starting a new job bus or cycle?

sniggings

starting a job soon, low wage so saving money would be good but I don't know is I can face cycling 14 miles a round trip to work?

I'm guessing it will take me around 50 mins to cycle it one way, the bus will be an hour each way, with one change, and cost £13 a week, so not a bad saving but if it's raining I can't work in wet cloths and showering is not an option at work.

anyone do this type of thing and how do you cope with bad weather?

I would love to cycle in and not have to relay on puplic transport but just need the motivation

Weird_Nev

Have a read of my sticky thread at the top of this section.

7 miles each way? Very do-able if you have passable fitness, and it's not too hilly. Route planning is essential. Busses can be a pain as you have to wait for them. Rather hop on the bike and just get going. Plus it's incredible for fitness. Make a 4 day a week habit of that bike ride, and you'll be watching the tour de france and have legs like the hind half of a whippet before you know it.

top tips:

LED Lights.
Breatheable waterproff lightweight jacket, pref Yellow!
Slick tyres, even on a mountain bike are the single biggest improvement you can make. Pump them up propperly and it's no longer like pedalling through treacle. You only need to psend £15 or so on a cheap air on offer from wiggle to convert your bike over to a tarmac special.

You can build yourself up to the ride - do it at th weekend when there's no time pressure and less traffic to get an idea of the route and time taken. Then ride it monday, bus tuesday, ride weds, bus thurs, ride friday. Then once you're comy doing that, ride mon + tues, bus Weds, Ride Thurs and Fri.

The joy is you can generally pick when to ride and when to bus on the day. It's it's absolutely miserable, you can get the bus and read a book in the warm, even if it does take longer.

But yeah, read my epic opost in the stickys at the top of this section, then come back with any specific questions.

Do you have a bike you aim to use, or do you need to buy one?

Norman_Castle

Look for alternate routes. Some cycling routes may be shorter or traffic free.

Cycrow

of course it doesn't have to be one or the other.

you could cycle most days, then when you don't feel like it, or the weather is bad, then use the bus instead.
obviously this isn't the best time of the year to start cycling, but when the weather starts getting better, you may find you don't use the bus at all

i do a simlar distance to work, althou i do it in all weathers, even snow

AndyBSG

I cycle into work 3 days a week which I find is the perfect compromise.

It means that on Monday I can take my change of clothes for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to work then on Friday I can bring it all home.

Depending on your level of fitness, hills, quality of bike and traffic you should be able to do 7 miles in about 30 minutes or quicker.

StuC75

try and do a practice run to see how challenging a route it is - as getting hot n sweaty with no shower facilities can be a pain.. You also want reasonable changing facilities..

In my case it was mainly downhill into to work with the more challenging ride home so it worked well as a fitness thing.. Was about 14 miles round trip -20 minutes into work 35 home..

Do be prepared though for spending money maintaining the bike and punctures can be annoying on way home...

vqmismatch

I used to do a similar distance, I found riding it sedately to be deathly boring so would ride it against the clock three days a week and rest the other two on the bus. So long as you ride in cycling gear and keep smart stuff in a dry bag or locker at work I never found lack of showers to be a problem.

sniggings

cheers all.

I have the bike, it's a GT mountain bike but I have fitted it with quite narrow (for a MTB) slick tyres and it's got a fixed fork too.

The route is flat but can be windy, a couple of hills at the end near work.

I was thinking this would save money, as I was thinking all bus or all bike, as the monthly bus ticket works out at £11.50 a week but a day ticket is £3.50, so more than 2 buses and I make no savings, 2 buses and it's around £4 but that will be used on the bike.

So I guess the motivation isn't going to be money!

I was thinking nearer 50 mins as I'm really unfit, but if I can get it down to 30 mins that would be great, as 50 mins plus changing etc would mean the bike would take longer than the bus.

I thought it was just a case of jumping on the bike but I see there is loads more to it.

I guess what will be the deciding factor is how safe I feel the bike will be at work.

I'll check it all out on my first week, but half and half sounds doable...how long do on street punctures take to do? do you guys use the slime stuff?

sniggings

Weird_Nev wrote: »

Have a read of my sticky thread at the top of this section.

7 miles each way? Very do-able if you have passable fitness, and it's not too hilly. Route planning is essential. Busses can be a pain as you have to wait for them. Rather hop on the bike and just get going. Plus it's incredible for fitness. Make a 4 day a week habit of that bike ride, and you'll be watching the tour de france and have legs like the hind half of a whippet before you know it.

top tips:

LED Lights.
Breatheable waterproff lightweight jacket, pref Yellow!
Slick tyres, even on a mountain bike are the single biggest improvement you can make. Pump them up propperly and it's no longer like pedalling through treacle. You only need to psend £15 or so on a cheap air on offer from wiggle to convert your bike over to a tarmac special.

You can build yourself up to the ride - do it at th weekend when there's no time pressure and less traffic to get an idea of the route and time taken. Then ride it monday, bus tuesday, ride weds, bus thurs, ride friday. Then once you're comy doing that, ride mon + tues, bus Weds, Ride Thurs and Fri.

The joy is you can generally pick when to ride and when to bus on the day. It's it's absolutely miserable, you can get the bus and read a book in the warm, even if it does take longer.

But yeah, read my epic opost in the stickys at the top of this section, then come back with any specific questions.

Do you have a bike you aim to use, or do you need to buy one?

very useful sticky thanks, loved the bottle mudguards, at first I thought they sounded naff but once I saw them they looked great, deffo making some of those. :beer:

Weird_Nev

Carry a spare inner tube. A puncture on the street should take no more than 5 mins to fix, then you can fix the inner tub at your leisure at home and carry that one as a spare.

I'm actually going to do a video on how to change an innertube soon, I'll put up a link in my sticky thread.

However, in 10+ years of cycling, I think I only had about four punctures: A couple from bad pot holes, and on one memorable occasion on New Years night cycling over London Bridge and realising that the entire road was carpeted in broken bottles - puncturing both tyres.

If you keep tyres at a relatively high pressure (according to what's on the tyre side wall, often 60-70Psi on MTB slicks) you GREATLY reduce the rate of punctures.

morg_monster

Mixing it up has worked well for me since I started a new job in July and have a 8-mile each way cycle (had great advice from people on here esp Nev!). I never cycle in the morning if it is raining but going home in the wet is fine as I know I can dry out at home; however I also can leave my bike at work safely if I needed to which is a bonus. In the warmer months especially it is just fantastic and you can cancel your gym membership if you have one!

I had done barely any cycling before (but I was reasonably fit, could run 5k albeit a bit slowly), and it didn't take too long to get used to the exercise. Quite a few achey quads to start with though. But even with just doing it once or twice a week my legs got noticeably stronger within a month or so. At the moment I only cycle once a week, but am hoping to do it much more often once the weather gets a bit nicer. Even in the cold, I find it's fine and after a couple of miles you have warmed up. I am a bit wary of ice though so if the roads are icy I have taken the car so far...

As for logistics, I don't have a shower at work but instead shower in the morning as normal, and wear whatever clothes to cycle in (for me, leggings and thermals at the moment, and I try to make sure the innermost top layer is clean each morning). I keep a pair of trousers at work and bring a top in my small rucksack each day (but am a girl working in a casual workplace, so don't have any shirt creasing issues). I come into work, turn on my PC, and just sit there while I cool down a bit. Then I change into my work clothes; and change back into the cycling clothes before I go home. This method means I don't smell at work even in the summer. Baby wipes and extra deodorant can always be used if you are a bit more prone to perspiration, but I find in general it's the clothes that smell first, not the person.

With my driver's hat on, I would say as well as good (multiple) lights, please please please wear something with decent sized reflective bits on. Be it a rucksack cover, or reflective ankle strips, or a cheapo fluoro gilet or jacket with strips across the back and chest. On a dark road when driving, it's the reflective bits I notice often before small LED lights.