A Hesitant Hello

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Balyintegra

Active Member
Hello All,

Odd title for a thread? Potentially yes.

Right where do i start, so im 50 and cars( sporty ones) have been a big part of my life( 31 years driving).

Commuting to work, shopping, drives in country, track days, driving because ive always found it pleasurable ,basically i am a serious petrolhead.

But i sold my car( we still have the family one) and after 2 weeks looking on autotrader for the next sporty replacement i got thinking, a weird foreign thought entered my head ' do i really need a car?". I dismissed it, but it came back and i think that's why im here, not to ask for you to make that decision but to get thoughts of strange people( only kidding) like me who had bhp, fast acceleration, track days, loved driving ,all those petrolhead ingrained things who made similar transitions.

Now my commute would be 2.8mile ( 5.6 mile round trip), theres no cycle lanes, 35 seconds of it ( in a car ) is uphill, the rest is normal roads filled with normal,'get out of my way' commuter traffic .

Anyway its probably a very weird way to introduce myself so hi.

Thanks baly
 

BrumJim

Forum Stalwart (won't take the hint and leave...)
Hello.
Makes sense. I had a Fiat Coupé. Sold it and was without a car for several months. On the positive side, every time I drove it would be a different car. Once I got an upgrade from Hertz from a Ford Fiesta to an Alfa Romeo GT at the same price.

Looked at the cost of car ownership, and depreciation means that hiring can be cheaper.

Family then arrived, and wife is driving, so I need something sensible.

I claim to be the only person to have turned up to a Driving Experience day on a bicycle.
 

Dec66

A gentlemanly pootler, these days
Location
West Wickham
Hello and welcome.

I wouldn't call myself a "petrolhead" in terms of the cars I've owned (most of which have been pretty average), but I always had a keen interest in cars and motorsport. Lots of people on here do, in fact.

I have a C-Class Mercedes estate now, which I really like driving, but given the choice between 200 miles on the motorway in that, and 50 miles around Kent on my bike, I'd much rather do the 50 miles.

Try it, see how it goes. I don't think you'll regret it.
 

All uphill

Still rolling along
Location
Somerset
See if there’s a longer but nicer way to cycle to work. You can get the blinkers on if you’ve only ever driven to work. Other roads or even cycle ways may exist which would be more pleasant. A distance of 2.8 miles is really short so an easy cycle , 15 mins at an easy pace.
This is spot on.

When I drove a lot I had a mental map of the area. Now I cycle exclusively, I have had to develop a completely different mental map to get around. Trying to cycle on the motoring map is shockingly awful.
 

Pale Rider

Legendary Member
I agree riding to work must be worth a go over such a relatively short distance.

Presumably you are currently getting to work by some other means, so to begin with you can always continue with that on some days and cycle on others.

What @All uphill said about changing your mental map of the area is correct.

Even over such a short distance, you might be surprised at paths and cut throughs you can link together which you never knew existed, but which make the journey more pleasurable and sometimes shorter.

On t'other hand, you might have a crappy road journey with few alternatives, but it's likely the extra route options available to a cyclist will be a benefit.
 
OP
OP
Balyintegra

Balyintegra

Active Member
Thank you all for the warm welcomes and your thoughts on this.

Ive decided to just go for the cycling option, give it a go, got nothing to lose but a lot to gain and as mentioned i can mix it up with the odd bad car day( only in exceptional circumstances).

I did some research at work at was pleasantly suprised to read that my company, advocates of reducing carbon emissions but who i cant name will give me £500 towards the cost of a bike. Now i don't have an excuse.

Id better do my research on bikes now and choose someone suitable.

Thanks again and feeling excited.
 
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