Would you recommend cycling to work?

[dex91]

Hi guys,

Sorry if this is a bit of a stupid question, especially in the commuting section of the forum, but here it goes.

I've started a new summer job which is temporary until mid september. To get there, I need to get a 25 minute train followed by a 10 minute bus (about 3.4 miles from train station to work). A weekly ticket for the train is about £30 which is fair play, but the bus is a local one and weekly tickets are £17. I'm looking to cut costs where possible and found that the bike would pay for itself as the cost of 11 weekly tickets would buy a new bike. My current bike, I have had since I was in primary school, and am about six foot now so the frame is too small and it needs a service.

I would say I'm a confident cyclist but am reading horror stories (maybe a slight exaggeration) about abuse and being knocked over. I'm worried about getting knocked over firstly, and also being beeped at and holding drivers back. Do you just ignore it?

Finally, since I've got you here, what do you think of this bike...?

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...uctId_240403_langId_-1_categoryId_165534#dtab

Any advice is appreciated,

Thanks again

 

[david1701]

yes I would, probably not on that bike though.

Have an ask around at work to see if they do a cycle scheme, if they do then you could have a lot of choice because you save the tax and pay in instalments.

Then you need to decide if you want to take the train then ride, in which case you need a folding bike (confirm this with someone else though). Or ride from home which I'm guessing is 10 miles ish to the train station, but I fudged that figure as a guess.

I reckon losing the £47 a week means you could save money and get a bloody nice bike on the cyclescheme

 

[Scratch]

Hi, 3.4 miles will be fine. If you enjoy it or not depends on the route of course, you can normally plan a route without too much agro but you'll learn from riding it how the roads are. Perhaps provide some details and if anyone lives nearby they can help with a route?

I'm sure others can give you more detailed advice but it always helps to ride assertively and very defensively, I never really get beeped at for holding people up, its pretty rare maybe it depends on the area? You'll get a feel for the patience of the drivers when you start riding you can always adjust your route to make it more pleasant.

The Carrera looks Ok, I have a Carrera road bike from 5 years ago, I've upgraded few components over the years but overall its been good.

 

[Hacienda71]

Don't get to stressed about the horror stories. They tend to be the exception rather than the norm. Go second hand and you will get a good functional bike for not too much. If you are unsure of what to go for ask for peoples opinion on here.

 

[slowmotion]

Hello dex91, welcome. If you are a confident cyclist, you will be fine. Reading the Commuting forum with all the head-cam clips gives a very skewed view of the dangers. ( I'm not dissing the camera crew at all BTW). I've only commuted for two years in London, but overall I feel pretty safe. Yes, every once in a blue moon something a bit scary may happen, but you learn to shrug it off, and that comes from someone who is naturally quite cautious.

Just be a bit defensive and enjoy the ride.

 

[ELL]

yes I would, probably not on that bike though.

Have an ask around at work to see if they do a cycle scheme, if they do then you could have a lot of choice because you save the tax and pay in instalments.

Then you need to decide if you want to take the train then ride, in which case you need a folding bike (confirm this with someone else though). Or ride from home which I'm guessing is 10 miles ish to the train station, but I fudged that figure as a guess.

I reckon losing the £47 a week means you could save money and get a bloody nice bike on the cyclescheme

Probably wont be able to as its just a summer job and most if not all schemes are for a year

As said don't worry about the horror stories, just remember that people don't post about having a problem free commute to work.

I wouldnt go for that bike, I would say keep clear of bikes with suspension as they will just be heavy and slow you down.

 

[dex91]

Thanks for all the helpful tips and advice guys. Cycling to the station near the work is 19 miles which is a bit too far for me, its do-able but I'd be a sweaty mess arriving at work and unfortunately they dont have showers.

As for bike choices, I've been to some of the local shops and all decent bikes are a bit out of my price range. Halfords seem to have the cheapest bikes anyway, and this is the only other viable option - http://www.halfords....99#BVRRWidgetID . However, I'm guessing mountain bikes on roads and carrying about on trains arent as good as hybrids. The hybrid link I posted originally is really the only bike in my price range at the moment. Oh, and I've already got the route planned, I think its even memorised due to the number of times I've gone through the route on street view and looked at all the road systems.

Anyway, I think I'll do the cycling to work, I just got concerned after seeing the link where the bus overtook the cyclist and almost hit him.

Thanks again for all the tips/advice,

Dex

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Unless you've got particularly fast trains near you, it looks like you might be able to cut out all the public transport costs. I'm 57, I smoke, drink and have only one properly functioning kidney, which means that I have to take loads of medication, but I found that I was able to do over 25 miles a day 6 days a week on a fairly basic ''entry-level'' road bike. Would your whole journey be much more than that?

Living in London and riding on roads, there's not much sense for me in having suspension - if your route is going to be all road, I'd suggest that you too might not need the extra weight and energy loss that you'll get from the front forks. It might be worthwhile seeing whether you can feel at ease on a road bike - it will mean less effort for the miles ridden.

Over the last couple of years I've ridden every road within 60 square miles of home and, as I'm in London, that means riding thousands of miles. In that time the beeps directed at me have been rare and almost always a reflection of drivers' frustration at the delays caused by other motorised vehicles. What happens is that drivers are stuck for ages at 0 mph because of other vehicles so that when they get a rare glimpse of an open road - or 15 metres to the next car - any bike going at 15mph in front of them seems to be holding them up. And for some reason it's easier to find the horn than the indicators....

It's fine being a confident cyclist but that doesn't mean being confident about drivers' ability to assess the risks they present to cyclists, or, in this case, you. Your competence and awareness has to allow for their possible incompetence and unawareness. This is the paradoxical point where riding defensively means asserting your presence on the road - being clearly visible, placing yourself in their line of view and riding like you have the right to be there. (Because you do.)

 

[Iainj837]

I wouldn't buy a bike from halfords

 

[al78]

Thanks for all the helpful tips and advice guys. Cycling to the station near the work is 19 miles which is a bit too far for me, its do-able but I'd be a sweaty mess arriving at work and unfortunately they dont have showers.

As for bike choices, I've been to some of the local shops and all decent bikes are a bit out of my price range. Halfords seem to have the cheapest bikes anyway, and this is the only other viable option - http://www.halfords....99#BVRRWidgetID . However, I'm guessing mountain bikes on roads and carrying about on trains arent as good as hybrids. The hybrid link I posted originally is really the only bike in my price range at the moment. Oh, and I've already got the route planned, I think its even memorised due to the number of times I've gone through the route on street view and looked at all the road systems.

Anyway, I think I'll do the cycling to work, I just got concerned after seeing the link where the bus overtook the cyclist and almost hit him.

Thanks again for all the tips/advice,

Dex

That bike will be fine for a 3.4 mile journey. Don't worry about the horror stories in the commuting section, in my experience the real OMG moments are extremely rare (maybe a couple of times per year max) and I do a 19 mile round trip to work on a mixture of rural roads. Remember that people only tend to post things if something eventful happens, as such it is not a random sample hence you cannot infer anything about risk in reality. I suspect that some of the people on there live in localized hot spots where drivers are unusually intolerant of cyclists.

 

[dex91]

I've re-done the route on google maps, its actually 15.7 miles from my house to my work (so a 35 mile round trip basically) which doesnt seem too bad (looking at it on google maps). Does anyone have any ideas how long that would take on an A road, taking traffic into account? My work starts at 830, and i leave the house at 630... do you think cycling would be quicker?

Obviously I'd love a road bike but unfortunately I can't afford one... unfortunately it's between the hybrid bike and mountain bikes I posted up the thread a bit? I'm really considering cycling now, anyway, I know I've said it before but I really do appreciate all the feedback. Now my only concern is being a bit sweaty arriving at work... maybe a small price to pay in saving £50-£60 a week?

Thanks again

 

[BentMikey]

Don't take the "horror" stories to heart too much - there are loads of people on here, and if one person posts a near miss, it doesn't account for all the thousands of miles covered by other people in the meantime. Cycling is pretty safe, roughly as safe as walking.

As for being sweaty - shower before you leave home, and use an anti-perspirant deo. Then when you get to work you can just wetwipe your pits and put more deo on, and you shouldn't smell at all. Of course the gold standard is having a shower at work, but not everyone has that chance.

2 hours should be plenty to do 15 miles, even at first. When you get fitter and faster, then you should be able to bring that time right down.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

In my experience, I rarely get hot and sweaty on the bike - as a general rule, the faster you cycle the more the breeze acts as ventilation. The problem tends to be when you rush into work, go indoors and the ''air conditioning'' effect that's been keeping you cool suddenly disappears. The solution is to consciously slow your ride down at the end. Oh, and have a couple of baby wipes ready for those really humid mornings. Free-flowing sweat doesn't smell much anyway - it's when it gets a chance to fester in damp clothing that the smells start.

Journey times will vary from person to person, of course, but I'd guess you'd be able to save yourself half-an-hour per journey and still manage not to arrive hot and flustered.

 

[cyberknight]

If it is 15 miles on the road i would be looking ta a bike without suspension, you do not need it on the road as your tyres will give you enough cushioning and the forks will just be extra weight you have to push.
I would personally be looking at either a drop bar road bike or a flat bar road bike as it will be faster than a MTB based hybrid.

If you can look to invest in a bike that will take a pannier rack / saddle bag or a seat post rack as you will get the weight of your back and stop sweaty back syndrome.

Are you going to be using the bike after your job finishes? if you only intend to use it for a limited time i would seriously consider going second hand but if you want a new bike and your choice is Hlafords can you push for a few more punds and look at ..

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_272619_langId_-1_categoryId_165534

There is nothing wrong with the carrera range of bikes, i have 2 and they are highly regarded by the cycling press and many here, it is only the level of competence of some staff at halfords (think kid out of school with no training allowed to assemble bikes ).

The horror stories about commuting?
Would you find reading thousands of posts saying " i had a stress free commute today it was great " interesting ?, the sensational stuff is more fun to read

This pdf file was put together by forumites and contains a lot of usefual stuff to do with cycle commuting ..

http://www.cyclechat.net/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=1153

 

[gb155]

at the moment

I am a trainer for new starters

When I started to cycle, there were 3 regular commuters in an office of 40 plus staff

Most staff have moved on and I have influenced all the newbies, there is now approx 50% that commute every day and even more than do it every now and again

So, to answer your question, YES