cycling to work

dannyjebb

I am looking into cycling to work once the weather warms up bit. I work for the nhs in pharmacy and its about a 20 mile round trip each day and will hopefully save me 80-100 pound a month on fuel costs. I remember hearing I think about a cycle scheme were you can claim back some expenses on equiptment etc. Does anyone else know about this? Or know if there are any other benefits from cycling to work apart from the obvious health benefits and savings on fuel.

Danny

nathanbarley69

May be something here for you:

http://www.spokes.nhs.uk/cycle_to_work_scheme.php

or for more general details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycle_to_Work_scheme

Andy_L

The "Cycle to work scheme" your employer has to have set it up (I believe at trust level in the NHS). Effectively you buy the bike from pre-tax/NI income

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/sustainable/cycling/cycletoworkguidance/

ventureuk

I cycle to work almost daily and have bought a few bikes on the C2W scheme.

It has improved my fitness hugely, I now enter cycling events and perform quite well even though I say so myself.

There are a few things worth knowing about the scheme.

Generally the maximum bike voucher value is £1000 or any amount under that, you could therefore buy a £700 bike and get £300 of kit, you save more if you earn over 40k and less under 40k, a % is deducted each month from your wage, you generally pay 5% of the bike value at the end of the 12 months to buy the bike or you can just give it back, a £1000 bike voucher if you earn over 40k with everything paid at the end of 12 months will have cost you about £600, Halfords is often used as the bike supplier for Gov employees like the NHS or Police, Halfords can supply bikes that they do not normally stock and will order them for you specially, Halfords are good in that they also give you gift vouchers for 10% of the voucher on top so your £1000 voucher gets you an extra £100 of gift voucher, you are supposed to ride to work 50% of the time but nobody checks, you need to have shower/change facilities at work plus somewhere to put sometimes wet and sweaty clothes, you really need proper cycle clothing for a 20 mile a day ride, you will need to carry a repair kit and spare inner tube for when you get a puncture, you will get a puncture, roads are busy and dangerous try and find a nice cycle route and avoid the roads, you may get muddy and dirty, you will see that many car only road users are inconsiderate to cyclists, you will smile as you cycle past long queues of cars, if you ride when it is dark you will need some bright lights, your legs buttocks and upper body will become toned, women will like that, don't buy a mountain bike unless you are to travel off road a lot, don't buy a racing bike unless you are going to race, little hills in a car are big hills on a bike, you meet nice people.

If you are only going to cycle on a road or other solid surface any of these will be great.

http://www.boardmanbikes.com/hybrid/index.html

If you are only going to cycle off road any of these will be great.

http://www.boardmanbikes.com/mtbht/index.html

If you fancy a little bit of both this will be great.

http://www.boardmanbikes.com/cx/CX_Pro.html

If you fancy ignoring the scheme and going it alone cheaply to see if you like cycling buy this, it's a great bike for little money, is amongst the bikes in my garage and a real bike sold cheaply rather than a cheap supermarket special sold cheaply.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3321786/Trail/searchtext%3EMUDDYFOX.htm

Any more questions just ask.

sickparrot

dannyjebb wrote: »

Does anyone else know about this? Or know if there are any other benefits from cycling to work apart from the obvious health benefits and savings on fuel.

Danny

For me, the biggest benefit is I'm actually outside for part of my day, it does my head in when i'm in the stuck in at home/stuck in a car/stuck in the office routine. that bit of freedom does me the world of good.

johnfarquhar74

ventureuk wrote: »

your legs buttocks and upper body will become toned,

Dunno about toned but I put a shedload of weight on when I started cycling 20+miles per day. I was cycling across Edinburgh doing something like 10-12 miles each way in about 35-40 minutes. But could I stop eating? No! Apart from lunch I never ususally ate at work, when I was cycling it was 2 banana's, 2 apples/pears, lunch, something high energy like a snickers(loadsa energy in them there nuts!). I wasn't conscious of getting bigger, it was only when my Wii Mii on the Wii-Fit started getting a bit chubby round the edges that I noticed!
This winter I padlocked the bike away and have noticed I'm not as hungry, however, the edges are just as chubby!

Takoda

Just don't ride on the bl00dy pavement!

Mids_Costcutter

Other (money saving related) benefits of cycling for you and your employer:

* Business mileage rate: employers can pay staff 20p/mile tax-free for using their own bicycle for business travel.

* Cyclists don't get held up by unpredictable traffic and are more likely to arrive at work on time.

* Car parking problems can be eased - one car parking space will accommodate 8-12 bikes, therefore making more efficient use of limited land space. Department for Transport research indicates that the annual cost of running a car parking space is between £300 and £500.

* A healthier and more productive workforce - cyclists take fewer sick days than non-cyclists. A recent Cycling England report puts the cost of physical inactivity to employers through increased absence at £47.68 per inactive person per year. Inactivity also imposes significant costs on the NHS.

* It's often quicker to get across town by bike than by car e.g. for a meeting.

dannyjebb

thanks for the replies have just been in contact with the travel coordinator at work and she is going to sort out the details i need to get a bike on the scheme. Its a nice easy ride to work for me on main roads so was looking to get a road bike, I have a mountain bike already (for when i go camping) but its not really suitable for cycling to work each day. Can anyone recommend a good bike for this for around 500 quid.

thanks

bosseyed

I do the cycle2work scheme via my employer and I can recommend it. After my old bike got pinched, it was a cheaper way of getting a nice bike. Costs me £40 a month at the moment which is ok.

Technically you're supposed to ride in at least 50% of the time I think, but no one ever checks this (or at least they don't at my work!)

And yes, its a great way to get fit - my round trip is about 10 miles a day and it really tones up your legs and bum and trims your stomach off a bit. Just a word of caution, don't go into it expecting 20 miles a day to be a piece of cake. 20 miles a day doesn't sound that much really, but its far far more effort on a bike, especially after a hard days work or if its raining.

And you'll get a whole new perspective on what its like to be a cyclist on Britains roads - astounding how invisible you seem to become even with high vis hump on and flashing lights etc. People just don't notice you, so you have to be on the ball to make sure you're able to evade when cut up by buses/pedestrians/cars etc.

Thus far touch wood, I've not had any accidents, but it seems to be a case of 'when' you get knocked off, not 'if'. Every other cyclist in my department has had some kind of run in with a car resulting in blood spilled!

Also consider some manner of bike insurance - if it gets nicked you'll still have to pay for it, and some legal cover is always good if you happen to knock someone over whilst riding in. My bike insurance is £4.50 a month.

EDIT: Oh and if you're after a decent road bike, Specialized do some good ones for around £500, or theres all manner of hybrid bikes. You could also look at last years models, normally the spec differences between those and the new models are limited, but the savings are huge. I got a mountain bike (2008 model Kona, was £300 cheaper than the similarly specced 09 model - also I could use it offroad at weekends too) and whilst its probably more effort to ride around on the road, hot damn my buttocks are like shields of steel......

catflea

dannyjebb wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a good bike for this for around 500 quid.

http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/road/1_series/11/ if you think you can cope with a proper bike

or http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/urban/valencia/valencia/ if you want something a bit softer

(BTW, I love Trek bikes - I have a 2004 model 1200)