Why did you start cycle commuting?

[MajorMantra]

I got bored with walking everywhere and also like the idea of getting fit for the first time in years. In the last 3 months I've gone from a wrecky MTB (£15 deathtrap that I worked on a bit and then sold) to a geared flat-bar road bike to a fixed gear Genesis Flyer with drops. I'm having a great time...

At the moment I'm still on holiday at home from uni and have acquired an old roadie so that makes 4 bikes bought since I started cycling again in early October-ish.

Matthew

 

[Bokonon]

Been cycling pretty much all more life, but tailed off in my last year at university.

I was originally using the bus to get to my job until one evening I stood at the bus stop for 30 minutes for the bus (which runs every 10 minutes!) and then sat on the bus for 1hr 15 before getting pissed off and walking the last bit of the journey (about 15 minutes - and I still beat the bus.) That's about 2 hours for a journey that I can walk in 1 hour.

The bike came back out of the shed and I now do my commute in about 20 minutes each way, faster than a car could manage in rush hour traffic.

 

[cbgb]

I have a long term knee injury so i started to bike to work as its the only exersice that i can do without further injury. I have an op due in Feb so hopefully all will be ok again after. I will continue to bike because i am now hooked

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Simple: I never learned to drive. In the USA, I used a combination of bike and metro. I had a cheap MTB which I stripped down and slicked up. Of course it got stolen within a few weeks of moving back to the UK. In Japan, I inherited an old mama-chari (literally mum's bike - a shopper bike) and used to commute quite a long way on that - although the fierce winter weather made me take the tram over that season. For a while when I moved back to the UK from Japan I was living in a village almost 15 miles from Newcastle (and in very hilly terrain), and this seemed like way too far to cycle. But then I decided to give it a go, bought a hybrid, and then the lovely people on the original C+ Forum persuaded me to get my first road bike... and since then I have commuted by bike most days.

 

[andygates]

Because I could. Adventure! The ability to spend my bus money on sweets and go round my mate's house before school! Freedom! Power! Glory!

 

[Dayvo]

I started so I could get to work! Otherwise I'd be poor(er) and still cycling around the lanes!

Same reason as the others; to save time, money, get fit(ter), pleasure etc.

 

[doyler78]

I was spending way too much time in the gym and cycling to work was the perfect way off cutting out the cardio sessions in the gym and giving me extra time to do other things in the evenings which I hard largely lost.

 

[Niall McL]

I have a long term knee injury so i started to bike to work as its the only exersice that i can do without further injury. I have an op due in Feb so hopefully all will be ok again after. I will continue to bike because i am now hooked

I'm the same. Have had a succession of knee injuries starting with quite a bad one playing football when I was about 20. After my most recent op 14 months ago was given the good news that I have the start of arthrisitis in my knee and will need a new one at some point. So I reckon cycling and swimming (don't really like swimming though) are about the only ways to keep fit now. Has worked out perfectly as the daily commute saves me money, has got me fitter than I have been in the last 10 years and doesn't take much more time than driving to work.

 

[tdr1nka]

South West trains and their contents...also the cost of fares.

+1 But include all forms of public transport in & around London.

Came back to cycling in my 20's after a few years on motorbikes.
I was broke, needed transport and after a fortnight I was addicted!

I'm generally what is known as a utility cyclist but I have commuted(anything up to 30 miles round trip)to all my jobs, except the ones where they send a limo.

I have never passed my test, drive occasionally on my provvy and have never owned a car.

 

[magnatom]

I started cyclign because I wanted an excuse to buy a helmet camera....

Seriously, I started because my wife was due to give birth to our first child. She would need the car when off on mat leave, and rather than buying a new car (which I couldn't afford anyway) I got a bike. The rest is history.

I hate it when I am forced to use the car. I love my cycle commute!

 

[Tynan]

transport in London nearly drove me insane, scootering was ok more or less but my wife hurt her knee and I stepped in for L2B and got hooked again

I used to do some decent miles ten years ago when I was younger

 

[hackbike 666]

I thought you were older ten years ago.

 

[J4CKO]

I started as I got a job that was commutable by bike, to save petrol, to lose weight and get fit, I love the fact I dont have to make a special trip to go to a gym so it saves petrol and money on not having to pay 3 quid to go and have a swim or 4 quid to go in a gym.

Plus I remember as a kid wanting a car, getting wrapped up in the whole car thing and then realising recently I prefer riding the bike.

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

Mrs LC and I bought bikes a couple of years ago in response to the Little LCs getting old enough (and so quick enough) to force us to run to keep up when we took their bikes out with us for a walk. I don't do the R word.

Having bought it, I thought I'd give the ride to work thing a try as a means to get fit. Did it for a while, gave up for last Winter, missed it, started again as soon as I could last March and have been full time ever since.

Like magnatom, I hate it when I have to use the car.

 

[asterix]

The ferry would only take pedestrians and bikes. So I used to drive to the ferry with my bike in the boot of the car.

Then during the summer I thought 'sod the car' and just used the bike. That was in 1979 and I cycle commuted ever after.