First cycle commute since August

[radger]

I rode my bike to work today for the first time since last August (various reasons for this, not least the absence of job for a considerable portion of this time).
The good things about it:
it took me 15 minutes to get to work rather than the best part of an hour
racing the cars down Whiteladies Road
the considerate drivers
getting home in 25 minutes despite all the getting off and pushing

the less good things about it:
the feeling that I have been kicked in the ar$e
the fact that I arrived at work bright red and sweating even though 2½ miles of the 3½ mile route is downhill (I really should learn the art of pootling)

the frankly rubbish things about it:
attempting to ride up Park Street into a headwind when my hill climbing skills have never accurately been described as skills

I might actually re-insure my bike and carry on with it, even though I still think it was more fun commuting in London.

 

[Norv]

Hello! Another Bristol based forumer here.

Best part of an hour?!! How were you trying to get to work? Knowing Bristol, that sounds like a public transport experience to me.

 

[summerdays]

Well if you made it up Park Street you are doing better than me... its always a hill that defeats me... though I usually make it past the Guild, then I look up and realise that the bloke walking up beside me is the same one I past at the bottom of the hill and give in.

 

[radger]

Hello! Another Bristol based forumer here.

Best part of an hour?!! How were you trying to get to work? Knowing Bristol, that sounds like a public transport experience to me.

I usually walk - it's 3½ miles each way. If the bus turns up as scheduled, it can take as little as 25 minutes, but that's not including hanging around at the bus stop for half an hour

Well if you made it up Park Street you are doing better than me...

I only made it as far as Great George Street
I did manage most of Whiteladies though - I got off near Tescos (ie where it gets steep)

 

[Robster]

Well done radger, especially cycling up park street! I've never tried but always thought it was best avoided.

If you keep it up I'm sure you'll pretty quickly be less red and sweaty when you get to work.

Where are you going from/to? Around Bristol I normally try and find a longer but less steep route if there is one.

 

[andyfromotley]

What! you stopped cycling to work because you had no job? Bloody fair weather cyclists!

 

[radger]

Well done radger, especially cycling up park street! I've never tried but always thought it was best avoided.

If you keep it up I'm sure you'll pretty quickly be less red and sweaty when you get to work.

Where are you going from/to? Around Bristol I normally try and find a longer but less steep route if there is one.

I work near the YHA, and I live in Stoke Bishop, so I think the alternatives are Stokes Croft/Redland Hill, or Anchor Road/Portway/Bridge Valley Road

 

[BentMikey]

*waves* Hello again Radger!

 

[magnatom]

Glad you back among our elite group...

As for headwinds and hills, just look at them as a workout. A few extra calories that you can eat at lunchtime!

 

[Maz]

Didn't Bristol just win a share of something like £500 million to improve their cycle facilities? I think the usual suspects also got in on the act, too (Cambridge, York etc).

 

[summerdays]

Next week I'm working at the bottom of St Michaels Hill ... another that I can't get to the top of....

For your route .. as an alternative... what about going up Jacobs Wells Rd? And I'm afraid as you are on the other side of the Downs .. you are going to have to get upto the top one way or another (a longer more gradual route might be up Pembrooke Road perhaps?)

Maz:

Didn't Bristol just win a share of something like £500 million to improve their cycle facilities?

I do like the idea of using the money to iron out the hills that would solve a lot of problems for me ....

 

[Absinthe Minded]

As for headwinds and hills, just look at them as a workout. A few extra calories that you can eat at lunchtime!

You're clearly not knackered enough....