every state does that. Isn’t the American republic great? If you don’t like what one state is doing, just move to another one. If a state wants its population back, then it had better get on track before the rest of its population discovers that life in another state is actually better. Based on its traffic laws alone, no one should want to live in New Jersey. Why anyone would want to stay in New Jersey, I have no idea. Just get out of there. But try to avoid Maryland if you can. They’ll tax you hard there.

If you plan on getting a bike, remember to get a bike lock, too. Bikes get stolen pretty often. But bikes are usually pretty cheap, so they’re not hard to replace. Which is another great thing about them. Considering what they can do for you, bikes sure are a good value.