In celebration of National Bike Month and in anticipation of Bike Week L.A. (May 16-20) we’ve launched a new survey series entitled ‘Why I Cycle’. This series spotlights local bicyclists who have made the daring leap from car-dependent to car-free or at least car-light in Los Angeles.

Want to share your story? Point your browser to thesource.metro.net/cyclesurvey

If you’re anything like our readers who’ve filled out our Why I Cycle survey, then you use your bike for a wide variety of reasons.

We asked, “For what purpose do you ride a bicycle?”

The responses were for the most part evenly distributed amongst the categories (respondents were allowed to choose as many categories that applied to them). 79% of respondents said they use their bikes for recreation. 17% said they ride competitively. 49% use bikes to connect to buses and/or trains to fill in a commuting gap.

More than anything I think these results show that, despite their relative low cost, bikes are versatile multi-purpose tools.

Since people seem to be using their bikes for such a wide variety of purposes (many of them rather mundane) it should come to no surprise that people don’t limit themselves to wearing special bike clothes when riding. We asked, “On a typical bike ride what do you wear?”

As you can see, 72% opt for normal street wear and 22% prefer special bike clothes. Maybe we should have also asked, “Do you consider yourself cycle chic?”

Click through the jump for a great photo of cycle chic – and don’t forget to take the survey if you haven’t already!

Snow, mud and heels. It's a far cry for spandex. Photo by Theis Mortensen via Flickr.