A lesson learned.

daniel_b

Due to my place of work needing to make 2 whole extra car parking spaces, they decided to take the cycle parking facility out from it's protected covered area, and put one of those rubbish shelters up, that is about as storm proof as a trellis.

Yesterday my bike got soaked, and I had a soggy @rse when I got home.

Didn't realise quite how absorbent the saddle clearly is, as at work today, and I have a soggy @rse again :evil:

Moral of the story is: Work at a decent place where they provide proper bike parking facilities.

Or I could bring a plastic bag, I guess, but I don't feel that I should have to......
I'm doing them a favour by not using up one of their precious parking spaces, the least they could do is provide some proper bike parking.

Dan

Kieran_Burns

We're moving to a new building where each person has an allocated parking space. However, there does not appear to be a bike parking rack anywhere :?

It's not all doom and gloom though... There is a covered parking space for the managers under the building (everyone else parks outside) and the parking in there is hierachical as well.

My departmental head (I'm a security engineer) who is 3 levels above me has allocated me a managers parking spot, next to him (which puts me at no.3 in the pecking order for parking spaces, with my Support Manager (two levels above) on the other side...

The reason why? I cycle in. He wants a free space next to his car so it doesn't get dinted by anyone... so he's given it to the cyclist!

I now need one of those free standing bike stands so I can park my bike in my managers spot 8)

biondino

Cars don't get soggy in the rain - can they not park outdoors? Selfish buggers. You should find whichever exec had a parking space written into his new contract and persuade him that using it would be a bad idea if he knows what you mean...

daniel_b

They're incompetent shysters,

the bike committee meeting happened (so glad I didn't go to it) and the details of the new shelters were announced/displayed for all to see.

Someone asked "What if we're not happy with any part of it, what is the appeal process?"

To be answered with "It's already been decided, this is what it will be, no appeals process"

Awesome, and no more than I expected, you can tell no one who rides a bike has designed them, they have clearly looked online, found a bike shelter and set of hoops, and clicked 'add to basket'
They also have forgotten to provide a path from the shelter to the office, or you can go the wrong way, walk out on to the road (no footpath) and then come back in.
So soon they will have a nice new path going through their overpriced previously pristine grass, amazing how much it cuts up when it rains a bit eh.

Colleagues (I use the word loosely) who are just fair weather commuters make me laugh as well, "It makes no difference if your bike is out in the rain, what happens when you ride and it's raining?" they laughingly say.

These will be people who pay other people to look after their bikes then, who needs grease and lube on your bike, not them clearly, ahhh but then of course they won't be riding in in these months anyway, so it doesn't affect them.

Tw@ts.

Dan

simple_salmon

Dan B: as a part of my job I provide free waterproof seat covers for staff cyclists who chose not to use the cycle sheds.

If you PM me with your address I'll send you one.

Vivid

Halfords sell a waterproof bike cover for £14.99 which should do the trick of keeping the bike from the elements, it should also be small enough to put in a bag on the ride home.

daniel_b

simple_salmon wrote:

Dan B: as a part of my job I provide free waterproof seat covers for staff cyclists who chose not to use the cycle sheds.

If you PM me with your address I'll send you one.

Simple_Salmon (Cool name!) that's a very kind offer, PM on it's way

Dan

linsen

I have nowhere at all to park my bike on site if it is wet (can't bring it upstairs to my resources cupboard if it's too drippy, and I can't leave it outside because I would spend the whole day panicking), so I have no wet weather option at all - except the blinking car....
So you have my sympathy
I have suggested they could put some cycle lockers on a parking space
Now even more people at work think I'm a complete nutter.....

jedster

My London bike get'slocked to a lampost all day exposed to the elements. Which is one of the reasons I went single speed and have fitted a very unabsorbent saddle...

DavidBelcher

simple_salmon wrote:

Dan B: as a part of my job I provide free waterproof seat covers for staff cyclists who chose not to use the cycle sheds.

If you PM me with your address I'll send you one.

You might now find yourself bombarded by PMs from people wanting free saddle covers [1]!

David

[1] Translation: "Oooh, can I have one as well?"

chuckcork

At the firm of Architects I worked for in Surbiton, we had an arrangement whereby the directors, some of who only lived 10 minutes drive or cycle away would drive their shiny cars in to work and park in a designated space, if of course they were high enough up the totem pole to get one.

The cyclists of the office, of which there were 6-8 regulars, had by contrast nowhere really to lock up their bikes, we were initially at least expected to lock them up in the cold, dark car park that was open to anyone wandering in off the street, which no one could see, so it was anything but secure. In the time I worked there I had lights broken off and a tyre slashed, one guy had 2 bikes stolen. After this we put them inside the building, where bikes were still getting nicked!

Given that I too was looked upon as a crazy person for suggesting 6 staff cycling in = a secure cycle store in a parking space; well when the sh!ts that had been trashing / stealing our bikes decided to run a 50p coin alongside several of the directors shiny expensive german made cars, I can't say I had much sympathy for them.

For all that there were 6-8 of us cycling in regularly, maybe 10% of the staff, we still had nowhere to change, no shower, no lockers, no secure bike storage. That was supposed to change when the planned extension to the building happened, but I threw a wobbly from being bullied by directors once too often so never saw it occur, somehow doubt it ever did.

woodyonthebeach

We have some okish bike racks where I have the pleasure of working. The only problem is that when I use the roadie my tyres are to narrow for the racks themselves and have a habit of falling over shagging the wheel thats in the rack.

So i have moved back the good old fashioned air condition rack. Also give some protection to the saddle so no wet arse.

Did I hear somebody mention free saddle covers. Are they like the free air guitars you get with rock CD's

fairweatherbiker

Vivid wrote:

Halfords sell a waterproof bike cover for £14.99 which should do the trick of keeping the bike from the elements, it should also be small enough to put in a bag on the ride home.

I use a tesco bag and an elastic band - works fine and no-one is likely to pinch it

Biscuiteer

Used to know someone who instead of leaving a carrier bag tied over his saddle when his bike was parked, carried around a carrier bag with two holes cut in it. Upon returning to a wet bike and soggy saddle situation, he'd get his special placcy bag out and wear it for the ride home like a pair of big waterproof over-pants :shock:

fairweatherbiker

Biscuiteer wrote:

Used to know someone who instead of leaving a carrier bag tied over his saddle when his bike was parked, carried around a carrier bag with two holes cut in it. Upon returning to a wet bike and soggy saddle situation, he'd get his special placcy bag out and wear it for the ride home like a pair of big waterproof over-pants :shock:

Now where does that appear in the food chain?

_Brun_

Kieran, you should get a really crap old van for the sole purpose of dumping it in your space and keeping your bike dry and secure during the day. Actually, more cyclists should do the same and demand parking spaces, surely that would be a reasonable request?

daniel_b

And another thing, tonight I find, due to the lock being out in the rain all day yesterday, that the bloody thing is very reluctant to give up the key :?

Looks like I will have to get another lock now as well :evil:

fairweatherbiker

Daniel B wrote:

And another thing, tonight I find, due to the lock being out in the rain all day yesterday, that the bloody thing is very reluctant to give up the key :?

Looks like I will have to get another lock now as well :evil:

Pity - but thanks for sharing the info. It serves as a reminder for me to oil my locks for the winter.

daniel_b

Will putting a drop of oil in the lock do any good?

I thought I had heard you weren;t meant to put anything in the locks themselves, as it washed out the grease that was in there (or something) - is that baloney then?

Dan

ansbaradigeidfran

Well you're meant to put a key in, at the very least!

BoardinBob

Guess I've lucked out in my new office.

Secure underground car park with bike racks. No way for the public to gain access as you need a security fob to open the shutter door and it automatically shuts after 10 seconds.

Changing rooms with lockers and showers downstairs with a heated drying rail to leave towels and wet cycling gear on.

biondino

Bob, I have the same, but it would take pretty much zero ingenuity for a thief with bolt cutters to follow a car or cyclist down into the car park, nick a bike and cycle off. I'm hoping they don't realise my Focus is the nicest bike in our racks

woodyonthebeach

BoardinBob wrote:

Guess I've lucked out in my new office.

Secure underground car park with bike racks. No way for the public to gain access as you need a security fob to open the shutter door and it automatically shuts after 10 seconds.

Changing rooms with lockers and showers downstairs with a heated drying rail to leave towels and wet cycling gear on.

dude you company is in love cyclists. Got any jobs going there, ot a trade of jobs at that.

BoardinBob

biondino wrote:

Bob, I have the same, but it would take pretty much zero ingenuity for a thief with bolt cutters to follow a car or cyclist down into the car park, nick a bike and cycle off. I'm hoping they don't realise my Focus is the nicest bike in our racks

True, but they wouldn't be able to get back out without the keyfob.

it's also monitored by CCTV with a guy watching the cameras.

biondino

Hmm, in ours you just need to press a button to get out. There is CCTV but I wouldn't put much faith in the people watching it!

secretsam

jedster wrote:

My London bike get'slocked to a lampost all day exposed to the elements. Which is one of the reasons I went single speed and have fitted a very unabsorbent saddle...

+1, though new offices with secure under ground parking plus shower may be happening soon!!

SPOODZILLA

We've got a purpose built garage and a shower/changing room. Unfortunatley it took the theft of 12 bikes to prompt the garage constuction...

biondino

Well the powers that be couldn't afford it until they'd fenced all your bikes for readies, I expect.

chromehoof

Interesting to read about other people's experiences on this topic. I have to represent my company's cyclist population at a site meeting next week to try and make a case for better facilities for the 30 or so we have. The issues are pretty much along the lines of some already mentioned.

One thing I'm very curious about here though. The company, a multinational computer firm, like a lot of other multinational computer firms, has just lauched a 'Green' drive to try and reduce its carbon footprint. Part of that is encouraging employees to cycle to work (with no incentive offered whatsover). Being green is very important to the image of a company like this so I'm feeling my hand is strong. In addition, the government has just announced an incentive scheme for cyclists to the tune of 1000 euro over 4 years (so one would expect more peopel on bikes as and from january). Will see what happens........

daniel_b

Ireland. Computer company, now who could that be?

chromehoof wrote:

Being green is very important to the image of a company like this.

if it is that important to them, they they should really be offering in incentive, even if it is just the cycle to work scheme.
A place i used to work offered a green incentive that if you came in under your own steam for 5 days a week, you had an extra £100 per year to take home, before Tax, but that's still a pretty big difference.

It was done on a daily amount, so if you said you wanted to drive for 1 or 2 days per week, you would get four or three 5ths of the whole amount.

Good luck with your meeting, and let em have it

Dan

Mr_Cellophane

Buy a MOT failure and park it in covered car park. You will then have a guaranteed place to chain your bike to that is under cover.